My Latest Work In Progress

Spring Snow

Were you looking for breakfast outside my studio door little robbins? I am sorry to send you away hungry - next time please knock at the front door of the Big House. That is where you will find me in the AM.

Expensive Lessons In Jewelry Making

Chandelier making, venetian glass baubles, property management, taxes, business loan applications and tons of kids aren't enough to keep my busy hands occupied so I've been making sterling silver rings on the side.

Slowly goes it with this project because it is expensive as all get out. I would like to share my first lesson with you - never use PMC (Precious Metal Clay) in place of good old solder and flux as it is too porous and brittle.

Not 5 days after I made this little yellow sapphire number to the left, I smashed the stone setting against a staircase in a construction zone...and there it still lies buried in a heap of plaster dust and wood filings. Solder is my new mantra. Solder. Ohm.

The silver and gold carved ring depicted is the work of Oppie Oppenheim. More on that later.

Yelé Donations Update

Just a little update - With the support of over 40 Etsy patrons, Re:Design Technologies and Birch Beer Boutique have donated $281.79 USD to The Yelé Foundation. Way to go Etsy!

Please visit the Yele Foundation website to see how they are redistributing their donation funds - feeding folks in the hardest hit areas. Yele reports that hurricane season begins June 1st in Haiti.

Wondering why we're working so hard here at Re:Design Technologies to promote the Yelé Foundation? During many years spent dancing with the Ballé Tropicalia Dance Company and other companies in Vancouver, so many members of the Haitian arts community gave me the tools that I needed to advance as an artist. I think that it is fitting to give that help back today. Also, I sometimes make my living outside of Etsy in the field of Emergency mitigation (in a government finance department) and I can see how every tiny bit helps.

So thank you to everyone at Etsy who gave it up for the Yelé Foundation, and Medecins Sans Frontiers, and all of the other relief organizations that are lending a hand.

Etsy, Have I Told You Lately How Much I Love You?

Oh Etsy how I have loved you over the past years. Ever since I saw that first advertisement in Craft Magazine, Volume 6, February 2008. To be honest, I was in it for the feature article "DeCorrugated" with links to Foldschool's DIY folded cardboard stools.

Sure, it started as an innocent love affair - just a little peek now and then, leading me on to committing my time and inspiration to you. But now - NOW - its for real. Thank you for inspiring a trans-national legion of artists and crafters to get together and help Haiti pick up the pieces right here and now.

Etsy, your Storque blog post today, entitled "Etsy Finds: Our Hearts Go Out to Haiti" is like an answer to my prayers - had I not only a few days ago been musing that I wish we (the Etsy community at large that is) could all give just a little bit more?

Thank you, thank you for stepping up and taking a leading role in inspiring us to lend a hand. And thank you for including me along the way.

The photographs to the left are on sale at RCA 102887's shop and available here. All proceeds go towards hopeforthehungry.org.

Re:Design Technologies' Paper Clip Chandelier Frame Tutorials can be purchased here for $14.40 or $6.50 with 50% proceeds going towards the Yele Foundation.

The Single Minimalist Bare Bulb Pendant Light by the kamlampcompany (one of my favorites) can be purchased at Hearts For Haiti on Etsy with 100% of proceeds donated to Doctor's Without Borders.

DIY 1953 Style

In 1953 Popular Mechanics took DIY to the extreme with this publication - from DIY playgrounds to building your own water power plant. Click on the images to view the full sized illustrations. Enjoy!

Sneak Peek; RDT's new Christmas Cards

RDT is Back From KFC!

Back from my week of training at the Kamloops Fire Centre and ready to resume my own work. I certainly needed this training to shore up my first year of British Columbia Ministry of Forests Wildfire Management Branch Zone Finance training (whew).

To be sure, the Fire Centre gave me a much needed hand, not the other way around. Many thanks to the Kamloops Fire Centre for the help! Now back to stringin' paper clips and painting pretty pictures! 

Re:Design Technologies Loves Teal and Gold!

Last week I posted a little welcome to Etsy piece on my favorite BC design team, Teal and Gold. Today I revisited their Etsy shop looking for the re-ply chairs and realized that their bent walnut picnic box is designed to carry wine. Be still my heart...wine in style out for a picnic in the forest...sold! Get yours here .

Why Re:Design Technologies made the Move to Vintage Design

In the mid-nineties I managed the luxury vintage and antique retail furniture and fashion chain Populuxe, renowned in Vancouver, BC for their well curated collections. I've moved on but never forgotten the lessons learned and the passion behind building those collections.

Digging around junk shops has become an intrinsic part of the design process for me in making the Paper Clip Chandeliers for RDT's Etsy shop and other galleries. I can't help but walk away with the gems along with the beaters that I deconstruct. Please check them out at my new Etsy shop Birch Beer Boutique.

I am so inspired by the shapes and colors of the designs of yore. I'm also inspired by our current trend towards looking back to great eras of invention in design, with pared down silhouettes, strong lines, bold colors and compelling patterns dominating storefronts. 

Great design always comes back around in both original form and modernized versions as our society pauses to reflect on our many achievements. What's old becomes new again and again in a constant cycle of rediscovery and reinvention. 

What's old is also functional if in good shape, and should by all means occupy a coveted status in our homes. All the more so when consider how much energy and raw resources required to make the simplest of objects commonly used in our homes today. To put things into perspective, the computer you are accessing this article on probably required a total of about 2,000 lbs of raw materials to manufacture and ship, as did mine.  

All In The Family

When I was about 10 my uncle, Chris Bridge, gave me his first polaroid camera. Chris still remembers that polaroid camera fondly and as always, carries that passion for the perfect shot.

His parents, my grandparents, instilled in all of our clan a love of living in nature, which we expresses in various ways. Lately Chris has compiled some of his best nature shots on his website www.northernsplendor.com. 

His shots remind me of my grand parents and their unofficial nature conservancy at their home in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario (Canada). They cared for injured wild animals and fed thousands of birds. We had snowy owls, prairie chickens, mice, you name it. One cold, Northern Ontario spring, the Humane Society asked my grandparents to nurse a red fox with a broken paw back to health. 

Grandma and Grandpa called him Redd Fox after the comedian and kept him in the greenhouse during the day and the warm rabbit warren at night. Poor little Redd Fox was tempted so sorely every night, but there was no other option for him. He followed my Grampa around all day in the greenhouse after a while, so I guess he forgave us.

Chris' photos seem to me to carry this narrative forward. Good work! Check his work out and keep ypour eyes peeled for the photos of the albino deer. Beautiful.

The Gift

I've been working on the shed deer antler chandelier project for some time now, which is developing quite nicely due to an incredible act of fate. 

I had hit the wall as it were last night when I realized that I needed one more antler to complete the design. So off to bed late feeling  that I was so close! 

This morning when my husband stepped outside for work, he found the shed antler in the second picture lying on the front lawn. There are canid markings on the tips (see foreground), so we are thinking that a stray dog or coyote left it behind.

Coincidence? I think not...LOL

Re:Design Technologies is Back!

ReDesign Technologies is back and ready to announce a few changes. I have opened a new Etsy store front today, Birch Beer Boutique,  for vintage pieces and works of art unrelated to the Paper Clip Chandelier Line. 

In other news, I am trying Big Cartel on for size and my RDT storefront is up and running!

Thanks to the folks at Etsy's Design Style Guide Team for welcoming me onboard! You can find my DSG storefront here. Cheers! P.