As a designer, one of the most crucial lessons I have learned recently is that any materials I use to make my  handbags needs to be licensed and reproducible.  No longer can I just go to the fabric store and pick a print that strikes my fancy. I am so excited to be printing and embroidering my own patterns now- a whole new world is opening up as a result, and I just love this new medium.

Here’s my first fabric, used to line one of my bags:

I am using Advanced Digital Textiles in North Carolina.  I send them a roll of bright white satin, and they return it with my print treated for color and water resistance.

Here’s the print that will go out for production this week:

In the unfamiliar corners of this new house

you enchant me in marvelous ways

never once asking my name 

you, as if a new and passionate lover

service all my devices whenever I ask

in the guest room, kitchen, dining room, and basement

but not in the bedroom, bathroom, or living room

I thank you, altruistic one

Say goodbye to some of my old friends

And hello to some new friends!

My Sunday ritual usually involves making a punchlist of things that I need to accomplish in the coming week.  I am in the process of moving to a new townhouse right now, and with my handbags, art, and property management- this requires four separate lists.  While on my morning list-checking I was thinking about the intricacy and complexity of our world.  Sort of like when you see a word you normally take for granted spelled in front of you, and the spelling just does not appear to make any sense.  From infrastructures and buildings, to the system of finance and the money in our pockets- so much is a fabrication of social and intellectual development, and it is all just so bizarre on some level.  The inertia of our evolution has put all of these crazy things into place that make our lives both comfortable and hectic.  I imagined stripping everything synthetic away- the buildings, cars, clothing, language, intellect- I wonder how my body and spirit would change.  I sometimes think that we emotionally cling to those we love as though we are in free-fall, as a way to distract us from the fact that we are tragically helpless and ultimately ill-fated.  And as I cross things off my list for the week, I derive both comfort and anxiety in having these distracting tasks, but I wonder if it actually means anything or it it is just a part of the world that our limited minds have fabricated.  Letting go, deriving joy (whether it is real or imaginary), and finding gratitude are some of the strongest coping methods, along with a good sense of humor…

Here are a few of our favorite handbag links:

net-a-porter.com

bergdorfgoodman.com

alexandermcqueen.com

any other suggestions?

It is said that our memories are strongly tied to our sense of smell.  This time of year in New England, as the cold weather seems unrelenting, I always am reminded of the intense and sweet billowing steam from inside my father’s maple sugar house, and I know that soon the warm, but not-too-warm, weather will be on its way.  Nestled on a beautifully preserved 450-acre plot in Lempster, NH is the Stetson equine and maple farm.  The farm is on a hill, which is perfectly suited by nature for optimal sunning of an extensive tree canopy.  Through selective cutting and decades of pruning and cleaning, my father has allowed the natural advantages of the land to reach it’s fullest potential for the proliferation of sugar maple trees.  This, in addition to a fastidious attention to detail and a custom-built innovative operation with a particular focus on eliminating impurities has lead Stetson’s maple to develop maple derivatives that people with discerning palates have identified as the best that the industry has to offer.   When I was young, the sugar house didn’t look like it does today.  There was a small shed (now the back portion).  The trees are connected by a series of tubing that connects the trees to the large gathering tanks much like capillaries, veins, and arteries in the body.  And although the principle of removing water from 40 gallons of maple sap to produce 1 gallon of syrup remains the same, the process used when I was a child was much different than it is today.The evaporator was wood-powered.  Now a giant steam generator runs the evaporator and steam pans, which zaps the remaining excess water from the sap after it has been run through the reverse osmosis shown here:From the r.o. machine, evaporator, and steam pan, the syrup is then run through a filter press and stored in drums before being canned.  The front portion of the sugar house is devoted to maple cream and candy production, which is a material science that my father has refined through countless hours of trial and error.  You will not find a maple candy that comes close in comparison.   If this has you craving for a taste of this magical place, don’t worry, there’s plenty for you- go ahead and call… pricelist

My sister recently moved into her house, and being the first in the extended family to buy a real house has landed her in the position of acquiring all of the family heirloom furniture that has survived several generations of children.  The dining set was designed by my great grandfather, Jerome Ireland Howe Downes, who was an architect and filagree designer with the Boston firm Mcguinness and Walsh.  At some point probably in the 70′s my grandmother put fabric over the seat cushions, as the horse hair had started to pull out of the threadbare canvas.  As a gift, I re-upholstered the cushions.  It was a strange sort of bonding experience for me with the people from whom I am descended.  Here are the chairs before and after.

Whenever news of political scandal surfaces I always think of the truism, “abuse of power comes as no surprise” by the American artist Jenny Holzer.  I reflect on some moments when I have considered someone to be on a power trip- at times no one exemplifies this better than police officers.The other day while I was driving, my phone rang and I decided to pull over to answer it.  Most of the time I race to grab my phone from my pocket, check the caller ID,  and answer while still driving.  After I finished my conversation I got back on the road and thought that it would be so nice to have a law enforcement agent write a ticket for good conduct.  As animal psychologists have long known, you reward good behavior.  This, in collaboration with consistently applying the correct kind of punishment for undesirable behavior is a more effective training technique than simply identifying and scolding poor conduct.