Ice today

Ice butterflies and wires. Click image.

February 7th @ 11 am, Be There

I will be hanging out with my wares ( handmade bags, pot holders made of rescued fabric and note cards ) at The Book Crossing, in beautiful downtown Brunswick, MD. Please join us and check out this wonderful book store as well, on Saturday, February 7th 2009, starting at 11:00 am.


Book Crossing of Brunswick Maryland is a a locally owned Independent business established in 2004 in a Historical 1900 Apothecary. We doubled our space by expanding to occupy the complete first floor of the Horine Building in 2007. Dedicated Children's Room, Book Clubs, Writers Groups, Author Signings,Themed Events, Birthday Parties. Book Crossing was named as one of Frederick County Maryland's Hidden Gems, January 2009! Named Business of the Year 2006, Best Business Innovation 2007 by the Greater Brunswick Area Chamber of Commerce, Brunswick Main Street Member, American Bookseller Association Member, Booksense.com.
TheBookCrossing.biz


Book Crossing
Sherri Wright
301-834-5577
bookcrossing@verizon.net

Farmers Market Bag

I am still working on this design.

The Trapeze Bag Prototype

This bag is smaller than the Gypsy Bag, has a narrower strap and hangs from rings and is great on the fly when only the essentials will do.

Made of corduroy and lined with cotton. The body of the bag is interfaced to give it that upright structure. The button is vintage. Both the one inside pouch pocket, perfect for a cell phone, and the D-ring for your keys are accessible with out unbuttoning the bag. There is also a 3-compartment slide pocket on the back inside wall, perfect for organizing pen, lipstick and other little things.

My photo assistant is Killian the wonder dog, 4 years old, and don't mind the pure grain alcohol in the back ground it's for the demildewfication of the books, really.

Vintage Buttons

About I'll I've manage today is organizing buttons, oh so important.

BE THE CHANGE

Jerry and I went down yesterday on the Marc train to the Inauguration. It was a beautiful sunny, clear and very cold day. From 9 am and until 4pm, when we got back on the train, we were walking or standing in a jammed packed sea of people who, for the most part, were very happy to be there. We walked from Union Station past the Senate building east of the Capital. At that point people where still walking in different direction, we were totally winging it, not knowing what to expect and really enjoying the spectacle of the day. Very quickly people started being directed and we were in a huge flow of people heading south at one point over small boulders and engulfing small trees to cross a bridge and eventually make it to Independence Ave. All access to the mall was blocked from 1st to 15th streets where we all climbed over barricades and could see the true scale of the event. We found a good spot on the SW corner of the Washington Monument where we could watch a jumbo tron in the distance with the capital behind it and the full out flying American Flags (it was seriously windy) that ring the monument in front of it. There was another jumbo tron towards the Whitehouse that we could see a little as well, between the two and perhaps the effect of bouncing off the Monument we could hear amazingly well although with a bit of time delay between the two.

Because the Washington Monument is on a hill there were few people behind us, farther back on the other side of 17th street there was another jumbo tron and from there around the reflecting pool, beautifully frozen, back to the Lincoln Memorial was again solid sea of people. Because of the empty hill behind us, after Obama was done we got to 17th street pretty fast (our only fast travel all day). 17th was closed of coarse and we were soon in a crush of people again heading North on 18th street. There were no cars just building-to-building shoulder-to-shoulder people covering the sidewalks and street. Because we got out so quickly there were only a few hundred people in front of us, after six or seven blocks we turned around and looked behind us to see a solid wall of people as far as you could see. We went a few blocks past K and headed East, where Jerry new there was a Caribou Coffee and we got out of the crush of people for a while and amazingly sat down and got warm. Then, we headed towards Union Station on K Street which turned out to be the Shangri-La of venders selling all things Obama, what a sight for blocks and blocks. I did find the perfect pink BE THE CHANGE t-shirt for my daughter.

We made it to Union Station an hour early and figured we'd just go in and warm up, wrong, all semblance of order had broken down and we were soon stuck in a grid lock of people out side the building, no one getting in or out, it was classic dysfunction of crowd control and to skip most of the drama, except to say that when the police without bullhorns finally decided we at the head of the sea of some thousands of people had to turn around and back up Jerry cut through the crowd to argue with the police with me in tow (as we had held hand the entire day as not to get separated) to argue the impossibility of this feat with the full support of the crowd. We did mange to open up enough space for people to single file out from the building and eventually order was restored and we got on to our half empty train with 5 minutes to spear. The train station was very chaotic. However, the day was wonderful and we were both completely glad we went!

A mini Gypsy Bag

This cute little thing was commissioned this week, I had a lot of fun with it.

new beginnings

Starting a new embroidery piece, working with hand stamps to kick things off.

Happy New Year

I am back from wonderful travels and now making bags this week and very much looking forward to starting a new embroidery piece next week.

Amaryllis and Snow

Study of indoor/outdoor light.

Street Graffiti in downtown Vancouver

water bus

looking out the front door

I love these blues

first day of many days of glorious snow

Merry Christmas from Vancouver Canada

We are spending the Christmas holidays in Vancouver British Columbia, Canada.

The Frederick News-Post blog

Lauren LaRocca of the Frederick News-Post has written a wonderful article about my bags and Etsy shop on her blog.  Thank you, Lauren.

open studio

:: OPEN STUDIO ::

Art, note cards, hand made bags and rescued fabric pot holders

SATURDAY DECEMBER 6
6-10 PM
SUNDAY DECEMBER 7
1-5 PM

email for directions:

karinbirch@gmail.com

Etsy Shop

early christmas cactus

Etsy Shop

Check out my new Etsy shop KarinBirch.etsy.com, I'll be adding stuff all week.

The Red Bag

Cranberry red canvas bag with a vintage button closure. Inside are 2 pouch pockets (one on each end) and a sleeve pocket divided into 5 sections, pen, cell phone, ipod, lipstick... on the interior back wall. The bag is 10" tall, 13" top/18'bottom wide and 7" deep, plenty of room for stuff. The canvas makes for a bit more structured shape.

Long Strapped Gypsy Bag

This bags strap is repurposed black Levi's fabric backed with a repurposed light brown cotton. The interior has 2 cotton pouch pockets on each end of the bag, a deeper purple mauve than the vintage button closer. The bag body is a beautiful striped upholstery fabric lined with a repurposed simple black, gray and white rayon floral print. The bag is 10" tall, 13" top/18" bottom wide and 7" deep, plenty of room for stuff. The strap is 41" long.

Short Strapped Gypsy Bag

This bags is made of light gray brushed corduroy, with 2 heavy duty snap closures. Inside are 2 pouch pockets made of vintage fabric ( one on each end) and a linen sleeve pocket divided into 5 sections, pen, cell phone, ipod, lipstick... on the interior back wall. The bag is 10" tall, 13" top/18'bottom wide and 7" deep, plenty of room for stuff. The The brushed corduroy feels great and it's lined with an understated gray cotton print!

A beautiful October trip to San Francisco

Found on the climb to Coit Tower on Telegragh Hill.

Some of the very useful and wonderful POT HOLDERS...

This summer, in the process of changing my live/work studio into all studio/gallery space, I had to come to terms with the dilemma of all the vintage and rescued fabrics I have been collecting forever. At first I made simple aprons using linens and cottons with vintage fabric pockets and details in beautiful color combinations and sold them at the local farmers' market. As the remaining pieces of fabric got smaller and smaller, pot holders seemed the perfect answer. Their design is inspired by the pot holders my Grandmother used to make which were round pieces of Barkcloth (remnants from the sewing factory her mother worked in) with crocheted edging. The round shape makes a lot more sense to me than a square. I've added a loop to hang them for display when not in use and substituted a wonderful frayed edging which is oddly nostalgic and contemporary at the same time.

Pot Holders are $10 each.