September 2017 - LAFashionsnob.com

Desert Loom Trunk Show at Vida Moulin

Sep 30 2017

Tiffany Egbert is a Phoenix-based ‘jack-of-all-trades,’ as she dabbles in everything; whether it be graphic design, photography, macrame maker, vintage seller, and now….painter. Her brand- Desert Loom, initially launched with woven tapestries and vintage clothing, but now she’s switched the focus to handmade macrame and the abstract paintings. She recently hosted a trunk show at Vida Moulin, which featured her fluid paintings. She recalls, “I’ve been creative my entire life but had never really painted up until March of this year. I had been having more interest in creating handmade things since the majority of my creative work up until two years ago had been primarily digital and I just needed something more tangible. I initially learned how to weave and then I learned macrame and finally, most recently I discovered fluid painting.”

The local boutique was the perfect place for Tiffany’s work, as it just has that earthy, bohemian vibe. The space is curated by Chantell Moulin Nighswonger, and features women’s clothing, accessories, home decor, and gift items from independent brands from all over the globe. She also has some select vintage pieces thrown in the mix, as well as a DIY Succulent Bar, and DIY Bar- where you can style a vintage camo jacket with cool patches and such.

Tiffany, on what inspired her to expand into painting: “I was on YouTube looking for a tutorial on how to do paper marbling so that I could create a cool background for a design project I was working on and this suggested video on fluid painting popped up. I watched it and was mesmerized and ended up watching the majority of this entire youtube channel where these two artists were doing fluid painting demos. After doing a bit more internet research, I decided I needed to try it and I bought myself a little resin kit for my birthday, which was in March. I used up the entire bottle of resin in about a week and was hooked. I knew I had to do more. I had remembered something called the 100 Day project and thought maybe I could do some sort of 100 Day painting project. It turned out the official 100 Day project started about 2 weeks from this time so I decided to go for it and created 100 fluid painting in 100 days. It was pretty ridiculous and totally worth it.”

She explains her creative process further, “The materials are acrylic paint mixed with resin and I generally paint on canvas or custom cut wood boards. It’s fluid painting so there are actually no brushes involved. You basically mix your paint and your resin into cups and then pour each individual color onto your canvas row by row. Then you hold the canvas in your hands and move it around to move the paint around. The resin hardens within about 45 minutes, so you have to work somewhat quickly which is actually nice you can’t really over think it. After you do your pouring, you take a torch and pop all the little air bubbles so that it has a super smooth finish. When you are all done you completely cover your piece and leave it for about 24 hours so that the resin cures. When I started my paintings were pretty random. Now I’ve got it down to a bit of a science and am able to have pretty good control of the paint even though I’m not using brushes. Sometimes the materials don’t behave like you expect them to and you get surprising results, which is usually pretty fun and make’s it kind of magical. It’s kind of like it’s not completely up to me how it turns out. I like that.”

“Every piece is one of a kind. I couldn’t even replicate one of my own pieces because again I have a good amount of control but sometimes the materials like to make their own decisions. I think because of my background in design I’m able to see balance and color in a special way which really helps me out in creating these pieces…Because I have a ton of artwork on my hands after doing the 100 Day project, my pieces are currently priced pretty reasonably. The pieces are priced by size from $75 for a 1’x’1 to $300 for a 3’x3’ circular piece.”

Find Tiffany on Instagram HERE and HERE. Be sure to also check out her Desert Loom website.

Vida Moulin is located at:

1568 Bethany Home Rd.

Phoenix, AZ 85014

HOURS:

Monday: 12-7pm

Tuesday-Friday: 11-7pm

Saturday: 11-6pm

Sunday: 11-5pm

A Market Off Mill Celebrates Grand Opening

Sep 22 2017

A Market Off Mill (or AMOM) held their Grand Opening celebration a couple months ago. It is a shared space concept that was created by Shanel Smith. Smith originally had a traveling and online boutique called Obsessed, which she started 2.5 years ago. It was a creative outlet for her to sell her repurposed vintage tees, along with other clothing from up-and-coming designers from around the country.

After doing that for some time, she felt that she wanted to plant some roots in the community. She explains further, “I knew that I needed to settle down and begin creating a solid foundation for myself, and I knew I couldn’t have done that with the traveling boutique so I begin exploring options for a retail space. To be honest, I was a little scared of pursuing that on my own, so my sister gave me the idea of having other small business owners join me and making it a shared space. And so AMOM was born on a Sunday night sitting around the dinner table.”

She found a quaint space off Mill Avenue, and enlisted the help of several local makers to join her in the venture. Along with selling her Obsessed brand, the other makers include: Slather Botanicals, Emerge, Keep It Wild Co., Southwest Leggings, Adam Rabbit Jewelry, Bearded Lads, BÄRA, Knee Deep Denim, Iconic Cocktail Co., and Burn Candle Company. “As a small business owner, it is hard to work with other people because you feel like a lot of the people who are “helping” do it with intentions of benefitting themselves. Sometimes it’s hard to find people who really want to help small businesses grow….well I wanted to change that. With AMOM I wanted my fellow small business owners to know that this truly is about them, it is about helping them grow and bringing more attention to their brand and awareness to the community about small companies who previously were online only or a pop-up-shop. This is not a business venture for myself, but a business venture for all small businesses in Arizona. I want this to be a place they can come and grow,” Smith explained.

The Grand Opening celebration was well-attended. It was so great seeing such a welcoming community that supports small businesses. Guests were treated to cocktails (and mocktails) by Matt and Kaylee- the duo behind the famous-all-over-Phoenix Iconic Cocktail Co. Passed bites were served by Honey Bears BBQ, which unfortunately I wasn’t able to savor due to diet restrictions; however, I could tell that guests enjoyed them, as plates were empty in a matter of minutes. For dessert, there were beautifully decorated cactus cookies, succulent cupcakes, and small cakes in a cup- created by Lisa’s Boxed Kakery. Those little cake cups pack so much flavor in such a small bite!

Follow A Market Off Mill on Facebook and Instagram to check out when their workshops are, as well as other announcements.

Scroll down to see more photos from the event.

Birdytell Delivers Love and Thoughtfulness Throughout Phoenix

Sep 19 2017

“A little birdy once told me…. ”

Lisa Morrow was five when she moved to Arizona. For a while, she traveled around; but always found herself back in Arizona. She’s always had a fondness for the state, as well as entrepreneurship and creating. She owned a coffee shop in Phoenix for a bit until becoming a parent. She then got her Master’s in counseling, and worked as a crisis counselor. It was during that time that she realized how disconnected and lonely people were, especially since technology has gotten more prevalent in our daily lives. It had her thinking about how to connect the future as our society becomes more plugged in.

Birdytell was largely born out of a moment of frustration. Lisa kept getting asked, “What do your kids/husband want?” as it neared the holidays. “I’m going to be buying all these gifts, and trying to take care of all these needs, and I won’t have time to spend with my children because I only have a few days off to do what I love to do… It’s the idea that we are purchasing things, but we don’t really know people very well anymore…There’s got to be a way for people to be more thoughtful to one another. I think there are ways to connect with people through celebration, and even connect them within their community. All these feelings just bubbled up in this moment while I was at the office… I just started thinking about how we can know and connect each other better and do that through celebration,” Lisa explained.

So one day, she came home and told her husband about the idea. “I wanted to eventually leave my job and start this whole team and company, and he was very supportive. The next morning, he said, “you’ll have to come up with a name,” Lisa was telling me. “I just didn’t want the word, ‘gift’ in the name. I wanted it to be something sweet and a little more meaningful, like a ‘little birdy told me…’ So the husband wrote ‘a little birdy told me,’ and changed the configuration of the words. He came up with ‘birdytell.’ I love birds so much, but it had nothing to do with that. It was just a phrase that came to mind. It’s like if a little birdy could tell you a little bit more or remind you that we want to be thoughtful…People have a deep need to connect and the intention is there..there’s just a mismatch of how it plays out. So if you just had a birdy to tell you, then we could all be a little more thoughtful, so it’s a play on that.”

Throughout the years, entrepreneurship has risen in Arizona, especially in the Phoenix area. Due to that, Lisa thought that the community would be a perfect start for this bespoke business. She found a quaint office space in the heart of Downtown Scottsdale, based upon its vicinity to the different communities around Phoenix. She wanted to source everything as thoughtfully as possible. “We wanted to know the people that made the items in person. We didn’t want things coming in boxes. If we were going to buy products, we wanted to support small businesses. We want to champion people that are trying to create great things and make their dreams come true. We also do things that don’t make sense. We don’t ship. We’ve had to turn away business, as it doesn’t fulfill the experience of us really wanting to be something special and unique.” With that being said, they only hand-deliver within a 25-mile radius of the Phoenix Metro area. They also give their clients a choice of stopping by the Scottsdale office to pick up the gift.

As far as vendors are concerned, they offer quite an assortment, though they are always on the hunt for new and exciting brands. “We encourage vendors to come in, or we go meet them. We can talk a little bit about market needs/desires. Or have you thought about making this or that. That dialogue really helps shape our business and connect with people and understand their products better… We want to create collaboration instead of competition, so we try to take a few items that would be unique to an experience. We can fit people in different places where they can shine, and are unique.”

Seriously, who wouldn’t want a cute box of goodies from local artisans?! Birdytell offers most of my favorite local brands, including: Paige Poppe, MAME Soy Candles, Oxford Dogma, Ruze Cake House, Iconic Cocktail Co., Teaspressa, M+A Naturals, Crooked Cactus, Iron Root, Enlightened Candles, Boyfriend Candles, Burn Candle Co., XO Confections, The Simple Farm, Black Rock Engraving, Citizen Home Decor, Stone Grindz Chocolate, Tea Time Scottsdale, wooden toys made by a 2nd generation toy maker, Fynn Baby, Be Good, See Salt, Passport Coffee, Bluehouse Coffee, Lafayette Avenue Ceramics, American Mule, Happy Tails Barkery, and Lua Skincare.

The curated gifting experience had a soft launch during Mother’s Day of last year, and has had an amazing response.

Be sure to check out their Instagram, “We feel like we can tell a visual story better, and celebrate more people that way. We try to highlight makers every week, as well as show new things that we have.”

“There’s something lovely about getting a gift that’s been made by, hand packed by, and handwritten by people in their own community. It’s just this nice circle… We’re all here for you on your special day.”

The holiday season is soon approaching. If you are local to the Phoenix area, what better way to show your love, or appreciation of your friend or significant other, then to get them a personalized or curated box from Birdytell.

Thank you, Lisa!

Archive - September 2017