Another one for the kids

A few posts ago, I posted "C is for Curious Cotton Creatures", but I've changed my mind.    I'm going to say now that C is for Cookie Clean-up, or something like that.  Or maybe it's S is for Sprinkles, I don't know.

Chilly!

Guys, with the onset of Autumn there is a certain chill in the air , especially over here. We decided that its high time we stocked up on some jeans jackets to keep out the chills in style of course!

hope you like them!

(they seem to be getting snatched up as soon as we are listing them but fear not, we will have plenty more coming to update the shop with every other week)

x

bonzie

Double Trouble

A while back I mentioned about some really awesome news that I was really excited about. I wanted to share this with you guys to keep you informed with whats going on with the label each step of the way. :)

At a point along the way I had realized that doing absolutely everything alone was a bit of a task. designing, constructing, emailing, shipping, wrapping, marketing, sourcing, buying....yada, yada, yada, the list goes on but you get the drift! I was longing for someone to share the experience with, sombody with the same obsessive passion for it as me, someone as anal about "the look" and the finish as me and someone mostly who I could rely on and could share the journey with. As fate would have it that somone was under my nose all along. In fact the lady I asked to join me was no other than the very person who inspired me to start creating in the first place way back when I was too young to even hold a scissors! My Auntie Ger, one of my Dads younger sisters. Ger has joined the "Bonzie" starship enterprise as my partner, my rock, my other half and head of production. Ger is also a fully qualified designer and tailor bringing years of bridal experience, in fact we joked at the beginnning about how we are now like yin and yang, Im a fan of randomness and Ger is a fan of precision and between the two of us we are creating some interesting new pieces and bubbling with plans for developing the label.

Its so lovely to have someone to share such an awesome experience with and I can't think of anyone I would rather be sharing it with. Even during times of stress and impending deadlines we manage a giggle. Recently on the day that I was heading to Kerry for the recent bridal mag photoshoot we had a bit to do on one of the pieces that contained hundreds of handmade corsages, we were working literally against the clock and both of us on the studio floor sewing beading in a frenzy... needless to say hysteria kicked in and we were so stressed we got into a fit of the giggles, rolling around on the floor covered in organza until I decided that wasn't funny enough and stood on the pot of pearls ( the one that Ger keeps with THOUSANDS in it) which went rolling all over the floor, there we were now in a sea of pearls, organza, and both of us in the foetal position laughing hysterical, all the while this skirt was still sitting unfinished on the mannequin and time was running out! To finish it off I then decided that it would be a good idea to sew the skirt right through the mannequin cover so that we couldn't even get it off, at this point Ger was purple in the face and choking on the giggles.

Its the days like these that make be a design duo absolutely fabulous!

I hope you guys welcome Ger to the blog too and I want to thank her for bringing her drive and passion to something that means so much to me.

Welcome Ger!!!! Heres to a fabulous year!

x

bonzie

Spider Fighter Extraordinnaire

In keeping with my dead-end job, I wake up at around 5:45 on weekend mornings. It allows me to leave the apartment by 6:30 so that I can expertly enter data for the next 10 hours. This morning, I dutifully rolled out of bed, after screaming into my pillow about not wanting to go to work. My contacts have been bothering me lately, so I thought that I'd go with the glasses today, blindly stepping into the shower, unaware of the death trap that awaited me. I soon noticed that there was a quarter-sized black spot on the floor of the bathtub, and I toed it absentmindedly to encourage its movement toward the drain. Suddenly, eight massive legs emerged from the sides of the quarter and commenced to chase me around the bathtub. It was at about this moment that I yelled, hoping that Joe would hear my cries and come rescue me from my eight-legged attacker. I heard him shout back from the other room, answering calmly as my cries became more and more desperate. Here is a brief transcript of our exchange:

Me: Holy effing shit! There's a spider in the bathtub!
Joe: Meh.
Me: Oh Christ! It won't die...please come help me. It's for my safety and well-being. If a spider this big bites me, there simply won't be much left.
Joe: Put some water on it.
Me: I'M IN THE SHOWER!
Joe: So you should be fine.
Me: AAH! It won't die! It's chasing me now, and it's easily as big as my big toe. I'm not safe!
Joe: Meh.
Me: What's the damn point of living with a boy if I still have to fight spiders! Oh shit, it's recovering! What should I do?
Joe: Put some water on it.
Me: Damn you, Joe! This is the fight of my life! If I make it through this unscathed, there's a damn good chance I won't be the same Clare you've grown to know. This has aged me, Joe, and I'm damaged goods now.
Joe: So you should be fine.

Finally, in a moment of utter desperation and with adrenaline coursing through my veins, I triumphed over the beast and down the water spout he went. Of course, my shower was heartily destroyed, and my faith in men questioned. Also, I didn't need coffee this morning, thanks to the natural high I was experiencing from my fight or flight response. I would have flighted (flought?) but I was naked and needed to shower so that I could come work at my dead-end job entering data for 10 hours.

P is for Pizza Party

I'm going to do some aimed more at kids. Don't worry, I'll still be posting some sick and twisted stuff too.



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Also, I got a note from my friend Noah, from Skulladay.com, and thought I'd pass it along-


Friends,

I am extremely happy to announce that my book "SKULLS" will officially be in US stores the first week of October!

It features 150 annotated images from the first half of my Skull-A-Day project (it had to go to print in February to come out now!), including a few DIY skulls and work by fans.

It's already for sale online at places like Amazon.com (http://tinyurl.com/amazonskulls), Powells' (http://tinyurl.com/skullspowells) and Barnes & Noble (http://tinyurl.com/skullsbn), though I encourage you to order it from your local independent bookstore (if you still have one) via Indie Bound (http://www.indiebound.org/indie-store-finder).

Noah is a great guy that I got to collaborate with on an image. I really enjoyed his work of making a skull out of a new medium every single day for a year. I hope you all check out his book when you get a chance.

Notice anything??

Hi guys,
Havn't had a chance to update lately, since the wee injury I had a backlog of everything and an amazing photo shoot for an Irish Bridal magazine on Sunday so had to focus on studio work recently.
Dont fret though guys, I have lots of news coming up, I am bustin to blurt it all out but sometimes you have to wait for the events or things to happen before you can blog about it.
I wanted to share something really awesome with you all above. Imogen Heap keeps the nicest video blog on youtube and this weeks one sees her sporting no less then 3 pieces from "Bonzie". Its so exciting to see the work in real life on such an icon as Imogen Heap. I really respect her as an artist first and foremost and have a watch of the video she is such a fabulous person too!
My partner bought her album for us as we had a long distance to travel to the photoshoot cross country and it played in the car for the entire trip, it was befitting the scenery too, we were travelling over the Ring of Kerry in Ireland , through majestic mountains and lakes as the sun went down on a bright sunny day, I couldn't think of a more suitable soundtrack! Check out her music it rocks. Very atmospheric.
x
bonzie

C is for Curious Cottonball Creatures

______________________________________________________


The other day, something interesting came in the mail "from a fellow twisted mind." Pretty neato, and it makes a pretty ringing sound too. Thanks Tom!

Little Miss Sugar

Little Miss Sugar
Keeping dry from the rain
On her way to tea.

This image just called for a haiku, what can I say.



She's standing on a rock, but as I look at it now, it kinda looks like a hamburger patty.
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I'm excited to say that our local contemporary art museum here in Indianapolis, IMOCA, has kindly invited me to install a piece in their front window. It'll be up the first full week of October, and will stay up through some portion of November. It's going to be election/politics related, which I'm thrilled with, since I've been totally fixated on the presidential race this year.

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Some good work with punny comments in the last post.

I was asked in those comments about how long I've been doing this. This particular kind of thing is something I've been doing for two years now.

Someone was looking for something else too- If you search for it, you will find it.

Thank you!!!!!!!!!!

Gals,

I wanted to thank you all for everyone's heartfelt thoughts in response to my last post. I am so grateful to have such a lovely support network and I really appreciate each and every comment that you all left. I do notice that its often the same blog regulars that stop by each and every time and I want you to know that you guys feel like a wee blog family at this stage, you have been there with me through the last year of setting up and getting my work up and running. You are all so valued!!

The skinny on my fabric related incident is the following. After it happened we went on a wee adventure to A&E in our local hospital ( I say adventure because one can be waiting a lengthy sabbatical out there at the best of times) When we got to see a consultant she diagnosed a torn ligament in the ankle joint, strapped me up, gave me a pair of crutches and some fab meds to numb the throb. I have to say the crutches are not the hottest accessory to have coming into the start of Fall but hey, thankfully it wasn't a break and should be healed up in about 2 weeks.

Who knew getting fabric could be so treacherous! lol

Thanks again for all the care and support, I really do appreciate it. xxxx

Bonz

Your NOT going to believe this!

Today I got some really awesome news about impending Irish Press Features that I am really excited about. So much so that I was running....did I mention RUNNING, from the studio to the house to get the ol credit card out to order some fabrics asap to pull a mini collection out of the air before end of Sept and the worst possible thing happened on the worst possible most stressed out month that I will probably face this year! I fell off the end step and heard a sharp snap! I was actually on the phone to my fabric dude at the time and had to cut him clean off. The pain of it!

Im actually laid off here on the couch with my foot under ice waiting for my partner to finish work to bring me out for an xray! arrrrrrrrrrrrghhh! The frustration of it !! I could totally do without a sprain or a break on this particular month, hey but lets look on the bright side for the laugh, its my left foot meaning my right one is all good in the hood for the pedal on my machine! so the show must go on. Thought it was a bit funny though! Here I was all excited and hyper with the news today about the features then I was down on the ground high as a kite from adrenalin and shock. My friend lovingly suggeted making a lace cover for the cast if I do need to do a photoshoot soon! lol the cuteness of that. xx Thanks A

xx

onwards and upwards folks. hehe

Bonzie

hey gals, just wanted to say a huge heartfelt thank you for all the amazingly kind and genuine comments on the last post, Im really lifted reading words like that. Thank you all, I really do read each and everyone and I am ever so grateful for them too.

New Products coming soon!

Just to let you guys know there will be something very special to look forward to very soon. I have been planning on launching some exciting Bonzie news along with some very cool dresses which have been developed from an existing item in the shop.

Is the suspense killing you yet? I am looking forward to sprucing up the shop a little with some products aimed at the party season. Its gonna be greeeeeeeeeeeeeeeattttttttttttttt, along with some news about changes around here that have some really cool developments attached to them.

shhhhhh.......mums the words.

x

bonzie

Just popping a picture of the wrap I posted tonight in the shop which is sold out already! Probably a record sale in terms of speed. ;)

Thank you S.

Yeah, this is where those come from.

It's also how light beers are made here in the U.S., but personally, I only like a full bodied beer.

She had often been described as a little bitter.

She was cold one, that's for sure.

Shall I go on?

Exciting News!

Guys, I have had the most amazing whirlwind of a few days! A Few things happened this week which I was really chuffed about. :)

The coolest news though is that Etsy used one of my items recently to feature in their "Etsy Finds" Article that is delivered worldwide into peeps inbox. This was an absolutely fantastical achievement in itself, however when it landed in my inbox was the first time that I got to see it too and I was so thrilled to have been chosen as a style that Grammy Nominated Celebrity British Songstress Imogen Heap would dress in. If there was ever a muse chosen to inspire my aesthetic it would be this lady, she just oozes individuality, character and had a really ecclectic sense of dress. I adore her personal style and indeed her whole aura is quite beautiful. I am truely flattered that Gilbea chose my Venetian Inspired Jacket to rock on Imogen I think she did a really fab job of choosing all the items.

Check out the article here on Gilbeas renowned Fashion and Style Blog and be sure to youtube Imogen Heap to hear her amazing voice, its hauntingly beautiful, she is a genuine gifted spirit!

x

Bonzie

Bridal Wear

Some of the recent etsy custom orders have been all about that special day! I was really fortunate to work with some really great gals on pieces designed in collaboration with each of them to come up with something unique to wear with both stunning dresses.

If it had not been for these lovely brides requesting such items I don't know if I would have ever got around to trying them for myself, so Im thankful for the input from clients too, its always the driving force for new and exciting products. ;)

x

bonzie

Press Happenings!

I really enjoyed this article feature on etsy in Irelands Metro Newspaper. I was also featured as an Irish seller doing her thang so I am thrilled with this outcome. In fact I have seen a recent pike in Irish clients communicating through etsy so I have no doubt the fabulous article written by an equally fabulous gal, Therese McKenna has been the winning factor in this. The article also featured a really lovely jewellery designer, AnnasJewels, a fellow Irish Etsian! I love how etsy is bringing all these independent designers out of the closet! :)

Thanks to Therese for being such a genuine pleasure to deal with and Cheers to Metro for bringing my work to an Irish Audience. :)

Hope you can get to have a look at this article for yourselves. xx

bonzie