State of ephemera

AshworthsArt

Since I was little, I've always been obsessed with how fleeting time is -- every second is just another second away from becoming a shadowy memory, or forgotten completely. It's bittersweet and I always struggle to be in the moment while trying to etch every single impression into my mind.

I'm also obsessed with paper. Combine the two things and you get... yet another obsession with ephemera! I love searching for ephemera packs on Etsy. The coolest things turn up. I recently ordered a pack from Paper Aeroplanes. It was amazing, stuffed with treasures like vintage rail tickets, playing cards and stamps from Australia, US, Spain (I think) and England. I love having a glimpse into the daily life in the (not too distant) past of faraway places. I have another pack on its way to me from Ashworths Art in North Carolina, which I plan to use in collages or my scrapbook.

PaperAeroplanes

wildheart515


lauraprentice


theCandyShoppe

Plucking at my heart strings

Long, long ago, I came to terms with the fact that I am profoundly tone deaf and have zero rhythm. I took piano, violin and flute lessons when I was a teenager, but any song I tried to play sounded the same, like a high-pitched, miserable keening. Oh, it was awful. But these instruments from Celentano Woodworks make me wish I had some musical talent. I would strum the apple ukulele in the park next to our house and children would gather to dance. Bluebirds would alight on my shoulder, squirrels would clap and all would be well in the world. Alas, I can only enjoy their loveliness from afar. But when we have kids, I'll definitely make them learn a plucked string instrument just so I have an excuse to buy one of these!

Bunnies! Lots and lots of bunnies!

If you celebrate Lunar New Year, then you know it is the Year of the Rabbit (unless you are Vietnamese, in which case it is the Year of the Cat, lucky you!). This is a good excuse to stock up on truckloads of bunny emblazoned items. I wish I were born in the Year of the Rabbit. I was born in the Year of the Rooster. Chicken shapes are not so aesthetically pleasing because they are basically just a blob with a beak and maybe a crown, while bunnies have their long ears balancing out their fat behinds (yes, I've spent some time thinking about this). One of my favorite Taipei stores, Blah Blah Blah, currently carries the pendant above from their jewelry series based on tiny vintage plastic toys. The rest of the these items are from Etsy... click on each photo for the listing.

Zig-a-zig-ah

When I was back in California last fall, I bought an old chevron stitch throw in a flea market. It was so quintessentially Seventies Americana that I just had to make space in my luggage and haul it back to Taipei with me. It seems like everyone who had a crochet hook in the 1970s felt compelled to make one of these. Here are a few examples I found on Etsy. If you want to make your own chevron stitch throw, check out this vintage pattern. I thought about crafting my own, but I'm not sure if I want to spend all that time working with acrylic yarn -- these throws have to be acrylic, otherwise they aren't authentically scratchy! Click on each photo for a link back to the Etsy listing.

Sweet Teeth

Ring by Charlotte Burkhart

After five years of warding off dentists with various excuses, I finally got my remaining two wisdom teeth pulled. They were my upper set and the left one didn't fully emerge until I was 24 years old and starting my first journalism job. That year was full of personal and professional transitions for me and every time I got anxious I would run my tongue over my budding tooth and think "Relax... you're still teething!"

As it turns out, what I should have been thinking instead was "Oh shoot, I hope my gums don't get inflamed!" But every time I was told I needed to get my extraneous third molars extracted, I felt verklempt about losing my lucky tooth. I finally bit the bullet (haha) last month, however, and scheduled an appointment. Now I have two molars soaking in a dish filled with rubbing alcohol and water on my desk. What, oh what, should I do with them?

For inspiration, I turned to Etsy. Charlotte Burkhart's sleek, modern settings highlight the different textures of the wisdom teeth she uses (either yours or from donations). I think her Mountains of Wisdom ring (above) showcases the tooth best, but I also like her Split Wisdom Tooth Bracelet:


I think the roots are the most interesting part of teeth. Mine certainly didn't come out looking anything like I expected. Burkhart also has an amazing pendant featuring a photo of Max Schreck in "Nosferatu."

The vampire trend has carried over to Etsy and there is tons of stuff in the shape of fangs. My favorite is this movable pendant by JL67. I wonder if you can wear it as facial jewelry by clamping it onto the end of your nose.


Victoria Camp's white clay fang necklace is also cool. It's simple and elegant, so you can wear it without your outfit screaming "Happy Halloween!" from a mile away (not that there is anything wrong with that... Halloween is my favorite holiday!).


Tibault & Toad's tiny tooth pendant is adorable. I almost expect it to put on a little top hat, grab a little cane and start tap dancing.


One of my favorite thing about this ring by Ardent1 is that it looks like tiny little silver pomegranate seeds, even though it is actually cast from animal teeth. Then again, I haven't eaten solid food in 50 hours and everything is beginning to look edible to me now, including my computer... mmm... computer...


These soft, fluffy pillows by Hootenanny are actually pouches for kids to put teeth in for the Tooth Fairy. And they look like cupcakes covered in white icing... okay, seriously, I have to go shovel more yogurt down my throat. When I was little, the Tooth Fairy used to leave silver dollars for my brother and me every time we lost a tooth. That was exciting, though I managed to figure out that the Tooth Fairy was my Mom when I was about six. But I still made her give me money... teeheehee. I love the smirk on the right pouch's face. It looks like it's thinking saucy, illicit tooth thoughts ("Gimme some of that sugar, baby!").

What I'm Sproutin': Sorbet Noir

Vintage dress: easystreetvintage @ Etsy, cardigan: American Apparel, scarf: Muji, belt: J. Crew outlet, vintage necklace and tights: night market, shoes: Aldo, purse: Hayden Harnett for Target, earrings: Target

Today the sun came out and the temperature went up a bit (it was 8 to 10 degrees Celsius yesterday in Taipei), so I decided to celebrate by breaking out my rainbow dress.

I dressed to match Mr. Dragonfly behind me.

I also wore a pair of giant white filigree earrings, but the hooks started bothering me after a few minutes. I have to swap them out for sterling silver ones. I've been getting more sensitive to nickel and other base metals since hitting my mid-twenties. Does anyone else have this problem?

My dress is handmade, from the 1980s (I think) and has HUGE puffy sleeves. Here is a picture from the seller:

I thought I might be able to get away with them, but I think I'll have to cut them off or otherwise alter them into ordinary short sleeves or maybe flutter sleeves (though that might also be too much). I was also thinking I should shorten the dress (by removing the bottom horizontal rows, shortening the main skirt and then reattaching the self-trim), but I actually like this length with heels. I often do this with dresses in my "to alter" pile. Instead of working on them, I drag them out, shake out the wrinkles and just wear it as is. Sometimes laziness works out!

What I'm Sproutin': Ruby Re-mix

Dress: Urban Lotus Boutique at Etsy, shoes: Re-Mix Vintage shoes, belt: Forever 21

I am very excited because I just bought a new flash for my camera from Big Camera (相機王), my favorite photography equipment store in Taipei, and can now take indoor photos on cloudy days. Woohoo! Now all I need to do is figure out how to take good indoor photos. My dress is from Urban Lotus Boutique on Etsy. I'm not sure how old it is, but it has a very cool print and a Peter Pan collar. Here's a close-up from the seller:


The hem looks uneven in the photo above, but it isn't. Here's another view. You can also see how much my cat loves me.

My shoes are the highlight of my outfit -- they are from Re-Mix Vintage Shoes and are reproductions of 1940s wedges. I bought them at The Bee's Knees on Piedmont Ave. in Oakland when we were in California for our wedding last May.

They are very comfortable, but I keep falling off of them when I walk because of my over-pronated feet (they roll inwards). I bought motion stabilizing New Balance running shoes that are made specifically for over-pronators, but I still get shin splints in the inner front of my calves when I run, so I have to watch my gait. I guess I just have to learn how to walk/run correctly!

What I'm Sproutin': Gingham to me

*Reposted with photos you can actually see. Thanks to Elaine for pointing that out to me!

Vintage shirt dress: bvikki vintage, tights: Urban Outfitters, shoes: Aldo, cardigan: Muji, belt: Forever 21?, squirrel necklace: Haoshi (close-up photo here)

These photos were taken before Lunar New Year! It seems so long ago. I can't believe it's already March. I'll have to start planning my summer wardrobe soon. It get so hot and humid in Taiwan during the summer that dressing becomes an art. The hard part is that I don't like sleeveless tops or t-shirts and I'm not a big fan of shorts or short skirts. So that pretty much knocks out 90% of my options. I might just have to buy more vintage shirt dresses.

This will have to be short post because our cat, Taroko George, is playing a game called "knocking stuff off of stuff," but I just want to add that my dress is from bvikki vintage. Becca also keeps an amazing blog of the same name that compiles images from vintage African-American publications.

What I'm Sproutin': Stop Starin' Screwball

Dress: Stop Staring, cardigan: American Apparel, gloves: dollar store, shawl: night market, fascinator: Giant Dwarf, tights: Urban Outfitters, shoes: Green Pine (興傑鞋)

I've wanted a Stop Staring dress for the longest time and last year I finally realized this particular consumerist desire. Only once I got my hands on the dress, I had no idea what to do with it! When the site says that the bengaline fabric really clings to your figure, they aren't kidding! Excellent for attention-grabbing, but what to do when you don't want to grab that much attention?

So I dressed my dress down with an oversized unisex cardigan, a very shaggy lace shawl (I only noticed the loose threads after my husband took these photos, but I think they add a nice touch) from the night market and a pair of fingerless gray gloves I got from a dollar store. And then I dressed it up again with fishnets and a Giant Dwarf floral fascinator. I like to think that the end result is: screwball comedy heroine realizes that her Rolls-Royce Phantom is on the outs and has to get down on her knees and fix the damn thing herself because her driver/mechanic knocked himself out on moonshine the previous night.

I adore my Stop Staring dress, but I think I'll continue styling it this way unless I'm going out to a party. I like how the cardigan allows me to show off the little details about the dress that I love, like its contrasting kick pleats and Art Deco-ish collar.

I hope everyone is having a nice Monday!

Bean Up to... Fashionary, a new kind of sketchbook

Sketches of outfits I've worn, including my wedding dress

One of my favorite things to do as a young girl was draw outfits in sketchpads my Mom stapled together from scratch paper. A friend of mine taught me how to draw a human figure during theater camp (yes, I was a drama geek). It involved a horizontal oval, inverted triangle, another horizontal oval, six circles and some lines. It worked, but each drawing took a relatively long time. I recently began sketching again and thought about making some sort of template so I wouldn't have to keep making the same figure over and over again. And then I discovered Fashionary via What I Wore. I was so taken with the idea that I ordered one right away (well, I waited a week, but you get my point).

The first part of the book, which was created by Hong Kong designer Penter Yip, includes useful information for fashion designers, such as technical drawings of different pieces of clothing, pattern templates, a schedule of major fashion events in different countries and samples of presentation boards. Most of Fashionary consists of pages with "blending figures," however, or female figures in very faint, dotted outlines. You can sketch an outfit over them and it saves you a lot of time and hassle. If you want to work on your fashion illustration skills, as I do, Fashionary lets you skip the irksome process of drawing a body and skip directly to sketching the outfit itself.

The dress on the far left is a practice sketch I copied from a drawing on Fashionary.org. The others are all sketches of clothing I own. It's like seeing myself stretched out!

My drawings aren't perfect by any means, but I'm looking forward to improving them, especially in terms of being able to capture fabric textures more realistically. I'm not a designer, but sketching is a great form of stress release and Fashionary makes it even more fun. I highly recommend it. The sketchbook is US$16 and you can order it online from Etsy. If you don't feel like buying it right away, you can download sample blending figure templates from the Web site.

Also, if any of you have tips on good online resources for fashion illustration techniques, please let me know!

Vignettes from my home office

Cendrille print

















This was after I bought another cup for my make-up brushes because the sushi mug was creeping me out.

Totus Mel tatted lace choker and a tourmaline necklace I made

Looking at these photos makes me want to clean my home office. It's gotten quite messy such I took them!

(If you are interested in reading about my life in Taipei, please visit my other blog, Shu Flies (舒飛) and, if you like what you see, vote for it once every 24 hours in the Taiwan Best Blog Awards!)