isak and inger

I went to visit my parents this past weekend for Mother’s day, even thought they don’t live too far from the city being there makes me feel like I am tucked away in a little cottage town. I still wander off and find old tools and new plants while my mom works on a puzzle and my dad is tinkering with this or that. This time I found some old pruning shears with a really interesting spring!  My sister came for dinner too and I got to spend some with my nephew Mauro in the backyard, I’ve never known a kid who loves tools and building as much as this little guy. He pretended to fix my bike for a while letting me know my weel was going to go much faster now that he had fixed it and named off his different tools. Happy Mothers day!

Some process photos for a new purse I am developing. This one is all leather, i’m trying it in un dyed vegetable tanned leather and an olive oilskin! While I was shaping the handles I figured out that tying the buckles together would give them the perfect curve. I snapped a photo while it was drying doesn’t it look nice just like that? I might just have to try a bracelet like this some day.

Here are the rest of the pieces! No.1, No.3, No.5. 

I had the most fun with the closure on the first one, little copper nails and leather is always a good combo.

Heads up, nice lights! Ceiling lights at Sense Appeal, a little coffee spot down the street.

Here are pieces No.2 and No.4 from a new collection i’m working on. These are made with poly cotton rope, copper piping, suede and an adjustable compressed leather cord.

Its still pretty muggy out but things have been bright and exciting at the studio. Plant buddies are growing big and  fast and everything is flowering, including my big cactus! You can only see a few in the photo but its covered in tiny fuchsia buds!

Before starting Fall/Winter production I had time for some studio reorganizing, table building and other little projects like these jewelry pieces I’ve been working on, they’ve given my hands a run for their money with all the different knots but it was worth it, I  they turned out nice. I’ll take some individual photos on the next sunny day.

I scanned some water colours from my sketchbook, these are itty bitty 4x6. Its such an awful day outside I thought i’d post something bright

Been experimenting more with macrame and copper, i liked this photo because it looks like a little jellyfish! Outside-of-the-studio news… I moved into an apartment that comes very close to my dream apartment in this city. I’m working on the set up, here is a corner in progress, I’ve never known the beauty of a skylight before now!

I had a little stay-cation at the studio this week and worked on some purses and necklaces with new findings. Last year I made a necklace using some copper piping and macrame with the intention of making a few different shapes. I only every made one but I had a handful of copper pieces left and a love for those knots. I took this week as an opportunity to revisit that project and my growing pile of leather scraps. I probably spent more hours at the studio goofing around on these then on a regular week but time seemed to go by so quickly, I ended the week with a handful of successful shapes, callused hands from all the knots, one cut on my index finger and finished re-watching the first season of Arrested Development!

It was a rainy day when I took photos of these so I only have a few sneak peeks for now, I’ll take proper photos outside sometime this week (I have yet to learn how to use my fancy camera properly, for now I can only take nice photos on one setting in a certain kinda light!)

Its a beautiful day outside and i’m taking a break from fixing patterns. Thought I would share a picture of…of course, a plant. I had been watering this here succulent a little too much, it started to grow too tall and the leaves were too spread apart. I took scissors and with sniped twice, leaving it in three parts. Not two weeks later all three pieces had started to sprout again, just having left them on the window still. The flower has callused and sprouted roots and the stems have started to flower!