Announcing May ✨FOUND FLEA✨ Vendors!
@goldenyearsvintage & @gatheredwares
Our FOUND FLEA outdoor Market is back this march
✨Announcing, FOUND FLEA 2022✨
We are pleased to begin Picking for Market - what are you hoping to Find?! 🏺🪞🧥💍
Our neighbors will be renovating the building behind ours come June 2022, and so we have 3 final FOUND FLEA’s to share, from 11-4ish. 😭🥳
- This year, no early birds!
- We will open at 11am
- Makers & Pickers TBA
- Bring your own Baskets
FOUND FLEA 2022
March Last Friday 3/25
April Last Friday 4/29
May Last Friday 5/27
FOUND FLEA Market No. 2 with Distancing & Local Pickers
✨ F O U N D FLEA ✨
Market with Distancing & Local Pickers
Saturday, May 23rd from 11-3ish for another
Wear a mask 😷
Bring your bags.
Our FOUND FLEA Market No. 1 went over so well that we wanted to offer up another opportunity to more folks and be outside in the sun behind FOUND, with local pickers to join in on the fun. If you're a treasure hunter, this is something to pencil in on your dance card. Follow the event on Facebook to be apart of the buzz.
Local Pickers include but are not limited to MERC Naturals, Peaces by Lauren, Loloma Lodge aka Wallis Levin, Golden Years Vintage, Dime Pieces Shop, Jaime Hogen, and MORE!
FOUND Flea Market (with Distancing)
***UPDATE 4/24 Due to a rainy forecast, we will be allowing 5 shoppers inside at once, you must wear a mask and follow the social distancing lines out front. You will also be asked to sanitize your hands before entering.***
✨ Our first ever Open-Air FOUND Flea Market is Saturday, April 25th from 11-3 pm! ✨
Here’s the passion behind this idea: community, fresh air, and to have fun!
Our intentions are to offer an open-air shopping experience dubbed the FOUND Flea Market offering our local artist wares, organic skincare, second-life goods, handmade jewelry, and to help support our neighboring local businesses along Brooks Alley.
Put your mask on, grab a coffee from Looney Bean, bring your shopping bags to FOUND to shop, grab lunch from Bend Brewing Company and Barrio Taco Truck, and grab a native plant from Deschutes Basin Native Plant Nursery at The Commons. Let’s celebrate spring together, at a distance! It may be a little awkward at times with no hugs, limited interactions, and short hi’s and goodbye’s but know WE LOVE YOU! 💚
A Few Housekeeping Items:
Masks are required! 😷
Wear gloves if that comforts you but using hand sanitizer and frequent washing helps eliminate cross-contamination
If you’re sick, stay home
If you’re high risk, stay home
If you’ve been exposed to the virus knowingly, stay home
If you’re 65+ come at 10:30 am to shop early and avoid contact with others
Be respectful and responsible and stay 6’ from others when shopping
Window shopping is welcome –– we’ll assist you but we’re not opening the shop during the market due to our limited staffing.
All card payments will be taken at our POS outside on the North wall with a contactless card reader and signatures are not required but we are accepting cash sales too
If you think this is crazy, stay home (and ponder the following)!
If you’re comfortable grocery shopping inside a building with more than 10 people, then this will be right up your alley! If you’d prefer to stay home and shop online please consider ordering from small businesses in your community like us and discontinue boosting billionaire pockets like Amazon, Target, Home Depot, Lowes, Wilco, and Walmart (all who are STILL OPEN to customers going inside (sans Amazon) and selling much more than the essentials) while nearly all of the small businesses downtown Bend were asked to close their doors. Liquor stores and dispensaries have also remained open throughout the past month and are thriving which means the state is also receiving huge taxation of those sales, alcohol sales during the month of March in Oregon alone were nearly 66 million.
Sidenote, did you know the top 25 companies of the world are in Oil & Gas, Finance, and guess who else is on the list? Wal-Mart is also on this list and has remained open. If you’re shopping IRL, please consider walking or biking to lessen your oil consumption too.
Friendly Reminder: we offer free same-day local delivery from our online shop but not everything is online — most all FOUND Objects are one-of-a-kind. It’s not the most strategic eCommerce business but it is interesting, eclectic, handmade, and in alignment with our belief that The Future is FOUND!
Cheers –– see you Saturday,
Jacq / FOUNDer
The Northeastern corner inside FOUND Natural Goods sits works by Marité Acosta & Morgan Miller this November 2019.
November at FOUND | Marité Acosta & Morgan Miller
NOVEMBER EDIT
Founder of FOUND Natural Goods, Jacq Smith, as her version of Frida Khalo last year.
Analogue Tintypes Portraiture, Halloween Pop-Up at FOUND
Dearest Found Folks,
Lucky for you all, I was born on Halloween. Black cats, jack-o-lanterns, sweets, and vintage costumes have always been close to my heart. In spooky October tradition, we're bringing back the unique opportunity to sit still for nearly 30-seconds and be captured on tin by Tintype Photographer, Jason Chinchen known as Analogue Tintypes here in town.
He has been taking tintype portraits consistently for a year now in Bend after his debut show at Found last October and we are thrilled for the success that found him as a result. He has been featured in 1859 Oregon’s Magazine, interviewed by Joshua Langlais from A Community Thread (I don’t believe this has been published yet), and has been actively booking events around town with neighboring businesses like Oregrown. We applaud all his effort!
Saturday, October 26th
$40 per portrait, includes your 4x5 tintype original
$60 per couples or multiples, includes your 4x5 tintype original
$15 digital fee (receive an email with a digital scan of your tintype)
Plan for 20-mins per portrait session
Please book via Analogue Tintype’s site using this link! Email hi@foundnaturalgoods.com with immediate questions!
Follow @analogue_tintypes on Instagram to see his work to date, over 500 photos were taken this past year. While downtown Bend, Oregon will be celebrating Halloween 2019 with all the festivities, we invite you to document your evening with us.
A tintype by definition is a photo process from the mid-1800's made by creating a direct positive on a thin sheet of metal coated with a dark lacquer or enamel and used as the support for the photographic emulsion. The color blue is not recognized in this process, so tattoos and blue eyes go white and make for a very spooky photo.
Here are a few tintypes taken by Jason; enjoy and see you Saturday, October 26th! Here are a few Modern Tintypes to get you brewing on some ideas. NOTE: We had Jason at FOUND for two days last year and we were booked solid a week prior, so if you’ve always wanted a tintype, or you want another, now is your moment. And, know you don’t have to dress up or make it scary plus you’re always welcome to use any props inside the shop that you’d like.
Cheers and happy Halloween,
Jacq Smith / FOUND
First Friday September & October Events Downtown Bend
We have an exciting show planned for September, bringing back the colorful company of Plein-air oil painter, Jacob Joseph Norris. He’s a true local like myself to Bend, Oregon and we seem to make magic together. The image above is a cropping of one of his infamous birds that began when we opened FOUND over a year ago. View all of FOUND Natural Goods’ events here.
FIRST FRIDAY ARTWALK SEPT with JACOB JOSEPH NORRIS
Friday, September 6th, from 5-8pm
Complimentary drinks, good vibes, hugs, and a full shop
In addition to Jacob taking over the walls of FOUND, we wanted to make sure a couple of other stellar 2019 downtown Bend events make it on your date card. October is a happening month down here, so a months advance is always helpful. You’re welcome.
SEPTEMBER & OCTOBER 2019 Downtown Bend Events
9/20-9/21 Bend OktoberFest
Cheers and happy autumn,
FOUND
The Make(Her) No. 5: Marité Acosta, Potter & Chef
WE ARE SUPPORTED WITH GOODS MADE BY OVER FIFTY WOMEN, AND TO BETTER UNDERSTAND WHO THEY ARE, WE’RE SPOTLIGHTING ONE ARTIST MONTHLY-ISH TO LEARN WHAT’S MADE HER, THE MAKER.
by Jacqueline Smith, Founder & CEO, FOUND Natural Goods
The fresh (and delicious) scones served in her bowl during our Make(Her) Q&A Conversation.
Marité’s infamous style textured handmade pottery. Photo by Matité Acosta
FOUND’s fifth spotlight of the Make(Her) Series lands on Marité Acosta pronounced MAR-a-TAE, Potter & Chef. Marité and I met earlier this summer at her new gallery and workspace in Tumalo, Oregon, called The Studio: Pottery + Arts Collective. Set inside a red barn exterior, the neutral almost industrial styled interior quickly sets her apart from the neighbors, hinting at her many talents and hats she’s both worn and mastered whilst in New York City.
Draped in natural linens herself, Marité instantly jumps up to greet me offering fresh scones, water, coffee, and volunteers details lost in textile art today, inspired by my vintage jumper with monochromatic florals. Her wisdom comes from once being a fashion designer, colorist and food stylist –– all of which are not unrelated to her present professional roles as a Chef and as we all know, a Potter.
Marité Acosta’s absolutely drool-worthy pottery can be found inside only a select few shops which thankfully includes FOUND Natural Goods and even our online store is now carrying her coveted tiny ceramic dishes in a plethora of custom finishes, all made by hand, by Marité herself here in Central Oregon. Please enjoy the edited transcription below from our hour plus together.
Marité Acosta (MA): Oh, that’s great.
Jacqueline Smith (JS): Isn’t it? My Aunt Carol found this vintage piece in Portland.
MA: Yeah, and that’s clearly a vintage print. When I was a Fashion Designer, I saw so many prints and this is from a really, really long time ago when they did these, almost like French prints where it was first etched that then gets printed. Nobody does that anymore. If you ever see this, it's because it's been taken from a vintage print. The detail is so crazy.
JS: It’s really beautiful. How do you know so much about so many things? I thought I came here to talk pottery.
MA: Well, I do use fabrics in pottery—which, it's funny because it seems so obvious coming from fashion. But, when I was first making pieces and using textiles for texture [on pottery] it really wasn't so obvious to me. I just liked it. And then someone said it to me, “Oh, so your textile background influences…” I was like, oh yeah, I guess so!
JS: You said you’ve been here only about a week?
MA: We've been here a few months now. But in terms of being able to come in and do work––it’s only been about a week, yes. [walking around the studio] We've got the kiln here. I actually had that in my garage for a while while I was trying to figure out my studio worlds. Trying to find something other than the school (COCC), which is such a great school. Thank God the school was there! But I wanted my own space and I was lucky that Heidi (Weiss-Hoffman) and I met on the first day of class and then we just connected and in the back of our minds thought we would get a space together one day and I'm so bloody happy now.
JS: It feels good in here. It's great, it's crisp.
MA: Right? Good energies. Cool. High ceilings.
JS: Raw and beautiful.
Inside The Studio: Pottery + Arts Collective. Photo by Matité Acosta
MA: Yeah. It's funny because my first formal title in a job as a designer was ‘colorist’. And so everything revolved around color and having to use it, but I tend to go towards neutrals. I used to go to factories and approve colors for huge corporations, for menswear, womenswear, and kids, all fabrics, all fibers. But in my personal life, I need void of color. I like clean simplicity. I know when I go into someone's home where there's lots of colors I'm always very impressed because it’s so bold.
JS: Yes, it's a commitment.
MA: Anything is a commitment. I mean whatever your choice, you're committing to it. But when it's louder, I'm like wow, that's so amazing! Even this space, Heidi and I both agreed to keep it neutral because color always finds its way in one way or the other –– whether it's the blue cup there, or you know, just on a piece [of pottery]. But in this clean space, I can sit in quiet for hours and just make. Especially with pottery, it’s pure meditation.
JS: Hmmm.
MA: Even in a group studio, I was always with headphones on and just go for hours without talking to anybody. And in New York, I sought that out because there’s just so much noise. I’d been in New York City since I was 20––actually, since I was 18 I'd lived in cities, big cities. And now here, I'm so embracing being able to sit here quietly and have that [Marité points to the trees outside and we can both hear the birds chirping]. It's so peaceful. It's like shocking. I could sit down and watch the hummingbirds in our garden, for hours. It's such a nice place. It's a nice shift in our life living here.
JS: Sounds wonderful. And what’s this rolling contraption?
MA: That’s a slab roller. What I was doing before that was hand throwing and flattening, tossing down by hand. This is a quicker, more efficient way. Here, right now I'm playing with this really sandy, like it just kind of crumbles, you can mess with it. [Marité hands Jacqueline a ball of wet, grey clay]
JS: Where is it from?
MA: This from Georgie's in Portland. I've been playing with sourcing clay from a lot of different places since I moved here, just trying to sort of seeing what I like. And so it's been an ongoing year, almost two-year experiment.
JS: Oh, it’s really sandy.
MA: Right, so it dries out fast, and you've got to work with it very quickly. Plus we're in a dry environment, but each clay is different. I mean, I'm definitely finding some a bit too dry, but I think I'm narrowing it down now. But I mostly use this –– very similar to what you have inside FOUND. This allows these details to come out. [Marité points to the imperfections and discolorations in color on a finished piece of pottery]
The “freckles” on a white Ikebana we know and adore at FOUND.
JS: The freckles?
MA: Yes, on certain glazes the iron in the clay raise and pop through as freckles. I like these more muted colors here.
JS: So from my inexperienced perspective… taking the glaze out of the equation, this is obviously a different clay from this one, right?
MA: But you've done some work, yeah?
JS: Well, yeah, but it's been years and years –– actually the last time I threw on a wheel was about three years ago in Japan. I was staying at an Airbnb and had commented on the pottery they had stocked their kitchen with, for us to use, and the woman grabbed my hand and led me to her studio down the gravel road where she basically giggled and covered her mouth for a good hour while I made bowl after bowl. She was actually pretty impressed by my last bowl.
MA: That’s amazing.
JS: It was a little surreal. But, not to digress too much, I'm really curious about the different clays––can you source them back to where the clays are from on the earth?
MA: I probably could if I researched it and called the maker and asked.
JS: Clay Makers?
MA: Yeah.
JS: I love that that’s a job.
MA: The clay that I used back east, it doesn't make sense for me to have it shipped here. It's so heavy. So I'm trying to source something here that is similar and so far they’re pretty close. The clay right there is what's called green. So greenware is the most fragile state actually. It’s just dry clay and it will crumble. And there are so many times throughout the process of pottery where things can go awry. So to me, it's hugely successful to end up in a place where I'm like, oh yeah, I like that. I'm happy where this ended up.
JS: It’s such a process.
Top to bottom, this photo illustrates the same clay as wet, greenware, and after the first firing before glaze.
MA: When I first started doing pottery I took a class and then I took another class and another. I was spending as much time in the studio as I could. I started turning down jobs. I freelanced so I could take the jobs when I wanted them. [Marité and Jacqueline look over a shelf of her incomplete and finished work] I’ve always been less excited about a perfectly thrown bowl. However, I can really appreciate how the skill that goes into it. It’s less exciting, but it's a beautiful thing. And I can't even throw the perfect bowl––I don't tend to sit and do 10, 12 of somethings. I don't have the attention span. I prefer to visualize the bigger picture.
JS: What’s your bigger picture?
MA: It's more of the lifestyle, the general aesthetic. I guess it starts with my own aesthetic which tends to be more, you know, natural, and organic I guess?
JS: Full of beautiful details like your linen apron and the brass rivets?
MA: But not intentional. It just works because you know, like your store, you follow what feels right to you. You're not thinking about every available decision as it relates to every other decision. You just make your decisions, they pile up and ultimately it's you on a plate.
JS: Literally, you on a plate. [laughs]
MA: Literally, yeah. [laughs] And then so I started doing that when I was at Food Network and I was working on food styling and we had some people in from California ––a photographer and stylist–– and of course they collect pottery and they asked to see my work and they bought everything. I was like, Oh! I have to start making more.
JS: No way!
MA: So that's just how that started. And I love to sell pottery because I just know that it's somewhere being used and loved. I used to sell a lot of it online and then people started collecting and then there was shipping international –– shipping sucks. Shipping pottery specifically. I just shipped the three things this week and fingers crossed. You're just afraid it's going to break so I pack the life out of it. I've shipped all over the world and it's tricky, but so flattering especially with so many good potters in the world. You know, there are so many good people out there. I shipped to Australia once with no way of tracking it. I was having a heart attack. I kept asking, why my work? There are so many amazing Australian potters - what a compliment!
JS: I mean, they must have heard what you were saying?
MA: I guess it spoke to them. I mean it's kind of the ultimate compliment. You know that someone likes what you're making. Yeah. It really makes me happy. It's the one thing in my career that I've designed that I didn't have to design into. The crucial part of the process in clay is letting go of certain amount of control, which was, for me is one of the most wonderful parts of it, just accepting that things happen along the way and most of the time when it comes out different than what I expected, those are the best details.
JS: Happy accidents.
Bowl stacks photo by Matité Acosta
MA: Yes, I think the most exciting part of it is not trying to overly control every step of it because again, ultimately it will be me. It doesn't matter as long as it's me making it, you know, even if that was thrown, to me that lives in the same house or life. Just like your store, everything lives together in harmony because you've decided and so it works. People either get it or they don't.
JS: It's fun to show people that you don't have to have new or it doesn't have to be perfect. Like you're saying, the perfectly thrown bowl. It can be this really interesting shape that has movement and imperfections, or it's old or used or rusted.
MA: Or cracked or chipped even! Even a chipped bowl is okay. I mean it's all right. It still works. If it’s a good break, you know, do a little kintsugi. It’s become so trendy. It's beautiful, but it's become trendy. It's funny to see like some manufactured things that they call kintsugi and they just…
JS: Oh, that’s sad.
MA: Anyone who knows what it is, knows the difference between legit and inauthentic kintsugi. Some of mine aren’t true true kintsugi. Sometimes the gold is just decorative too.
JS: One of my favorite things about terracotta pots is that they get moldy, and they start to grow funky moss––really wild black and white splotches. And, last summer when I was opening FOUND one of my few products were authentic patina terracotta pots that I just adore––they’re fragile and from Italy originally. I went shopping at Target randomly, and there were fake molded terracotta pots for sale!
MA: Cheaters!
JS: I was so sad I was almost mad. I wanted to tell them they couldn’t do it.
MA: [laughs]
JS: So, how were you patient enough to find your art in all these different creative careers?
MA: My dad was a doctor, and he was a meticulous guy who made wine when I was a kid and we always had bonsai gardens, and he was also a very accomplished painter. So, I think that kind of creative exposure early on definitely had an influence. That's what you do––you learn from anything and everything. I think you learn how to do something, do it right, and then you could apply it to anything. I think that in pottery, it's all very much subjective, but if you do a technical bowl and you slice it right down the middle and you can see that it was a very well-made bowl, that’s great. It's a good skill to have, but, outside of that, the rest is the details.
JS: Is it important for you to communicate the different types of glazes or for them to know the names or who?
MA: No, not necessarily because it’s likely something I’ve mixed. The only specific that I feel people should know is that the glaze itself is food safe and that when something is a matte finish, um, it can stain. Matte-finished stuff can absorb because it's porous to some degree, but doesn't make it unsafe for food. I don’t love shiny glazes. Sometimes.
JS: These you called test tiles? [Jacqueline points to a set of test tiles on the shelf]
MA: Yes, But, well, anything can be a test tile. Actually, I do a lot of my testing on the little bowls so I don't typically use a lot of those. And truth be told, I'm really lazy about testing glazes.
JS: Or maybe you're just mysterious chemist?
Photos from Marité’s pottery inside FOUND Natural Goods downtown Bend, Oregon.
MA: No, I'm a very bad chemist. [laughs] I won't go through a lot of testing. So if I do test, sometimes I'll test on a little bowl and I'm like, okay, that's good. I don't get so retentive about pottery. If it turns out that it's not nice, I just move on.
JS: That's kind of lovely though.
MS: It’s because I needed to be so kind of meticulous in so many other things. Like even at Food Network when I was doing recipe testing, we would test a recipe four times over and over with detailed notes before you publish. You had to be so meticulous and very, very clear and I loved it. It was great. It was a great place, great environment to be in. But, but with pottery, I don't need to do that, which is why I don't do production. That's a whole another type of business.
JS: Do you do custom, I know you've talked about having a custom order.
MA: Yeah, I will, but I always have a very specific stipulate. Like plates. Plates are the hardest thing to make. It’s why you'll probably see more bowls in handmade pottery than plates - plates warp. So to do a flat plate, flat bottom, by hand [meaning via slab technique rather than on a wheel] is difficult. And even on a wheel, those are very hard. But plates can wobble. And so again, when I do a bunch of plates, I embrace the fact that they're not going to be a perfectly flat plate. But if I pick it up and then lay down and let it continue to dry, it'll dry curved like this now because the clay has memory.
JS: What about the clay? I know you work with a couple of different types of stoneware. Do you have any interest in working with other materials like porcelain?
MA: I like stoneware and what I like to do with stoneware, that I think may be a little different, is I tend to try and push stoneware to it’s thinnest. I've lost a ton of work because of this. You have to employ a lot of patience with clay and know it can go wrong. If something breaks it’s devastating and then after a few minutes you're like, well you better get used to that because it’s going to happen.
Marité Acosta’s pottery is available on her website and inside FOUND Natural Goods downtown Bend, Oregon. Follow Marité on Instagram, @mariteacostapottery and @ingredientstudio to witness her obvious past career in food styling —and— the next time you’re driving through Tumalo, stop by and say hi to Marité. Meet her, see her work, The Studio and maybe even book a private cooking class with her and her partner, Candy through their cooking business Ingredient Studio. Thank you for reading another FOUND Make(Her) Q&A Conversation — we truly appreciate your interest and support.
Signage for The Studio is, of course, printed on a beautiful fabric and still allows lights to fill the space.
Marité making the final details on a bowl inside her new workspace in Tumalo, Oregon called The Studio: Pottery + Arts Collective.
The Studio: Pottery + Arts Collective
19875 8th St.
Tumalo, OR
Read the rest of our Make(Her) Blog Series
Paige in the golden hour, photos by Charlotte Dupont.
The Make(Her) No. 4: Paige Bruguier, Accessory Designer
WE ARE SUPPORTED WITH GOODS MADE BY OVER FIFTY HUMANS. TO BETTER UNDERSTAND WHO THEY ARE, WE’RE SPOTLIGHTING ONE ARTIST MONTHLY-ISH. AS 98% OF OUR MAKERS ARE WOMEN, WE’RE SHINING A LIGHT ON WHAT’S MADE HER, THE MAKER.
Found’s Make(Her) Series No.4 spotlight lands on Paige Bruguier (PB) —Accessory Designer and Owner of JPAIGE— interviewed by Found Natural Goods Founder, Jacqueline Smith (JS) over the course of one almond milk latte, one peppermint tea, two three-year-old dogs that adore each other, and many shop days of drops offs, collaborations, pickups, payments, text messages, and years of crossing paths.
The two first met at Thump Coffee in 2013 where Jacqueline sat and did freelance marketing work almost daily and Paige worked as a Barista. Paige grew up in the small, artsy town of Sisters, Oregon and has a very genuine, strong presence about her. After leaving Bend multiple times for stints in France, Poland, and Seattle she seemed to continually come back to Bend, and to her company, JPAIGE, with her vision refueled. Her work can be found at many shops including with us at Found Natural Goods, even our online shop is carrying her coveted Square Leather Backpack.
PB: I was just here yesterday for another meetup!
JS: Oh, you should have said so we could have gone anywhere—but I do love it here. [The Commons]
PB: Is that Stella outside? [Paige immediately runs outside to play and love on Jacq’s dog, Stella]
JS: Do you call yourself a Leather-smith?
PB: I think I would call myself an Accessory Designer.
JS: A Leather Accessory Designer?
PB: I mean, I like to work with a lot of different materials—I’ve found that I love working with brass, and leather the most. Especially when I was making jewelry for a while. I’m all over the place when it comes to making products.
JS: What do you have at Abode right now? Is it a wind chime?
PB: I started out making them [Abode] wall hangings, but this last project —once I started designing it, it started to become wind chimes— but it’s still a wall hanging. I’ve seen a lot of really cool wall hangings that are so inspiring and that one is really a smaller version of this gaudy, giant one I want to make.
JS: It almost looks like a mobile too…
PB: Yeah! I love projects like that—when home goods stores contact me and I get a new project—I get to step out of the bag realm and do home decor stuff. It keeps me motivated.
JS: Is that because you have creative freedom?
PB: Yeah, I always love that. It fuels me. I get that freedom and also it’s such a challenge. That wall hanging in particular was actually a really big challenge. I had to think about it for over a week before I started because I didn’t know what I was going to make.
JS: Did you sketch it out?
PB: No, I won’t sit down and draw out my ideas but sometimes I wish I was like that because it would be really helpful. [laughs]
JS: So you just scrapped that whole process?
PB: I’ve done it before but the end product was never like the plan on paper. I’ll get an idea, like a shape and make a prototype then I’ll perfect it with the actual material.
JS: Is that the same process for JPAIGE bags?
PB: Yes!
JS: So if we ever see you around town just pensively staring out of a coffee shop window—we’ll know you’re actually mentally sketching.
PB: Exactly. Yeah, maybe I should try sketching.
JS: I think it’s great that you have your own process!
PB: Honestly, my dad works in the same way. He’s so organic in the way he works as a Sculptor. So say he’s doing a buffalo and he’ll just start molding it and start over until it feels right.
JS: Because you work with so many different materials, do they ever become something on their own or inspire a certain shape or use?
PB: Yeah and leather is always different—no hides are exactly the same. Leather is a natural material and often times people forget the fact that an animals life is what makes up for all of the imperfections. If you look at high-end designers—their work, often times, doesn’t even look like leather. [Paige grabs one of her bags on the coffee table] If you look at this leather, you can see scarring, stretch marks, even brands sometimes—and I want my customers to see and acknowledge that—that character and sacrifice. Often times when I’m designing, I like to treat a piece of leather like a canvas and just start creating and tweaking things as I go. When I do that it seems like it puts the pressure on to hyper-focus and actually helps me create new designs that I wouldn’t if I were using a material I was okay with wasting (pattern paper).
JS: What do you listen to while you work?
PB: I love Armchair Expert, Ted Radio Hour, Radio Lab, Criminal, Invisibilia, Conan, Rewilding, and this Spotify playlist Swashbuckle has been really good lately.
JS: Wall hangings, aprons, jewelry, bags, clutches, wallets…
PB: Yes, and my dream when I was in school was to make shoes. I got sucked into bags after a handbag course and never got a chance to design shoes. It kind of unfolded with bags because I got a job in Portland after that in bag manufacturing… shoe making has always been a dream, but in the past it didn’t seem accessible.
JS: What is it about shoes?
PB: It’s so funny, I make all these different types of bags but rarely do I use one. But every day, you need shoes. Shoemaking to me, it’s an art form that is being lost and it seems important to keep it alive—handmade shoes versus machine-made shoes. The bag industry seems much more saturated.
JS: [Looks at the time] Should we start walking?
PB: Yeah let’s go get your girl (Stella).
JS: Could you see yourself having a shop one day?
PB: Maybe, one that is more of a studio rather than a store. Like a place where straps, bags and hopefully shoes could be custom-fitted.
JS: What’s your dream for JPAIGE?
PB: I’d love to put my bags on everybody and be recognizable in my style. To walk down the street and have people notice a JPAIGE bag from another. And also to have someone working with me so I can design more. That would be amazing.
JS: What about those vegan leather bags you were making?
PB: I’m looking for a better quality pineapple leather supplier. Right now it just doesn’t compare to the animal leather I’m currently working with. Oh man, that is really cute. [grabs second-life basket backpack hanging in Found]
JS: Oh, yeah that I was actually thinking you could make leather straps for so it’ll last longer. But, we’re getting distracted! OK, I wanted to ask you about how you decide where to source your leather.
PB: I only work with USA leather suppliers and some Italian leathers but that’s an important and safe zone to stay in ethically when sourcing leather. My favorite leather is a wax-based leather. Like this kind of leather [grabs one of her bags inside Found] is awesome. It’s so thick but still supple, and the waxy-ness keeps it strong.
JS: What did you want to come in for again?
PB: Oh, right. I need a couple of brass coins for orders I’m shipping out today.
JS: Got it. [Found hand-stamps all the brass JPAIGE coins that hang on her bags to brand Paige’s work and to offer a 2” pop of bling]. Ok, I think you should also mention your family since they’re all creative like you.
PB: Yeah, I have 4 siblings that are all Makers of sorts. I have a couple of jewelry making sisters, my dad sculpts, sews, and paints, and my brother loves playing music—there’s no competition between us but you feel the drive to meet reach their heights... you know? We’re always pushing each other. For example Justine, her jewelry always inspires me to do better in my art. And my dad, he sculpts and paints beautiful Native American inspired art which gives me the drive to be a self employed artist.
JS: What does your mom do?
PB: She’s an Interior Designer. We’re all creative in some way. I guess because I’ve been around it for so long it just feels normal, honestly. My parents struggled with five children and their own business, and we grew up seeing that you have to work hard to make your own money. That lifestyle was so attractive to me—to make my own money at something I love doing. They taught me that although it isn’t easy to do what you love, it’s still possible.
Paige’s handmade leather bags and so many other lifestyle products, like delicious leather placemats and functional aprons, are available on her website and inside Found Natural Goods downtown Bend, Oregon. If you’d like to be a JPAIGE Stockist, be in touch with Paige directly. Follow Paige on Instagram to see her daily makings that sometimes get listed on her stories with a sale price. Thank you for reading another Make(Her) Q&A — we appreciate your interest and support.
Read the rest of our Make(Her) Blog Series
How To Meditate, by Ethel Studio - Handmade Meditation Cushions
by Ethel Studio
From the makers of our Meditation Cushions; a meditation/sitting how-to.
Just like there’s no one “right” way to meditate, there’s certainly no one “right” way to sit or lay or be or anything during meditation. Making space for meditation in your day is more important than if you can fold your legs like a pretzel into half lotus or if you can even get yourself on to or up from the floor today!
There is a posture for everyone…
Illustrations created for us by the talented Katie Kelly.
For all seated postures, sit on the edge of your cushion. Make sure your hips are elevated above the knees and allow the pelvis to tilt forward to allow for a natural curve of the spine. Tilt your chin slightly downward, allowing the spine to stay long and preventing your neck from getting too tired. Click on the illustrations on Ethel Studio’s website for more info on each posture.
SHOP NOW!
Photos by Gallivan Creative; Tanya Hughes of Amulette Studios
The Make(Her) No. 3: Tanya Hughes, Alchemist & Plant Devotee
WE ARE SUPPORTED WITH GOODS MADE BY OVER FIFTY HUMANS. TO BETTER UNDERSTAND WHO THEY ARE, WE’RE SPOTLIGHTING ONE ARTIST MONTHLY. AS 98% OF OUR MAKERS ARE WOMEN, WE’RE SHINING A LIGHT ON WHAT’S MADE HER, THE MAKER.
Found’s Make(Her) Series No.3 spotlight lands on Tanya Hughes (TH) —Alchemist and Plant Devotee— interviewed by Found Natural Goods Founder, Jacqueline Smith (JS) to simply get to know what has lead Tanya to building her passion and business, Amulette Studios. A theme of seizing opportunities, staying true to her desire and intrinsic nature to create, and a call to be of service seems to be the reoccurring fire beneath all that she’s done and continues to do.
The two met up in mid-March 2019 and had some healthy Mother’s Café takeout at Tanya’s studio beginning this interview halfway into their lunch. Tanya and Jacq have had the good fortune to be at several pop-up markets together over the past three years, have collaborated on client work together and now in the realm of Found with Amulette Studios’ nearly full line being offered at the shop while Tanya so generously offers chance Self-Care Sunday pop-ups where she mixes custom sprays and oils for lucky Found patrons intrigued in her plant magic.
JS: I’m going to record now to begin catching your words. So, I have your official title as Plant Formulator and Alchemist...
TH: Hmmm, Formulator?
JS: [laughs] I knew I’d get pushback from you!
TH: [laughs] Well, I like it. But I’m not sure what it means, you, know? I’m not formulating the plants—they’re already formed. Plant Devotee, maybe? I think it’s something about how the plants are already doing their thing. How about Plant Interpreter? ‘Cause I’m just picking up the vibe and putting them together which is the alchemy part, right?
JS: The assist.
TH: Yeah. Absolutely.
JS: What is your earliest memory of plants or your art form coming into your world?
TH: I definitely sought refuge as a child in nature. I had a really challenging childhood and so, nature was the place that I would run to —literally— and it was the place that I felt safe. Where I felt connected to something bigger than myself. Even as a child, I would have never languaged it that way, but looking back that’s what it was. I constantly had my feet in the earth, my hands in the earth, climbing trees —wild in a lot of ways— I’m surprised that I got away with what I got away with, you know? Hours at a time of being gone and just lost in the woods. And so I think that was really what my foundation as a young person and I never left it. I always knew moving into adulthood it was very important for who I was to maintain a very deep and very real connection with my environment, my surroundings. At that time it wasn’t a conscious decision to work with plants, it was more a feeling. I think nature is, it is just so wild and there is so much we don’t know about. I feel like one of the things I receive from nature, especially as a child, is an increase in my imagination. I think a lot of my artistic lean really came from that wild-ness, from these things that felt sort-of unexplainable, mystical or unknowable and yet completely tangible, it all just helped to breed more imagination within me, more curiosity. I don’t really know how to language it other than that because we’re talking about such a felt sense and certainly non-linear experience. But, I knew, very early on, that I wanted to create a life that was ultimately about being a creative person. In my world as a young person, everyone around me was very much in readily identifiable professions and everyone was miserable. There were no adults in my life that I remember as being super psyched about their work and what they were doing. They were making decent money and they would go fulfill their obligations, but as soon as they got home they would just be like, “Thank God I’m not doing that.” And I thought, “No way. Why would I choose to do that?” So that was part of my impetus to choosing more of a creative path in life in terms of my focus and also as a profession.
JS: What is our setting here?
TH: I grew up in the suburbs of Seattle called Lake Forest Park and this was early to mid-’70s. So there’s a lot of these properties where you’d have one, two, and three acres that were outside the city limits that you’d have all this space because it wasn’t developed yet. It’s not like that anymore, but back then it was really wild and overgrown with Douglas Fir, Cedar Trees, Salal, mosses, ferns, classic PNW native plants.
JS: Did you have siblings?
TH: One sister. Two years older.
JS: Was it a big family or a pack of wild neighborhood kids?
TH: No, unfortunately, it wasn’t! Again it was more like suburban rural, so I wouldn’t say we were out in the country, but we had this undeveloped green space. Nobody owned it, but it was like we had an extra four acres.
JS: …to play on.
TH: [laughs] Right, yes. But we weren’t supposed to be playing on. But we did it anyway, right? It was really just me and my sister and she was very much a classic artist —where I was more physical and was all about movement and being in my body in nature— she would sit and draw for hours and hours. So we didn’t play together a lot, I would spend time alone, just out in the woods.
JS: Did you ever make potions when you were little?
TH: My potions consisted of mud puddles with little twigs, ferns, and huckleberries and anything I would find. I literally would create a hole in the ground and add a little water and stir it around, and some fir needles and some moss and I didn’t even know what I was doing it for.
JS: Was it for your dad as a gift or to eat?
TH: No I was more just fascinated by the alchemy of it. And again I wouldn’t use that word as a kid but I was fascinated by mixing things. That’s so funny I’ve never thought about that. I’m so glad you asked that question. But I just remember the idea of consistency and texture, viscosity, and color. It was more of a tactile, sculptural thing. I would rub it all over my hands. That’s so funny! [laughs] I’ve never thought about that.
JS: You were a little bit more of a tomboy?
TH: Definitely. Always. I think it was really my dad. My dad was our primary care provider, and even though he had a city white-collar/blue-collar job at the same time, he loved nature. His time after work was definitely about being outside.
JS: With you?
TH: No, it was more him doing his own thing—but I modeled it. Like he would chop wood and so I’d want to chop wood. Very dude-like things.
JS: [laughs] Oh, girl. I get it.
TH: [laughs] Yeah! And we’d spend a lot of time up in the San Juan Islands too because he loved sailing. We had this great, classic west side of the cascades experience nature-wise. We’d sail to all these different islands, and as a kid again we could just run free because it was an island and nothing was going to happen to you, you weren’t going to get lost or hit by car. We would moor offshore and me and my sister would just run free and we wouldn’t see anyone other than a deer or two until dinner time. We had a good balance of salt and earth as a kid.
JS: When did you learn there was a job as a Herbalist or that you could work with plants?
TH: You know that was a way out because I went into photography and filmmaking in my twenties. I think that observer-mind from spending time alone in nature got channeled into photography —I was pretty painfully shy, so observation was already a habit— so why not put a lens in front of my eyeball and do the same thing? I spent my twenties doing that. And then as the jobs got bigger, the money got bigger and the egos got bigger - I really got burnt out by it. So I choose to leave the profession, and the industry, and then I got into massage therapy.
Tanya mixing up a custom “everything spray” at Found during a Self-Care Sunday Pop-Up in September 2018.
JS: That is such a leap!
TH: I know. It was such a wildcard experience. A friend of mine was considering naturopathic school/massage school, and he wanted to go take a weekend “how to give a massage workshop.” He really wanted me to go with and support him. All I was thinking about was how I’d have to touch people I didn’t know. I’d never had a massage in my life, I was in my late twenties, very punk rock and again in film and music industry —still in Seattle— I end up going reluctantly and I loved it. The school was so intelligent, they talked all about the anatomy and physiology in a very available way to a pedestrian like me and everyone else in the room. Even the psychology of touch. It wasn’t at all the scheezy thing I thought it was going to be. It was really legit. And it made so much sense to me. When we actually started doing the practice —me being such a tactile person— I was like, oh I know this, it was like I’d done it before. It just unlocked a piece of my brain where it made sense. It felt like sculpture to me—like a tactile art.
JS: Oh, so maybe it wasn’t such a big jump to go from one form of art to another?
TH: Exactly. It wasn’t separate to me. It felt like a more physical form of art. Massage is a similar thing. To me, it never really felt like…
JS: Like you’d lost your mind? [laughs]
TH: [laughs] Hahaha, yeah exactly! Yeah, it wasn’t separate to me. Because, outside of the commercial work, a lot of the work that I did in film was documentary work which is about people. So it was constantly about trying to figure out what the important story was and how to give voice to it. And, massage is a similar thing. So what’s the story that’s going on with your body and how can we get to it, and try and address it so you can feel better. So similar conceptually but just a different approach. It was perfect timing really because I wanted to get out of the film industry. My friend ended up not doing the program. He was just the deliverer of a different chapter of my life. Not long after starting my massage career is when I started studying formally with a local herbalist who offered local wildcrafting and local medicine making apprenticeships before I moved down to Miami.
JS: So there’s not necessarily a moment when you knew what you wanted to do?
TH: No there’s never been a definitive ah-ha moment, it has always been just more about what intrigues me and makes sense.
JS: What was the job in Miami?
TH: I got this crazy job offer to help open up the spa program at The Standard in Miami. That’s what officially moved the film world away. The project was so demanding that I didn’t have any time left for film. Another friend of mine offered me the connection since I had this dual skill set of producing, managing budgets, and people plus massage. And it was so crazy. It was the furthest you could get from Seattle in the continental United States. And I loved it. I loved all the cultures that were there. It’s not just South America, or Central America, or Cuba, there’s a huge European population there, a huge Russian population there as well. It’s known as the fifth borough of New York. And then the tropical weather, and the sun, and the amazing ocean. It was the hardest gigs I’ve ever had though. Sixty hours a week, five days a week for four years—I think it literally took ten years off my life. Total trial by fire. I don’t think I’ll ever do something like that again unless it’s my own project.
JS: You didn’t stay in Miami.
TH: No, it wasn’t a sustainable lifestyle. It takes a lot of money to live there well. And it was just time. I had a good six-year stint. Then I had to figure out who I was again. I didn’t plan on spending that amount of time there, it just happened. I just kept saying yes. Because it was interesting! That’s who I am! If I haven’t tried something, most of the time I’ll say yeah ok I’ll try that. Why not? It’s a life experience. But I think the shadow side of that —I’m more discerning now— is that it can derail you from your specific focus.
JS: But it takes bravery to say yes.
TH: I think so. But at that point I was so invested, there was no plan B but I knew it was over. I ended up deciding on Salt Lake City, Utah to study with a couple of spiritual teachers that I had worked with throughout the years. When I was trying to decide what was next for me, I just felt like I needed to be a student again and to fill my cup. And so these two teachers I’d met years ago both happened to live in Salt Lake. All I knew is that I needed to receive. They both said the same thing, come, but let go of any expectations. I set up my life, a really quiet life where I’d hike in the hills almost every day. Take trips down to Zion and Moab, a pretty monastic life—total opposite experience from Miami. Almost a detox from the noise of it all. And then I studied with both of these teachers for about six months and it became clear that you can’t really do very deep spiritual work if you’re trying to work two spiritual paths at the same time. You have to choose one.
JS: Who were your teachers?
TH: One was a Zen teacher, Diane Musho Hamilton, and the other was a Hermetic Alchemy teacher, Sylvia Bennett. It became clear that I needed to choose one, and have that be my primary teacher. Just getting re-centered. So for me, it was about doing healing work.
JS: In the west.
TH: But, after a few years I returned back to Seattle to help with some family challenges. Set up my private bodywork & breathwork practice. And when everything settled with my family, it was time once again for me to figure out where next. And I was doing design and consulting work at the time, so I could kind-of be anywhere as long as I had an internet connection. So I sold all my stuff, got the Element so I could camp out of it, and then spent a year driving around the United States—stopping to see people along the way. I was just about to settle into New Mexico and found out that my Dad was sick. So back to Washington I came. That time period was so weird because I just kept getting called back to the Pacific Northwest, even though I kept trying to get further away from it because I love the sun so much. I settled in Bellingham, set up my practice again. My Dad passed and moved to Bend shortly after and attempted to launch a private practice. I thought it would be much easier that it proved to be. I’ve lived in so many places and have pretty easily set up shop, but in Bend it wasn’t working. I kept thinking, oh my God, I think I have to reinvent myself. That’s where Amulette really came out of, that place where I had to ask myself Who am I now? What’s the next version of myself? What do I have to offer?
JS: How did you know to ask that question?
TH: I’ve done enough work to know when something feels like you’re trying to swim upstream, it’s just not working, your forcing it. It’s time to reassess.
JS: So why not go bag groceries or get a job at a spa?
TH: Oh, I see what you’re saying. I think because I’ve worked for myself for so long, it’s just not in my lingo to even do that. And it’s not because I’m above it, it’s just that I don’t know any different. I’m a creator, and it’s part of my wisdom and life experience and what I’m figuring out while I’m in this body and on this planet—what can I create? What is possible?
JS: You’d said that when you were a little girl in the woods that you decided you were going to have a creative life.
TH: Yeah so Amulette came from that question of what do I create next. Also wanting to be of service still. Wanting to not just scrap everything I’d learned. You know, what’s the next thread in me? I use that phrase at nauseaum. Where is it leading me next? And that just felt like the next step. Even with the spa consulting work, I’d created custom back bars before, I’d made body care products, I’d done topical work, I’ve made my own remedies both for in and out––so I wondered if it could work? As you know, it started at your first marketplace (INTO the WOODS Holiday Market).
JS: With a deadline. [laughs]
TH: Yeah that was the heat that I needed. Then I didn’t even know what I would do with it. I didn’t know that I’d make it a full-on business business. I said let’s just see if people like this and do this one market and see what happens. And then I saw that people liked it, and started treating it more like a true business.
JS: What’s behind the name?
TH: Amulette. Of course, the spelling is my own creation— I call it the feminine version of A-M-U-L-E-T —that’s the traditional spelling of an amulet, something that you wear. It means protection to the wearer. So I feel like, with all the topicals, that’s the intention behind it. It’s something that’s offering you protection, shelter, it’s offering you healing.
JS: That’s beautiful.
TH: Thank you. And I liked that word studios because I am a creative person and you never know where this is going to go.
JS: Just in case you wanted to pivot and start making films… [laughs]
TH: [laughs] Exactly!
JS: Awe that’s cool.
TH: Don’t box myself in, you never know what’s going to happen next.
JS: What would your advice be for your younger self?
TH: Don’t worry so much, it’s all going to turn out fine. Enjoy the ride. It seems so cliché, but all you have to do is keep trusting and moving forward.
JS: So now you’re in the pretty isolated, small, desert town.
TH: Yeah.
JS: What challenges does it bring a small business getting off the ground?
TH: I feel like for me it was easier to get a small business off the ground here and I think for me it’s because I didn’t have as much distraction here––personally because there are maybe fewer things I’m interested in doing per say other than being outside that I could just focus on creating the things. And I feel like the nature of a small community is that I’ve met some amazing people that have been wildly supportive in terms of their dollars, feedback, and emotional support. Even more than when I was creating in Seattle, and we had a pretty awesome set of collaborators. But it still would be so hard to get stuff done because you would be spread so thin. The nature of this place for me was a great crucible. It’s the nature of your business though, right? My overhead was a lot smaller than other businesses may have in front of them.
JS: What’s in the future for Amulette?
TH: I really want to cultivate my one-to-one experience. So that’s something I’ve really been promoting––the custom work, and really trying to reach out to people to let them know they can ask me questions and that I’d like to help people partner what product would be best for them and why. That’s the healer-bodywork archetype in me that wants to connect in that way. I’m also really into infusing oils and potentially getting away from so much lean on essential oils. Because it takes so much plant material to create an essential oil. A cornerstone of my being is to do less harm, is to kind of live very lightly on the planet while I’m here. So I can’t not look at that. The essential oil companies as an industry, they’re really taking a lot more than they’re offering. Even though I’m a very small, small, small, small part of that—I still am conscious that I’m apart of that.
JS: Visually it sounds gorgeous.
TH: You won’t see plants actually in the oils. I won’t do it that way since most people have their oils for more than four to six weeks, and they begin to break down after that. Even though it looks great at first, with mine you’ll see the color implication of whatever the plant was. So if it was comfrey, it’ll super green or calendula, it will be orange. That sort of thing.
JS: That’s smart. Ok, last call for why we’re here today.
TH: [thoughtful pause] I guess my big plug in why I’m interested in offering Amulette is because I’m interested in offering people the chance to slow down and remember why we’re here and what it is that they want to create. And that’s a big ask but why not? There’s so many of us that are just operating day to day as a reaction and on autopilot. But I honestly believe that we are here to do more, and to experience more than the vocation, than the house you want to build or the house you want to buy, than the trip you want to take. This is such a crazy experience. Wake up to it. Wake up to yourself. Wake up to whatever it is that really makes your heart beat. And I believe that plants and aromatics have the capacity to help open those inner doors. They can help us connect and they really can help rewire consciousness with intent. You can smell something and think about the thing you want to create or let go of and it will help create a new structure within your brain. I guess with Amulette, that’s the not-so-secret underlying piece that I would like for people to feel like it’s a resource —that if they feel attracted— they can use to become more awake to their own being, to their own magic, to what it is they’re doing here––and why they’re here.
Amulette Studios organic body care products (with the exception of select oils only offered directly) are available inside Found Natural Goods’ new brick-and-mortar downtown Bend, Oregon on Brooks Street. For all those in Central Oregon who order from her site directly, you can save on shipping and materials with a local pick-up option at Found, or do even more by ordering refills to save on glass bottles, lids and labels—get all the details at AmuletteStudios.com.
Read the rest of our Make(Her) Blog Series
Photo by Joshua Langlais; Morgan Miller in the cacterium
The Make(Her) No. 2: Morgan Miller, Painter & Midwife
We are supported with goods made by over fifty humans. To better understand who these people are, we’re spotlighting one artist monthly. As 98% of our makers are women, we’re shining a light on what’s made her, the maker.
Found’s second Make(Her) Series spotlight lands on Morgan Miller (MM) —Painter & Midwife— to better understand what drives Morgan to paint, what we can expect from her paintbrush strokes to come, why she chooses to paint naked women and nudes in the colors that she does and other insights from this smart, complex, talented human.
Interviewed by Found Natural Goods Founder, Jacqueline Smith (JS) —who funny enough, looks like Morgan’s long lost sister— these two arrive on time for their third attempt at this interview, to sip on a decaf cappuccino and loose leaf herbal tea inside the cozy, snow-covered coffeehouse, Crow’s Feet Commons, discussing the wonderful world of Morgan Miller's electric women.
If you haven’t had a chance to see Ladies of the Night hanging at Found, come down anytime or watch Morgan Miller’s Artist Profile, it’s a solid insight coming in at under three minutes. Or, get a small token of hers — we’re offering Morgan Miller postcards at $4 each, and the last two original Ladies of the Night paintings on wood that have graced our space since we opened under a year ago; see them here.
JS: Hello! You look like me.
MM: Do people tell you that too?
JS: Often, yes.
MM: Ok, what are we doing today, remind me.
JS: Well, let’s ask the obvious. Why women?
MM: I’ve always had a fascination with bodies and peoples ownership over their own bodies. And in portraiture, I try to play with that idea of how people in our western world consume bodies.
JS: What do you mean by consuming?
MM: Visually. Or, you know, through media, through advertising in the world how we present each other to each other. What it’s all supposed to mean.
JS: What do your paintings mean to you?
MM: Um, it’s so hard to answer.
JS: Is it because they each mean something different?
MM: No, I think it’s because it’s all so broad to me — it’s hard to pinpoint it all into a one sentence answer. I guess for me there’s not so much of an answer as a question. The paintings to me are a continuation of asking these questions — around what are the boundaries of these definitions we give one another with identity, and sexuality, and how we engage with each other.
JS: In your video profile, I thought it was so interesting how in one show you were able to hang the portraits higher than normal and the response was entirely different from the viewers. Less “funny” and out of reach. It’s as if they were revered…
MM: Differently. They were consumed differently. They can’t do it anymore.
JS: They can’t do what?
MM: People will mock hold an image.
JS: So they can’t interact with them in a humorous way?
MM: Yeah. Which I think is a crutch when people interact that way. Because it’s not actually funny, and they feel uncomfortable. And instead of sitting in whatever reason they feel uncomfortable…
JS: So perhaps there’s a discomfort the paintings evoke?
MM: Yes.
JS: How are the juggles of your career as a midwife and your painting subject of nude women going?
MM: Better these days. I think when I first started in midwifery, having only painted bodies, I felt I had to keep my personal identity as a painter neutral and away from my clients. I think I had these fears of my clients feeling like they were going to be seen or viewed in a different way because I see and view people in this other perspective. But I think that’s my raw fear that I have with that — which is maybe silly. The more I’ve stood in being a midwife, I feel stronger through that process and I don’t think any of my clients see that. I have a painting in my office and people ask about it. I think if anything they connect with me on a more human level — just knowing that I’m an interested person that does other things than just work. I’ve decided to sit in both spaces.
JS: You can be both.
MM: Yes, they’re not divided to me, they’re all kind of the same thing. The bodily autonomy and identity. It’s one of those things where you think you’re making a complete 180 with your career choices. But realistically, midwifery and art have always been the same thing. So, me pursuing the art world in a museum study curatorial realm for eight years before becoming a midwife —it was all the same thing— my interests were always in femininity and feminism and sexuality and reproductive rights. Same thing. Just different ways of using your hands.
JS: How long have you been a midwife now?
MM: Four years. But, it’s been sweet cause I feel like if anything since stepping away from the art world formally, since working in it, I’d been much more creative in painting since working as a midwife.
JS: Are you currently painting? A similar collection?
MM: Yes, but to me, they feel really different! But yes they are still bodies and nudes.
JS: Do you always paint with a model?
MM: A combination. I always paint a subject that’s an amateur model. So a photograph is often very helpful. Especially if it’s nude and people are maybe more self-conscious. I’ve kind of created this fun process with people, I’ve done portraits with people in different states or in New Zealand. I give them a prescribed direction on how to photograph themselves or have someone else photograph them. I’m asking them to do something weird and then they get to do the first filter. They send me what they’re most comfortable with, and I get to do the filter from there.
JS: And those are commissions? Or are they models?
MM: Both. But, it makes it more interesting for me to be restricted. To have parameters and think of what kind of energy that person put into that photo. I think that’s the weird strange thing that I really like about doing the focused in portraits — that you only see a portion of their body, and with that limited amount of information invoke sensations around their own body and/or engage the viewer to question their own feelings for it too. What does it do when we view each other in this really limited way. And I like the model being in control of what image that is too —they’re more involved that way.
JS: Are the Ladies in Shirts similar to this new cropped in a collection?
MM: I guess I’m not doing just nudes anymore. I think it’s just so fun, you know there’s our historical context of the partial nude is almost more nude than the fully naked person because it makes you think of the undressing. Naked instead of nude. If David had a sock on, he’s suddenly naked instead of nude.
JS: How do you choose your color palette?
MM: I would say that’s definitely where I’m much more influenced about what’s around me. Like the series that’s in Found right now, was painted in Bend during the summer and the colors are a lot of those sunsets and what was happening in life at that time. Where the previous series, I was living in the Palm Springs area, and are wildly different — just the sky and the landscape, hot desert, hot colors. So it’s less about the image and what’s happening in it and more about the space that the painting was being made.
JS: And, so now the series you’re working on is during the winter in Central Oregon?
MM: [laughs] Yeah, it’s a little harder for me.
JS: There’s a lot of white going on? [laughs] What about traveling and painting?
Morgan Miller in front of one Ladies of the Night
MM: For sure I bring the inspiration back. The only time I travel-paint is when I go home to Texas. I come from a family of painters, and they have everything there. So, my aunt is a painter who also does nudes, and portraits and primarily female nudes. So there are some pretty fun summer evenings with wine in which we’re both doing portraits of each other while doing portraits of each other. I’m pretty thankful for my bohemian upbringing where that’s a comfortable space to sit in because that’s really fun.
JS: I don’t know how to word this per say but do you think it’s luck that your subject, colors, and materials are so relevant today?
MM: I totally hear what you’re asking. It’s what I’ve been doing always. It’s on-trend right now, so I guess those things are aligning right now. But, I’m not new. There’s a lot of people painting this stuff. There’s a lot of overt feminist imagery if you want to call it that, that’s on-trend. It happened in the early 2000s, it happened in the 1990s, happened in 1980s, 1970s, and the 1960s — it’s definitely not a new image but it changes its relevance to what’s going on in the world at that time. It’s been interesting to see even eight years ago with the “same imagery” who was and was not comfortable with it in their house. The continued question of, “Where on earth would it be appropriate to hang this?” Where my answer has always been “How about over a couch? It looks great.” Today it does feel different —maybe more reactionary— on how people are consuming them now. People are shifting on why they’re interested in it. I think because of #metoo, etc.
JS: What’s driving you to do what you’re doing now as an artist?
MM: So, I painted in secret for most of my life. And when, say I lived with roommates in college, and a painting was hung up, I would make up that I got it somewhere else or someone else painted it.
JS: Because it was a nude?
MM: Just because I made it. But through adulthood, I made at one point an explicit decision to let go —which was, of course, terrifying— and to show. And I think maybe because I come from a family of artists and because I formerly worked in the art world, I’m capable of a lot of self-critique and having a pretty fair recognition of where one would classify in the greater “Art World.” But there was this point of, “So what?” Nobody really cares and if they do, so what. There was this ah-ha moment, of I’m just going to paint.
JS: You paint to paint.
MM: Yeah.
JS: Why did you start painting?
MM: I don’t know, I always did. It’s about the process for me, rather than the showing or the end product. I love painting on wood, especially oil painting on wood. It takes muscle and grit. It’s not as, you know… the idea of painterly. I often have a rag and putting elbow grease into it. So much is in that for me. And with the size too. I’ve tried to paint small. I know that on a consumer-level people want small paintings, especially if they’re new to buying art.
JS: More approachable.
MM: Yes, but I just don’t like it. I love painting on wood, and three feet by four feet is about as small as I can get. I like it being big and I like them being cropped in images so they’re even bigger than real life. And it just changes perspective. I want to make it big. I want to take up space.
JS: And wood is an intentional choice?
MM: I do paint on canvas too but it’s a totally different process, you can’t put elbow grease into it. It’s a gentle painting. With most of my paintings, I would never say the process is gentle.
JS: Wow, that’s so interesting knowing the end result is soft and feminine. Do you paint daily?
MM: No, I definitely brew. I brew for a really long time.
JS: Do you sketch?
MM: No, I’m a really bad drawer, occasionally I do figure drawing —it’s nice muscle memory— but wouldn’t say that I’m an artist’s artist, one that’s formally trained in that respect. I’ve only studied on museum studies and curatorial end. I think I made up my own rules on how to paint. I paint with oils but I do it wrong. I think because I grew up with so many art materials around me, I was just free to make it up and have fun. So, I did and I do. I’m not a daily sketcher, but I am a daily reader and that’s a huge thing. Most of my series come in bundles of months after brewing and reading XYZ philosopher and then just a couple of months of mad productivity. But, then spells in between of researching. Then I’ll revisit images for a series idea that I had from two and a half years ago that I didn’t do before because it wasn’t the right timing. There’s not a direct program or a daily practice. I think with most things of my life, it’s all integrated. My process is the study side for me of what am I reading, what am I consuming as a viewer, what’s happening in the world. As simple as some may think that the images are, subject matter-wise, there’s not an answer to what a painting means, obviously. But my process includes a lot of ideas that go into it, even though it’s a simple image.
JS: What are you reading these days?
MM: I’m really nerding out on some Jungian writings. There’s this psychotherapist, I think her name is Tanya Wilkinson, where she’s pulling on different mythologies where people are identifying with them as a victim-identity and as a hero-identity.
JS: That’s your natural curiosity?
MM: [laughs] Yeah, and this is the part that maybe feels unrelated but this is what I’m really into right now. And this is what the next series of paintings are about. And, that’s my process. Yes, it’s going to be still portraits but the ideas and feelings behind it are coming from all these things. I also like people having their own feelings for the paintings. It can be totally different than where I went into it with — you know this is all kind of background, what I’m thinking about. And I don’t mandate the viewer to feel that. But, I like portraits as an act of the consumer. For me, it’s fun to watch people view it, and to see what they think of it, and come up with their own ideas and own relationships to it. That’s part of it for me because I go into it painting portraits based on my own questions of how we perceive each other and ourselves and how we engage with each other, and those questions are not overt, but then I put the painting up and watch people talk about it and they’re all consuming the same thing.
JS: Is that why you don’t name them individually or hang them in the traditional orientation? But they’re all of a series instead.
MM: Yeah, which I think is a result of me being the daughter of a librarian. How things are classified are important to me.
JS: Who’s the librarian?
MM: My father. And my mom is an architect and a potter and printmaker. I really do think about how hard it is to disengage from the design element of painting because of my mother. In my mind, people always want small paintings but small paintings don’t look good on a wall in the same way as a big one does. And then people ask, “But, where am I going to put it?!” in regards to it’s “inappropriateness” as though the publicness of its display needs to be careful. And I’m always shocked, because, by design, I think, well gosh they could go anywhere.
JS: Is that an American dialogue?
MM: Maybe. I don’t think my paintings are super avant-garde or cutting edge or out there. I’m not doing anything truly different…
JS: But they are. And that’s why we love having them!
Read the rest of our Make(Her) Blog Series
Photo by Jessica Heigh
The Make(Her) No. 1: Emily Gibbons, Jewelry Designer
At Found, we are supported with handmade inventory by over fifty people every month. So to better understand who these people are, we’re spotlighting one artist each month. We want to know what’s behind the art, the artist, the designs and mainly, the woman. As 98% of our Found makers are women, we’re shining a light on what’s made her in a new blog series.
First up, Emily Gibbons (EG) ––jewelry designer, painter, mom, and generally driven woman–– was interviewed by Found Natural Goods Founder, Jacqueline Smith (JS) for over an hour with coffee in hand under the unusually warm winter sunshine at Looney Bean's riverfront garden next door to our brick-and-mortar on Brooks Street downtown Bend, Oregon.
JS: I’m choosing you first [Emily] because you’re my friend and I’m not totally clear on my questions.
EG: [laughs] Well, I’ll try my best!
JS: Ok, so was there a moment when you knew you wanted to make jewelry?
EG: Yeah. I had just finished school, and I was a painting major in college and I was really dedicated to it. But when I moved into an apartment with Colby, I didn’t have space for painting and it was kind of toxic ––I worked in oil paint–– to have in my home space. But, I had this like, this need to make something. I saw a magazine article about making your own simple necklaces, and I was instantly curious, and eventually went to a bead store and it was like, oh my gosh, yes. I got some wire, pliers, and a wire cutting tool and I started dabbling around and playing with it. It was so exciting to be there in this space with all the beads and color. I was excited to wear something that I actually made. At that time, I was teaching yoga and I started getting a lot of comments on the jewelry I was wearing. And then, about 6 months into it, a friend of mine who was also a jeweler was opening up her own store. She asked me to sell some of my pieces on consignment, and gave me a few professional tips about materials and presentation.
JS: Wait, wait, wait –– let’s backtrack –– when was this and where in the world are we?
Photo by Caitlin Gallavan
EG: Good question. It was probably, wow about 10 years ago now in Austin, Texas. I’d just put painting on the back burner. Those first initial pieces were really organic, wire-wrapped, gemstone and kind of crude but they actually sold.
JS: And those first pieces, were they similar to what you’re making now?
EG: Kind of. In some ways, yes, but in other ways, no. I’ve simplified what I do. These were all one-of-a-kind pieces with more focus on intricate wire wrapping and bigger, more organic shapes.
JS: What drove you to learn metalsmithing?
EG: Honestly I got a little tired of the limits that I had with just wire wrapping, and I got a little sick of doing the same thing over and over. It was half accessibility and half finding my own style and technique, branching out of my comfort zone and working through a challenge. I have never taken a jewelry class so my techniques and styles have evolved in a pretty organic and unique way. I think that has helped me keep an individual look to my work. I also don't use any heat in my studio, no soldering or casting, so I have this challenge that I like... I try to do things with the limits I have set in place, and work within that challenge to create something new. It’s fun right now, but in the future, I might be ready to branch out into more traditional techniques while still holding on to my own style and look. My main motivation that’s driven me has been my own taste and what I want to wear. Trying to blend it to where it was still noticeably my style but more simplistic and refined.
JS: Especially in a saturated and competitive market.
EG: Oh yes.
JS: One thing you mentioned was your first trip to the bead store. Tell me about that.
EG: For me what made it so exciting, coming from a painting background, is it’s another form of a pallet and I love gemstones that have texture, the way they reflect light. In my studio space, I don’t organize or compartmentalize the stones and metals. They’re all laid out on the table and it’s messy and usually, I don’t have a plan when I’m making something new. I just pick some stones that draw my attention, and then start to play with metals and wire to create a new and exciting piece or collection. I may have an idea, but today metal has more of an influence on me and I love to accent it with beads. Once I started getting more into hand-cutting, hammering, texturizing and shaping the metal it became more fun and interesting to me than beadwork. But I still love working with gemstones... adding in what could now be called expertise in that field of wire wrapping and weaving the stones into and around metals.
JS: Oh, wow I love that. It’s so counterintuitive to what I perceived your process being. So, at one point you mentioned having this need to create. Can you elaborate on that feeling? Is it inside of you?
EG: You know, I think everybody has their own things that drive them, and I can just remember ever since being a child ––and my sister’s the same way, she’s also an artist–– we were really encouraged by our mom, also an artist, to make and create things. I get into a zone, I feel happy, relaxed, excited, and driven when I sit down in my space. The excitement of making something beautiful out of raw materials just doesn’t get old for me. I still love painting, making little sculptures, drawing...but for me, making jewelry is a combination of all of that. I guess today that’s where I find a really large amount of meaning in my life. It’s creating and having that process evolve into something functional.
“I guess today that’s where I find a really large amount of meaning in my life. It’s creating and having that process evolve into something functional.”
JS: Ah, the creative process.
Photo by Caitlin Gallavan
EG: And you know now, having a family, it’s not as much as a desire to grow and expand the business but it’s the one thing that’s for me that I want to hold on to as I raise my boy, soon to be two boys. Because everything else is for other people. I’ve got to be able to hold onto it for myself and push for creativity and exploration. I think that if I can manage to keep this part of myself, I will be happier and more purpose-driven in raising children. It’s truly impossible to ever find real balance, but we can strive for it, right?
JS: Yes. So true. Ok, ok, ok –– let’s jump back to the main thought this blog series was born of; what’s made you as an artist?
EG: It’s such a generic answer but it’s true. It's having that inherent drive to create, and being inspired nature. But nature is everything. You know, you’re looking at a piece of bark on a tree, how the light reflects off of it and you want to make something that sparks the same feeling of taking in that beauty all around us... that looks organic and has that natural light play, even though it begins as a rigid, hard piece of metal. My work is reflected in nature because everything is kind of organic, and unplanned and not perfect––and I’m a pretty messy, unplanned person.
JS: But that’s what’s so beautiful about you!
EG: If I didn’t have the responsibilities that adult life and family brings, I’d probably be more of a wandering soul. One of the biggest challenges that I’ve faced with being in jewelry ––which is similar to fashion–– are the seasonal demands and competition behind that concept. Coming out with an entirely new collection every couple of months, I’ve learned, now that I’m more established and settled in my own comfort level, I can play with different ideas and styles seasonally and hold on to the staples from each line. I have found what works for me is a less rigid timeline or deadlines. I love working with smaller and independent boutiques where I am able to customize collections and collaborate with my retail partners like you for those unique spaces and their clientele. So you won’t see all the same pieces at every shop I sell my work in. In some ways, that forces me to keep this business small, but for right now that works perfectly with the other obligations I have in my life.
JS: Sweet. Um, lastly, what’s your tip for someone curious about taking the leap from a hobby to launching a small business from their passion (be it jewelry or another creative expression)?
EG: I spent a lot of time in my twenties not having a clear vision of what I wanted to do. Today I know it’s really helpful to spend time thinking, writing, and putting out real clear objectives on what you do want and the goals you have. Then put a real force behind that and without the distractions of other pursuits and side-jobs that you don’t want to be your career, that is not quick money, but that is fulfilling. Give it everything. It took everything I had to get this going from a hobby to a legitimate business. I gave up a lot of my life and financial security to work towards this goal. I have to give my husband credit for that... a few years ago he said to me pretty point blank: stop daydreaming and really go for it, or get a real job that you can rely on. I was terrified of having an office job and just as scared of continuing to work in the service industry. I loved teaching yoga but it didn’t fulfill me in the same way that creating my own artistic business would, so basically, bite the bullet.
Discover Emily’s handiwork on her site here ––Emily Gibbons Jewelry–– or come into Found Natural Goods for a full display of her work in-person. Now, the real question, which Found artist is next?
Photo by Caitlin Gallavan
Read the rest of our Make(Her) Blog Series
Re-Post of URB Apothecary's Awesome Dry Brushing Blog
The technique of brushing the skin with a bristle brush has been around for centuries, from the ancient Greeks to Native Americans, and is used to stimulate blood flow which, as it turns out, has a myriad of benefits.
One of the benefits that I believe in the most is on the lymphatic system and will be my main focus in this post. This system acts as an intermediary between the blood and immune system and consists of two semi-independent parts. First, lymphatic vessels, which are scattered throughout the body and function to transport fluids that have escaped from the blood vascular system back into the blood. The fluid that escapes and enters the lymphatic vessels is then called lymph. Second, lymphoid tissues and organs house the cells that play essential roles in the body’s defense mechanisms and its resistance to disease.
So, what’s the deal with dry brushing in strokes towards the heart? Lymphatic vessels form a one-way system in which lymph flows towards the heart and dry brushing in heart ward strokes encourages it to continue traveling on its one-way path. Also, the lymphatic system lacks an organ that acts as a pump so it relies on active movement of skeletal muscles (exercise!), breathing (yoga breathes), and pulsation of nearby blood vessels (skin stimulation).
Dry brushing stimulates blood flow and circulation to the skin and in turn, this increases the flow of lymph along the vessels where it passes through lymph nodes that, in essence, are scanning for signs of infection, cancer, and disease. From the lymph nodes, it continues towards a duct which puts the fluid back into the blood system, helping it maintain balance and also to help carry toxins to organs such as the liver and kidneys that function to eliminate or fight toxins and disease.
So by the simple act of brushing our skin, we are increasing blood flow, helping to move lymph along its one-way path to the heart through disease-detecting lymph nodes. We are also removing dead skin cells that can clog pores, creating dull congested skin and improving its overall health and appearance.
Tips for Dry Brushing
Choose a natural-bristle brush, and consider one with a long handle to help you get hard-to-reach places, such as the back.
Start at the feet and move upward, toward the head, using smooth strokes, brushing toward the heart to increase blood and lymph flow.
Dry brush prior to bathing, preferably in the morning as this practice has been known to deliver a boost of energy and follow with a skin nourishing body oil.
Make sure to brush the lymph nodes clusters at the back of your knees, upper inner thigh, armpits, and neck.
If you are new to dry brushing, start with very light strokes and work gradually increase pressure as your skin gets more accustomed to the bristles.
Join us February 8th from 5 pm - 8 pm as we empower self-care rituals, An Evening Empowering Self-Love Rituals, like dry brushing. A week prior to the day coined around celebrating Love — Valentine’s Day — we want to empower our Found People to remember first-and-foremost that Self-Love is Queen.
That said, we’re staying open late to offer all our sustainable goods into your world with a small addition of counsel depending on what you’re in need of. Rest? Ritual? Some fun? Maybe just the reminder that Valentine’s Day can be about something larger than the pressures around the holiday. Make it about YOU.
Gift yourself a something that you just love. That makes you know how beautiful you are inside and out with each mist. That reminds you how important and loved you are with each application. How sexy you can be in a silky or velvety something. How balanced you can be mentally after a hot bath soak. Or how cherished you are with a ring on whatever finger you wish, all gifted to yourself.
Once you take care of yourself first, it’s much easier to see how you can be there for another love in your life. XO
First Friday February at Found with Feather Divine
First Friday February 2019 plans entail an alliteration it seems. Welcoming, Feather Divine!
We are, of course, serving complimentary 100% agave tequila margaritas––radical mixer to be announced––with local jewelry designer, maker, endless-energy woman wonder, Feather Divine.
Julia Duke is the hands behind Feather Divine "Goddess Feather Earrings 🌿 Cruelty-Free ❤ 10% of sales donated to wildlife and bird habitat conservation efforts. 🌎" You may also know her as Julia Duke Photo getting published left and right for her portraits, wedding work, and all around good energy behind the lens.
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Event Photo details: taken by @coffeenlacephoto, featuring white bridal @featherdivine earrings on the model, @charlotteldupont ✨
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Shop now or read more about Julia: https://instagram.com/featherdivine
We’re almost as phsyched as these two frolicing around Loloma Lodge (one of our 3rd Annual INTO the WOODS 2018 Holiday Market sponsors).
POP-UP at 3rd Annual INTO the WOODS 2018 Holiday Market
It’s that time, and we are psyched!
Our Found Natural Goods (Found) table at this years INTO the WOODS Holiday Market (INTO) is inspired by a “hunter-gatherer” approach to sourcing and “grab-and-go” for holiday shopping ease and wrapping strategy–– it’ll be bundles of natural materials mostly hand-gathered, and ready to grab.
We will be alongside 30+ other local artisans, makers, movers, shakers, formulators, artists, bakers, entrepreneurs, and mixologists under a giant, heated, twinkle-lit tent in front of The Commons downtown Bend, Oregon. Be ready to meet the town and see lots of familiar faces ––and–– be ready to shop local for all your loved ones this Black Friday and Shop Small Saturday.
Earlier this year, we received some press about the roots of the INTO event, co-produced with Wallis Levin of Loloma Lodge and The Wilds. It was so affirming —by the response we received from this Bend Bulletin article on pop-ups in central oregon— that local artists do truly benefit from this event (Found being a primary example of growth via pop-ups), and the customers truly look forward to it each year. Win-win, my friends.
The INTO the WOODS 2018 Details
3rd Annual Holiday Market
Black Friday & Shop Small Saturday (11/23-11/24)
hosted by The Commons, 875 NW Brooks Street
10am - 6pm
30+ makers
Credit cards, cash, venmo accepted
The first 50 people receive free Shop Small canvas tote bags!
Analogue Tintypes Portraiture Pop-Up at Found
"Analogue Tintype" is a new photo player in Bend and this talented duo is bringing back a photo process from the mid-1800's –– to share with us all in custom individual portraits.
October 27-28th
- $40 per portrait on 4x5 sheets of tin
- Come to Found from 4-8pm either Friday or Saturday evening for your session. Use clothes and props from the shop as you please.
Follow @analogue_tintypes on Instagram to see their work to date.
A Tintype is by definition: a photograph made by creating a direct positive on a thin sheet of metal coated with a dark lacquer or enamel and used as the support for the photographic emulsion. The color blue is not recognized in this process, so tattoos and blue eyes go white and make for a rad shot.
Here are a few of the rad tintypes taken at Found, you may recognize some of these BA players.
Self-Care Sunday at Found with Amulette Studios
One lucky thing about living in Central Oregon is all the talented women you become surrounded by, especially in the maker community here at Found. It’s our delight to have featured the magic of Tanya aka Amulette Studios on a Sunday in September, as she hosted a custom, single-note everything spray bar.
Self-Care Sunday with Amulette Studios at Found
Join local Alchemist & Plant Lover, Tanya Hughes from Amulette Studios as she hosts the shop on Sunday, September 23rd (while we practice our own self-care!).
She will be blending up 2 oz custom, single-note everything sprays on the spot for purchase and brewing up some complimentary aromatic beverages and nourishing herbal teas from local herbalist, Rushing River Botanicals.
"Single-note everything blends" denotes a one-scent of your choice spray that you can use on anything and everything.
Tanya will be here Sunday, 9/23 from 11am to 3pm. Please drop in and receive your own custom spray. Use on yourself, your home, sheets, towels, in your car, or in your bag for those moments that need a little extra self-care.
Found Natural Goods Founder, Jacqueline Smith and Alicia Renner of Howl Attire and North West Trading Post on the cover of The Source in August 2018.
We Got the Cover with These Creatives
This morning I’m a combination nervous and giddy to say, “We got the cover!!” of @sourceweekly and in such creative, beautiful, talented company!!
Read the full Q&A here or view the rad photo collaboration/mashup here by this thoughtfully planned and executed Fall piece of word- and image-smithery.
Then, come shop all our Fall second-life® clothing, accessories, objects, and handmade jewelry (included in the featured images) in person at Found by @dutchbow, @sheshappydesign, @bryarwolf, @emilygibbonsjewelry and @notionsoflovely.
High fives to the woman-powered dream team @euijingray, @cyrphotographic, @katiedaisy_artist, @sheiladunnart and @hidealchemy!
Q4. What have you noticed as current in ‘art' and ‘style,’ local vs. beyond?
Katie I’ve noticed that lately people are into a minimal look with muted colors and natural textures. While I can appreciate the simplicity and clean lines, I don’t think I will ever venture into that realm. I’ve always been majorly inspired by the loud colors and boundary-pushing patterns of maximalist designers such as Gucci & Versace. In my art, fashion and home decor, I’m always trying to balance the chaos of using all the colors and patterns. It’s like exploring a wonderland with multitudes of gardens and secret places.
Sheila In Central Oregon I’ve noticed a combination of function with fashion (you know, it’s hard to ride a bike in heels). And locally, there seems to be a continued movement of supporting makers and creatives. I have felt tremendously supported by the community here as an artist. And it seems like this trend is happening beyond the Northwest as well which is awesome.
Alicia The trend I’ve been noticing is a movement towards having less; and gal rammit (god dammit) does it feel good! Owning a few really nice things instead of a pile of cheap stuff limits the amount of stuff you need to worry about. I’ve always loved the idea of a wardrobe of interchangeable pieces that all have the same resulting “look,” so you don’t have to think about getting dressed, you can just put on whatever, and it all works together. I’ve also noticed a consciousness for the length of time quality takes to create. It may take longer from the time of ordering to receiving your handmade garment, but you can rest assured knowing that you’ve just supported an individual, and they’ve put real intention and love into your piece. Just as much as you, they want it to last you for many years, too.
Jacq The story. Customers and clients are more and more curious about who made it, why, and when—the source behind the idea, the fabric, the jewelry. Because it matters and spreads passion!
"Eco-Home Goods" Means Organic, Whole Foods Too
When I was first launching Found Natural Goods, I was in the midst of taking on the candida diet weeks before modeling for a big client with my modeling agency, Sports Lifestyle Unlimited. In buying basketfuls of organic produce, it was apparent that there was a common thread in the [Found Natural Goods online] store, the products I was creating, and what my other career of sports modeling would need in order to thrive. I saw that common thread as a healthy home, a highly considered diet, conscious consumption in things and food –– an eco home through-and-through.
There are a handful of go-to recipes I make on a weekly basis that are mostly variations of tacos, salads, bowls, and veggies stuffed with other veggies. This is a simplistic way of describing it all, but, it's also quite accurate.
Last week, I discovered Love & Lemons. A website packed full of delicious veggie recipes. If you're more of a freestyler in the kitchen like myself, I highly recommend merging this recipe's veg bowl concept with this recipe's broth and mushrooms.
There's a meditative way that you can shop for all the veggies slowly and mindfully in the store, come home, soak 'em in an organic citrus wash, chop carefully with your favorite knife on a beautiful cutting board, and then play with all the ingredients that has become a favorite pastime of mine. Cooking in general is. But, when you take the time to taste what you're making, play with textures, not rush through the process and then enjoy a meal with a loved one, two, or three –– that's when I feel like I've succeeded.
Thank you Love & Lemons for sharing your talents. Check them out!