Meet me at Hester Street this Sat and next!

Yes, it is the time of the year. Late summer is always my favorite craft market time. It gives me an excuse to hang out in the sun all day and meet with interesting fellow crafters and favorite customers. So come say hi to me at Hester Street. This August, they have changed their hours to noon-10pm, with live DJ and a lot more cool events for summer nights. I'll be there from noon to 9pm only ;)

Goodbye 2012. Hello 2013!!!

Where do I begin...?

2012 had a great start. I went to BMAC as a guest and joined the Art Business Institute workshops, which kick-started the shift-gear from Bunnies Can Dream to Harlequin&Lionhead in 2012, resulted in a 400% growth in revenue for Harlequin&Lionhead (a small pat on my shoulders but more to do in 2013!)

Things progressed really fast in Q1 2012 and then a slow Q2, and a crazy Q3. A trunk show at Henri Bendel followed by a Fashion's Night Out event - definitely highlights of the year! I felt like I have pushed myself forward by leaps and bounds. The lesson learned from here is you will never get what you want unless you ask for it! So don't hold back because you may feel inadequate. There is nothing to lose but your dignity if you get rejected. It is just a small price to pay in order to grow, and gain an unforgettable experience and precious learning experiences.

I have the fortune of some really good friends who have been my support and ally. And I started to see familiar faces coming to my shows at different locations looking for my jewelry. It gave me the greatest joy to see your happy faces when you found the perfect piece to take home every time!

Then came the very challenging 4th quarter, both emotionally and physically. It was an exciting and depressing one at the same time. Some of you were there with me and I have to apologize for my temper and my sometimes psychotic behavior :P I want to say I now realize how blessed I am to have the support of my family in what I am doing. We grow stronger together through the tough times. I can only imagine how this is an important preparation for what may be coming our way in the next few years!

One thing I regret most is that I didn't manage to learn driving. That is going onto my 2013 to-do list. No more procrastination!!!

2013 - I have mixed feelings about it. A year of great things to come, and a year to push myself above and beyond my comfort zone. No matter what, this will sure be a milestone year for me. What will 2013 be for you?

Where to spot a bunny that dreams

As we are stepping into December, here are some great news from us few bunnies that dream a lot!

You can find Bunnies Can Dream at our new home, Urban Alchemist Design Collective in Park Slope, 343 Fifth Street, and Fifth Avenue, Brooklyn! 

Spot not only lovely pieces from my line, but also a collection of lovely pieces that will make great gifts this season. Take a look at my earlier post about them here. 

I will be there most Weds so come say hi! 

Also, I'll be at this great holiday market hosted by PS10.

The South Slope Holiday Craft Fair is at it's 3rd year. Enjoy a gallery of artists, artisans and craftspeople, many from Brooklyn and all purveyors of original and high-quality goods. They have assembled a diverse product line for your shopping pleasure, including jewelry, apparel, ceramics and more. 

Saturday, December 15, 2012 from 11am-5pm

P.S. 10, 511 7th Avenue, Brooklyn 11215

Another great place to shop for this holiday is the Brooklyn Craft Central Holiday Market.

I'll be at this market on Dec 15, 2012 11am - 5pm.

But the event is actually a 4-day one, each weekend features different groups of artists and local crafters. Also listed as one of the holiday shopping destination by Time Out New York, this once a year shopping event is one not to miss!

Come say hi! There will be exclusive pieces created for this holiday season, new collection premier and free gift wrapping! I want to see you all :D

Macrame Fall Collection Sneak Peak!

Last Sat and Sun, I was invited to Urban Alchemist Design Collective in Park Slope Brooklyn for a trunk show. I brought the entire line of Harlequin&Lionhead and a few collections from Bunnies Can Dream. It was a delightful boutique and I just love the neighborhood. I did a little post here.

I took the opportunity and played with my macrame collection a bit on Bunnies Can Dream to incorporate all the great colors that would go well with the fall palette, and included more metal components to the design.  Here is a sneak peak - they are not available online yet and currently only available at my trunk shows in New York. If you are interested at them, email me and I can always make one for you ;)

Discover the hidden gem of Park Slope - Urban Alchemist

Imagine a mini Anthropologie in your neighborhood. Well, the Park Slope folks can. Urban Alchemist Design Collective was nice to enough to host a trunk show for me last weekend and I spend 2 days drooling over all the creative and beautiful pieces in the shop.

Located on the quiet street of 5th and 5th Avenue, this Brooklyn boutique houses independent artist works from all over the country, one-of-a-kind mixed media jewelry, t-shirts, home decors and high quality vintage finds and vinyl records.

I'm going to show you a few lovely finds here.

First off, enter the colorful world of Betsy Olmsted. The Lancaster Pennsylvania designer draws in gouache, water color, pen, pencils and spray paint to create original artworks that are used for her collection of towels and blankets.

Next, the super-cute A-line upcycled sweater dress for toddlers by Banbutsu, a British Columbian brand! All their products uses recycled or organic materials. This bright red pinafore top is made of wool and some angora so really soft. But to avoid the protest of Charcoal and Roxy, I did not buy this for my little baby niece. But she'll look so cute  in it!

Roots In Rust

Alison Corrie's Stuffed Animal Collection

Another great find is Roots In Rust by the New York artist, specializes in ‘planters’ and terrariums using air plants and unusual, mostly reclaimed metal, wood and glass objects. It is rustic but modern, definitely one-of-a-kind. The air plants require low maintenance and makes a great gift this fall!
I just love the whimsical animal print on these high quality cushions by Alison Corrie. The only 2 left in the store is the cool alligator and wacky dodo. If they have this rabbit it would be sitting with me, Charcoal and Roxy right now. Alison's artwork is indeed amazing. Check out her collaboration works too!

Urban Alchemist opens Tues-Suns (closes on Mons) from noon-8pm (to 6pm on Suns) and on most days, you will find Tara or Eric from Fencing and Archery Printing Co. there.

If you are hungry from shopping, hop over to my fav. restaurant Juventino for a lovely meal. You can order gluten free yummies and check with the very friendly staffs there if you also want to skip dairy in some dishes due to allergies / dietary requirement.

Next post will be a complete view of my fall macrame collection, including bib necklaces and earrings, launched at my trunk show this past weekend. You can get them in my next trunk show at the Two Fair Ladies 1st annual holiday market. More details to come so stay tuned!

Meet me this weekend in Park Slope!

Yes, it is on! First off, Park Slope Brooklyn!

Date: November 10-11, 2012

Time: noon-8pm

Location: 

Urban Alchemist Design Collective

343 Fifth Street, Brooklyn, NY 11215

Tel: 718.499.0758

Urban Alchemist Design Collective offers an eclectic mix of work by independent designers. It has soon became a Park Slope neighborhood fav boutique since its opening in 2008. Look for the Fall Macrame Hoop collection designed exclusively for Urban Alchemist! Also available is collections from Harlequin&Lionhead, including great statement pieces not available on my Etsy shop. Limited quantity only so come early or they are out.

Another November event I will be in is The 1st Annual Beat-the-Crowds Handmade Holiday Happening presented by Two Fair Ladies. More info to come next week! Check back ;)

Who are the bunnies behind Bunnies Can Dream?

As a tribute to Toffee, who passed away 3 years ago, I am doing a rabbit highlight here on Bunnies Can Dream's blog!

Yes, Toffee will always be my special boy. 

He and Charcoal were the original inspiration for the name of the line, Bunnies Can Dream. They are also the two bunnies in the logo my husband and I created together.

Toffee was born as a harlequin (because of the mixed colors in his body) and a dutch (according to my vet) in 2001. He and Charcoal moved with me from HK to NY. It was a terrible trip for them but they took it like solders. Toffee developed head tilt syndrome back in 2008. The little trooper, being always positive and kind, and could eat like a pig, bounced back with a tilted head the same year, and continued to eat like a champ until his last day on earth. His kidneys were attacked and crystalized, a painful illness that he managed to hide and continued to live with happily until both of them gave up on my high spirited boy on Sept 6, 2009. He has since then lived between Rabbit Heaven and on earth in our hearts and possibly sometimes late at night in our house. Recently, I suspect he is either reincarnated into Roxy or my new baby niece. Both are equally happy, energetic and hungry like Toffee.

Charcoal is such a strange creature.

Charcoal was born a lionhead angora mix a few months later than Toffee but he looks much smaller and acts younger somehow. Charcoal has a princely air about him. More like a cat than a rabbit, he is the fuzziest rabbit ever.  Grooming for his appearance was his most favorite thing to do in the world until Roxy came along. Charcoal is also a very emotionally sensitive creature, although he may not be very sensitive about YOUR emotion. He went into a period of intestinal statsis problem when he was living with us alone after Toffee died. When he was turning 11 last year, we got so worried about his health that we finally decided to get him a friend. It was very hard for me to accept a 3rd rabbit and I think it probably wasn't very fair to Roxy when she first joined us. But the addition of this new young playgirl to Charcoal's rabbit mansion seems to have given him a new found joy in life.

Roxy Rock Rock, my girlie girl

Roxy is my first shelter rabbit. We didn't know how old she is but the vet said she was probably 1 or less when we picked her up Sept 2011. I looked it up and she is a british butterfly dwarf. She has almost symmetrical pattern on her body and her face. We thought she looks like a cow, but she is a bit sazzy so we thought we will have to name her something with an attitude. We called her Roxy, short for rorschach. And then it evolved from a simple Roxy to "Roxy Rock Rock" which is what I usually call her around the house, when she is not a girlie girl. This kid has a strange crush for Charcoal when they first met at the shelter. She was obviously keen on playing with Charcoal, who was only keen on having sex with her (oh well can you blame the poor 11 year old virgin?) She kept pushing him off but kept going back to him. We thought, here is a rabbit who knows what she wants and can keep her man in check. That's my kinda girl. And in the 12 months she was with us, she literally took over the place, turned it into a dirty quarter and put on one full pound (that is like 1/3 of her original weight, say equivalent to 30+ pounds?) Talking about white trash...oh well. We only love her more.

So here you go. The inspiration as well behind these animal necklaces I recently made. Both silhouettes for Toffee and Roxy found a nice home last week. And I have decided to keep the Charcoal silhouette to myself. I am looking forward to some toasty down time this X'mas with Charcoal and Roxy. And if you see a cloud in the sky that looks like Toffee, say hi and eat a carrot!

Meet me in Brooklyn this Sat!

Dekalb Market I am back!

I will be at this great gem of Brooklyn on Sat. Come say hi!


Date: August 25, 2012
Time: 11am - 6pm

Where:

138 Willoughby Street (@Flatbush Ave)

Brooklyn, NY 11201

How to get there:
B, Q, R to Dekalb Ave
A, C, F & R to Jay St. Metrotech

A little adventure into an out of city handmade market

I made a new friend on Sunday at the organic farm, Garden of Eve, in Long Island!

This creature is the funnies thing ever - a rooster (or hen) and a rabbit combo it seems to be. There are 3 of them (see below) and they are so super fluffy if it is not because of the beak I would really touch it. 

They were really noisy too roosting all day long. But it was more hilarious to me than annoying. Despite the super fatigue I was experiencing, from only having 2 hours of sleep.

It was all for the fundraising event for the Forgotten Friends of Long Island. Me and Jessica, who owns Hans-My-Hedgehog Illustration and was also the driver for the trip (because I failed my to-do list for the year and didn't get a driver's license yet), started off 5:15am to pick up our rental car. Drove all the way from Queens to Long Island to be at this lovely little farm where the event was hosted. 

Not only do they have a chicken coop, lots of beautiful herbs and vegetable for sale, a lovely barn turned cafe with great quiche, they have a small lavender patch made into a labyrinth for children to play in! And on the day of, they have a little birthday party and a pony was brought in to let kids have a taste of riding.

We were there to work so I didn't get to enjoy much of the farm but people were just all very nice. I had my tent up, and from time to time when the sun was gentle we would just sit in front of the booth at the wooden table and chairs provided for patrons to sun bath a little. I had my lovely organic meal of the day and helped out the animal organization a little with my sales. It was a great day for Bunnies Can Dream and Harlequin&Lionhead!

BTW, my mascot porcelain rabbit has retired. I have this constant fear I would break it one day so I got this carved wood rabbit in Hong Kong instead. It has a black friend who crouches. I'll show you next time :) 

Meet me in August at these locations

August brings some really exciting events. First off is a very meaningful one for animals in need of adoption and the kind people who take care of them in the interim. 

Event: Fundraiser for Forgotten Friends of Long Island

Date: August 18, 2012 (rain date: Aug 19)
Time: 10am - 5pm
Location: Organic Farm - Garden of Eve
4558 Sound Ave, Riverhead, New York 11901
(At the intersection of Sound Ave and Rt 83/Northville Tpk)

Forgotten Friends of Long Island was established in the spring of 2008 as a rescue organization that would help the neediest animals in our municipal shelters. Their mission statement was to reflect the belief that all lives should never be forgotten. The folks at the organization decided to rescue the animal that was continuously overlooked by others or the one in need of medical care. They constantly host adoption events. Check out their website here.

Garden of Eve kindly offers their space for this coming fundraiser. For more info regarding the organic produce, click here.

For this special event, proceeds of all vendors' sales will help support the organization and their efforts. Bunnies Can Dream and Harlequin&Lionhead will be donating 20% of all sales. I will also have (very) limited quantity of these lovely animal silhouette pendants available at my booth.

These little pendants are all about 3/4 of an inch tall or less, made in brass with satin polish, hung on a delicate plated ball chain of 16 inches long. Do you see your favorite animals here?

By Upstate

Yesterday I went to a fabric dyeing class in Brooklyn, taught by Katrin Reifeiss. It is about a specific Japanese technique called the Shibori. It involves binding techniques, stitching, folding and pole-wrapping. Here is a quick introduction of Shibori based on what I learned. For a thorough introduction, you can also view videos by Narablog on youtube.

Katrin Reifeiss, who also teaches at Textile Arts Center in Brooklyn if you are interested for the full course. But ours was just 3 hours and it flew by like an hour! Here is our table. There was a bucket of squeeze bottles of dyes we could have used for direct dye method but it would have taken at least 12 hours for the fabric to cure in dyes to complete so we opted for the tub dye method, using buckets of dye water and submerging our fabric in it for a few minutes to 45 minutes to achieve the dye.

There are 4 types of methods as I introduced at the beginning of the post. Below is the Pole-Wrapping Shibori technique called the Arashi "Storm" Shibori. It involves some folding of the fabric (or not), then wrapping it around a pole (you can get the PVC pipes from Home Depot) and then stringing the thread over in horizontal lines tightly, then pushing up the fabric to bunch it up before dyeing. Katrin was demonstrating on a scarf she has made before the class. The red scarf is then dyed in navy so you can see the black lines which is the bunched up fabric exposed to the dye, and the lighter red lines which is covered by the thread (i.e., the resist) which is not dyed. 

The other method is called the Binding techniques. Below are some examples:

Ring Shibori - a string is tied to a little bit of fabric bunched up. The white line seen here is created by the resist of the string.

Shell or Spiderweb Kumo Shibori - It is basically a larger Ring Shibori, and the string is wrapped around the bunched up fabric in horizontal lines to create the white line you see over the orange here.

My attempt at the Spiderweb Shibori was ok. The strings were too thin and the color is a bit too light so I cannot really see the horizontal lines. But the ombre effect of yellow to green is very nice in reality. 

My classmate of the day, Christina, is working on her skirt here to try and create an ombre effect. She did a combination of Spiderweb and Arashi on her scarf below and it came out really beautiful.

Another example of the binding techniques is the pleated stripes. Here Katrin made an example for us using this technique, which starts off with pleating your fabric and securing it with rubber band or a string, then you wind the string down the folded fabric to create the horizontal lines you see here. I tried but mine was horrible. Note to myself, must fold my pleats a lot tidier next time and tied the string tight around the fabric!

Then there is the Stitching Shibori Method and this is called the Ori-Nui. You start with drawing a pattern on the fabric, then fold it up a little into a ridge, and stitch running stitches in regular intervals right under the fold line, pull tight to bunch up, then dye. After you dye it, the pattern will emerge as white dots. It is absolutely beautiful.

The last method is called the Folding techniques. Below is my work (yay!) from yesterday which is a not very regular Tortoiseshell Kikko Pattern. The folding techniques involve pleating the cloth, then folding it in triangles or squares, and clamping it down sometimes on its own, or sometimes with a resist material. To achieve the tortoiseshell, I used a pair of chopsticks clamped on both sides of my folded triangular shaped fabric and submerged it into the dye to get all the fabric colored, except for the part where the chopsticks were clamped in tightly. The yellow is actually part of the black dye which somehow got separated from the black and the effect is random but lovely.

Here is my friend Atsuko, and our teacher Katrin. Atusko's dress was dyed using the folding technique, and then using a plastic resist in the shape of a circle but somehow it came out square...?

Fabric dye is fun and I love the surprise you get everytime you unwrap a piece.  Of course, the masters can always control the dye. But for me, it is like magic!