New Years: Leather Earrings and my Inner Spider

One of my new years resolutions is to create more, and hopefully in creating more, I'll also blog more. I spent a lot of time last year working on keeping my vintage space in Found on Fremont well stocked. My space partner and I have a pretty distinct style in how we merchandise, and after next month - it will have been 2 years together in our space! Hard to believe so much time has passed. I'm planning to focus more on my creativity this year, since it's always been my favorite form of self care.

Post Christmas display - retro blues/groovy oranges

One of the constantly restocked handmade items that I routinely sell at Found are my leather earrings. After the Christmas rush, I was pleasantly surprised to find out almost half of my sales were entirely from my handmade jewelry! Recycled leather earrings in simple, rustic and leafy designs seem to be quite popular and it amazes me that I've been working with same leather scraps/colors for over 5 years now.

Along with making more jewelry lately, I've started weaving again. I learned to weave when I was 9 years old and I was at one time the youngest member of the Portland Handweaver's Guild. It's something I've been considering joining again if only I wasn't so bitter about the trendiness of weaving these days... (Yes, over/under on a frame loom is technically "weaving" - but it's also the same technique I taught kindergarteners and there are MANY weaving methods/looms in existence). I taught weaving for about 7 years to children at an elementary school, which always kept me weaving in my spare time. During college, I started weaving less and less, mostly because it is incredibly time consuming. My inner spider (nature's weaver) has been motivated to weave again, particularly while Netflix binging. :) It's only January and I've already finished two new pieces!

Outside of my crafting endeavors, my job takes a lot of my time. Between the commute, meetings, post work networking events, and studying for licensure exams - the weekends never seem to be long enough! Crafting and my vintage resale hobby definitely make for a good way to decompress after long weeks.

Old things and wastewater engineering. Sometimes my job is perfectly in tune to my interests.
Portland's 1920's Ankeny Pump Station. I'm looking forward to managing the ventilation upgrade soon.