on the road

Hey guys,
It's squirrel. :oB

Damn, it's been long time since the last post, which means I have so much stuff to share with you.  Where should I start??
I finished 2 new jackets and had a photo shoot for the new ones including those embroidered items (you don't know what I am talking about? well why don't you check out the previous post! ) and then went to japan from late April to early May and met cool guys from leather sewing/dying factories.  They provided me a tremendous inspiration.  I definitely gotta talk about this to you but it would be a long story and I still have to fix the sleeves of my bomber jacket tonite, so for tonight, I should just tell you a kind of good short story of my husband, Caveman. 

"How did the Caveman come to California?"

It was 16 years ago.  Caveman was standing on the muddy alley staring at young hippie guys getting in an old bus which traveled from east coast to the west coast.   Its old engine was humming and about to hit the road.      Caveman was mad.  What was caveman mad about?  I don't really know.  Even the caveman must haven't known why.  He was just mad with no reason or maybe this young caveman was just bored.  He starts walking towards the bus and got in.  he does quick greetings to the hippie dudes and sits back on the back seat.   Then the bus starts moving slowly on the muddy alley and it gets faster and faster.
He never looked back.  He just sat back watching the passing view and that was it.  That's how caveman said good bye to his hometown and came to san francisco.

He's been here for 16 years straight since then.   I wonder what he was thinking when the landscape of his hometown greensboro passing the window of the bus and his story reminded me of a story about a rooster which was living in the park nearby my parents' house long time ago.    The rooster showed up suddenly out of nowhere.  Nobody knew how he got there.  He made a  cook doodle doo noise in early morning like 4 am or 5 am as a decent rooster.  You guys must think neighbors tried to get rid of him but my parents and their neighbors, surprisingly, loved him even though he woke them up so early.  Maybe he brought them some kind of nostalgia of old country life in Japan or something.  He was living in the park and kept performing his duty as a rooster every  morning.   One day, My mom saw a construction truck was parking right close to the tree which the rooster was using as a nest (he built his bed on the tree to, maybe, avoid attacks from stray cats.).    Then she saw the rooster flew down to the bed of the truck.  Soon later the truck started moving quietly  with the rooster on its bed and that was it...everything happened in a moment quietly and that was the last time my mom saw the rooster.  Somehow he decided to hit the road again.  There was no reason.  I guess he just missed the smell of wind....or something... and nobody saw him since then.

This is the story of Caveman and the traveling rooster and the video I put below is the song for the story.  "head full of doubts and road full of promises" by avett brothers.  The title fits quite well on these stories, doesnt it?  enjoy.
--- squirrel :oB

devotion

So far, so good!  The patterns were done!  The embroidery samples looked cute!  The organic fabric I got was great!

I just needed to tell them where to embroider on the pants and the jacket and I didn't know this part would be the most pain in the ass part at this moment!!

Printing out st. caveman and his fellows....

What I had to do was to put the creatures on the patterns.  Each pants has front and back.  The jacket is more complicated..it has front and back, then side panels, collar and 2 pieces of sleeves. 

Laying out the characters and wiping them off and starting it over,  I repeated this routine like a hundred times.  sometimes I went back to my computer and even changed the colors and the sizes of the details.    A lot of researches of woven patterns helped me.  I was even checking embroideries on curtains I could see from a cab without noticing.  Brain storming!!

Once I could figure out the trick to make it look good, the rest went smooth.  It's always like this.  It takes long time to figure out the trick but once we figured it out, everything goes so smooth and quick.  It's hard at the beginning but we should not give up there.  Just keep struggling and getting some hints from everywhere and eventually we see the tinny light at the end of the tunnel and once we can see the light the exit is so close!  This is squirrel's wisdom. :oB

Anyway, this small fight with tiny creatures took me for a week...

In other words, I must have been experiencing the same feeling as the people who did that illuminated manuscript in the medieval era.  I was experiencing the "devotion" I sensed from their works...

(I know.  I hear you are saying mine is a lil more easier comparing with their works...but still check the pics down here!)


↓　I put the characters on the samples and check the position of the characters...

then lay them out on the patterns.

jacket pieces...

Piles of the patterns.

It was hell of a work. 

I sent out the patterns and fabric and waited for 2 weeks or so...then they sent me this picture to let me check if it was OK to go ahead.



These are all done by hand. 
This IS a real devotion. 

Sadly, in this capitalist modern life, the devotion must be for money...Still, we could call it the devotion for art but you know, we are the generation after Andy Warhol...we all know there's no such devotion motivated by one pure love.  But it is too sad to say it out loud here in the squirrel's blog, so let's just say this is a pure love to "PIZZA"!! 
St. caveman would definitely say that!

The trial embroidery looked great and I told them to go ahead. 

After 1 month or so,
One sunny Monday afternoon, I got a package from India.

In the package.... here you go!

amazing!!

They wrapped each pieces in this thin soft papers.  They even smelled foreign county smell! ha ha!  Both Caveman and I smiled and even laugh out loud when we saw the st. caveman through this thin paper.

The jacket back.

The next step is sending these embroidered parts of jacket and pants out to a seamstress who has 20 year experience.

The good thing is the sewing factory she is working at is close by the leather wholesale place where I always get leathers from.  So I took Muni train and Bart and walked down to the sewing factory.  This part is the best I like.  My works are done by the squirrel actually walking around in San Francisco. 

Waited for another 1 month...and these are what I got.

It is super duper wide but I carefully chose the interfacing so it has a crispy shape, which I wanted to get!

The rabbit pants with my new jacket!

The first outfit is finally done.

cute, huh?

 Even inside looks great! 

 

The jacket!

There was nothing but an idea first and I made it from the scratch.  No one knows if it goes well or fails. No guide book, of course.  And I got this result.  How cool this whole thing I am fascinated with is! 

-squirrel

struggle

So my cute brand label (click here for the article about my brand label) made me start thinking I wanted to make a fabric like a tapestry which has st. caveman and his fellows were woven in.  I needed to make a couple of a pair of pants to style with my leather jackets for my new collection.   Models cant walk runway with only leather jackets, you know.  It would be too "ooh la la", if they walk without any bottoms.  And I didn't wanna use the items which I didn't design. 
It would be cool to make those pants out of the original fabric I designed.  So I decided to make an original fabric with st. caveman woven in.

I started to google the weavers.  alibaba.com!  even though we have these convenient tools, they never work without a correct keyword.  I couldn't find anything I needed.  At that time I was still working for a local couture designer's place and the designer had done tons of fancy Indian embroidery stuff.  So I contacted the embroidery guy in India to ask for a help!  and thank god...the embroidery guy replied me and told me what I needed would be a "hand loom".  He didn't know any hand loom mills but still, knowing the correct keyword was a big step for the squirrel.  I went back to alibaba.com and started looking for the hand loom mill and easily could get one! 

However, man, there are so many hardships to get over once we decided to do something new and original.

The next hardship was a "minimum order". 

The minimum order was 1000 meters.  So I negotiated and reduced it to 250 meters....Still 250 meters of fabric are about enough for 125 pants.  It is way too many pants for the tiny lil squirrel brand.  But I really didn't wanna miss this chance....so what this squirrel did was to ask around people if there were someones who wanted to share the loom.  Fortunately this squirrel has a lot of cool artist friends and she could get more responses than she expected!!...but still, while I was calculating the shipping cost and custom stuff, I started being scared because too much money flows.  It was too risky and too complicated.  And I didn't wanna involve my friends in this risky situation.  Being too stubborn and sticking to our first ideas would provide nothing.  Could be even dangelous...but still it was too quick to give it up.  We don't really need to give it up as long as we prepare alternative plans... I remembered the hand loom person told me what I wanted to make might also work with embroidery...so I got back to the embroidery guy.  It is more safer because the minimum order is less than hand loom...Thus my plan B started....

Meanwhile my illuminated manuscript was getting done...This is the one.

But this pattern was too complicated to be embroidered.
So I made a lil more simple version and sent the image to them.

This is the first sample they did.

How cute!!

St. caveman looks great in the embroidery!

 

Acorn bug looks even cuter in the embroidery!

My best favorite part is this.  Hedgehog!  She came out very profound.  Looks like a dark star!! This reminded me of my favorite song which title is "dark star" by Grateful Dead.  "Daaark star crusshing...♪"

They told me if the background has a texture like twill, it will get more "woven" look.

So the squirrel ran to the organic fabric whole sale place in my town.
This is their website if you are interested...they have tons of cool organic fabric in reasonable price.  (10 yards minimum)

http://picknatural.com/

This is the one I got.

A beautiful hemp fabric with a beautiful texture and color.

The next step I had to do was finishing up the design of the pants I had been working on to send the patterns of those to the embroidery guys so they can mark on the fabric with my patterns for positioning where they should embroider.

I made two pants, and guess what?  I even made a jacket, too!  I was so excited these would be an awesome st. caveman suit!!

This is the sample.  I always make a sample in cheap canvas fabric.

As you can see, the jacket looked a lil too heavy so I made it shorter but still I didn't wanna make it too short considering when people wear it with jeans.  We the designers always gotta imagine various situations. 

Also made the pants a lil narrower and made the shape like a streamline shape to avoid to get a wasted part of the fabric.  The fabric is 60" width and when we cut pattern pieces out, we have to layout the pattern pieces effectively within the 60" width to keep  it low cost.   This is a very professional detail so it would be a lil hard to understand for you guys but  this pants were too wide and that could be the cause of providing a lot of wasted space on fabric.  So I had to reduce the pants width but still needed the pants to look super duper wide...reduced it lil by lil, and stopped at the point I think this is the most I could reduce to keep it look super wide!! 

you know, fashion designers always struggle in between their budgets and design ideas.  We gotta work effectively in those restrictions.  Being a fashion designer is like this.  Not fabulous as you guys think..... 

And at this moment, I didnt know the next step would be more pain in the ass!

oops, it is time to get back to work....I will tell you the rest of the story tomorrow nite!  

"Can the squirrel get over the hardships and get this projcet done?!"  

Wait until tomorrow! 

-squirrel

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the mole

One rainy Sunday afternoon in late November, Squirrel was craving a cup of hot cocoa and listening Robert Wyatt in The nest...She especially likes his band called "matching mole".  The band name is just adopted an English words which sounds like "machine molle", the French translation of his band Soft Machine.  This weird but warm sounds used to stimulate her instinct as a teenage squirrel and she realizes it still does even now.  Also she is thinking about a one lil mole which always comes up to her mind along with this band name...who's name is "Krtek".  Krtek the tiny lil mole...

****

Hey everyone.  I'm Squirrel.  So today, I will tell you about this cool lil fellow called "Krtek"

Krtek is a tiny mole.  His name Krtek means "mole" in Czech.

He's a very sweet, curious, cheerful, and brave character created by a Czech artist Zdeněk Miler.  (Well I don't even know how to pronounce his name.  Too hard to pronounce for this rodential creature)

Anyway, I used to love this cartoon when I was a baby squirrel but I remember it vaguely because I was too young.  So I started looking for the cartoon in you tube and once I started watching it, I started being obsessed again.

Let me show you some masterpieces.

This is awesome...."the mole and a match box." 



This lil guy finds a match box in the woods. What amazed me is, you know what? He can lay in the match box...means he's really tiny. You can compare the size with the size of the leaves in the video. The pond they float the match box as a boat in must be just a puddle for us. An adventure in a puddle!! This tiny world is so awesome. He starts playing using this match box with his girl friend, the mouse. And they are full of creative ideas to play with this small match box. Im sure you'll be impressed how cool they are.



This is awesome too.  "the mole finds a star!"



Spring has come! The mole and his fellows are busy cleaning up their nests to welcome their new season!   While the mole is cleaning his nest, he accidentally finds a shinny green unknown object!!!  What the heck is this shinny thing? 
He goes out his nest.  It is already night.  He holds the green shinny thing in his hand, which is somewhat bigger than his other parts of the body and also a uniqueness of the kind called mole, and reaches out the hand to the sky (his short legs are tippy toeing)...yes,  this tiny mole is kindly trying to give the tiny shinny thing back to the sky because he thinks this thing is a "star" fell from the sky.  It is obvious to me that he cant reach the sky.   He is the size who can lay in the match box...and sky is unlimitedly high.  How could he?  But he will.  We know he'll do it somehow...that's the mole.  that's Krtek.

Something like this...this kind of cuteness is filled in this cartoon.

Eventually the fascination this catoon has drove me to research the background story of this cartoon.  It dates back to the days of Czech as Czechoslovakia.  Back in the 60's in the country, artists were strictly controlled the freedom of expression by the government.  The only place they were allowed to express their arts without any surveillance of the government  was the art for kids.  So the artists put their efforts for children wishing the bright future for kids and their country.  

As researching about this cartoon, I found Zdeněk Miler the creator of this cartoon just passed away on November 30th.  (it's only last week!!) It was a strange coincidence that I remembered of this cartoon all of a sudden around that day...
it is kind of like a hunch, maybe.

He lived for 90 years.  He must be the one who witnessed the history changing...

 

****

While I've been watching this mole cartoon, I couldn't help noticing that I've been feeling some kind of melancholic feeling.  I know it sounds weird.  The characters are cute, the stories are cheerful and nothing but fun.  Some of them are satirical and still end up in fun ending which tells us how intelligent the creator was.  How could I feel that kind of sad feeling?  But it was there.  A pinch of a heartache deep inside of my heart. I was thinking it was just a nostalgy or sentiment which the cartoon brought me because it reminded me of my childhood memories or something.

Then one day I got a message from my long term friend and while I was reading the message I started realizing what exactly the feeling was.  

2011 was a remarkable year for me because of the disaster in japan.  (This squirrel used to live in japan.)  In the email which tells me a recent news of one of my long term friend living in japan and also a mom of two,   she said she had to give up letting her kids take participate in the fall event "potato field" due to the consideration of the "soil radiation".  I used to love this event when I was a kid.  especially I loved watching moles showing their tip of noses mischievously.   Running around all over the potato field laughing and digging potatoes were so fun. I even liked just watching the shapes of the potatoes which were all different. (i was a strange kid. )  I still remember the color of the potatoes, the color of soil, the color of the sky and the sunshine!! The sunshine of autumn!!  Those innocent memories... 

But now we must have destroyed and completely lost the soil and water which consist the field where moles, his fellow animals, and kids chuckling and cackling and spontaneously running around, and they might not come back forever. 

It was this kind of guilt feeling and desparation making me sad every time I hear Krtek's cute laughing voice.   In japan, not only krteks but also people can't live spontaneously as they used to any more. 

The feeling of loss of the innocence...

that what I felt through the cute innocent face of Krtek... 

Oops, am i being too negative??

I wonder if Zdeněk Miler is still alive and decide to make a new episode of Krtek.

He would make a witty episode for sure and tell us "don't give up the hope.  You really shouldn't give up the hope and the future at the time like these." through Krtek.  He and Krtek must laugh at my strange sad feeling and I would be even embarrassed.  

I should take over his tough spirit and gut which got him through the difficult period.
And think what I can do for kids as an artist squirrel...

R.I.P. Zdeněk Miler. 

Thank you for your great works.

----squirrel

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ghosts

it's funny.  caveman gives me a lot of nick names... "squirry", "bean", "bug", "worm"...his favorite one these days is "creature".  he even made it short and called me "creach" today...((chuckle))

caveman is a really funny guy.  Have you guys ever read short stories of Salinger?  There is a short story about a girl.   She was kinda difficult person, i remember.  Her boyfriend was one of the twins in glass family, Walt, and  he was the only one who could make this difficult girl laugh.  Caveman is like this.  He's the only one who can make this squirrel laugh out loud.   Once you meet him,  I'm sure you'll love him, too.

One of the funny things about this caveman is he loves chickens.  He has a huge collection of chicken goods like ceramic chickens, tin chickens, fluffy chickens.....oh and the chicken he got most recently was made of tons of chillies.(!!)  This chicken patch in our nest is huge and it is becoming bigger and bigger! 
People might ask "why chickens? " at the first time they visit us.  But there's no answer.  I didn't ask this question to caveman...I  just understood the fact that caveman loved chicken.  it was just natural...or even supernatural.  Maybe something was telling me there is a reason and I might had sensed it deep inside of my heart without knowing it......

The story I'll tell you today is the secret reason of caveman's chicken patch!!...sheeesh! come closer...it's a story of ghosts.  It's not the title of Paul Auster's book or album title of phish.    It is OUR story of ghosts!

As I told you before, I am not spiritual.  I don't have sixth sense at all.  Basically most of the squirrels are existentialists.  This squirrel as well, so you know... we don't believe "reincarnation" or the life after death.  Squirrel's motto for life is "carpe diem".  "Seize the day!"  But still I think it is mentally "healthy" to think there could be invisible things exist in this world.  I mean it is arrogant to think the human being can see everything and the world is made of only what we can see.  When this kind of arrogance gets connected to thoughtlessness,  there's always a bad ending waiting for us.  You know what I mean?

Most of the "ghost" can be explained as an illusion of our brains.  When I was a teenage squirrel I read an interesting article about brain.  Let's say your drunken neighbor came home and slammed the door and the noise woke you up.   Your body suddenly wakes up because of the noise but your brain is still sleeping so your brain gets confused and reflects the image in your brain to your actual view.  That reflection is what people call a ghost.   This happened to me long time ago.  I came home drunk and passed out. I don't know how long I was sleeping but suddenly I woke up and stared at the ceiling.....something was moving.  I could see it clearly.  It was cute foxes wearing japanese traditional bridal costumes and they are marching to celebrate their wedding celemony.  I was surprised but I knew the "trick" of brains so I wasn't scared at all.  Actually the illusion looked very happy so i was cool and never scared.  since then i hadn't have that kind of brain illusion until i had one at this caveman and squirrel's nest.

One night i was sleeping.  Caveman was next to me as usual.  then suddenly for some reason i woke up.  i just opened my eyes and staring at the hallway.  It was dark as usual but what was unusual was ......a rooster was there.  It was actually a man which has a rooster head.  he was like native american's spirit or something.  kinda cool lookin' funky rooster guy.  and again, I wasn't scared because caveman was sleeping next to me and i knew the "trick" so i kept staring at him.  He actually looked like a very laidback cool dude.   He waved his wing like hand very friendly to me and suddenly looked away and started inviting someone who was at somewhere in the hallway...Then another rooster dude appeared.   The two big laidback rooster dudes were standing there at the door of our bedroom.  I was like "wooo, this is surrealistic and cool or what?"  then they started inviting me like "hey come join us! come! come!"   Then the caveman started rolling over...and the next moment those playful rooster dudes were gone.  and I just rolled over and went back to sleep as if nothing happened...crazy, huh? 

Sometimes I still wonder what could happen if caveman did'nt roll over and i went with them.   I kinda wanna believe they were real ghosts and they are the reason why caveman is so obsessed with chicken statues.   They are manipulating caveman and chuckling every time caveman gets a new chicken item...

That's all folks!  This is the story behind our chicken patch and also that "rising roosters" as guardian angels behind St. caveman in my snack:u illuminated manuscript.  Hope you guys had fun reading this!

oh,,,,(FIY, I never smoke weed )
-squirrel