Etsy Treasury #2

It feels so good to be recognized. Back in August my Che Guevarra cuff was chosen for an Etsy treasury. I was too busy to post it then with the kids out of school and all, but here it is.




And here's a close up.





It's the second Che Guevarra item chosen for a treasury. I love seeing it in this kind of context with other people who create in honor of this cultural hero. Thank you Indira Villalobos for choosing my piece. Indira and I have a love of Frida in common. Check out this coral Frida bracelet from her shop.

Cuff Month

Forgive me readers for I have sinned, it's been two months since my last blog post! Yes, it's been a while but I continue to desire to update you on what has been going on. So here goes.

I will call the month of March (and some of April) Cuff Month! I have been getting a lot of orders for my cuffs and most of them have been coming from my dear friend M who has become my bestest customer in the world! I am going to have to give her an award, seriously! I last wrote about M in this post back in January of 2009. Well, M, asked me if I was interested in a wholesale gig and I said YES! So this is what I have been working on. I think I made her about 25 cuffs all together. It may not sound like a lot but when you have two kids and your babysitter decides to take a three week vacation, then it is a lot!!!!! But I did it and am so grateful for the opportunity. She has been selling them at various events and I am so happy for the exposure. It also pushed me to mix it up a bit in terms of the fabric choices. M suggetsed I do some of them with red fabric and I pulled a couple of switcheroos in terms of fabric and icons. Here are a couple of pics. You'll recognize the fabric from other cuffs I have done. These will be available in my shop soon.



By the way, M has a shop on etsy too. She sells beautiful, nostalgic, eccentric pieces that are amazingly crafted. Check out the Hand of Fatima Designs here.

Tomorrow, I'll talk a little about new additions to the shop.

Happy Birthday Julia de Burgos and FREE shipping!

Julia de Burgos was born Febuary 17, 1914 in Carolina, Puerto Rico. She is considered by many as the greatest poet to have been born in Puerto Rico and generally considered as one of the greatest poets of Latin America. She was also an advocate for the independence of Puerto Rico and an ardent civil rights activist for women and African/Afro-Caribbean writers.

So....to honor this amazing woman, I would like to offer free shipping on each of the the two Julia de Burgos items in my shop. I will simply return your shipping fee to your PayPal account after you check out. This will go on for the rest of February and the entire month of March. I can also print this image on a top you send me and I will ship it for free.

Feliz Cumpleanos, Julia!

Ladies and Gentleman, Introducing Leather Cuffs!

I can't believe it has been almost two months since my last post. I like blogging about my projects but the irony is that if I don't sew, I have nothing to blog about. So I don't blog as often so I can give the time to sewing. So I think that until my youngest goes to school, I will always have this dance between sewing and blogging. I actually should be sewing right now! LOL! However, I felt compelled to tell you all about my newest addition to my shop, wallet leather cuffs featuring my customary cultural icons.

These were really fun to make. I first became interested in leather cuffs when I read about Bunny Lang in the January/February issue of Belle Armoire magazine (www.bunnylang.com). I filed the idea in my head for later use. Later on, I noticed my friend Shavon from church wearing leather cuffs all the time. This sweet girl was all of a sudden transformed into this tough chick. It really made any outfit mean business, she looked more serious in a rocker chic way. But again, I decided to file the idea. I didn’t have any leather and the thought of purchasing it didn't intrigue me.

It was months later, after tiring of constantly fixing the heel of my leather boots, that this idea once again popped in my head. The boots were too busted to give away so I decided to cut them up and begin on my first leather cuff.

I really liked it but how could I incorporate my passion for cultural icons on leather? This process made me realize that I really liked making cuffs and so perhaps, I thought, I could make fabric cuffs and include the icons there. I had been trying to find a craftier way to play with fabric and this was it!!! Thus, my fabric cuffs were born.

At first, these concentrated on family photos, I then incorporated the cultural icons. They were so much fun to make and I have sold quite a few. Then my friend Yesenia asked if I could make them more useful, like add a zipper, etc... I sat on this idea a while. I didn't know how the fabric would stand to yet another addition. I was already adding images, loop closures, buttons. Would they look too thick to wear? So again I simply pondered the idea while i continued to make the cuffs. Then Shavon showed me the inside of her leather cuff and I thought, "hey, with leather and snap closures, the zipper might work!" When part of my hubby' leather coat got ruined in the trunk of our car, I immediately asked him if I could keep the remaining good portion of it. he said yes (as long as i agree to make him a cuff) and I began snipping away.

Making the cuffs has been a tinkering process. I realized I had to buy thicker needles for my sewing machine as it would not sew through the leather at first. I also had to decide whether I wanted to leave the raw edges of the leather or bind them. At first I tried to bind the edges but it made some of the cuffs look bulkier. At the end I decided to leave the raw edge on most of the cuffs and sew around it. They look a bit rustic but I really like the way they came out. When using recycled materials you sometimes want the audience not to realize what it’s made of but in this instance it’s like I’m being true to where they came from. These are essentially strips of leather from a coat with snaps, a picture and a zipper. I like that. Hope you do too. Check them out at www.nelesc.etsy.com and tell me what you think. I love feedback!

　

Mirabal Sisters Cuff

Here's a new addition to my Nelesc Design's shop on etsy. It's a cuff feauturing the Mirabal sisters. The Mirabal sisters were political activists and highly visible symbols of resistance to Rafael Trujillo’s dictatorship in the Dominican Republic. . They were repeatedly jailed, along with their husbands, for their revolutionary activities toward democracy and justice. On November 25, 1960, three of the Mirabal sisters, Minerva, Patria and Teresa were murdered, along with Rufino de la Cruz, their driver, by members of Trujillo’s secret police. The three women were being driven by Rufino to Puerto Plata to visit their imprisoned husbands. The bodies of the three sisters were found at the bottom of a precipice, broken and strangled. The news of their brutal assassinations shocked and outraged the nation and helped propel the anti-Trujillo movement. Trujillo was assassinated on May 30, 1961 and his regime fell soon after.The Mirabal sisters have become symbols of both popular feminist resistance. In the years since their deaths, they have been commemorated in poems, songs, and films.

I really loved making this cuff. I have been an admirer of the Mirabal sisters for years and am so glad one of my clients requested it. Here, the design consists of three stenciled images, one for each sister, Maria Teresa, Minerva, and Patria. They are framed by an abstract/island like pattern in soft pastels, a bow to their femininity and Caribbean culture. The stark black and white portraits of these strong, fearless women, make this a powerful and stylish piece. Check it out at http://www.nelesc.etsy.com/.

Finding my Inner Revolutionary

It has been a while since I have written which means I have reneged on my promise to be more faithful at updating my blog this year. But here I am. I am not giving up yet. That's what revolutionaries do.

Revolutionary, me? Lately, I have not felt much like a revolutionary. The message of my clothing line is that you can strive for change just like the people on my designs did. However, recently, I have felt stuck. I remember the days when I used to march for the release of Irish and Puerto Rican political prisoners when I was in college, when my husband and I would buy canned food for the church pantry, when I used to hand out food to the homeless and pray for them. I miss my public life. I am now home with two kids with special needs and although I try really hard to perceive that as a revolutionary act, as an act that involves changing my kids' lives, I still want more. I often feel tired, burned out, and lonely. I guess revolutionaries get lonely too. Why do we make them to be out like gods? They were real people.

As I try to find my way in this motherhood thing what helps me is to read honest writing from other mothers. I have been following Dawn's blog about motherhood. She is so honest and quite irreverent. Here's a link to one of my favorite posts from her, http://balefulregards.blogspot.com/2006/03/cult-of-motherhood-redux.html.

I also just finished watching the In the Time of the Butterflies DVD. It is a movie adapted from a book by Julia Alvarez which I read years ago about three sisters who confront the injustices of the Trujillo regime, a dictatorship in the Dominican Republic, in the 60s and 70s. A client recently requested I make her a cuff of the Mirabal sisters which was fate (I like to call it God) because I had been thinking about designing one before she made the request. Anyway, I wanted to reacquaint myself with these sisters before I made it. Reading powerful stories about women makes me feel better. It calls to my inner revolutionary. It helps me summon that spirit of hope and potential that can keep me from drowning in my feelings of quiet desperation.

Still Musing about Family over the Holidays

I am still excited about my big sister being here from Alabama. I spent the whole of yesterday with her. She came over with the boys, my husband took the older ones out and I stayed home with her and my youngest. When D took his nap, A and I chatted away about our creative endeavors. She makes jewelry and showed me all of her new pieces, I showed her my new fabric cuffs (she also got one for Christmas) and other projects I was working on, it was like a manic show and tell session that had been pent up for a year (I only see her once a year).

Remember, my last post about my youngest being attached to her even though he only saw her once a year? Well, the same thing happened with my oldest and her boys. The minute they got to our house, M turned off the TV (M does not turn off the TV for ANYONE!!!) he went right up to them ,said hello and they went off picking up where they left off last year...wrestling, throwing things across the room, playing race cars. Very intriguing male bonding. That's like another world to me. I grew up with two sisters. I am so girly. I sometimes don't understand why God gave me boys, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. I have a Masters in anthropology, it' so exciting to be privy to this secret lives of boys that I never grew up with. My sister and I had a lot to talk about on that topic , too.

Anwway, I am just lost in family musings these days. It's incredibly uplifting, inspiring, intriguing, mystrious. Family can get on your last nerve, yet it is an unbreakable, inexplicable bond. I could be so upset at my sisters or mom after a fight or something but when I am hurting, they are the people I come to first (well, after my hubby, he's family too). I don't think that I am as vulnerable with anyone else as I am with them. That says something.

Monday Inspiration - Fabric Cuffs!

Once again, I am participating with maternalspark.com and writing about inspiration. As I mentioned in an earlier post (November 17), I have been looking for other ways to use fabric, my artistic medium of choice. I love designing clothes and printing on it but I have been wanting to branch out. I bought and took countless books from the library about fabric books, artist trading cards, fabric jewelry, etc. trying to find something that would call to me and I think I found it.....fabric cuffs!!! I have been having so much fun with the few that I have already done. It combines my love of faces (I just can’t get away from that! What can I say, people inspire me), my interest in wearable art, and my desire to use recycled fabric. It is also something I can finish in a small amount of time which gives me a great sense of accomplishment.

I decided to start by making some as gifts. The top and bottom are gifts for my sisters, they each have three kids so I decided to stencil faces of their children onto the cuff. I love stenciled faces and I thought that this would allow for a more artistic interpretation rather than just printing their photos on fabric. I also did one of my favorite people, prominent in my clothing line, Frida Kahlo. I am definitely going to make a lot more of these for my shop. One of my goals for the new year is to offer more variety on my shop in terms of products and sizes, continue working on my designing skills, and update my blog more often. Stay tuned!!!