Emily-Rachael Atunrase is the latest muse in our portrait/interview series Muses Surround Us with Emily "Birdie" Busch. A link to all the interviews is at the end of this page.
Interview and fashion photographs by Emily "Birdie" Busch. Event images credit: Empress Luxury Events on Instagram @empress.luxevents
When one meets Emily-Rachael Atunrase for the first time you are struck by her charisma. She is outwardly, beaming, ready to converse, an effortless extrovert, so it wasn’t surprising to hear that her goal was to launch her own event planning business. It started in September of 2021 when she landed the job of working for talent backstage at the Made in America Festival.
That event was her first official booking as Empress Luxury Events LLC, but it was in the Spring of 2021 where the seeds of the business were planted. Scheduled to emcee her friends’ wedding, she stepped in in the umpteenth hour when the global pandemic, wreaking havoc on the event industry, suddenly left the couple without their previous event planner leadership. She jumped into the mix and was doing everything from decorations to music to management of the flow of the day. She led with gusto and grace and had somewhat of a “thrown into the fire” first experience.
Reflecting back on the wedding and her role she realized that it was quite natural for her. She had years of experience in house management and food and beverage and proceeded to build on the idea that would become Empress Luxury Events. She now has planned events ranging from weddings to proposals, birthdays to picnics. Her next step is to procure a company vehicle to accommodate supplies and decorations with more ease.
National Picnic fans might recognize Emily-Rachael from some more recent photographs of our current collections. As we got to know her more we realized she had past experience modeling for both runway and catalogue. We asked her about the history of that and her reaction was a bit eye roll, a bit gratitude given. The modeling felt more of her mother’s desires than her own at the time. Self-identifying as more of a tom-boy, she didn’t connect initially with the role. But in the end the push and pull of finding her own journey with it made her realize as a young adult that it got her out and about from her somewhat sheltered upbringing, making trips to NYC and experiencing a lot that helped her become herself. You can totally see it. Equal parts grounded and both ready to fly. It was a joy to document a woman who is at the crux of taking her experiences and strengths and building them into her own vision.
Pertinent links:
You can follow Empress Luxury Events on Instagram @empress.luxevents
You can reach Emily and learn all about Empress Luxury Events and the services they provide at empressluxuryevents.com
What is a career/creative moment you are proud of?
In September of this year I opened my business "Empress Luxury Events" and purchased my first home! The decision was definitely an all around challenging transition but I am so proud I was able to meet my deadlines & goals while kick-starting my business by booking notable work & executing several successful events!
What are you listening to now? What are you looking at? What recipe you feeling?
What I'm listening to always depends on what I'm doing! Different moods and activities definitely call for different playlists, but for the most part, my go-to is afrobeats! I have always had a strong connection to African music and love to dance. Recently, I have been listening to different Lo-Fi Chill Beats while creating. Music has always motivated me to get things done and sometimes helps to clear my mind when crafting, planning, or cooking!
Speaking of cooking, It's soup season! The weather got cold so quickly this year, so lately I've been eating alot of soups, spicy noodle dishes and comfort food!
How do you define your own personal style or approach to clothes?
I'm always on the go, so comfort is definitely important for me when it comes to clothes. My style is influenced by several different cultures and I really just wear whatever I like most of the time so most people may define my style as eclectic.
What would be your advice to a teenage girl clothing and style wise that you wish you had received?
If I had to give a younger girl advice it would be to dress how you want to be approached! There is nothing wrong with expressing and dressing the way that you feel but you have to remember that in this society where "first impressions are everything" your wardrobe is a powerful tool if utilized correctly. Dress to impress not because it's what a lady "should" do, but because of what that "could" do.
]]>
I checked in with Jen A. Miller as she was wrapping up a relaxing break in Avalon, NJ. Her new e-book just dropped, second in a series she is writing on best practices for freelance writers: Notes from a Hired Pen: Where to Find New Freelance Writing Clients and Turbocharge Your Career.
]]>Jen !. Miller is a muse in our portrait/interview series Muses Surround Us with Emily "Birdie" Busch. A link to all the interviews is at the end of this page.
The intro for this interview is written by Betsy Cook, interview questions by Emily "Birdie" Busch. All images courtesy of Jen A. Miller.
I checked in with Jen A. Miller as she was wrapping up a relaxing break in Avalon, NJ. Her new e-book just dropped, second in a series she is writing on best practices for freelance writers: Notes from a Hired Pen: Where to Find New Freelance Writing Clients and Turbocharge Your Career.
I can't remember how I first became aware of her work, I sheepishly admit I don't have her running book (I run only when chased!) but I have running friends that likely helped our orbits to cross. Running: A Love Story: 10 Years, 5 Marathons, and 1 Life-Changing Sport (Seal Press, 2016) is one of the largest jewels in her writing crown. Another is her impressive collection of content written for the New York Times. Her award-winning career also sparkles with numerous magazine articles in Runner's World, Washington Post, The Outline, The Guardian, SELF, Buzzfeed, The Goods, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and more.
I can speak best as a reader of her first e-book on freelance writing. I'm a huge proponent of exploring seemingly unrelated industries to look for ideas that might also apply to my fashion business. In the thick of the pandemic I downloaded her first e-book, Notes From a Hired Pen: How I Made $135,000 in One Year of Freelancing. No one employs me to make clothing, and I "pitch" my work in part via writing, so that makes me somewhat of a freelancer, right?
Beyond the sales-y title was a more important message that a total dollar amount is less important than one's own lifestyle goals. Inside the book were the personal and candid experiences of a confident, fellow self-employed woman who hopes others, she says, "can take some of the lessons I’ve learned here and apply them to your own career, wherever you are in it, and wherever you want it to go...The thriving, profitable, joyful freelance career lets me do that, and for that I am very grateful." The content was highly relatable to me—I've worked without a W2 since 1998—because like Jen, self employment provides the ideal working lifestyle for my needs.
Links:
Because it's October: "A brief Halloween history of pets in costumes." Written by Jen in 2018 for Vox, it's a timely link full of pandemic-malaise-busting cute dog photos.
Read more about Jen and find links to waaaay more articles at jenamiller.com. You can also follow her on twitter at twitter.com/byjenamiller
Books
Running: A Love Story: 10 Years, 5 Marathons, and 1 Life-Changing Sport (Seal Press, 2016)
Explorer's Guide Jersey Shore: Atlantic City to Cape May: A Great Destination (Countryman Press 2011)
Both are available here
E-Books
Notes From a Hired Pen: How I Made $135,000 in One Year of Freelancing.
Notes from a Hired Pen: Where to Find New Freelance Writing Clients and Turbocharge Your Career
What is a career/creative moment you are proud of?
This spring, I quit my regular New York Times' gig - I wrote about running every week. I was proud of the work I did, but I knew my heart wasn't in it anymore, so I left. Giving up such a lucrative spot might seem counterintuitive - people thought I was fired but was just trying to save face! But I was feeling sapped by it, in all parts of my writing work. Walking away because I knew it wasn't right for me is something I'm proud of. Because I know there's something out there for me that will be more fulfilling for me, creatively and career wise, for this stage of my life. I needed the time and space to find it. I haven't regretted leaving once.
What are you listening to now? What are you looking at? What recipe you feeling?
I'm currently listening to Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Family by Anderson Cooper. I love audiobooks and listened to a lot of them during the worst of the pandemic lockdowns. Cooper previously did a book with his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, called The Rainbow Comes and Goes: A Mother and Son on Life, Love, and Loss, which was their letters to each other, and the audiobook was them reading it back and forth. I can't imagine what a gift it is to Cooper and his son that they got that recording done before she died. I recommend both.
I'm not sure what I'm looking at except my dog? She's a red heeler aka cattle dog mix with the most wonderful speckled fur. I adopted her while on a road trip - she's from Idaho. Cattle dogs aren't as common in New Jersey as they are out west. It's startling when I'm out that way and see more of her. She's a bit of an anomaly here.
My favorite cold weather recipe is the New York Times' stuffed peppers one. It's perfect for when you're in need of a warm up.
How do you define your own personal style or approach to clothes?
I've worked from home for almost 17 years, and I'm often changing in and out of running clothes because without a commute, I run when I want. So most of the time, it's comfort. When I go out - we'll have meetings again someday soon, right? - I have a well made classics that I can wear again and again. I've also been a vintage collector and thrift store shopper since high school. I appreciate how many people, especially younger generations, are really challenging the concept of gender and what items are for what people. I've been playing with what's labeled as men's styles lately. Why can't I wear those clothes too? It's amazing what a little tailoring can do.
What would be your advice to a teenage girl clothing and style wise that you wish you had received?
Wear whatever you want. My picking up men's styles now are how I dressed when I was a teenager, but stopped doing because I was told I "shouldn't." What nonsense.
]]>
"WAXING "
A collaboration between Aisha Likes It and National Picnic
WAXING is an intertextual conversation. Bringing together the tools of their trade, two artists add to the long, transatlantic history of wax prints.
While often attributed solely to the African continent, wax prints have a unique, blended heritage. Indonesian batik techniques and pre-colonial African textile arts mix and meld. With the advent of 19th century Dutch industrialization and trade, a cultural industry traveled the world. Its ubiquity is evident in its estimated 4 billion annual retail sales value.
Vlisco, located in The Netherlands, is one of the first major manufacturers of wax prints. West African countries like Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire become important, local producers in the 1960s with manufacturers like ABC Wax, Woodin, and Uniwax. No other region embraced wax prints so enthusiastically and over time these celebrated textiles were further imbued with rich culture and tradition. Distinct patterns, designs, and motifs emerged and became closely tied to identity, especially in the African Diaspora.
Our design goal for WAXING is not to disrupt its trajectory or meaning, rather we seek, eagerly to add to the international conversation these textiles began long before our arrival.
ABOUT THE COLLABORATORS
Aisha Lockridge
African wax prints have always been a part of my life. I recall them as decorative, cultural flourishes in my childhood homes: a tablecloth, a curtain, a pillow. As I got older, I sought wax prints out for special occasion dressing. I took trips to Harlem fabric shops stacked floor to ceiling with richly colored 12 yard pre-cut pieces of wax print. The vast array of patterns and possibilities was dizzying but always, I left with something that felt just right. I find myself drawn to them even now. They fill my adult home, my wardrobe, and my creative imagination. I am excited about this collaboration, this WAXING of two artists because it is my opportunity to speak to the textiles that have said so much to me over the years.
Betsy Cook
“I like what you are making. Can you make it with this?” Many of my experiences creating with wax print have been the direct result of customer requests. Clients and friends bring me fabrics from treasured stashes and trips to the continent and ask me to transform them into lasting memories. I have made custom signature tees and special occasion wear. Perhaps most memorably, I created a, one-time only, traditional kilt exclusively designed with wax print. Each time I work with these textiles, I feel like I learn a little more about them and the possibilities they present to tell a new story.
Further Reading:
Gillow, J. (2003). African Textiles. Colour and Creativity Across a Continent. London: Thames & Hudson Ltd.
LaGamma, Alisa (2009). The Essential Art of African Textiles: Design Without End. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Young, Robb (12 September 2012). "Africa's Fabric is Dutch". New York Times.
]]>Birdie's challenge is to tease out candid responses from fellow artistic, industrious women. What muses! A link to all the interviews is at the end of this page.
To sum it up casually, if you wanna know about anything film photography Jackie Neale is UR GIRL. But you’ll find nothing casual about the commitment and dedication of Jackie to the art and process of such a specific medium. Her unique captures document some of the most important topics of our time. Photography is her conduit for telling the stories that need to be told. As she says in her artist statement from her show Crossing Over: Immigration Stories, “People are important. All stories are meaningful. When one listens, one learns. When one learns, one begins to see a deeper humanity, a common thread, a shared ground.”
This shared ground recently has had her work traveling overseas for the renowned Venice Biennale Exhibition in 2019. Over twenty large format fabric cyanotypes (a traditional non-silver chemistry process) were exhibited. In Crossing Over: Immigration Stories she uses the cyanotypes as portrait imprints, accompanied by audio interviews with folks from Europe to Mexico taking oral accounts of their life as immigrants, descendants of immigrants, and asylum seekers.
The oversized pieces hang dreamily as indigo colored abstractions, larger than life portraits that act as portals to connection and invocations of thought. It’s a project that seems like a continuous thread, and one that Jackie is still growing and showing to different communities.
A forever champion of film photography, in 2009 she created (and operates as both the Lead Photographer and Director for) Big Day Film Collective, an advocacy group for what is left of the traditional film photographer world devoted to the support, research, and exhibition of film photography, alternative processes, and the hybrid use of all these techniques. Jackie enables art buyers and editors to use a classic medium in modern media by delivering first-class, full-production photography services.
Jackie provides a large knowledge base for arts professionals wanting the look of film based images with the production turn around and expertise of digital. It’s a niche service of utmost craftsmanship that grows in importance as a specialty that few are as adept at as Jackie.
Her cap feathers include artist, curator, educator, author, leader, and activist amongst other things. Her experience is rooted in a broad spectrum of both institutional roles, like working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as former Imaging Producer of Online Features, and street presence, as captured in her book of photos entitled #subway series, which documented the New York subway with over 800 images of the New York City subway system.
The Collective’s home base and gallery space is now in Collingswood, NJ, with convenient access from both New York and Philadelphia. Heading there for an exhibition opening or during gallery hours is a great way to jump into Jackie’s vision and bear witness to the beauty of film photography in real time!
Recommended links for taking a more in-depth look at Jackie Neale’s work:
Jackie Neale’s own website: https://www.jackiephoto.com/
The online home base for the Big Day Film Collective: https://bigdayfilmcollective.com
What is a career/creative moment you are proud of?
I've never been so proud as I was to show my Crossing Over: Immigration Stories at the Venice Biennale exhibition at the European Cultural Centre in 2019, and my Mother, Stepfather, Uncle, and Aunt and friends from The Met were all there to see the work at the Vernissage. It is, so far, the highlight of my life.
What are you listening to now? What are you looking at? What recipe you feeling?
I am totally hooked on a bunch of songs (just to name a few) -
How do you define your own personal style or approach to clothes?
I typically go for very different, funky types of clothing if I am not just in shorts, t-shirt, and flip flops.
What would be your advice to a teenage girl clothing and style wise that you wish you had received?
No matter what you think, how you look is not a make or break event. No one is really looking all that closely at you, so do what you want and how you want. When you're in communion with your style and clothing you will be happiest. Also, don't listen to your Mom.
]]>
.
Secret ingredient tip: Splurge on premium extra dark chocolate chips. I used Nestlé Artisan 61% cacao.
.
Sophy DiPinto is part of our portrait/interview series with Emily "Birdie" Busch.
Birdie's challenge is to tease out candid responses from fellow artistic, industrious women. What muses! A link to all the interviews is at the end of this page.
Sophy DiPinto had a circuitous route to bookbinding. She graduated from University of the Arts in 1990 with a BA in Fine Arts, journeyed through the underground rock and experimental art scene, and back to one of her original loves.
Her visual art persona BookGrrl is a hybrid, nodding to her shy and bookish side whilst honoring her more extroverted role as the co-owner of Dipinto Guitars whose home storefront currently resides on Girard Avenue in the Fishtown neighborhood of Philadelphia. It’s an institution for local musicians, like myself, and I have had my 1958 Electric Kay guitar serviced there and have always found myself googly eyed over the handmade guitars on the walls as I went to drop mine off.
But for this piece, more than guitars I dove into the intricate makings of Sophy’s BookGrrl Bindery and her bound art books.
Sophy's links:
Her interest in books as objects of art began in adolescence. Raised in a family of academics, her father an amateur binder, she had some amazing tools passed on to her and a love of being surrounded by books as a physical environment. A lot of her pondering deals with our evolving relationship with books, our current digital age, and reimagining how books can be used or perceived. I.e. A piece in her collection that is a reworking of pre-existing books, a kind of spliced and diced patchwork, is rebound and titled, “Your World Explained to You” by The Rich White Men Who Own It. Another piece entitled “Society Face the Future” is a book rebound with old statistical graphs on the top half of the pages juxtaposed by flattened food wrapping sewn on to the bottom half, a kind of stark history meets present visualization.
BookGrrl Bindery is a mainstay in the Philadelphia Craft Scene. In addition to her more esoteric art pieces she also uses a lot of repurposed covers for creating journals, iPad covers, and boxes.
As she says in her artist statement, “Most people are not avid readers and yet they mourn the loss of books, what are they really mourning? With my work I seek to strip down books into the elements that people relate to in order to re-forge the connection, and also maybe point out that the past was not always so great, and maybe some things should be let go.”
What is a career/creative moment you are proud of?
For my BookGrrl work, definitely getting my work picked up by the Philadelphia Art Museum gift shop was a big deal. I have been bookbinding in some form or another since college, it’s only been in the past 5 years or so that I started really making a push to get my work out there and grow it beyond a side project into an actual business.
\
Above: Sophy is wearing National Picnic's midsection-y modern tee and Tencel palazzos.
As far as DiPinto Guitars is concerned, it’s always a surprise to me when I look back on the company. We have been in business for over 25 years now and every day I am astonished that we are still going strong. The pandemic has been tough for us to be sure, but we have weathered so many storms over the years, it’s just another one to cross off the list.
What are you listening to now? What are you looking at? What recipe you feeling?
I have been listening to way too many news podcasts!! This has been such a stressful and confusing year, in all aspects of life I have been gravitating toward the old favorites, comfort food, things that offer some sense of normalcy and stability.
Right now I have bluegrass and old-timey country in rotation. Ralph Stanley, Doc Watson, Bill Monroe, but also some Holly Golightly and Freakwater thrown in for good measure, that sort of thing. I think right now I’m drawn to the timelessness of that sort of music, it doesn’t feel like it’s stuck in any particular decade or era. And while I’m not listening to much new music, I really really miss going to shows! I can’t wait to see live music again!
What am I looking at? I have a reproduction copy of Owen Jones ‘Grammar of Ornamentation’ that I could look at all day long.
https://www.nms.ac.uk/explore-our-collections/stories/art-and-design/grammar-of-ornament/
As far as reading, my mom got me started on a Nancy Mitford kick, she was a contemporary of Eveyln Waugh, and has the same lighthearted yet devastating way of storytelling. I also just read ‘Wow, no thank you’ by Samantha Irby, it was a quick, hilarious read.
My new favorite recipe is Korean style oven-fried rice, it’s easy to make and super yum! I am vegetarian, so I just substitute vegetarian sausage, it’s great!
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020522-spicy-oven-fried-rice-with-gochujang-and-fried-eggs
I also just got a big bag of lentils, so I want to try a bunch of lentil recipes this winter.
How do you define your own personal style or approach to clothes?
I can be super fussy about my clothes. I want to be comfortable, but for me a big part of being comfortable is also feeling that I’m put together well. It’s a little bit of a feedback loop, if I feel like I look good, well, that goes a long way to making me feel comfortable. It works the other way too, if I don't feel like I look good that can make me super uncomfortable, so anymore I am very particular about only getting clothes that, as they say, spark joy, and resisting those that don't. And it has to have pockets!!
What would be your advice to a teenage girl clothing and style wise that you wish you had received?
So much confidence comes from how you see yourself, if you are comfortable in your clothes you are that much more likely to be comfortable in your own skin. I don’t mean comfortable as in sweatpants, I mean comfortable as in ‘this is what I want to be wearing’ It doesn’t matter what it is, could be over the knee boots with 5” heels or a pair of old Birkenstocks, if that is what you want the world to see you wearing, your clothes will make you happy.
Muses Surround Us is our portrait/interview blog series moderated by Emily "Birdie" Busch. After a particularly challenging holiday season, we were left without a January interview. So Betsy Cook, the owner/designer/maker of National Picnic, is going to answer the same interview questions we ask the muses, and also a few more questions our social media followers sent in.
(If you can't figure it out from the intro, Birdie is the "little sister.")
Let me clarify right away, I am writing this Muses Surround Us piece about my very own sister, Betsy Cook, owner of National Picnic. I floated the idea of interviewing her when January 2021 came around because 10 years ago she made a New Year’s resolution that she would start her own clothing company after working for years as a graphic designer. Now, a decade later, she is celebrating the journey to here, the present moment, and the future of National Picnic, which is no small feat, especially during a global pandemic.
A favorite memory I have of my sister growing up is a game she made up. I would give her articles of clothing I wanted her to repurpose and make into something new. She would cut up and reimagine them into new styles in her third floor attic bedroom, package them, and fling them out of her window and down into the yard. I would sit in the kitchen excitedly waiting, and run out with my other kindergarten friends to receive it. It truly felt like it was coming from some magical workshop in the sky. In many ways, it is the wheelhouse to which she returned, an independent clothing designer who makes small batch clothing treasures in her studio that arrive at your door as you joyously anticipate the items.
She prides herself in making clothes that you can put on and immediately feel put together quickly and casually. The beauty of National Picnic’s pieces lie in the details of the tailoring, the quality of the fabrics, and the nuance of the cut. She gifted me a capsule collection for my honeymoon that I brought with me in a single 20 inch carry-on for two weeks that made me feel like the most elegant adventurer ever. I have never worn an article of her clothing in which a stranger out and about doesn’t compliment me or ask about it, perhaps the truest testament to her work.
It has been a journey, her dedication to honing her signature items while also having fun each season with textile choices and new offerings. It has found her a loyal following of people that value quality over quantity, supporting sustainable fashion and local economies, and knowing the designer behind the clothes.
The past year could have never been predicted. But Betsy and a small team pivoted immediately into mask making mode, turning her storefront studio and her machines into a production line for masks when the need was so great, making them for hospital workers and preparing kits for her team to sew them at home.
For much of the year masks were a very big focus, including a large scale mask production job for the Philadelphia Museum of Art staff. The support for her clothing as well as the support that went into the mask making was inspiring.
This inspiration and collective enthusiasm has her excited about the future of National Picnic as a fashion house. As she anticipates with passion the next 10 years, she talks of diving deeper into small batch specialties, limited runs, and using even rarer high end fabrics.
What is a career/creative moment you are proud of?
10 years of staying in business is what I'm really happy about right now. So many indie clothing brands don't make it that far.
What are you listening to now?
Sonos Radio has an "Encyclopedia of Brittany" station on Sonos Radio, curated by Brittany Howard of Alabama Shakes, and it's wonderful. It's also been compiled into a playlist you can find on Spotify (same name), but what's really cool about the Sonos station is that Brittany plays DJ and provides commentary between songs, which is special because her musical taste jumps all over the place in a way that algorithms can't, and she guides you through her choices with explanations in between.
What are you looking at?
I'm noticing all things interior decor as I emerge from a year of lockdowns and sheltering, with an urge to inject some new energy into my surroundings. You know I love thrift and nostalgic things. My latest random act of browsing was at Thunderbird Salvage in Philadelphia, what a giant heaping pile of fun visuals to look at and get ideas from!
What recipe are you feeling?
I didn't realize how easy it is to make potato pancakes until this week. I made a recipe from a Polish recipe book that belonged to my grandmother. They're soooo much tastier fresh off the frying pan than anything you can buy and reheat. I really love the reheated ones, so that's saying something...
How do you define your own personal style or approach to clothes?
OK, I have to be comfortable sounding weird for this question. Do you know what a specimen garden is? One where you keep plants as focal points, to be appreciated in and of themselves, rather than working together in a unified plan? I think I'm a specimen dresser, if that's a thing. I love my clothing brand, of course, it's inspired by my own style, but I certainly collect clothing, and textiles, with a degree of curation (I try not to hoard) and I'm a lifetime thrifter. Sometimes I simply see a textile I love and want to figure out how to keep it around to appreciate. Other times I find an amazing garment from another era that happens to fit, it's like winning a small lottery when that happens.
As for approach, I usually know there is one thing I really want to wear that day, or to an event, and then the rest of the outfit only needs to help out. Dressing each day is a joy, and a fun puzzle to be solved, even when it's just deciding what pair of familiar jeans are going to be worn that day around the house.
The pandemic is hitting me hard with my desire to wear all of my favorite things out and about. I've been looking more dressed up lately if you can find me out anywhere. There's usually at least one thing on my body I would love to get asked about, so I can share my geeky love for the story behind it. I'm lining up outfits in my head, they're piling up, I need more places to go! Help!
What would be your advice to a teenage girl clothing and style wise that you wish you had received?
If I could go back in time, I'd tell myself to save some things you loved to wear when you were sixteen and stick in in a time capsule box in your closet to open when you are 50. I would love to be able to open a box now, of what I wore back then. When I have memories—I always remember what I was wearing when something happened. I really, really am a clothing nerd.
BONUS! More questions we received from followers on instagram are being added to this post below. We reached out and asked people to ask the designer anything about her business, as it celebrates 10 years. (As of Jan 20, many are still being answered and will appear soon. We needed to get the post started...)
What made you decide to begin with shirts? (asked by @aishalikesit on instagram)⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
I actually began with tops and dresses, but because the signature tee really stuck, it has developed its rep as my memorable, collectible style. But did you know tops outsell most other categories industrywide? If you’re going to enter the clothing biz without a really specific niche product, designing strong collections of tops is smart. Many of us have a very strong loyalty to our pants and jeans brands and the way they fit. Although I do have some dresses and bottoms that have sold well, my bestsellers always need a classic style and/or color. The creativity I can put into tops seems infinite, though. And more fun! ⠀
I am sure that when you started your business, you had rose colored glasses on about what it would be like. What did you think it would be like? How has it been different? What has been the biggest surprise about the path your business has taken? (asked by @annikalanejewelry)⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
I was a total noob when I was starting. I had no knowledge of what happens between designing my clothing and getting it to hang in a store. Luckily, it's the age of the Internet! Before long I had learned that all you needed to do was take your collection to the trade shows and have retailers fall in love with it! They will place lots of orders! All these resources are waiting in the wings to spring to action to help you realize your dream! Contractors are lined up to make all of the clothing for you! Then you ship the clothing pieces off to the retailers and the money rolls in! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
How has it been different? I (very expensively!) found out that for me to save my fashion business from a trade show death spiral was to lean into the "maker movement” mindset, which favored the small business story with its more unique batches of goods over big industry models and overproduction. Embracing a "maker" mentality was instantly a better fit for my self-funded startup fashion brand. I haven't looked back.
Above: Just in case you were thinking that studio life seems so perfect, this is what life usually looks like just out of frame. (#JOOF!). Seconds later, this mess pulled my iron off the board and it broke.
What’s your favorite non-garment thing to make? (asked by @aishalikesit on instagram)
Easy answer! In fact, if you gave me a day off and told me not to do anything clothing related, I would still want to sew things. I love to make decor for my house. Especially out of textiles I already have in the house. Especially sentimental stuff. This pillow is made from a vintage blanket given to me by my next door neighbor, right before she moved into assisted living (she mowed her own lawn until the day she left—she was 93). Blanket's from Portugal, and was full of holes and fading (I have a blanket addiction—if it was mint I would not cut into it) but had good areas remaining, I made pillow covers out of it, to remind me of her.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀
MUSE SERIES EXTRA: We put together a guide that lists our muses's businesses, art, or merchandise that you can eat, drink, collect, or support. Click here for the guide.
To go right to Aisha's jewelry, https://aishalikesit.com/
Dr. Aisha Damali Lockridge is part of our portrait/interview series with Emily "Birdie" Busch.
Birdie's challenge is to tease out candid responses from fellow artistic, industrious women. What muses! A link to all the interviews is at the end of this page.
Dr. Aisha Damali Lockridge did not inherit the sewing gene. This tidbit of information made me laugh because neither did I. For her it is her mother who is inclined and for me it is my sister, and through my sis I had the pleasure of meeting our latest muse. It was in the community of extended makers online where Betsy Cook of National Picnic and Aisha connected. Betsy said of their meeting, “She happened to like the signature tees I make and I admired the compositions of her beadwork. Shortly afterward we both had tents at a local arts show, and were able to meet in person and discuss our work in real time. At that show she brought me textiles from her own fabric collection, and I've sewn them into tops for her.” Luckily for us, it turned out Aisha did not live far from me in Germantown and we were able to all meet on an unseasonably warm day this November in my backyard.
Aisha is an associate professor of English at St. Joe’s University in Philadelphia and is currently teaching courses with titles like “Coming of Age in the City” and has written a book which traces the trajectory of the Diva figure in African American Literature, Tipping on a Tight Rope: Divas in African American Literature.
Her focus is on African American Literature, Black British Literature, Black Popular Culture, and Pedagogy. She has worked passionately to evolve programs in higher education that have placed these subjects in curriculum as “alternative lit”, asking important questions like “Alternative to what?” https://books.google.com/books/about/Tipping_on_a_Tight_Rope.html?id=WvSgtgAACAAJ
Seeing her beadwork and learning of her love of the written word I could see how the one informed the other. Her beadwork is detail oriented and textural and mixes matte and shiny like one might look down on an autumnal cornfield dotted with pools of shiny lakes. Every piece is its own short story. Beadwork feels like her sensual practice amidst the more heady work of research and higher education. On her birthdays is when she dedicates the day to making jewelry for herself. But in general, interspersed with academia, she makes pieces for Aisha Likes It, her Afrobohemian jewelry line that ethically sources beads from throughout the African Diaspora.
For the shoot she laid out her pieces on a table as the late afternoon sun caused every bead to radiate and glow. Rose Quartz, lapis, shell, recycled bottle glass, and tigers eye. We talked about favorite colors and books, pop culture and family trips. We waxed on our journeys until now and journeys moving forward, both as individuals and collectively. It feels as though one could spend endless late afternoons with Aisha and never run out of fascinating and important things to keep the conversation flowing.
Recommended links for getting to know more about Aisha’s Work:
Aisha has a website for her jewelry line: https://aishalikesit.com/
Aisha also has a website for her academic work: https://www.aishalockridge.com/
What is a career/creative moment you are proud of?
In my academic career, earning tenure and promotion; I am one of the first Black women to do so at Saint Joseph's University. In my artistic career, I am most proud of the willingness to begin, to potentially be bad at something important to me in a public way.
What are you listening to now? What are you looking at? What recipe are you feeling?
Listening: Outkast and a series of boleros.
Looking: Just beyond my keyboard I see a wax fabric throw pillow. I marvel, constantly, that I did not inherit my mother’s sewing gene.
Recipe: I just completed an Autumn Sangria for a driveby/Zoom hangout situation this weekend.
How do you define your own personal style or approach to clothes?
Eclectic afroboho chic without the scarves. I love a bohemian style that's taken a walk through west Africa. I am drawn to Ankara prints and statement jewelry. I care a lot about texture, color, and fit.
What would be your advice to a teenage girl clothing and style wise that you wish you had received?
Learn how to hear what speaks to you and then wear that! I think a lot of the lessons I got about clothing and style as a girl were ensconced in decorum. In my 40s, the value of those lessons seems a lot less obvious.
NEW TO OUR MUSE SERIES: We put together a guide that lists our muses's businesses, art, or merchandise that you can eat, drink, collect, or support. Click here for the guide.
Alison Dilworth is the latest muse, part of our portrait/interview series with Emily "Birdie" Busch.
Birdie's challenge is to tease out candid responses from fellow artistic, industrious women. What muses! A link to all the interviews is at the end of this page.
When preparing to do a large-scale mural in 2020 you have to sit with a broad spectrum of feelings before bringing the vision to the wall. But that kind of process has been something visual artist Alison Dilworth has never avoided as a focal point in her practice. She has always been curious about how people grieve to allow for healing and I’d like to say I consider it a superpower of hers, or rather superhuman power!
She has an incredible amount of channels through which she makes art. At the heart of it are stacks of thick self-bound books that act as personal visual journals for diary and documentation. She gleans pieces of the world as a crow might build a nest and weaves found paper and objects into the pages amidst her free form text and images.
A longstanding teacher for Fleisher Art Memorial in South Philly, she has worked with youth ages 5 through 19 and was formerly their Teen Lounge Coordinator for an after school program that gives space to teens from all over the city to have the opportunity to delve into their creativity and emotions while hiring their own teaching artists. I remember saying something to her about how I was so amazed at how comfortable she was with that age group and how much they were with her. But in hindsight her natural fearlessness for emotion and her rebel approach is a perfect match for helping teens work through a crucial part of their evolution.
Woven throughout inward searching and outward mentorship, Alison’s work has graced restaurants, church sanctuaries, rooftops, and homes, and even includes a collaborative book of poetry with a group of renowned Canadian poets including Leonard Cohen. Her palette is vibrant and she has a way of making a one dimensional wall sing, which is what I came to observe for this shoot with National Picnic. Her most recent mural-in-progress is at the end of a row of buildings that sit in the 6300 block of Germantown Avenue. It shines down on the future location for the soon to be open Young American Cidery and its tasting room, a space that hopes to be an epicenter for conversation and community.
This one block is part of a stretch of Northwest Philadelphia that is rich with history, from it being the original land of the Lenni Lenape to it containing the underground railroad stop The Johnson House as well as a burial ground for both the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. At this juncture, it is a crossroads of contemplation for where our country has been and where it is going, or rather could go, if we are open to feeling the immense complexity of our shared humanity and everything in between. It’s a process never lost on Alison Dilworth, both now in the present moment, and throughout so much of her journey. It’s a gift to be able to observe her work through it all via the beauty of art.
Alison has a website with a lot of examples of her work I can’t recommend enough to see the vast spectrum of her work: https://www.alisondilworth.com/
What is a career/creative moment you are proud of?
You know how you can pick up your phone and suddenly, 40 minutes has vanished? Well, I keep thinking about that, and how if those 40 minutes were spent outside beneath the night sky, it would feel like a long time and I would have a memory of it. Our culture is telling us to numb out, distract, be addicted, buy into a system of capitalism that benefits the wealthy and stomps on the poor and working class, consume, disengage from real connection. When I can get out of my own way, good things happen. There is a dance that happens between the ego and the spirit, and I'm increasingly aware of the trappings of the ego and how easily humans fall prey; this is true in politics, work, and relationships. I'm not trying to "make it" as a "painter"; painting is just a vehicle of expression to me, as is book making, printmaking, collage, banging away on a typewriter, installation art, embroidery and puppets.
As I've grown older, I've learned to be less precious and to trust my own language - for me, art is a vehicle to say what I need to say, whether it's a statement, an expression of beauty, or an exploration. I suppose this is a weird and winding answer, but I'm most proud that I've figured out how to live a pretty unconventional life making art, being a mother, building strong connection with friends, and teaching at Fleisher. I'm more time-rich than money-rich, but I'll take real connections with good humans and nature any day. It's not a secure life, but I'm not built for living any other way. So I'm proud that I'm always becoming myself as an artist. I think my authenticity is going to get better as I become a weird old lady.
What are you listening to now? What are you looking at? What recipe you feeling?
I'm currently listening to Bobby McFerrin (Circlesongs), looking at the leaves changing - not just in color, but how they move as they dry up before and after falling - and feeling a pretty boss raspberry tart situation over here. I love making big pots of soup that begin by simmering onions in butter and olive oil with fresh lemon thyme and whatever herbs make sense. I bought the Zahav Cookbook for my dude last Christmas that we've poured over: tahina beets, hummus, fresh pita... every recipe in there is amazing.
How do you define your own personal style or approach to clothes?
For a long time, I worked as a bartender on Thursday nights and most of my clothes were trash picked after I closed the bar until I was racing my bike against garbage trucks in the wee hours of Friday morning and had to tell myself to get my tired body home and put the trash in the washing machine. So I guess you could say I curated my style out of Society Hill's discard pile. Someone should write a rap song about this. Anyway, everything I wear is from a thrift store or a yard sale or some kinda giveaway pile. I like old things that already have stories behind them, or new things that were made by hand, often out of vintage textiles. I find comfort in wearing hand-me-downs. I prefer bright colours, wild earrings, black layers, boots and high-waisted jeans. I love sweaters too much. I love the feeling of things that have been mended by hand over time and I have no problem with holes.
What would be your advice to a teenage girl clothing and style wise that you wish you had received?
Teenage girls, you are rad. This is a rich time of self-discovery and exploration so don't let the bastards get you down: mean, judgmental people are insecure. This culture has invested in disempowering women for generations by promoting starving models as the beauty ideal. Think about that: women so frail they probably can't menstruate as the beauty standard - literally stripping women of the power to give birth, to create, to live in their authentic, healthy bodies. We as women have to explore and own our power, and once we embody our own power, we can grow toward wisdom. That's what the guys in suits are afraid of: that we'll find our voices and exercise our power. So I guess I'd say be playful and find what feels good to YOU, what YOU feel comfortable in. Notice your beauty in places you feel self conscious about because the beauty is there, I promise. Your body is not here for other people to objectify. Your body is an extension of your being. Experiment with fabrics and colours that feel true to you. There's no such thing as a fashion risk. Just go for it.
At the end of November, the brick and mortar's lease comes to an end, and I'm not renewing. It is a very deliberate decision I made to steer my business through a deeply altered retail landscape that I expect to persist into the near future.
We've been selling online since 2011. Since April, 92% of business has been coming from the website. I feel good about that.
As the designer/maker, I loved my "studio boutique"—but the pandemic forces me to examine where my budget is best spent. My online shop has so much going for it, but there are many improvements I'd like to make.
I've been bolstered by the way everyone adapts when visits are not an option. I have rewarding interactions with people I have never met, all across the country—emails, yes—but they are no less personal than conversations with people that walk into my shop.
Changes won't delay orders. If you just discovered National Picnic, you may not know that this is the fifth time I've moved since 2011! Unlike, say, a restaurant that installs bars and industrial kitchens, moving sewing machines from one place to the next can happen in a day. They can be up and running as soon as they are plugged in again.
This scrappy, resourceful pandemic-surviving business is still here for you. I have made enough good decisions to counter the uncertainty so far, and I feel hopeful I can make more.
2021 will have more of simply sharing what we do best: making clothing to order for the people that want it. My staff and I will work hard to make the experience sincere and enjoyable for you.
P.S. Locals:
If you're in the neighborhood, and want to get in a visit before 417 North Haddon Ave. closes for good, I'll be keeping hours 11-5 Monday - Friday until at least the end of October. I'm there many other hours as well, so it's open by chance and appointment like always. Weekends will be spent preparing the future workspace, so please consider an appointment to avoid disappointment :)
]]>
Announcing a guide for our Muses Surround Us blog series. The guide lists the women we've featured that own a business, or are artists that sell their work.
Some of our muses serve locally. If you're not nearby, consider seeking out the makers and artists in your own neighborhood with similar offerings. Not only have events/markets been altered by the pandemic, social media algorithms are making it increasingly difficult to reach the fans they cultivated online.
Links below are maintained by each business/artist. Any purchases you make are conducted through their individual websites.
Emily-Rachael Atunrase Full Service Event Styling, Management, & Production |
Jackie Neale Gallery of fine art photography, artist work is available for purchase |
Jennifer Low frostedfoxcakeshop.com 6511 Germantown Ave
|
Joy Ike Music, clothing, art: Joy's official online merch store features tees, tanks, posters and vinyl recordings of her music. Her music is available on Bandcamp. |
Vessna Scheff vessnascheff.com Vessna's website features a frequently updated selection of original artwork for sale. Her music is available on Bandcamp. |
Claire Kopp McWilliams Claire's website details what Philly-local markets she sells at currently, and has a shop section with breads available to order.
|
Aisha Lockridge African-inspired jewelry curated towards a bohemian aesthetic. Natural stones, glass, brass compositions. |
Sophy DiPinto book-grrl.com Fine bookbinding, notebooks and more using vintage recycled books, Sophy is also co-owner of DiPinto Guitars. |
Laura Lacy Beer and food enjoyed on the premises and available for takeout and even beer delivery to nearby zip codes. Branded merch and some food items also available to order online. 137 Berkley St. |
Birdie Busch emilybirdiebusch.com Birdie's music is available on Bandcamp and her merch page on her website is home to many things she creates. For fun, she also sells vintage fashion (@thebirdseye) on DePop. |
Gretchen Lohse https://gretchenlohse. Gretchen's music is available via Bandcamp. |
Sign up for her freelance writing newsletter at tinyletter.com/jenamiller. Books Running: A Love Story: 10 Years, 5 Marathons, and 1 Life-Changing Sport Atlantic City to Cape May: A Great Destination E-Books Notes From a Hired Pen series |
This post is part of our portrait/interview series with Emily "Birdie" Busch. Birdie's challenge is to tease out candid responses from fellow artistic, industrious women. Painters, mothers, musicians, brewers, bakers, and more. What muses!
Jennifer, above. She wore the Dutch Twilight tee for the day's photoshoot.
If you live in Northwest Philadelphia like me you hear people talk about THE lemon cake. The news travels in many circles and it seems to be a community unifier, a unanimous agreement that it is indeed the best. I have watched friends who I considered health food gurus go back for seconds on this particular cake. I’ve had people brag that even after a week in the fridge it still holds up. Let’s go back though to how I first came to know about Jennifer Low’s Frosted Fox Bakery. It had nothing to do with the sweets themselves as much as the care that was being put into the small shop’s window decorations upon opening. I found myself goose-necking to see it when I’d drive up and down Germantown Avenue both day and night, the rotating display like a bakery of some turned back in time small Parisian town. It lured me in to get to the goods or shall we call them the greats. The double chocolate cookies. The fox shaped shortbreads. THE lemon cake.
A small team of about four, her husband included (they met both attending the Culinary Institute of America) were at the bakery when I arrived for the photoshoot. Jennifer Low greeted me but then quickly got to work on prepping cakes with the others. It had the air of an industrious workshop, with all of them in bandanas and t-shirts zig-zagging through the storefront.
One minute she was making roses, another she was whipping frosting in oversized mixers. Next someone would plop a layered cake in front of her and she’d start spackling then smoothing the buttercream. My instinct was to just scoop out the side of the cake she was working on and shove it in my masked face.
While Jennifer has definitely had to pivot the business a bit with large events like weddings being prohibited due to Covid-19 she says that people are definitely still ordering and she finds that folks are getting smaller but very interesting nuanced designs. With continuous “best of” accolades almost every year they have been open from both WeddingWire and The Knot, the quality of her work is noticed and appreciated. But don’t let the need for an overly formal reason stop you from ordering treats from Frosted Fox Bakery. With sweets as good as theirs, that in and of itself is the occasion.
Recommended Frosted Fox Bakery Rabbit-holes:
They has a website for learning more about what they make and how to order: https://www.frostedfoxcakeshop.com/
Jennifer Low participated in the Netflix Show Sugar Rush and won! Watch the episode here: https://www.netflix.com/title/80201328
They are always showing their cakes off at their Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/frostedfoxcakeshop/
What is a career/creative moment you are proud of?
Two big career moments come to mind here. The first greatest moment was opening my own shop. I had worked for other companies (one bakery and one chocolate company) but I always wanted to open a cake shop. That’s the reason I went to culinary school in the first place. While I was working at the chocolate company I actually received a note about buying an existing bakery. My husband and I explored the idea but in the end it fizzled out. That sent me into a bit of a personal crisis where I realized I was almost 30 and hadn’t really taken any tangible steps towards opening my own shop. I revealed that I was a bit ambivalent about buying an existing shop because I would never really feel like it was “mine.” That’s when I started putting all of my effort into testing recipes, building out a kitchen, and opening the Frosted Fox Cake Shop. My husband agreed to support my idea and we worked for about a year full-time doing all the legwork to get our shop open. I was incredibly proud the day we opened our shop in Fall of 2015. Now, I can’t believe it’s almost been 5 years and it’s challenging but also very rewarding. This year has posed new challenges I never even imagined but my incredible team and I are working hard through it.
The second cool moment was when my friend Peri and I competed on a cake decorating TV show called Sugar Rush for Netflix. We flew out to California and spent 3 days filming interviews and competing to try to make the best cupcakes, dessert, and cake. It was super stressful and very very surreal. We botched the first round pretty badly and had to re-start our first dish, but somehow survived to round two. From there we took the lead and eventually went on to win our episode! We had to keep it secret until about 3 weeks before the show came out. We hosted a big viewing party with the help of our neighborhood CDC and it was super cool and rewarding to sit in a room with about 75 friends and clients while they watched the episode. When the judges announced that we had won, the whole room broke into a cheer that made me feel SO proud and overwhelmed by their love and support.
What are you listening to now? What are you looking at? What recipe you feeling?
I have a 3 year old, so right now we mostly listen to the Trolls World Tour soundtrack. But right at this very second I’m listening to “O-o-oh Child” which feels like a pretty spot on song for mid 2020. I’m working on getting through all the emails at work, so I’m tucked into my little office corner looking at cluttered papers, stamps, notebooks, and clipboards. The recipe I’m super into right now is for super junky buffalo chicken dip. It’s not fancy, it’s not pastry, and it’s very very bad for you!
How do you define your own personal style or approach to clothes? My general approach to clothes is pretty utilitarian because of my job (I wear the same work shirt most of the time along with jeans, shorts, and non-slip shoes). When I’m not working I still love to wear comfortable t-shirt and jean combos, but I love to look a little more put together and cute. Comfort is important. I need the clothes to feel physically comfortable and also I need to feel comfortable in them. I’m honestly pretty self-conscious about my body, so when clothes fit well, I feel way more confident. It can be hard to find shirts that I feel good in, so when I do find one, I get two! It was so funny being asked to be part of this project because I actually already have a couple of the National Picnic shirts and they look great, are comfortable, and I feel good in them!
What would be your advice to a teenage girl clothing and style wise that you wish you had received?
I wish I had really learned that anyone can wear anything. I’ve spent most of my life wishing I was smaller (even when I was smaller). I put off wearing clothes I liked because I didn’t think they would look good on me unless I lost weight. I wish I had learned that anyone can wear any style and that being confident in an outfit is what really makes that outfit look good. It makes me really optimistic that more young girls and women have embraced this idea than when I was young.
]]>
I consulted several recipes for Atlantic Beach Pie for this, a regional pie with a history.
I spent some more tries getting crust and filling the way I liked, and have made it a few more times since the photo.
MUST BE CHILLED. Best to leave it in the fridge overnight, so plan ahead and make it the day before. Serve with whipped cream, it can be canned. It's made with saltines, for goodness sake, and we ain't snobby!
Above: My first one. (This used 1.5 sleeve saltines and my beach crust was less "sandy"more like "rocky shores." I hand crushed the crackers inside the sleeve, and should have crushed them more or used a processor. This is a 10" tart dish, an 8" pie pan will create a more expected pie slice.)
Crust:
1 sleeve Saltines
3 Tablespoons sugar
1 stick unsalted, very softened butter
Filling:
One can sweetened condensed milk
4 egg yolks
Zest of one large lemon
Juice of one large lemon (some recipes say 1/2 cup, I've been just fine with whatever one lemon gives, plus zest)
Whipped cream for serving.
Crush saltines into fine crumbs. Mix in sugar and butter thoroughly. Press into pie or tart pan, and bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes, crust will brown.
I didn't wait for it to cool, I just mixed all of the filling together while the crust was baking, and when it came out I just poured the filling in and put it right back into the oven.
Bake until the filling is set. For my pan that was 15 minutes. Probably longer if you use a pie pan.
MUST BE CHILLED. Best to leave it in the fridge overnight.
I used the egg whites the next morning in an omelet.
]]>This post is part of our portrait/interview series with Emily "Birdie" Busch. Birdie's challenge is to tease out candid responses from fellow artistic, industrious women. Painters, mothers, musicians, brewers, bakers, and more. What muses!
When I asked Claire Kopp McWilliams of Ursa Bakery when she wanted to get together for our Muses Surround Us shoot she cooly replied, “Well, I start baking at 4am, but you could come around 5.” I gulped quietly. As a musician myself we work better with post meridian schedules so to speak but I knew going to see the actual baking and not just the end result was the stuff of true inspiration.
I wanted to see the process and witness what has been her routine more or less for a decade of baking in some of Philly’s finest restaurants. She started Ursa Bakery as a side project in 2018, while still running the baking and milling program at Vetri Cucina. In her second farmers market season, she left the restaurant entirely and is now running the bakery full time, year round.
She sells her bread in the area at the Fairmount and Ambler farmers markets as well as some more localized home delivery that she does herself.
She greeted me in the pre-dawn in an N95 mask. This is all part of her normal routine even pre-Covid. Baking involves lots of flour and fine particulates so as far as transitioning in that regard she was already used to certain adjustments. I watched her move about the bakery with a swift grace, executing tasks like a ballroom dance that could leave the rest of us scrambly and frazzled.
The key to industrial kitchens are machines that allow VOLUME, ovens so big they stack on each other like a NY parking garage for bread. To operate them involves broad motion, pulling the racks out as if it was a tug-o-war rope. Taking photos I am always so aware of little shifts in light. With this experience, what started in the dark ended in a golden dawn, with the smell of bread seemingly floating in the beams of sun. And with her use of seeds and whole grains, there is a roasted toasted note that adds to the intoxication.
Claire wanted to bring fresh milled, locally grown bread to more people. She works with Pennsylvania grains in the belief they are not only sustainable but delicious and believes whole-heartedly in healthy localized economies. The art of her craft is in working with these parameters, and seeing what delicious bounty can come of it.
Recommended Claire Kopp McWilliams rabbit-holes:
Ursa Bakery has its own website where all info for where the bread is available is located-https://www.ursabakery.com/
Claire also just wrapped on a collaborative cookbook with Marc Vetri called Mastering Bread that you can pre-order here-https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/609030/mastering-bread-by-marc-vetri-and-claire-kopp-mcwilliams-with-david-joachim/
Following Ursa Bakery on Instagram will give you the most up to date info and pictures on all the bread whereabouts-https://www.instagram.com/ursabakery/
What is a career/creative moment you are proud of?
My personal independence day! I left the restaurant industry in May of 2019. It feels good to know that I now own the value of my work. I like work, and I'm a good employee, but my priorities completely shifted when I started the bakery. The give and take of running a small bakery is interesting and demanding and joyous in a way that outshone the daily responsibilities of restaurant work for me. I couldn't pretend I was invested anymore, and I wanted another baker to get to enjoy the sweet gig I'd had for the past four and a half years. So I cut the cord, even though it was a huge drop in income and stability. I even had to work part-time over the winter to make ends meet, but I felt like there was a certain understanding of my level of commitment when the arrangement was explicitly 'part-time' and 'temporary.' So moving forward, the goal is to be able to support myself with bakery income, but I'll do what I have to do to pay the bills.
Talking about my money as a way of expressing my passion seems somehow vulgar, but it's important to me that the whole system works. Unfortunately, no one can subsist on good intentions. I love bread, bakeries, bakers, and grains. I love our farms, farmers, and millers. I love all of it, and sometimes it feels like we're making something meaningful together. Sometimes it's just food, and that's also good enough.
For this series, Claire was photographed in the bakery wearing the bombshell top, and is shown here in a Signature Tee (fabrics change seasonally) and the Lounge Denim pant.
What are you listening to now? What are you looking at? What recipe you feeling?
Now that I have a few hours of deliveries every week, I'm suddenly listening to loads more happy vibes driving music. Lots of William Onyeabor, Dan Auerbach, The Fleetwoods, and Doja Cat. I try to keep Spotify off my scent, but everything tends to melt into the same playlist eventually.
While I work, I like to listen to podcasts and audiobooks. Some of my favorites are Ear Hustle, Criminal/This is Love, and Reply All. I need stories to take my mind off what's happening around me. It helps me maintain a certain pace and not overthink. I feel so lucky to have access to so much excellent material. Podcasts are a real blessing.
How do you define your own personal style or approach to clothes?
I had to go look into my dresser to think of an answer! When I actually am wearing something that makes me happy, it's usually plain, but nice materials, and just on the femme side of androgynous. In summer, I'm a big fan of outfits that I refer to as 'my linen bag' or 'my cotton bag.' Most of my best pieces were second hand, because I have a really hard time spending money on myself like that. I hope we can thrift shop again soon.
What would be your advice to a teenage girl clothing and style wise that you wish you had received?
If you have wavy or curly hair, or maybe even if you don't, learn how to cut it yourself. Mostly I just want them to know that they are precious and take care of themselves, mind, body and spirit. It's tough out there. It gets better.
]]>
This post is part of our portrait/interview series with Emily "Birdie" Busch. Birdie's challenge is to tease out candid responses from fellow artistic, industrious women. Painters, mothers, musicians, brewers, bakers, and more. What muses!
As I type this Angela Miles is out doing a small clean-up in Vernon Park, a community emerald gem situated directly in the middle of her Philadelphia neighborhood. She received the torch to become president of its volunteer stewardship group from an older resident in the past few years and oversees Friends of Vernon Park, a cohort of impassioned neighbors who tend to the park, organize activities like kids crafts and flea markets, and overall continue the efforts to make the park a destination for people of all ages to enjoy.
To know Angela is to bear witness to a person led by extreme generosity of spirit, juggled loves, and creative ingenuity. Graphic design being one of her channels of vision, many of us have long collaborated with her on visual artwork for everything from albums to show posters, to small businesses and social justice work. She works at Community College of Philadelphia and it is always refreshing to hear her wax on how much she believes in its mission of affordable education access for all. Graphic design has been such a social artform for her.
Stained glass for Angela has been a quieter but continuous journey. In fact, most of the pieces I am featuring here are part of Magnolia Cove, the nickname given to her home and yard for the specific reason in that in the middle of it stands a grander than grand Magnolia tree that they nicknamed “Dolly Parton” for its other-worldy pink blooming that occurs once a year. Behind said tree sits a studio she and her husband Carl Cheeseman built from the ground up for her to work in glass and he in wood. She created all the stained glass windows for the studio, inspired by everything from the site plan of the yard to the Wissahickon tributary. She is currently working on transoms to replace the old ones in their civil war era home’s front windows. There is a great deal of pride and peace that exudes from her as she works within this context. I feel like I’m getting a tour of someone’s journey into becoming even more themselves, a “window” into a world full of intention and awe at the beauty around us and our choices in how we celebrate it.
Recommended Angela Miles Rabbit-Holes:
Angela has a website that is the virtual home to all her work and a great place to see some of her graphic design alluded to above. https://www.carpediemconstruction.com/
If you are curious to more of what the Friends of Vernon Park do and are up to we recommend you visit their website. https://friendsofvernonpark.org/
What is a career/creative moment you are proud of?
When I was younger, I was lucky enough to have had the opportunity to apprentice with a really talented artist. It was a happenstance kind of thing—she frequented the café I was working in while in college, and my being a graphic design student was helpful in creating digital renderings for her work. Over the next year or so working in her studio once a week, she taught me the craft of designing, building and installing stained glass windows.
Years later, my good friend was commissioned to paint a mural in a restaurant and the owners were looking for a stained glass piece for an interior window. She recommended me and although I didn’t have a studio set up and hadn’t cut glass in years, I took the job, harnessed all that I had learned and built that window. Since then, I have transitioned my stained glass work to completely lead-free, taking a few commissions here and there but mostly making things as gifts for friends and family, and my own house.
Working with stained glass has always felt like home and uncharted waters at once...a cool intersection of light and movement, abstract shape & color experimentation and salt of the earth cutting, breaking, bending and melting metals. From that early experience with it, I recognized it as something I’ll be doing for the rest of my life, which is a cool feeling when you find that—a vocation.
What are you listening to now? What are you looking at? What recipe you feeling?
I really feel so much gratitude to Fiona Apple for releasing ‘Fetch the Bolt Cutters’ in April 2020 (many months ahead of her planned release). It’s an album that is so full and clear and intentional and sonically splendid. I’ve listened to her music for over half my life, and ‘The Idler Wheel…” has been a big part of my autumn/winter listening for many years (including this one). It’s rad to bear witness to the evolution of this person’s exceptional body of work and, from the limited view that I have, their way of making that work and engaging with the world about it.
I’m inconsistently reading a lot of 2019/2020 New Yorker magazines that have stacked up, unread, for months. It’s a quantum leap kind of thing, hopping around time. LoveisWise is an illustrator whose work I had seen around and then, here their work was on the cover of a New Yorker in my stack... Their use of color and form and tone is so beautiful and moving.
As far as recipes, I just made brookies (which is a name i’m still not 100% on). They’re a brownie + chocolate cookie hybrid and I am 100% on that notion and result. Also, tacos.
How do you define your own personal style or approach to clothes?
My style is pretty utilitarian, and I consider aesthetics an intrinsic and essential ‘utility’ in the human experience. So roughly that translates to comfortable, breathable, well made clothing that is interesting, at least to me, shoes that both look cool and support whatever it is that I’m doing and a pair of dangle earrings. Not sure how to describe it...skater + farmer + bohemian + 1987?
I like to put a look together and like that most of my stuff has some kind of story. It’s composition like any other design. I’m also someone who really gets into a seasonal groove with some kind of variation on the same getup. Minimalist uniform is always my aspiration but never my destination but it all works and keeps my interest.
What would be your advice to a teenage girl clothing and style wise that you wish you had received?
My advice to a girl or any young person is to consider where your clothing comes from, how it is made (and how it feels on your skin/washes/fades) and by whom, etc. and try to make decisions about where you put your money that align with your ethics and worldview.
There are a lot of layers of machinery and people making a lot of money alienating us from this process...how clothing is made. As a society our thinking about cost, value and worth is confused and misguided as a result. I spent a lot of money in high school on garbage clothes from the mall, and wish I had been more thoughtful. You hold a lot of power as a consumer, and when people organize to demand better quality (in both products and working conditions for laborers and environmental standards), smart companies listen or they lose out. Plus, there are a ton of independent designers doing cool stuff on their own who are more likely to operate in a more sustainable mindset.
Check out thrift stores, etsy, poshmark ect...clothing swap with your friends. Remix stuff to put your own spin on it. Allow yourself the coveted pieces once in a while but don’t feel like you have to jump on everything that is so specifically marketed to you. Hand wash silks and older/delicate fabrics.
Cultivate a style that works for you and let its spectrum be as vast as you desire. Notice what you respond to in the world, and weave it into your looks. It’s ongoing, this way of learning yourself and your style.
Most recent entry is first. Read from the end for chronological order.
April 23: Work. There will be less entries after this date. I'll balancing the lessening demands of our mask project, which are thankfully not as severe as weeks past, with mitigating the effect that the virus has had on my business. I did get approved for a small PPP loan and I will be figuring out how to create work for my employee, the intended goal of the loan.
April 20: Contacting people on my list to see who might currently have great need. Still making masks, but increasingly around a return to clothing orders. I have gotten some, and I can't assume that every customer is OK waiting for the end of the pandemic to get a delivery. In fact, during the worst of the local mask needs, I got a few emails of "Where's my clothing order?" So I stay late and get them done.
Last week I was working all day, eating dinner, and returning to work. I need to develop a new healthy schedule to help others without sinking my own ship.
April 19: Delivered some "supporter" mask work to my assistant, who hasn't been in for weeks. Supporter masks are the ones people are buying on my website to help with mask donation expenses and shop overhead. Another benefit: it's giving my assistant work.
I am happy that masks provide work she can do on her home machine. There isn't consistent enough clothing work to give her. She will get paid to do this mask work regardless of whether or not my PPP loan goes through, because they are made to order, paid for already. Thank you, everyone that has purchased one! I'm sad she can't be in the shop. She is my one employee, and I enjoy spending time with her with as we sew.
April 18: Work.
April 17: Working, on all of my own personal tasks, is calmer. Steady Friday, feels better.
I got an email from a trusted vendor (not a scammer) offering professional masks for purchase, and I'm not even technically "essential" business. Although the virus is nowhere near finished, professional mask supply, of the disposable paper type, seems to be catching up with the demand. If I can get these masks, local employers should be able to purchase them now for their employees, right? I don't have data on N95s however. Taking the news I'm finding and applying it to plans for any masks we are producing from this point on.
We are still cutting and sewing masks wth fabric earmarked for donation.
April 16: Yesterday was pretty much lost to fighting for the health of my business. I'm at the mercy of a bank approval now. Trying to catch up today. I feel better than yesterday, but there are no things ready except for one bag of masks waiting for a pickup.
April 15: 742 masks delivered, total as of 11:15am. People have been suggesting networks to distribute masks but we are still able to find recipients just by word of mouth and local pickup, taking as many as we make as fast as we make them. I have no time to deliver or pack and ship myself, I am very grateful for the ground support of our small and willing volunteers! Today is another day of trying to submit business relief applications in and around mask project. Bank told me my digital app submission was wrong format and can't be processed. Took from breakfast until 4pm to get them a file they needed. Cried a lot. In the evening I read that all the SBA PPP loan money will likely be distributed by the end of today. My loan officer emailed me after hours to say she had everything she needed from me.
April 14: Just handed off masks to an Atlantic County task force, need still urgent. One nurse has not picked up her current mask donation since Thursday. I plan to follow up today. It either means that her city hospital's need for cloth masks has lessened, finally, or it could be that she has tested positive herself. Either choice seems likely.
April 13: Awful rain and threats of hail and possible tornado. When it subsided, got into shop to get a little work done. This week I needed to pay some attention to my business, the NJ relief application "went live" at 9am and I spent over an hour filling it out, even doing pre-prep. Only to be sent an auto-email telling me that the funds are already oversubscribed. Gee, thanks. Not all tax related deadlines have extended, so I took care of some of that, too. I have a pretty large order that did not get canceled, that needs to ship by April 15 as well. So I got a lot of kits out last week because I knew it would be hard to get kits made until after "Tax Day". The extension is only a good thing if you owe. I hope the IRS does not delay refunds.
April 11: I really needed to see this, sent in by one of the mask making team. These are Inspira staff. Writing less today, there is a lot to do before spending Easter with my household tomorrow. If I forget to post until Monday, Happy Easter.
April 10: 586 total delivered.
April 9: Delivered over 500 masks by now and many more in process. Trying to figure out how many people have downloaded the mask pdf, the data is somewhere but I don't have time to find it. In addition to the kits, we've been able to supply some other mask donation groups with elastic as it has sold out on the online market.
April 8: The volunteer team is all STARS. Today was a break from kit pickups as we were waiting for arrival of wires to be cut and bundled.
Many more requests to volunteer than we can provide materials to. I don't like to disappoint people hoping to participate, but the awesome current team can sew and return kits as fast as I can make them.
Anybody can make their own masks, really. Googling provides an abundance of instructions. I've updated my own page to include substitutes for the shortages of any of the elastic or nose wire parts that tend to be harder to get than fabric.
April 7: In progress. More kit activity today. If they all return we have passed 500 masks total.
April 6. Monday. 395 Masks delivered. Some kits still out from last week, 14 more kits (140 masks) went out yesterday/today. Gearing up for a tough week based on news predictions. Doing more kit work today, Cooper is coming for some more completed. Happy that all the pre-production work is making it faster to make masks now. The shop is an explosion of fabric and supplies. There hasn't been time to declutter. There is a half finished batch of pants being made for shop inventory along one side of the cutting table, that hasn't been touched for two weeks.
April 5. Sundays are no longer "off", but I try to take a break from the laptop and let the emails collect to be read all at once. I hope to get the email out to kit sewing volunteers to begin pickup again on Monday. Hoping an "essential" store can sell me some paper today. I did not anticipate the incidentals needed to facilitate this project. Kits need printed instructions, my boutique's shopping bags are used for bundling, and I'm burning through printer ink. These needed items for the project aren't considered "essential". There's no guarantee ordering them online would get them here quickly.
April 4. More kit making. There are no more wonderfully large rolls/bolts of fabric to make the cutting super easy. We are now pulling smaller pieces of fabric from our "stash" and it takes more time to spread and cut. One positive is that I can make the supporter masks from scraps that aren't large enough for the pleated masks.
A PA fabric company has not yet delivered fabric I ordered on Sunday. Even when we can pay for some, obtaining the right fabric quickly is now a challenge. Nothing is nearly as efficient as having one large roll of fabric to cut.
April 3: The CDC has advised everyone to wear a mask while venturing out for needed, essential daily tasks. As helpful as this is could be, what it also does is make the general public compete with the more urgent needs of vital workers for masks, and also the materials to make them.
Everyone deserves safety. What I wasn't set up for was a flood of requests to BUY masks. So I set up a listing for contributions to our project and as a thank you, contributors can get a mask sewn by ME. It's helping, but it also created entirely new work for yours truly. The reality is, the number of masks I need to make just to pay the landlord is um, not helping with my morale. Oh how I wish I could be selling clothing instead!
There are SO MANY ways to make your own masks online! Here's the easiest one the general public can make with a tee shirt and no sewing:
To be clear, the masks made by the volunteers are not for sale. We are a volunteer-powered effort, using supplies donated by National Picnic. I organize the network of volunteers to make masks for healthcare workers free of charge. We have already delivered hundreds with hundreds more in progress.
April 2: I wish I had time to post more photos. Instagram is where the images are.
It's pretty clear that all healthcare facilities will accept mask donations now.
Some updates from the email I sent to the mask making team:
Mask count: I have placed 243 masks that have been returned to the shop, plus many more that some deliver direct. Around 100 are out in kits being sewn. There are 20 households on the maker team, quite a few have mentioned nurses in the family. Everyone is wishing them safety and health as they endure.
Deliveries include, not limited to: Temple, Cooper, Virtua, Penn, Inspira
The ordered ELASTIC arrived late yesterday. More kits by tomorrow.
THINK NEGATIVE:
What to do if my household suddenly tested positive? We feel healthy, of course. But what if. Who might become the contingency drop off, something to think about. Hopefully we will not need this.
April 1: The elastic arrived in late afternoon. We got quite a few kits back and were able to get 50 picked up by end of day, and another 40 waiting for pickup for tomorrow. Trying to keep track of the pickups, drop offs, and destinations. A nice group of people responded to a Facebook post to pick up kits, there are some out still, were able to make as many kits as we could with a small amount of donated elastic today.
Today was a sea change in mask demand. It seems like the public is now being advised to wear masks when out in public, and it resulted in an unprecedented number of requests for masks. Trying to figure out what this all means for the supply for the front line.
March 31: I got the elastic company owner on the phone and he said "it's shipping today". I just don't know what to say. We all know this is unprecedented. I'll be doing a lot of prep today but none of it will involve elastic.
If you want to get a kit to make masks, please email betsy@nationalpicnic.com. Email is the best way to be heard. Avoid the comments sections of social media, please. I can't keep track.
March 30: I ran out of time, so here is just snippets of the email I sent at the very, very end of the day:
Hello, mask making team!
March 29: Quiet day. Much needed elastic arrives tomorrow (I've been told). Writing email going out to people that have volunteered to sew masks, Click here if you want to sew. Updating mask pdf.
to be continued...
March 28:
Waiting on elastic. In the meantime, making what I can with a small pile of remaining elastic
New tweak to mask: open at bottom, in case recipient needs to insert something. I'm not the person to assert what a best insert is, but there will be the abiity to add an extra filter, paper, etc. This change will happen in kits going out Monday.
57 masks were sewn, returned today. I expect these to be picked up by nurses on Monday.
2 new kit pickups have already texted pics of their first finished masks. YAY!
Hitting a soft stop by end of today. Fabric will be cut, twisties cut, bundled.
Guilty relief that the elastic arrival is Monday. Sunday will be a needed rest.
March 27: We delivered our 100th mask. Now we're staring at a bunch of cut parts waiting for more elastic. (confirmed: coming Monday)
MASK KITS are getting put together for more volunteers sewing. We've been able to buy the supplies, thanks to our lovely customers. We could use some more sewing machine help from people with their own machines. Mask output would grow exponentially. Click here—we can give you the pieces all cut and ready to sew.
Same mask going forward, but will now have opening at bottom in case any recipient has any other useful material to insert as an improvement. Previous masks: you can remove the bottom stitching, it will become a "pocket".
Daughter built spreadsheets to keep track of requests for pick up, mask drop offs from volunteers, and certainly thank yous to get out when the dust has settled.
WISHING OUT LOUD for everyone to contact me via EMAIL. The spreadsheets should solve this problem, but I have already lost contact with one of the nurses because I can't for the life of me find the original request message. Insta messages, Facebook messages, voicemail, texts, now how the heck did she reach me...
March 26: In between time at the sewing machine, I organized getting three more people involved with sewing "kits" that I packed with pre-cut fabric, elastic, twistie ties, and a 3-page instructional I typeset the night before. As much as I know I can make lots of masks just sitting at the machines, the potential to make many more by organizing others has started to develop. My assistant got a kit of 27 masks, and another team of three is starting out with kits of 10 masks each. They reported being able to return their kits tomorrow. I sewed 27 myself today, built kits, coordinated other mask makers. Outreach is becoming clearer. The volume seems slow going but foundations are being made to keep increasing the number of masks made.
I read the articles, there has definitely been an effort to clarify the safety of a cloth mask: They are not as safe as N95 and other medical supply masks. We get that. Those are running out.
I ask each mask pickup about their current situation. All signs are pointing to depleted medical supply.
Placed a second "insurance" order with a second vendor for spools of elastic that should arrive Monday. The spools I ordered three days ago sent me an order confirmation but hasn't sent me a tracking order since. I am worried that I sent payment to a vendor that's not filling orders on schedule. Elastic is the scarce resource, according to others on social media. But if both orders arrive I will have a supply to continue.
March 25: It's 6pm as I type this. Every mask I have completed since starting has left the building. 3 hospitals and one facilities vendor. It looks like I'm going to have to organize something bigger than my workshop.
March 24: It seems that I blink and hours vanish. Production was a little faster, but I keep getting requests for my pattern. So I took some time to make it and post it on this page, click here for the mask pattern I'm using. Posting it took up most of my diary writing time. Good night!
March 23: Worked on the first production run. Daughter Josie and I cut 90 small masks and 26 large, cut with power tool in layers, so that happened very fast. Sets of elastic and and pieces of wire will be cut in batches as we go—there is no way to bulk cut, so it gets measured and cut by hand. Should the need for masks continue, cutting elastic and wire into pieces are tasks I might need others to help with.
Completely finished 22 small masks and about 30 large masks are roughly half finished. I'm not pleased with the volume but it's the first day. All of these masks are spoken for, headed to health care professionals—I am being careful not to identify recipients on my social media without their consent.
It was a slower day, as methods were being practiced and taught, and I had difficulty staying off the phone and email. Tomorrow I need to keep my head in the workshop.
It's hard to wrap my head around making masks that would have been rejected, without question, if they were offered six months ago. Today I could still hear some skepticism about taking these masks seriously. It seems as if they are becoming more necessary by the hour. They are better than nothing. I am willing to assert that a 3-ply wire secured mask is also better than bandannas, which are now being suggested by the CDC as a last resort.
I ponder the possibility of needing to order fabric specifically to keep making the best mask I can offer. I hope that demand will not present the need, for everyone's sake.
THANK YOU to those who helped out with a purchase today, or an offer to help with more supplies, my gratitude is endless. Thanks especially to friends and family who have believed in me for the long haul and are showing it now.
March 22: Morning: I'm headed to the shop to check supplies, work on the first mask. It is going to be checked by a healthcare professional for edits/improvements by end of day. In the meantime, I'll also work on some orders I promised to deliver on time.
Midday update, taking prototype now in 2 different sizes to doctor. Samples do not have a bendy nose bridge. Also going home to try to find some pipe cleaners or twistie ties. Anybody have a bunch of twistie ties? They usually appear included in boxes of trash bags...
March 21:
About two days ago the request for volunteer-made face masks went viral—along with lots of well-wishing information that took a little while to process and clarify.
I reached out to health care people I knew for some more guidance, It took some time to clarify the need and where my own masks should get put to service as soon as possible.
My offer to make masks for a local hospital is clarified that it is needed, along with a request for the health professional to check a mask sample so it can be approved for mass production or improved upon. This was what I was hoping for, to make sure I'm not wasting resources making something only to find out I could have made it better in the first place. Unlike many home sewers that are helping in a small capacity, I will be able to cut volumes of mask pieces from fabric at once. Finalize the pattern FIRST.
__________________________
]]>
Joy Ike is my next door neighbor. I planned on featuring the Nigerian-American musician regardless of this fact but it sure made it easy in these times to go one block down and catch some much needed camaraderie from a healthy distance. I was able to meet her at our community garden and snap some shots with my zoom as the sun shone down for the first time in a few days and the flowering trees swayed in the spring breeze. The cherry trees, forsythia, and peppered daffodils in the background were the perfect compliment to Joy’s radiating spirit.
Joy is someone you want to talk to now and always because there really is never a time she doesn’t desire to connect deeply and truly. It’s evident in her music and her day to day life. Performing has been her full time gig for the past 12 years, sharing stages with the likes of Cody Chestnut and the late great Allen Toussaint. When she is not performing she is active in local organizations like G.R.E.A.T. (Germantown Residents for Economic Alternatives) a grassroots group that values shared resources and skills. Her 2018 album “Bigger than Your Box” was informed by a trip she took to visit family in Nigeria. First and foremost a piano player, she packed along a more travel friendly ukulele and spent the trip listening to a ton of artists from a broad sonic and geographical spectrum that inspired her journey. She describes the record as “an open-armed invitation to dive head first into the unseen”. Even with such an adventure into uncertain places her songs and ponderings carry a grounded peace, and her voice even when unfettered holds steady. A perfect soundtrack for these times!
Recommended Joy Ike rabbit-holes:
She has a great website that’s the perfect place to get to know more about her and her music: https://www.joyike.com/home
She recently worked on a tribute for Mr. Rogers and this lovely video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eU9Au3cVTk0
NPR Affiliate WITF in Pittsburgh did a great live performance/article/interview with Joy: https://www.witf.org/2019/07/09/witf_music_joy_ike/
What is a career/creative moment you are proud of?
Making and releasing my last album, Bigger Than Your Box has been a huge mile-marker in my life. I had just crossed the 10-yr mark of living as an artists and this album was really the journey of all those years interpreted in song. Coincidentally the album didn't do as well as I had hoped and 2018 ended up being a rough year where I questioned everything about myself and my purpose. I had to let go of a lot of quantitative expectations and relearn to see music and art as a gift instead of a commodity. That project has left its imprint on me in so many different ways.
What are you listening to now? What are you looking at? What recipe you feeling?
Steffany Gretzinger. I've been waking up in the morning to stretch to her music. It gives me so much peace. It's pretty often that her Pandora channel stays on all day as I do different tasks around the house. I am watching The Chosen. It's a thoughtful interpretation of the Biblical character of Jesus, his disciples and the religious/political tensions of the time. It gives me perspective in the here and now and I'm appreciating the creative liberties the director and writer have taken to create a comprehensive picture of what it might have been to live, love, and lead during those times. Gosh, my absolute favorite thing to make right now are pupusas! It's an El Savadorian cornmeal dish. I haven't mastered the papusa itself, but making and eating the salsa and curtido (pickled cabbage) is my absolute favorite thing. They also go very well with other dishes.
How do you define your own personal style or approach to clothes?
Comfort! I like things that are flattering and flowy. I love wearing clothes that blow in the wind, have soft patterns, and have somewhat of a bohemian look. You'll see me doing a lot of flowy bottoms in the summer and patterned dresses. I also especially love the empire waist look - whether it's with jeans, dresses, or tshirts.
What would be your advice to a teenage girl clothing and style wise that you wish you had received?
Wear what makes you feel happy. Don't wear what other people say you should.
UPDATE: At the beginning of the pandemic, this pattern was used to assemble kits for volunteers to make and donate.
We may soon forget that it was impossible to meet with anyone to teach anything in person back in the spring of 2020! But that's how it was when we had no idea what Covid was, or how it was spreading.
It's still a great mask for ease of instructions and quick sew-up, and still the one I'll use when I need to quickly make a batch for my own household. It requires very little precision or practice, suitable for most beginners looking to sew a mask.
BEGIN ORIGINAL POST
--------------------------------------------
The goal of THIS pattern:
To make a pattern that could be distributed to a team of people, to sew on their own at varying degrees of skill, with the best chance of fitting faces universally, even when sewn with varying degrees of seam accuracy (very important). To sew as many masks as possible successfully with our team's skill level and equipment/materials at hand, in the least amount of time.
--------------------------------------------
DISCLAIMER:
I make no claims about my masks preventing the transmission of any virus in any capacity.
Let's Begin:
Download the Face Mask Instructional
I'm working with a modified pleat-style mask that is an amalgam of lots of common patterns and measurements on the internet, and tweaking them to suit my own methods, equipment, and supplies.
Why I like THIS mask pattern:
9x9" of fabric covers a LOT of face.
Elastic requires less resources per mask. Ties would require 18"x4 just for one mask.
It's square. Good because 1) Zero fabric waste between a grid of squares that can be cut quickly and easily. 2) Makers can't screw up the orientation, every side is equal.
Best starting off tips:
Make ONE and test that one on a large face and a small face. See why...
My husband tried on this mask that fit me perfectly. Wow. That's not what his ears normally look like! I actually think this might be a glaring oversight of the movement. Legions of women might be making masks to fit their own smaller faces. Check the fit on large faces, too! (Also, this earlier mask was made with 1/4 inch elastic, not ideal.)
1/8" elastic has the easiest stretch. Elastics can vary greatly. If you have to work with what you got, make sure you test the first one in case it isn't fitting properly. Longer elastic can always be snipped and tied smaller. Too short elastic, can't be lengthened. Err on the looser side.
Comment with any questions and I'll check. Please be patient with the quality of photos and video, they are done with the interest of getting things up ASAP. I'm doing the most I can with hours that seem to be passing too quickly. I did manage to get the pleat video made!
Download the Face Mask Instructional
Note it's a 9x9 inch square mask. To use the pdf as a pattern, you will need to tile print it at 100%.
If you don't understand the pleat directions on page three, I have placed a video at the bottom of this page.
Supplies:
Fabric: I am using surplus quilter's weight fabric and similar weight organic cotton sheeting. Some home sewing machines may gag on the pleats—use new, sharp, heavy duty needles.
1/8" elastic.
Twistie tie: Mine was laying around my house, no brand. I've since found more at Ace Hardware.
Here is a video aid for the final pleat making stage, which is hard to explain on just a paper pattern:
Substitute materials:
Missing something?
Ties work: Without elastic, you can substitute four 18" long pieces of ribbon, shoelace, parachute cord, or sew tubes to make narrow strips for finished straps. Ties actually work very well, but in bulk require significantly longer amounts of material and might tangle in the wash. The wire we use is the twist tie or garden wire that is plastic coated and available from a hardware store in small packages, most come with a cutter right on the package. You can use pipe cleaners or bread bag ties too. Or, leave the wire out if it's a personal mask. Masks donated to hospitals though should include some kind of wire if at all possible. Fabric can be a pillowcase or sheet, or recycled cotton from cut up shirts.
Target and or Walmart sell shoelaces, bedlinens and garden wire, some even have thread and fabric.
]]>This post is part of our portrait/interview series with Emily "Birdie" Busch. Birdie's challenge is to tease out candid responses from fellow artistic, industrious women. Painters, mothers, musicians, brewers, bakers, and more. What muses!
As I sat down to write this blog post earlier this afternoon Philadelphia had just declared official shutdown of non-essential businesses for an indefinite amount of time. Laura Lacy and her husband Todd Lacy just recognized a many years in the making goal of opening Germantown’s first brewery and tasting room at the end of January.
Despite the trying times I look forward to the day where we can head down there to enjoy the wonderful space again but until then, a toast to Attic and Laura Lacy! If you are feeling cabin-fever and need a field trip, they will be continuing to pour growlers for take-out everyday from 3pm-7pm at their brewery, a great way to support them at this time.
I’ve gotten to see how she has worked so hard from the seed of the idea to the present place it resides and how her belief in her community is bringing a lot of people together, which in this age, is much needed! So it was appropo that the day before shutdown Laura welcomed a small but vital crew to utilize the big space at the brewery to box over 500 meals for Kidz Meals on Wheels to ensure Philadelphia’s kids don’t go hungry during the shutdown.
It’s this kind of support and openness to her fellow neighbors that has been a common thread through Attic’s journey.
Laura Lacy, Brewery Owner
Laura left a corporate job at Old Navy to pursue going into business for herself (Todd still works as a park ranger) and after some thinking and exploring decided a brewery was the end goal. “Attic” came from the literal process of the two of them homebrewing in their attic to start out as homebrewers. For years they have shown up to what feels like every public function, festival, and gathering to pour beers and spread the word (as well as some private ones too).
For the shoot we took photos in the newly opened 6,000-square foot brewery and taproom at 137 W. Berkley Street. At the ribbon cutting to declare the building’s reuse years ago, we were standing in puddles of rain water in a roofless industrial space near the Wayne Junction train Station in Philadelphia. Laura now oversees the transformed place like a proud parent, and as you look at all the fine details of the space you can tell she considered every choice from lighting fixtures to toilet paper with an incredible amount of heart. I mention toilet paper because she has paired up with the company Who Gives a Crap that donates 50% of their profits to help build toilets and improve sanitation in the developing world. They also have begun to donate proceeds of certain taps to worthy causes.
Recommended Attic Brewing rabbit-holing:
Attic Brewing’s main website: https://www.atticbrewing.com/
Attic Brewing was recently in the Inquirer: https://www.inquirer.com/food/beer-attic-brewing-germantown-laura-lacy-20200120.html
Attic has a Facebook page we suggest you follow for all updates on their events and happenings:
https://www.facebook.com/AtticBrewing/
What is a career/creative moment you are proud of? Funding my business. My husband Todd and I own 100% of Attic Brewing Co. There aren't many brewery owners that can say that. But we knew our neighborhood is not the ideal place for a craft brewery based on industry statistics. We wanted control of the decisions to make sure we built a place Germantown could be proud of.
What are you listening to now? What are you looking at? What recipe you feeling? Attic Brewing has only been open for 6 weeks so I practically live here. I'm lucky to have live music on Thursdays, an amazing gallery wall filled with local art to look at and yummy food trucks to fill my belly. We filled the space with things we love, so being at work feels really good.
How do you define your own personal style or approach to clothes? I've never felt comfortable with clothes. I'm tall and curvy and feel like most things don't fit me how I want them to. When I find pieces that I feel really good in they become staples and I wear them often. A good friend taught me how to build outfits, instead of creating a new look every time I wear a piece. It takes a lot of guesswork out of dressing and has cut down on my wardrobe spending. But I like feeling unique and usually take more risk with my accessories. I'm really into earrings right now.
What would be your advice to a younger woman clothing and style wise that you wish you had received? Don't dress to trends, dress to your body type. It took me 30 years and thousands of unworn clothing items for me to figure this out.
This post is part of our portrait/interview series with Emily "Birdie" Busch. Birdie's challenge is to tease out candid responses from fellow artistic, industrious women. Painters, mothers, musicians, brewers, bakers, and more. What muses!
I first met Vessna Scheff years ago when I was working behind the counter at The Random Tearoom in the Northern Liberties neighborhood in Philadelphia. She would come in with art supplies and set up at the circular table in the natural light of late afternoon and work. I quietly appreciated her roving studio set up and how she seemed able to carry her creativity with her wherever she went. I’d see her work on everything from portrait commissions to abstract pieces, and she always was very open to wanting to chat with others about their own paths while she worked. I would soon learn that she was also a musician and that she often weaves both visual art and music together as they both hold a strong place in her psyche.
For the shoot I went to her home studio in South Philly to capture some of her more recent pieces. She currently is diving into larger scale work that consists of watercolors with oversize brushstrokes and various layers of paper. To observe her choosing the layers it’s as if she is pondering rare pebbles and stones and every move seems like a dance between intention and surprise. She is currently applying to master’s programs in which she wants to focus on growing the relationship between visual art and music, especially for marginalized communities, and finding ways to foster more access for everyone looking to free themselves via the processes that have brought her to her own sense of liberation and love.
Vessna is photographed wearing National Picnic tops from the following collections: Leopard, Tigers, and No Bears, Ikat + Dot, and Fit to Print.
Recommended Vessna Scheff rabbit-holing:
An all things Vessna website: https://www.vessnascheff.com/
Vessna takes commissions for portraits and abstracts and also leads watercolor workshops: https://www.vessnascheff.com/work-with-vessna
A music video for her song “Echos”:
What is a career/creative moment you are proud of?
Performing at the Affordable Art Fair in NYC. The cost was prohibitive as a visual artist to get a booth. They are upwards of $1000. Instead, I submitted a proposal for a performance to activate the space with a performance of a painting using fabrics, sound and movement with two incredible artist collaborators- Shanina Dionna and Bethlehem Roberson. We performed and brought our artistry to the space and instead of us paying to attend, were supported and paid to perform by the wonderful team who curated the night!
What are you listening to now? What are you looking at? What recipe you feeling?
Right this minute, I am listening to "Bad Girls - Verdine Version Radio" on Spotify. This mix is really good. Vibey, grounded and energized is how I would describe it.
I am looking at a catalogue from a show called "Four Generations" which was up at the Baltimore Museum of Art. It is a collection featuring all black abstract artists and their work/contributions to art history. It's a powerful collection.
I am feeling the recipes from the "Oh She Glows" Cookbook. It's a vegan cookbook. The recipes are easy to make and so yummy! Just made a creamy tomato basil pasta. NOM!
How do you define your own personal style or approach to clothes?
My requirement for clothes is I have to be able to do all the things I want in most of my clothes. Like I shouldn't require a change of outfit to work, ride a bike, perform a show and make art. I like versatile simple pieces that can be mixed and matched with everything else I own. This is what I aim for. Not that I always achieve it haha but it helps keeps my wardrobe simple so I can focus on the most important part of any outfit- confidence!
What would be your advice to a teenage girl clothing and style wise that you wish you had received?
Confidence is the most important quality of any outfit. Choose clothes/ outfits that help you feel confident.
Please know small businesses need to carry on, hoping to keep a toehold on the livelihoods that enrich our community until things return to normal.
]]>Photo by Denise Guerin
Update: I regret initially writing the comment that artists can appreciate the solitude of self-quarantine. My apologies, it now seems like a careless comment, in hindsight. However, I'm leaving it in to keep an accurate historical perspective on just how much things have changed since. At last edit to this page, COVID-19 is still very much in progress. —Betsy
Original post, March 12, 2021:
When I look back on the Coronavirus of 2020, I will remember March 11. The day a pandemic was declared, the day where ALL important news was somehow related to COVID-19. Any piece of news that happened to cross my screen NOT related to the current global health crisis seemed insignificant, unimportant.
It was also the day I had planned to send out my company's newsletter email. About fashion. Fashion branded to evoke a lifestyle of enjoyment. Fun. Comfort. It felt weird.
So I didn't send it.
A day later, I again considered not sending.
Then I realized, my email campaign app is still going to send me a bill for this month's subscription. A bill paid for by orders from sent emails.
The monthly charge for my online website will appear on my credit card, even if I decide not to invite people to have a peek at the new things I'm making.
Each small business owner's story will be different, but the story is also the same: Rent will be due again soon, whether or not anyone will venture out and enter a non-essential boutique, or any other less necessary place of business.
My own business's smallness is an asset during this time. I am truly a teeny, tiny player in a huge industry. Staff is absolutely needed for the long haul—in a pinch, though, I am not at risk of not filling the usual volume of orders because staff should stay home. I can come and go by myself to the shop—it's my shop. I'll be IN. I'll keep hours. I have fabric. Spring is coming, and I will not be without things to offer once the restrictions subside. Not to make light of anything, but if I had to self-quarantine myself, as long as I can access my studio? Sounds like it has an upside. Creatively, at least. Artists, you can relate.
Social media may appear at times to ignore the obvious. Small businesses are carrying on with out-and-about imagery we invested in before high alert, with photos that now seem taken long ago. Back when I was able to hug the model when she arrived for the shoot. Or see my sister off to Spain with a trousseau of National Picnic clothing she promised to photograph on her honeymoon. These images are queued up and ready. I love what we're making, and I still want to share it. No, it can't wait.
Please know small businesses need to carry on, hoping to keep a toehold on the livelihoods that enrich our community until, and after, things return to normal.
I am sending the email.
]]>
Welcome to the first post in our interview series with Emily "Birdie" Busch. Birdie's challenge is to tease out candid responses from fellow artistic, industrious women. Painters, mothers, musicians, brewers, bakers, and more. What muses! Let's begin...
Gretchen Lohse is a musician and mother who lives in Philadelphia with her husband collaborator and young son Cecil. It’s hard to quickly sum up Gretchen’s creative journey which I believe is what I have always admired about her. She has a perseverance to contain multitudes and a hunger to work on projects that are extremely varied in scope and imagination. In addition to putting out solo work in the past, she often collaborates with others, composing music for television and film, as well as live scores for projects like the experimental documentary The Pine Barrens. She currently teaches violin and handiwork classes to children in addition to it all. She has joked with me about her young son Cecil’s face observing his parents from his seat on the couch while they set up music videos in their living room involving stop motion editing and props. He seems to already understand that his mother is a peculiar creature and he is just starting to observe a fraction of the wonder they will share together.
I went to her house for the photo shoot and Cecil woke up early from a nap to join us. He became part of the series to fully capture a day in the life. It seemed serendipitous to document it all together as National Picnic clothes are made for smooth transitions within our lives full of daily shapeshifting.
Gretchen is styled here in tops from the Simpatico Collection and some bateau neckline pieces.
Recommended Gretchen Lohse rabbit-holes:
Sylvio- Award Winning indie comedy that Gretchen Lohse and Thomas Hues did the musical score for. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVgnWiA7tKM
Carol Cleveland Sings- The Psychedelic bedroom pop duo of Gretchen Lohse and Thomas Hues. https://cargocollective.com/carolclevelandsings
The Pine Barrens- The experimental documentary film in which Gretchen Lohse was part of the live score orchestra. http://www.pinebarrensfilm.com/orchestra
What is a career/creative moment you are proud of?
Last fall my husband and I scored and performed a section of Lotte Reiniger's Prince Achmed at the Parkway Theatre in Baltimore, along with a group of really talented musicians. I have always loved silent film and been a fan of Lotte in particular for years, so this felt like coming home.
Pictured: Birdie in her "vintage" National Picnic wrap skirt.
Welcome, Emily "Birdie" Busch, as a new social content contributor. In 2020, Birdie will be sharing more of us with you in her own unique voice.
Birdie pitched a special project for our social media: Interviewing artistic and industrious women she knows, sharing their careers and experience through visual and verbal portraiture. Wearing the clothing we're making at the moment. Painters, mothers, musicians, brewers, bakers, and more. What muses! Be sure to follow on Facebook or Instagram to see it all.
Raised in Collingswood, Birdie has been making and recording independent music from her home base of Philadelphia for a solid decade. She has created a constellation of connect the dots that has people listening to her music all over the world. Critics from American Songwriter to Village Voice have found her of kindred spirit from everyone from Syd Barrett to Eudora Welty. Last year, our holiday concert was blessed with some of the first listens to original songs commissioned by the Art Museum of Philadelphia. It's true, The Bird is in the family, sister to the designer :)
See her career work on her own website, http://www.emilybirdiebusch.com/
]]>
No small feat, having your brand trademarked is pretty huge. You know a registered trademark by seeing a ® appear in the logo, a character we will spend time adding to our website and company materials in the New Year.
We quietly reached this milestone in 2019 after a long but relatively smooth legal process (no one contested it).
Why trademark?
As National Picnic grows, we wanted to make sure that we are protecting what we can in an industry notorious for knock-offs and outright counterfeiting. Trademarks increase the value of the company's intellectual property, too.
Interestingly, it was Amazon that compelled us to pursue a trademark. Even though we do not currently sell products on Amazon at time of this post (for many reasons we will not elaborate on here), we prevent the unwanted appearance of National Picnic items in its seller space by keeping our brand registered with their website. Amazon mandates an ® to enroll in their brand registry, a system put in place to try to ensure authentic goods. Now that we have it, though, it protects us elsewhere, too, so the process has strengthened our identity as a whole.
Trademarking National Picnic was an investment. Many startups and small fashion brands will never get to claim a registered trademark. But as we enter our 10th year of business in 2020, it became increasingly necessary. Even though a trademark won't guarantee longevity, we hope it further communicates that we plan to continue making clothing for the longer haul.
]]>
I threw a party last week, I baked a cake. It was a hit. This unassuming little pale green leftover is all that was left to photograph.
It's similar to recipes that call for adding stuff to a box of yellow cake, but if you don't use a box of yellow cake, this is how you make it. It won't taste suspiciously like a box of doctored-up yellow cake mix.
Here is the recipe. A friend said she'd serve it with candied pistachios and pistachio frosting, I'm sure recipes for those add-ons are just a google away.
Freezes well.
]]>
and also
How geeky I can get about clothing manufacturing and still interest the reader? Appreciate this:
Adding a simple choice of V-neck to our Original Picnic Top creates 56 MORE product variations—unique combinations of size, color, and now, neckline.
In total, our Original Picnic Top ALONE now has 112 variations that are visible and available for online ordering. No secrets necessary. If those 112 variations were physically in stock in the shop, and were made with conventional mass-production methods, my staff and I would be sewing hundreds of these tops made from hundreds of yards of fabric—and then we'd have to hope the right person for each size/color/neckline will come around to buy.
One top. I hope that sharing this might help customers understand some hidden scale behind a single product.
So you see why there might need to be different expectations for small business clothing makers—the ones who can set up shop in your neighborhood, hire from your community—to serve you with any sort of consistent product offering. I am very thankful for customers who are willing to wait just a little longer to have their top made for them.
This math I shared is just the tip of the iceberg. Pattern libraries grow exponentially, as well as the work needed adding variants to websites. Unless a biz is blessed with deep-pocketed investors, the decision to add just one new product might quickly create too much work. A new product should have some proven potential. Like a v-neck :)
]]>
These are great with breakfast, split in half and toast for extra crunchy crusty. Makes 24 standard sized muffins, or even more when adding raisins, nuts, etc.
Wet ingredients:
4 eggs
2 cups white sugar
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin (if you are using some of a larger can, you can measure out an even 2 cups and it'll be fine)
1 cup vegetable oil
Dry ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
Mix together wet ingredients thoroughly. Prepare dry ingredients by mixing them together first in a separate bowl, then mix into the wet ingredients until completely blended. (If you're using a mixer, blend on low until the dry ingredients are moistened, then give it about 1 minute on high speed until completely blended).
Prepare muffin tin with papers or brush with oil. Fill each muffin cup 2/3 full.
Bake at 375˚ F for appx. 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
]]>
Here's the secret: Odense Almond Paste. Their own website has a recipe for crisp but it has raisins (not a fan, at least for apple crisp) and no mention of spices (fan). It's available on Amazon if you can't find it—we get it at Shop Rite for $4.99. (this plug is not sponsored, prices for paste can vary greatly--it seems to be the best price)
Clove is also a spice not mentioned in most recipes that I like to add for its aroma and unique taste.
6 apples, peeled and chopped (granny smith is my favorite)
2 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon, divided
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cup old fashioned oats
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 stick Odense almond paste, grated
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
Pinch of salt
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350˚ F degrees.
Butter an 8x8 baking dish, or spray with non-stick cooking spray.
In a mixing bowl, toss chopped apples with granulated sugar, 1/2 tsp of the cinnamon. Stir to combine, then transfer to prepared baking dish. In a separate mixing bowl, combine topping ingredients (brown sugar, oats, grated almond paste, flour, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, clove, salt, and diced cold butter). Use a pastry cutter or two knives to cut the butter into the oat mixture until mixture is in pea-sized crumbs.
Spread topping over apples in the baking dish.
Bake 40-50 minutes, until bubbly. Serve warm AND with ice cream if you have it :)
Tip: Grate ALL the almond paste, DOUBLE THE BATCH and freeze the other half of the topping, so the next time you want apple crisp, you can pull the topping out and it's all ready.
]]>