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2015 was a wild year. Full of a decent amount of ups and plenty of downs. Haven’t concluded if they equalized, but it was definitely a roller coaster ride.

I began my year moving back from my “dream city” of Portland after living there for only four months. The year started off on of bad note because it became a kind of reminder that things didn’t work out so I had to take a few steps back and undo what I did. Not exactly what I wanted, but it had to be done. With that said, I was excited to start all over again back home, but things didn’t exactly work in my favor back home either. At least not right away. Things began to turn around for me towards the end of the year, which is why I feel positive 2016 will turn out great.

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I’ve never been a fan of fringe, trimmings, or too much extra embellishments. The occasional studs, sure. And sometimes chains to make things more “edgy”, but fringe was always a no go for me.

Working on these tote bags kinda changed my views on certain things. For one, I’m really loving the “bohemian” look. I think I kinda always did, but the fact that the term “gypsy” is associated with it makes me uncomfortable, especially since it’s an ethnic slur and I don’t like going there – that whole “cultural appropriation” land. I think a good substitute for that term is “bohemian/boho“, so we’ll stick to that. I’ve been digging that look lately – the colors, embellishments, fabric combinations, etc. I’ve been accepting the fringe at the bottom of my bags. I’m totally feeling it. And I’ve never noticed how many color variations there can be, and even if you use the same exact colors and fabrics, it will always end up being executed differently in rag weaves.

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In celebration of Small Business Saturday, here’s a tiny memory I would like to share.
It was middle school and I was fully into figuring out how to sew. Even though my grandma was a seamstress for a good chunk of her life, I went on a mission to experiment and teach myself to sew. You can say years of chilling in her basement surrounded by tons of sewing supplies and fabric (her hoarding genes were clearly passed to me), and sitting on her lap stepping down on the foot pedal of her old fashion sewing machine sparked something – it was that very environment I was so used to that encouraged me to do my own thing when I hit my teenage years.

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Everybody has something to say about art school, whether they were an attendee or not. It’s viewed as a joke from outside perspectives, and it’s even kind of viewed as a joke from inside perspectives.

Here’s the thing, every school produces a different experience. It can even become a different experience for people attending the same school. People handle the stress and pressure differently, and I have witnessed cliques formed as well as lone wolves consistently going it alone. There’s no way to determine what school is the best to attend because it depends on what professors are on the current roll call, and your possible classmates that will be suffering through school with you. Art students are thought as “stuck up hipsters”, and while some may be, there’s a chance you’ll come across some keepers that you’ll include in your daily doings. You can’t really ever know what to expect.

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