phase two

tonight i sat for almost four hours getting the second installment of my tattoo. the tattoo artist, lauren b., and i agreed to have a third session on down the road to do the whites and finishing touches. i'll post a better picture once it's healed. i'm really happy with it so far. i almost broke during the last half an hour, but held strong. why do we put ourselves through this?...oh yeah...because it's awesome.
tomorrow is another breakfast at black bear bakery, the worker-owned collective that michael is part of now. all you can eat buckwheat pancakes and buttermilk corncakes!!! so for those of you that live in the st. louis area, come down 9am-1pm.

first sew

after waiting through many cold days and nights, i finally starting sewing in the new studio. i pulled the space heater out of michael's studio, in the garage, and finished a few bags that are quite tardy. thank you everyone for your patience. i love how the studio is all windows, but the cold air leaks into the room so easily, due to the 100+ year old house. ( notice my adorable black apple postcard in the back ground? emily gives extra goodies with all her orders.)

my little sewing mascot.

and voila, the large pleated canvas bag. a lady requested that i remake this bag for her and i happened to have just enough fabric left to accomplish the feat.

my cutie #2 ( not in rank, just in years...) we went down to the railroad tracks again. the train cabooses on display are now james and persy... because one is green and one red and whitman is obsessed with trains. the scarf is another chirstmas present from lovely amy. it's actually daddy's, but i stole it for whitman.

fair had a nice stroll along the water with her friend shade. shade is only a few weeks younger than fair and the only boy friend she has that isn't years older. they are so cute. everything is brown here and the wind is chilling, but the leafless tree skyline is still amazing. i'm really hoping the weather gets warmer soon so our outings can be extended.
it's been a great couple of days. i got an A on my folklore and fables midterm and my first few prints of my linoleum block weren't completely horrible. i'll post some of my prints that i've made soon.

studio rebirth and sunday mornings

I finally moved the sewing studio back into our mud room. here is the half that is organized... the half behind the camera is a four foot high pile of stuff that will be dealt with later on. i put up a shelf to make my bag-making fabrics more accessible and added a card table for cutting and drawing out patterns. this set up is definatly more functional than before.

here's a bag i just finished for a friend of mine. she didn't want anything floral or paisley, so this was our compromise. not too paisley, but more of a classy indian feeling.


for the last month or two we have been having brunch at picasso's on sundays. two omelets for michael and i and a huge belgian waffle for the kids to share. going out to breakfast is something we always did in portland and it is good to have a cozy place to hang out at that we feel some what comfortable with the kids.




the weather has been eratic lately( 80 degrees last weekend only to snow 8 inches the following day), but today is the second sunday of taking the short walk down to main st and we walked along the railroad tracks at the waterfront... the kids insist on stumbling over the rickety tressels the whole length of the park (don't worry the tracks have been out of commissions for over a decade).



our good friends, scott and kelly, came over later in the day with their little ones faron and miranda. the girls dressed up as princesses. miranda loves the pillowcase dress i made and fair had to wear the frida crown.from her halloween costume. the girls danced around and the boys banged their trucks into any and everything... god, how gendered our kids are, but we really didn't push them either way. whitman took to trains and cars, while fair insisted on being a princess. but at least they both love making art and fair did ask to be frida this last halloween... so her priorities are somewhat straight.




the hubbies just swept them all off to chuckie cheese's to give momma some sewing time. so i best be getting off this thing and get some work done.

inked

here is the first stage of the tattoo (the picture is a little fuzzy). it is just of the line work and in a few weeks i'll get the rest done. lauren b. @ evermore tattoo is the artist and she is doing a great job. most tattoo artists wouldn't go near a piece like this, but she was excited about it from the begining. i've had it for almost five days and it's basically healed... it was itchin' like crazy today. well i love it and fair loves it. she calls it the "fair and mama tattoo." when i got home, after getting it done, whitman said he was sad because he wasn't in the tattoo, but i reassured him that his was coming...
i'm buckling down this weekend and getting the orders done for all of you kind patient folks. so i may be missing in action again, but since i'm borrowing a camera for a few days i may drift towards the computer here and there...
until then...

fair ophelia interviewed on RFN

the lovely mr. marty owings just interviewed me for Radio Free Nation, part of blog talk radio. it was a little nerve racking, thinking of all of the "uhms" and "aws" to be swallowed, and not rambling... thankfully it did go well. we talked about the history of fair ophelia designs and the nifty handbags thus created. you can listen to the interview here.
...and there is a camera in the mail, so i will be posting more and more pictures...
off to writing my late comparative paper on afghan and indian folktale motifs...here's to coffee and good music until the sun comes up.

bread and circus

my husband, michael, was interviewed last night on radio free nation on his collaborative blog found in pockets. the interview turned into a great look into the franklin family and our efforts and beliefs. this is a great chance for those of you to get more acquainted with us.
michael is an amazing orator and his eloquencce of speech largely surpasses my own...one of the many reasons i fell in love. so check out the interview and tell me your thoughts.

missing in action...

sorry for the lack of attention, but i've been drowning in school work and trying not to make myself sick. and i must admit i've been spending a little too much time shopping on-line and going out thrifting. i did make some great buys though.

from emily @ inside the black apple

a paper doll set
(for fair's birthday)

HighVoltageVintage
4 round vintage lockets
(for myself and maybe for some of you special ones out there...)

okay so i'm doing it again, i have to stop looking at this computer screen and get to sewing. i have quite a few bags to work on. so goodbye for now...


a few things before i truly go:

michael and i have started our own portable bookstore, check our blog for Sticks&Stones Books

today was the first day of work at Black Bear Bakery, for michael. yeah for good food and anarchists!

later.

breathing

yeah!! i can finally breathe again!! i just broke my sleeping for the last two and a half days sickness, along with poor whitman all snuggly and snot-nosed... now i can get right to work on the school projects that were due days ago. no sleep tonight... and no working on bags until the weekend. i have sheets of unorganized color-aid paper to go through for my color theory class. i was slightly duped by buying the pricey ass paper on ebay thinking i was getting a deal. the discription of the set missing a "few colors" actually meant "colors" not just sheets. i realized last night that there are hardly no reds or yellows. so what do i do? send it back and get a really bad grade, or try to work with what i have, eat the money and buy a smaller version of the set new in a few days. i'm screwed, my nose hurts and i think my husband and daughter are next in line for being sick... i can't wait until spring and for our tax return...

hillary would be good, obama would be great.

Etsy Shop Update Today

I will be slowly, but surely updating my etsy shop with bags today. I will start around 4pm and end.... who knows...I have 15 bags to add!! yes, 15. this is largely due to the great but extremely overcrowded show last night. i did not have a hand in the arranging and setup of displays and unfortunately my bags where lost within the sea of merchandise. the space was tiny for the amount of stuff and people, so unless it was a quick grab, many sales where lost. despite my lack of sales, i met some really cool people.
i've become one step closer to getting my tattoo, from miss lauren b., at evermore. I am getting Three Ages of Women, by Gustav Klimt, as an upper arm sleeve. I'm doing it for a number of reasons, mainly it is to honor fair's birth. Here is the actually painting, but lauren with be simplifying it and changing some coloring .
i found a great hook up for asian baby slings, from South City Slings.

and i got to hang out with longtime friend kate, from red anvil.

so, in the end, i may not of been financially successful, but it was a great social evening with sword-toting belly dancers, fellow crazy crafters and artists, and a few solid women that i hopefully will be hanging with again.

bird bags

These are lovely vintage burlap fabric squares that i found on etsy. i'm turning them into bags this week and will have them available at indie valentine. six days to go...

The Crowded Fire

every once in a while my husband, michael, gets a wild hair and decides he wants to do something seemingly improbable... but he does it. like, hitchhike down to san fran and meet ferlinghetti, talk to russian poet yevgeny yetushenko, interview howard zen for his live non-broadcast talk show he's been wanting to do for years and so many more things. it's sometimes hard to believe the things that michael has done, but there's always proof.
this friday, michael will have his first talk show and is interviewing (by telephone...through p.a.) author howard zinn and lakota activist russel means. oh yeah and next month he's got noam choamsky. i can't wait to be there. these are people that i studied for years and to have it happened at Picasso's, a coffeehouse/cafe, in slightly backwards-trying-to-get-turned-around st. charles, missouri, makes it even better.
here's the information below, click on the poster to enlarge.

Fair Ophelia Bags

people have been asking me what kinds of bags they can order, so here are a few examples of the fair ophelia bags...

pleated bag, this is the largest version, but i make them in various sizes

the pleated bag in use...in a very messy studio.

coffee sack messenger bag, sized for a laptop

small coffee messenger

shoulder coffee purse

i have done custom bags in other designs, but those are typically a one-time deal, unless requested.

i have been busy designing a coffee clutch purse, a unisex wallet, wristlets, and other goods for the Indie Valentine show.
off to work...

The Franklins

angela

michael

whitman

fair

James sent us the pictures from his visit. There are a lot of good ones, here is just a taste.

scary yet cute

this is one of the strange things my step-dad buys to amuse us. fair actually wore it for a few minutes and we couldn't help but add the buckshot rifle. god bless the u s of a!

they both like it...

i just received this photo and was surprised to see the resemblence of the cats. i didn't even know Alexandra's cat was black... it makes the bag even better.

Cat Bag

my cousin finally received her bag, so i can now share it with all of you. i free-motion machine stitched the flap design. at first, i was a little concerned that it was too halloweeny, but i think it's perfect for a cat lover. it seems to have attitude.

indie valentine

i just found out that i will be part of this year's Indie Valentine Craft Show. Yeah!!!! and my god the work that must be done. i will give more details later... until then, here's the official site:

Indie Valentine

weekend with na-do

cooking up some oatmeal

drinking up some tea

i finally had my girls' weekend, despite a head cold. we decided to hold off on chicago and stay in town. it was a whole bunch of sleepin' in, tea in the early afternoon, way too many movies (Grandma's Boy, Sweeney Todd, Hot Rod, UltraViolet **horrible, even with Milla to look at**, and Foot Loose) and we ended it with a walk through the Botanical Gardens. Na-Do is the only other person that I can watch really bad...but oh so good 80's movies and some just plain stupid ones with and do it five times in a row. If it hadn't been for Mr. Johnny Deppe and a crazy 70 degree day in January, we would of attempted the madness once again. but instead we went for a walk and took advantage of some bag wearin' photo ops...

this is another example of a bag i made for myself, but na-do ended up with it. it's the first pleated design... i bit longer than the one's i've done lately.

my latest messenger bag

this weekend was just what i needed...i heart na-do.

it's been a while...again...

i found out that the next semester does not start until the 21st of the month... i somehow thought that i only had a three week break... so i have been taking a lot of time making my own creations, along with the many custom orders. i feel like i am in constant need of more fabric, mainly browns and reds, but after organizing my solids...

i realized that there is more potential for bags than i thought. i just made two large pleated bags and posted them on my etsy. I also just finished an order from my manager, at The Vine

she gave me free range on the fabrics and i had fun using some of my "grandma" hand-me-alongs. I have been using a lot of the swatches given to me too. it's really the only way i would be able to make a bag out of designer fabrics.

we received a surprise phone call from our crazy portland friend james this morning, telling us that he would be dropping in tonight. yeah! he does this every year around Christmas, when he drives from portland to wiscousin and back... stopping to visit on his way home. another piece of portland, stabbing us in the heart... i just talked to another portland friend today and we reminisced about going out to breakfast. gourmet craziness for $7.00, served by a tattooed angry artist, feminist, musician. i really have not found anything comparable and as cheap, here in st. louis. we are missing you portland!
well, off to drink wine, eat stinky cheeses and home made pumpkin bread from a coffee can.