Getting To Know... Honey Cooler Handmade

I couldn't be more proud to introduce you to my dear friend Stephanie. I first met Stephanie about 8 years ago in the elevator at FIDM on orientation day and we hit it off right away. Unlike me who quickly jumped ship to sail the educational seas of interior design... Stephanie remained on board the Good Ship Fashion Design. And boh oh boy... did she get it right! After graduation she did some amazing work. To really grasp the talent that this lady has... you must check out the photos on this page.

Stephanie has recently opened an Esty shop, Honey Cooler Handmade.  The virtual shelves are stocked with intricate items that are  tailored for the girlie-est of girly girls... or for those of us who only wish to be so on occasion. Her work is truly beautiful in every sense of the word. I can attest to her workmanship. I have sat across the dinning room table many an afternoon, watching her pieces come to life. Made from ribbons, lace, etc. dating as far back as the 1800's, and crafted with such intense detail... her work is an art form.   

T:: Tell us a little about your background in fashion design. How old were you when you sketched your first "fashion" and what was it? Where did you go to school?

S:: I love lingerie and vintage-styled fashion, so Honey Cooler Handmade is the perfect way for me to channel my obsessions into something more productive than just amassing lots of pretty clothing! I graduated from FIDM in San Francisco with a degree in Fashion Design, but my penchant for fashion started much earlier. I drew my first dresses as a little tot camped out in front of the TV watching The Wizard of Oz and Annette Funicello's Babes in Toyland on repeat. The gowns I drew were ridiculous: huge skirts with swags, giant flowers, bows and fitted bodices. Needless to say, I credit my favorite childhood movies with cultivating my sometimes fantastical fashion sense. Even though my style has calmed down a lot since my youth, I still do some of my best work with a good costume movie playing in the background!

T:: Honey Cooler Handmade- tell us about the über sweet name of your shop.

S:: In addition to being the name of a super sweet drink, honey cooler is Deco slang for a kiss! Since so many of my pieces are inspired by Deco elements, I wanted to choose a fun name that was rooted in one of the coolest time periods in history. Some other vintage slang words I came across in my hunt for the perfect shop name are: moll (a gangster's girl), juice joint (a speakeasy), manacle (wedding ring), cement mixer (a bad dancer), petting pantry (movie theater), tomato (an attractive girl), platter (a record). And there are a million more out there... perfect your vocab and you'll be talking like Bogey in no time... That smudger has one heck of a chassis and stilts for days. Being her dapper would be the cat's pajamas, but she's all static and too heavy on the munitions if you know what I mean...

{note from T: I absolutely adore slang from bygone days & often quote my Grandpop! ❤} 

T:: You are obviously very inspired by many different time periods. When you are designing a piece which periods do you like to combine? And can you shed any light on the difference in fashion and costuming... when speaking about period clothing it can sometime get hazy. 

S:: You're right that I love to combine elements of different time periods in my work! Part of the reason for that is that I'm really indecisive and love far too many things to focus on just one. And to be honest, being truthful to only one period is costuming - I want my pieces to be regarded as clothing to wear every day. My favorite time period by far the Victorian era. I love the 1830's - 1880's, and the 1920's to the 1950's; those periods emphasized a level of workmanship that is absent from most contemporary fashion.

T:: Your pieces are so incredibly detailed. How long does it take you to make some of the different pieces that you offer? And don't you work with mostly antique lace, ribbon, etc? 

S:: The Bow Belts and Wistful Flapper accessory pieces generally take 1-2 hours to make. A Ribbon Corset can take 4 or more hours, whereas the insertion lace pieces can take much longer depending on the intricacy of the design. Each piece is unique, so I never have to adhere to a set schedule or time frame when I sew. The materials I use run the gamut from very old (circa mid-1800's) to contemporary. I use Victorian-era pieces for portions of the Souvenir Tops and the laces used in the Deco Camisoles. If I'm lucky I'll come across old fabrics now and then, but I find that they usually don't hold up in the long run so I usually use new fabrics for the Deco Camisoles and Garconne Tap Shorts. Old laces are actually quite strong though, so I have no problem using them! The Ribbon Corsets are made with mostly vintage ribbon; my most recent (Betsy) was fashioned with ribbon from the 1930's!

T:: If you were a food or meal... what would you be, and why?

S:: This is a hard question to answer! I'd probably be pizza because it's the most delicious food on the planet! At its core it's uncomplicated, but in an instant you can gussy it up with all kinds of awesome toppings and it becomes something unique and awesome!

T:: Tell us 6 things that you are grateful for right this minute.

S:: 1) My amazing husband. I'm lucky to be married to my best friend.  2) Fountain pens!  3) Growing spots of blue sky after a dismal few days of weather.  4) My always-improving sewing skills.  5) Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles in Berkeley.  6) Tammy, for being such a great crafty partner! (And for featuring me on her rockin' blog!)

________The Goods________

One lucky reader will win a $20 shop credit from Stephanie's deliciously beautiful shop, Honey Cooler Handmade!

how to enter::
{there are 3 possible entries per person. the first one is mandatory before entering w/ the 2nd & 3rd. please be sure to leave a separate comment for each entry.}


required entry::
- Visit the Honey Cooler Handmade Shop & ❤ your favorite item & then leave a comment here with the link to the item you ❤'d. 

additional entries:: {please leave a separate comment for each one}
- Follow the Honey Cooler Handmade Blog  

-  Copy & Paste this Tweet:: { Enter the @HoneyCoolerHM Giveaway on @punkrawkpurl to win a $20 Shop Credit: http://bit.ly/jPzI8D }

The giveaway is open to all readers (U.S. & International) & ends on June 22nd at 11 pm pst. Winner will be chosen by random number generator & announced on June 23rd. 

And if that wasn't enough... 

Stephanie has very generously offered PuNk rAwK pUrL readers 

20% off in the Honey Cooler Handmade shop! 

Please use code: ROSCO20

This coupon code will expire June 24th 2011
{ can you tell that someone has a lil' crush on Rosco P. Coltrane the cat? }

❤  

-t

Getting To Know...

Welcome to the very first of many features & giveaways to be hosted on the 

PuNk rAwK pUrL Blog! I must say, that as much as I enjoy answering interview questions, 

I am ecstatic to finally be sitting in the interviewer seat.  

So, without further ado, let's get to know our first guest...

  

I am so very pleased to introduce you to the super awesome Julie from the fabulous vintage shop, Restless Hearts. Julie is also one-half of the perpetually pretty blog, Yonder! Julie and I met on the terrific Twitter, and it was an instantaneous mutual-funny-girl-crafty-blogger-etsy-shop-crush. She is an über sweet and multi-talented lady! I hope that you enjoy reading about Julie, her shop, blog, & enter to win the pretty pretty prize that Julie is offering. 

       

T::  Yonder /Restless Hearts... Tell us a little about the people /shops behind Yonder the Blog. 

J::  Yonder is made up of Megon and me.  Megon and I met when we lived in St. Louis together.  I think at the time I was 23 and Megon was a few years younger.  We've been friends since and have worked together on different projects through the years.  In St. Louis, we had a zine called "what's up bra?" when we were both involved in the punk/hardcore scene there.  In Austin, we both worked together as Juggernaut, which was an accessory line.  Today, we live 1,222 miles apart and we started Yonder as a way to keep in touch.  The blog has become something bigger than I ever imagined it to be.  In my head, I thought, "oh yeah, it'd be cool to have something to keep in touch visually" I never imagined we'd be doing features and giveaways for amazing artists.  The whole process is something I love.  I love using the blog as a tool to meet new people and as a tool to reach people.  I try to blog everyday.  It keeps me grounded and focused.  I started restless hearts when I was living in Austin.  I'd always wanted to have an Etsy shop and originally my shop was handmade items for people who rode bicycles.  I didn't have a car and I made bicycle influenced accessories like belt pouches and top tube pads.  I didn't have much success with it, and started to get more streamlined in my approach to Etsy.  The handmade items I have in my shop now are more sophisticated and I'm happy with that.  

☛ Yonder is now offering super affordable sponsor spots. ☚

T::  If you could bring any one animal /bird /fish/ reptile home from the zoo, who would it be, and why? 

J::  I'd have to say a big cat or a giraffe.  I've always been attracted to animals from the safari and I LOVE cats!!  If I could have a cheetah and it wouldn't kill me, I would.  They are so cute!!  The idea of having a cheetah kitten that has paws bigger than my hands is just too much!!

T::  You've lived in a lot of different cities. Take your favorite thing about each place that you've lived & create your ideal city. Tell us about it.  What would the name of this awesome town be? 

J::  Wow, that's hard! Well, to start off with, I've lived in St. Louis, Austin, Boston, Orlando and Columbia.  The thing I loved most in Boston was the transportation.  It was easy to get around, which was nice.  I loved the friendly southern mentality of Austin.  It was such a joy talking with people there because they are so laid back and easy going.  Orlando had AMAZING weather.  It never really got hot there and when you did get hot, there was a nice breeze to cool you off.  I also loved the hanging moss trees and all the water.   St. Louis has a lot of history and old, old buildings.  They are actually pretty great about not tearing things down too quickly which I love.  Columbia is small and I like that.  It's easy to get around, it's safe, it's clean.  I think the name would be the hardest to come up with--I'm so bad at naming things!  In Florida, there is a place in between Tampa and Orlando called Orlampa and we always used to think it was funny to try to come up with new city names by combining them.  So maybe, St. Loustinbosandombia, haha?  

T::  Next lifetime.... who, what, and where do you want to be? 

J::  Whew, let's see.  I want to be everything I am now, but better.  It's scary to think that my next lifetime would be in the future, but it might be.  I've always thought of going back in time, but never really had a desire to go into the future very far.  I would definitely be a woman, but perhaps instead of getting as many tattoos next time, I could try a life without any.  Maybe I could try a life totally opposite of my own.  No tattoos, no college, no travelling.  Wait a minute, this is sounding boring.  Or what if I could try a life that is mine, but amplified?  Extreme tattoos, brick and mortar shop, travelling like crazy.  I don't know.  I have a lot to learn, but I don't know what aspects of my next life would help me to learn those lessons.  It's hard to say.

T::  You are quite the crafty lady... who runs a vintage shop on Etsy.  You've been sneaky with a few handmade goodies in your shop (recycled map garland and some adorable bunting napkins).  Tell us about you as a craftsperson.  & Might you have any plans to expand your handmade talents into a similar entrepreneurial venture? 

J::  I'm what you call a dabbler.  I was in art school for 8 long years and my major is, are you ready for this...fine art.  Which means, I didn't have to pick any emphasis.  I loved this, but of course, it just perpetuates my inability to focus on making one kind of thing.  That's really my biggest battle right now; focusing on one kind of craft.  Ever since I graduated from school in 2006, I've been trying to figure out what kind of crafting will allow my attention to flourish.  So far, I've tried a lot of things, but I get so impatient so quickly that it's off to another project soon thereafter.  This month, I'm forcing myself to focus on an idea I've come up with.  The hope is to create a project that I won't lose interest in, and one that will be able to provide a portfolio strong enough with which to create a new shop.  The whole reason I wanted to get into Etsy in the first place was to sell MY creations to the world.  I've loved selling vintage, don't get me wrong, but I really wanna get back to making things again, and I want to be successful at it.  

T::  Tell us 6 things that you are grateful for right this very minute? 

J::  my health, the amount of love in my life, my experiences, my friends, my family and the opportunity that every day holds.  

________The Giveaway________

Plucked fresh from the shelves of the Restless Hearts Shop just in time to adorn the Springtime fashions of one lucky PuNk rAwK pUrL reader... 

Golden Brooch w/ Perfectly Peach Pearl Center-  2.5" diameter

How To Enter:: 
- Follow Yonder + follow this blog + leave a comment telling me which animal you would bring home from the zoo. {all of these are required for initial entry}


Additional entries (please leave a separate comment for each)::
-  Copy & Paste this Tweet:: { Enter the @restlesscrafts Giveaway on @punkrawkpurl to win a vintage brooch: http://bit.ly/lM1t6N }
-  Facebook it 
-  Blog about this giveaway & include a link to your post here in your comment.

The giveaway is open to all readers (U.S. & International) & ends on May 25th at 9 pm pst. Winner will be chosen by random number generator & announced on May 26th. 

❤  
-t

Check out both Restless Hearts Crafts & PuNk rAwK pUrL on My Girl Thursday this month!