sonofasailorblog

SIerra Keychains and things

we’ve been busy over here at Son of a Sailor! in the last month, we’ve:

-moved into our new studio! we’re putting the finishing touches on our decor, and as soon as we have the place all snazzed up! in the meantime, get little sneak peeks on our instagram feed...
-completed our taxes for 2012—the last year we will not have our records fully accounted for in Quick Books. holy hell, that was hanging over my head!
-put the finishing touches on some new products that you’ll see rolling out at Son of a Sailor Supply over the next couple of weeks!

for example, the Sierra Keychain! available in two styles, each in three colorways. inspired by geometric shapes, southwestern design, and a rich past of camping, scouting, and travelling, they make a great addition to our growing assortment of handmade accessories.

so, we’ve been busy, and a little absent on the blog, but stay tuned for more content coming up, as well as some new items!

say hello to Son of a Sailor studios!

today marks the day that we have an overwhelming feeling of legitimacy as a business. we got keys to our first studio, outside of our home!

Canopy studios here in Austin is just opening up where the old (beloved) Goodwill Blue Hanger was. with studios, offices, galleries, and creative spaces, we had to snag a spot!

as we’ve begun to grow out of our home studio (220 square feet that is full to the brim with people and stuff) this clearly became our top choice for alternative spaces. it’s mere blocks from our home, and is going to house some of the best artists and makers in austin!

they’re still putting on the finishing touches, and we’re just beginning to bring our stuff over (so many desks…) we can’t wait to share more about the new home of Son of a Sailor!

2013, you’ve got big shoes to fill!

as we move into this new, fresh year, we are reflecting on the ways in which our lives and business have grown in the year preceding. what an amazing year we had, with such monumental personal milestones. we wanted to share some of the highlights of 2012…

more after the jump…

Son of a Sailor for the holidays!

i have a friend who claims to almost be done with her holiday shopping. i think she’s a robot. (yeah, you, leonora!) regardless of whether you’re an early bird or not, it’s about that time! to get your gift-giving on. we’re posting a series of gift guides through the end of december, but we wanted to send you our own little holiday-styled reminder that Son of a Sailor jewelry makes a great gift for your ladies!

top: selections from Polaris, our Fall 2012 collection, bottom left: brass initial necklaces (also available in gold-fill), bottom right: selections from our Classics collection.

so we are more than happy to report that this past weekend the three glorious days of FELIZ was a grand success! beautiful crafts, beautiful art, and beautiful people, what more could you ask for?
more about these (beautiful) encounters and finds after the jump!

I’ve had a hankering to head out west for quite some time now. I think, for one of our next vacations, I’m gonna get Billy to head out to Marfa with me! After the jump are a few of the places I’ve been dying to check out…

standard magazine

we were recently approached by Standard Magazine, a local eco-conscious design magazine with a chic glossy appeal that we love, to adorn the subjects of one of their spreads.we were thrilled to see the finished issue in it’s modern and sharp incarnation.

The spread is a gorgeous celebration of the hill country home of two artists, Lee and Suzanne Pratt.

Not only is their home pretty enviable, but Suzanne looked awesome with three Son of a Sailor necklaces layered on! We were delighted to see how happy we imagine they made her! ;)

Go take a look! The magazine is a fresh and beautiful perspective on Texas design. We want to throw a shout out to Mallory, who really made this possible!

Polaris Look book

fall is truly upon us, and we’re excited to cozy up with some pumpkin spice creamer in our coffee and a cozy blanket. in the spirit of autumn, take a look at our new look book for Polaris!

more after the jump!

a little sneak peek of our new collection, Polaris, which we’ll debut at Renegade Chicago! we’ll be having a big launch party for the collection here in Austin at Parts & Labour on Thursday, September 20, from 7-10pm! So mark your calendars—-we’ll have many more updates this week! it’s gonna be a blast…

iay de mi!

so, just a quick post so i can take a little break. today, we’ve undertaken an intense and thorough rearranging and reorganization of the studio. we are about to bring some folks on, so we gots to get this place unda control!

first thing: assemble super great long desk we got at ikea for cheap! i am real good at assembling ikea furniture…usually. the first thing that i do is miss a tiny little detail which causes us to literally ruin the entire tabletop in under 3 minutes. eff me.

second thing: go back to ikea, get a new tabletop.

third thing: redo the dang desk. on the bright side, billy is now cutting up the first tabletop to use for shelves in one of our closets—we’ve been wanting to turn it into a linen closet, so voila! waste not, want not!

fourth thru eleven hundredth thing: organize the living daylights out of this studio. closet, boxes of art supplies, desks—everything!

so now i am super tired, but determined to keep going. i just needed to give myself a little break!

and here’s a little photo from a quick “headshot” shoot our pal heidi did for us! thanks, lady!

cold summer soup time!

it’s summer, in full effect, here in austin. it began to rain this evening, and the water was steaming off of the asphalt. we’ve got it relatively mild this week, with temperatures hovering in the low to mid-90s, but it is hot, nonetheless! after picking up the most recent issue of martha stewart living magazine on the way to Brooklyn, i decided that i had to try some of the recipes for cold summer soups!

why yes, that is lando calrissian riding a unicorn. thank you for asking.

brooklyn: a recap

so, we made it. off on a weekend adventure to brooklyn for the most recent renegade craft fair, christine (fail) and i ventured off to the city to see what could be made of it. from the start, we weren’t getting any relief from the heat—-which we were hoping for at the start of our austin, texas summer time. i took note of the fact that i ought not take air conditioning for granted, as all texas destinations have it!

but we ducked into a cute spot in williamsburg, lodge, for a beer and a blt. a blueberry ale and a pork slap did us just right before we wandered the neighborhoods a bit more.

i wish i had taken more photos—-we visited a few really cute spots. on Christine’s recommendation we ducked into Catbird just before it started pouring. pretty sure i could spend the entire day in the small, perfectly appointed shop, we eventually had to brave the rain to get some dinner.

i shouldn’t complain about the heat too much, as we ended up having perfectly lovely, clear skies for the show. a bit of rain as a bookend was not a problem for me. i’ll deal with a bit of heat during the show to stay dry! the wind, though, was another story. pain in the ass, it was! poor christine lost a mirror in a particularly strong gale.

billy an di were very pleased to have finally put the finishing touches on our display. we’ve gone through a few iterations, but have arrived at a setup that we’ll let ride for a while! it will be nice not to have to redesign/rebuild/re-everything our table displays again for a few more shows! i think they turned out rather well!

we had a good number of Karve pieces out on display, and were lucky enough to catch the attention of Brooklyn Magazine. we are so proud that they chose our booth, specifically the Karve pieces to feature as one of the “Ten best things we saw at the Renegade Craft Fair” in their BK Style section!

with our displays rocking and some good attention, we feel like we made a good showing at the fair! it was great to see some other renegade regulars, as well as meeting some new friends!

i was super excited to score this beautiful Caldera bracelet from Teresa at Stone & Honey. yeah, it goes with my Eolian earrings. i think i might be done spoiling myself for a little while. (a little while!) plus, look how great it looks with our Bexar bracelet and my gold bangles from fail!

so, on our day off, we had a nice, relaxing day of digging through hundreds of boxes of jewelry findings! CJS Sales (Crafts, Jewelry, Supplies) specializes in vintage components, and is a veritable wonderland of jewelry findings for designers. I felt like Augustus Gloop in Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory—-and coming away with over 30 pounds of components, i think it’s a pretty accurate description.

this place is truly incredible. Elyse, who owns the warehouse with her father, was fantastic about helping us to navigate through the narrow paths of box upon box of treasure. throwing suggestions our way every so often, and encouraging us to “move things around! dig!” Elyse was great.

at the end of it all, christine and i came away with some super special findings. i brought home a full collections worth of beads and metal that i think billy agrees will make a great line! stay tuned for that…

if you ever find yourself in midtown with a couple of hours on your hands, and nothing that you can’t get dirty on, do yourself a favor and hit up this place. (if you’re a jewelry designer, that is—-it’s wholesale, folks, so you have to have your tax id!) i am so thankful christine shared this treasure with me. not to mention how fun it was to spend a few hours digging around for treasure with her! after 17 years of friendship, it’s nice to play with your friend for a while!

after lots of hard work, lots of luggage hauling (that 30 pounds of jewelry didn’t carry itself home…) and lots of excitement, i was so happy to come home to my husband (that’s still so new!) and take wednesday off. we floated the river, y’all. i was hot all weekend and austin was 109° when we got back—you know we went straight to the cold waters of san marcos!

but we’re back in action, and have some great stuff brewing!

we’ll keep you up to date with all of it here!

xoxo

pictures on II

you might recall pictures on, the baby quilt that the girls and i made for our friend rachel’s little one (eloise, now 8 or so months and the cutest little thing you ever did see!) this reinvigoration of an old family tradition of mine was a pretty exciting endeavor into embroidery for all of us, and a crash course in quilting for christine and i!

well, we just completed our second blanket for our dear friend mary, who will be bringing what i am utterly convinced is a little girl into the world in about two months! the ladies really came through with some beautiful stitch work, and once again i avoided complete catastrophe in piecing them together into a quilt.

i’m really having fun trying different techniques, and am hoping to have the opportunity to make a quilt of my own! i’m pretty sure i should retire in order to have time to do all of the sewing projects that i’ve got on my list.

check out more photos of the embroidery work after the jump…

karve nos. 11-24/100 coming soon to Etsy!