Retailers and Line Sheets!

Are you a store or retailer and interested in selling Sweatshop at your shop?  I've got great news - I am finally set up to take wholesale orders!  YAY!

Please email me at littleasiansweatshop@gmail.com if you would like a linesheet with my products, and information about my wholesale policy (it's simple and painless, I swear!).

Thank you thank you!

My schizophrenic Muse

While I love talking about the Sweatshop, my products, and my process, I become completely flustered when people ask “how did you come up with that idea?”

Creativity is such a weird and meandering path.  The leap that took me from watching “Barbarella” (for the 398^th time) to making a Japanese Flag circle bag is hard to explain.  It would involve a long story about how much I love Barbarella, the Xmen Morlock storyline that was completely based on Barbarella (seriously – watch the movie, then read issues 169 - 170 and you tell me!), which then lead me to think about the whole Wolverine/Mariko story line (which was so silly), and…voila!  My brain gave birth to the Japanese Flag bag. 

And the story behind how I came up with the monsters hat is just as convoluted (and involves a blizzard!).

So by the time I’m done explaining how I came up with my idea, the questioner has a confused yet blank stare in their eyes, as they try to follow my “logic”.

But I guess, creativity doesn’t really follow logic.  If it did, it wouldn’t be so elusive and magical and rare.

The thing that drives me the craziest is that my inspiration comes from all over the place.  Various materials, styles, and methods.  I’m so envious of those who have a set medium and style and can stay with it consistently.  It’s aggravating to come up with a retro Rat-Pack Vegas inspired hair piece while working on a soft romantic feathered birdcage fascinator for a client.  It’s not enough that my muse is fickle…but she also has to be schizophrenic to boot. 

Which is why the Sweatshop is filled with boxes upon boxes of various materials.  Since I never know what will inspire me next – the workroom is filled with all sorts of odds and ends, waiting to be made into something different.  It’s like the Land of Misfit Toys, only they are all wanted…just not right now.  Of course, I complain, but I’m really thrilled that I am fortunate enough to give voice to my creativity – and to have fans of my work!  It’s always wonderful – and humbling – to hear the exclamations of amazement and delight.

I wonder if I bribed my Muse with Chipotle burritos, would she be more cooperative?


How about you?  How to you rein in your muse?

Not dead yet...

I know it's been a month since I updated and even my twitter feed (follow me #shamelessplug) has been eerily quiet, but I swear that I'm still alive...just insanely busy.

I know, I know..."I've been busy" is the worst excuse in the world, but this has really been beyond madness!

In just the past month, I've started a new day job (YAY day job!) so that's been taking up a lot of my brain time.

Then I had the awesome opportunity to go see "Sleep No More", which is this amazing immersive play based on Macbeth.  It's basically Hitchcock and MacBeth had a love child...it would be this experience. If you haven't been, and you were thinking about visiting NYC in the next month or so...definitely make the time to go see it.  It's worth the $100.  It's like being trapped in a dream or a video game.  Only without having to worry about dying or monsters killing you.  Insanely surreal and utterly amazing!

The Plague Doctor (skull duck) mask that you wear during Sleep No More!

Then my inlaws came up to visit for a few days.  While I adore them and love hosting them, right when they visited, was right when my Etsy store decided to go crazy with orders!  So I had to juggle being a gracious hostess, with the madness of family get-togethers, with fullfilling orders as fast as my little Sweatshop fingers could go (PSA - glue guns are capable of inflicting 2nd degree burns...be careful kids!).

This weekend, my BFF is coming down, and bringing me some minions so that we can whip out 40+ hair flowers as party favors for her wedding...and also making a very special wedding bouquet! 

Basically every weekend has been madness.  So my normally pristine house and Sweatshop looks like a tornado blew through it...and I haven't had time to clean (I've barely had time to do laundry)!

And despite how busy I am, I'm just so grateful that I get to be so joyously busy.  Yes, I'm tired, yes I just want a weekend to curl up and sleep and veg out...but I'm glad that this kind of busy is the fun kind of busy - the kind of busy that is really tons of fun and better then the alternative.  I just wish it wasn't happening all at once! 

So...long story short...not dead yet!  I'm here and pushing out products with as little sleep as I can get away with!  I promise, lots of fun bloggy updates coming soon.  In the meantime...GO SEE "SLEEP NO MORE".  It was seriously worth the angst of having to work double time to make up for the loss of a weekend of fun!

Failed plans, tantrums, and rhinestone madness

I had planned a trip to NYC to see Sleep No More with my BFF.  I had bought tickets months in advance and the two of us spent weeks planning our outfits (something fun and outrageous, yet comfortable and easy to run up and down 5 flights of stairs in).  Then that week…we started getting storm warnings for Hurricane Irene.  As Irene moved closer, we started to get nervous.  Not because we are actually scared of the hurricane (I grew up on a monsoon and typhoon prone tropical island…anything less than a Cat 3 doesn’t even warrant buying extra food and batteries), but because we were afraid that the hurricane would mean rain…which would impact our outfits.  Yes, we’re hilarious that way.

Still, to be sure that we would be able to go see this show, I cancelled my bus plans and instead made the decision to drive.  If I had to drive through PA and into OH to get to NYC…I would.  That’s how badly I wanted to see Sleep No More. 

Then Mayor Bloomberg shut down the city.  I’m not going to lie…at that point, if I saw Mayor B crossing the street, I may have “accidently” hit the gas pedal instead of the breaks.  My BFF wasn’t too far off.  She and I spent most of Friday afternoon on the phone with each other, trying to console each other, only to get all worked up again.  It was a crazy cycle of frustration, tears and disappointment.

Clearly, I wasn’t going to the city…and I wasn’t going to see Sleep No More.

So I did the only thing that would keep me from being a whiny, tantrum throwing mess.  I went to the craft store and loaded up on supplies.  Not just any supplies…but rhinestones.

For a while, I had wanted to start enhancing some of my hair flowers with feathers or rhinestones to make them fancier for special occasions.  However, being so busy with orders and just everything else, I hadn’t had any free time to devote to this.  Well, with this unexpected free weekend, I had nothing but time.

Better then I envisioned!

Friday night, after dinner, as my husband was trying very hard to stay out of my way (he really deserves a medal), I started to play with the rhinestones on the flowers.  At first, my heart was still filled with rage over missing Sleep No More and the wonderful weekend we had planned.  A few times, my eyes started to tear up (I *really* wanted to see this show), but I doggedly applied rhinestones, one by one.

Perhaps it was the repetitive nature of applying the stones, or perhaps I was so emotionally exhausted from throwing tantrums all day long, but before long, I was in a zone.  My mind shut off and I was almost in a trance-like state.  All I could see were the sparkliness of the stones, as I placed them, methodically, one after another.  Each time I came to the end of applying rhinestones to a petal, I got a little thrill of exhilaration.  Before I knew it, it was past midnight and I hadn’t snapped at my husband once in the past few hours!



The wine may have contributed to my ultra calm state...heehee!

 The next morning, instead of sulking, I got up bright and early to rush to the store the moment it opened…and bought 1200 more stones.  It sounds like a lot, but they go quickly!  I spent the majority of the day, alternately glaring at the bright sunny day, and going back into my craft and rhinestone induced state of serene euphoria. 

By dinner (when we would have been on our way to see Sleep No More), I was fully relaxed.  Still a little miffed about missing the show (we were able to reschedule our tickets for a later weekend), but alternatively excited by how much I accomplished and how I finally perfected my rhinestone method.

Again, craft therapy is the best therapy.  Although, the glue fumes may have something to do with that as well.  Heh.

Now available on my Etsy store!

UPDATE: Rhinestoned hair flowers and fascinators are now available on my Etsy store!

Thank you BCC 2011!

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A HUGE thank you to everyone for being so incredibly awesome!  We had such a great reception and so many great people stop by that I just don't even know where to being...so I'm going to just say...WOW!!!

Baltimore Comic Con (BCC) was held up in Charm City this past weekend, August 20 - 21, and I don't think I've ever gotten such a warm fuzzy glow from so many perfect strangers...that didn't quite seem like strangers by the time they left our table.  It's odd...I'm an old pro at conventions (oh cosplay), but the overwhelming welcome that we received from everyone this past weekend far outdoes any convention experience I've ever had.  I'm just so excited that everyone was so excited by our stuff (yes, that's a lot of excitement going on!)!

My BFF Paigey, was kind enough to share some of her table space in Artist Alley with me, so that I could sell my hair flowers.  Since the great reception from Psychobilly Luau, I was hopeful...but not really expecting too much.

Paigey also made the signage...heh...I <3 her so!

Saturday morning, I was running a little behind and arrived at Paigey's table at 11:15.  By 11:20, I had already sold two flowers!  Then all day long and for the rest of the weekend, people were walking past my table saying "WOW!  Look at those flowers!"!  All the positive vibes and compliments had my head spinning!

And it wasn't just my flowers!  Paigey's table was also going bonkers!  Heeheehee...although this was a comic book convention (which is dominated by guys), we definitely had the advantage over all the other artists and booths by having the "WAGs" (Wives And Girlfriends) table full of sparkly girly (yet comic and pin-up art related) stuff.  It seemed that every girl at the convention must have stopped by our table at least once...a few of them several times!  

The colors! The sparkly!  The cute!

I especially loved the one girl who came and bought one of Aniline's (another friend whom Paigey was vending for) "Cupcake Eating Batman"...then dragged her boyfriend back to our table ten minutes later so that he could buy her the matching bracelet.  

We may have publicly shamed a few boyfriends into buying prezzies for their uber cute girlfriends...

Surprisingly (at least, to me!), all my manga and comic book hair flowers sold out halfway through Saturday!  So instead of hanging out and grabbing dinner with Paigey after Saturday's show...I rushed home (an hour away from the convention site), to earn my Sweatshop moniker by staying up and whipping out more flowers.  And those also sold out halfway through Sunday!  Lesson learned for next year...make a metric butt-load of comic book and manga hair flowers for the convention!  Holy schmoolies!


I originally wanted to do a quick shout out and super thanks to all the wonderful friends who came by to say hi...but the weekend has quickly turned into a blur and I don't want to forget anyone.  So instead, I'm going to just give a big, huge, loud THANK YOU to *everyone*...friends and fans, old and new.  Thank you for being so supportive and so wonderful.  Just...thank you!

See you next year BCC!!!

Thank you Paigey!

In case it was ever in doubt...I love my BFF (and fellow crafter) Paigey.  I mean, I hate her for being so talented, and gorgeous and funny and fabulous, but she's always been infinitely patient with my crazy butt and she always happily drags me in her wake of awesimitude!


Take for example, the Psychobilly Luau.  This annual three day event, held in Brooklyn, is the premier gathering spot on the East for a melding of punk and rockabilly and all things cool.  Paigey was slated to vend at this event, and she very kindly offered to sell some of my hand made hair flowers. 

Luck Be a Lady tonight!

I quickly packaged up all the flowers I had in my Sweatshop and Priority mailed them to her, feeling a little guilty that I was adding to her already heavy load of stuff that she would need to transport to and from the event. 


Not only did she lug my box of flowers to and from the event...but she also prominately displayed them...and proceeded to text me all through the weekend with updates on the (considerable) sales that she made for me! 


On top of that...she then proceeds to give me major shout out on her blog!


Quite honestly, she constantly blows me away by her unfailing generosity...but also for her bloodhound nose for cool.  Heh.


So in short - I love my BFF.  And I'm so lucky to have her as my best friend.  She's awesome, talented, and just fun to be around!  If you haven't already - go check out her Etsy store and her blog!

The Art of the Ever Fabulous Paigey!

Craft Therapy (I need it!)

It was a fairly usual Wednesday morning. Like every Wednesday, I grabbed a cup of coffee on my way into the team staff meeting. Also as usual, we argued over the most ridiculous things - why documents need to be proof-read before being send, why we're changing direction on a project...for the fifth time. Upon leaving the meeting, still flush with the glow of victory (we *weren't* going to change directions on the project), we get a notice that we had a meeting with our VP in 20 minutes.

Now, for those of you who are not in the corporate world, whenever your VP wants to meet with you or your entire team with less then an hour's notice...and no reason is given...it's never good news. I half jokingly hopped onto my company's intranet site to look up the severage package policy. As we entered the room, I noticed that standing next to our VP were HR staff members. Again, not a good sign. Within moments, we were told that all of our positions had been eliminated and the entire department was laidoff...with the exception of four, who would be asked to continue to work eight additional weeks.

I was told that I was one of the four that they wanted to keep for the eight additional weeks.

At first I was elated. I mean, clearly, this was the best possible situation, right? I would still draw a steady paycheck for the next two months as I look for a new job, with the severance package as a cushion in the event that my job hunt took longer then the 2 months I would be still gainfully employed. Also, I secretly thought, if the job hunt took a little longer, it meant that I would be home all day...sewing and crafting away in the Sweatshop.

At least...that was my reaction that first day.

I'm a bit of a control freak, and I like to know where everything is - not just physically but emotionally, financially. Basically every part of my life has a little compartment. And now the compartment that was labeled "good little corporate cube-farmer" was all out of wack. This in turn made the compartment labeled "climbing the corporate ladder" go all out of wack, which in turn made the compartment labeled "20 year financial plan" go all gray and fuzzy, which in turn...you get the idea.

So it should be no surprise to anyone (except me), that as the days went by, I became a hot jittery mess.

Or I should say, I quickly spiralled into a hot crazy mess for about two days...until I (OK, J) couldn't stand it anymore, and started to focus all of that nervous crazy energy on sewing and crafting.

And suddenly, everything made sense again.

Oh, I was still nervous that all these compartments were teetering and wobbling around in my head, but rather then obsessively chew my nails off as I checked my email for the 12937465th time in ten minutes to see if any job leads have come in, I was at least productive and burning off all the energy that was making poor J go bonkers.

Somehow, not only did survive the last seven weeks, but that I got an offer from a company that I've been dying to work with for the last two years. As a side-effect of using my sewing and crafting to get through this tumuluious time...I have a *TON* of new products in the pipeline!

Sneaky peeky - red turtleshell backpack

Sneaky peeky - Japanese flag messanger shoulder bag



Sneaky peeky - A-line halter wrap dress

Sneaky peeky - Halter wrap circle dress



HA! Who needs valium or a therapist? My beloved Kenmore, Swinger and White sewing machines (yes, I have three - please don't judge) are all the therapy this little Sweatshop needs.