design + manufacture magazine
DESCRIPTION
A lookbook inspired publication that focuses on the stories of people who are designing, creating and producing locally in Portland, Or.TRANSCRIPT
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DESIGN + manufacture
ISSUE 01
spring/summer
MAG-BIG
MARSHALL’S HAUTE SAUCE
AMiRA
CAROLYN HART
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sense of local loyalty and promo-tion of all things Portland made it and the apparel designers who proudly offer their goods within it a good fit with the sentiments and motivations of the Saüse design crew. In addition, since half the Saüse crew had helped the owner construct the shop from the ground up several years prior, it seemed a logical progression to turn their talents to what they did best: design. The magazine which you have before you represents many hours of planning, photo-graphing, retouching, emailing, compiling, editing, and all manner of other designerly activities. However, perhaps more so, this publication represents what hap-pens when a small but passionate group of people come together to do something they believe will accurately reflect not only their skill sets, but their fundamental insights into why it is right to sup-port your local economy, exciting to be a designer, and amazing to be a Portlander.
ABOUT THIS PUBLICATION
Saüse started as a vision of elegant work produced by talented designers, who, aside from being wholly devoted to their craft, were devoted to one another as friends. Naturally, as the group was newly formed and initially unsure of its own bandwidth, many ideas for potential projects were thrown into the mix. They ranged from local flavor T-shirt designs to ornate and bizarre photoshoots to bachelorette event packages. However, as their first foyer into working together, the group had to carefully weigh each suggestion to eventually arrive at an idea which would allow all talents to come to bear in producing something tasteful, creative, and perhaps even uniquely Portland.
Mag-Big was selected as the most mutually agreeable potential client. The store’s magnetic
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Mag-Big
photography: Beth Olson Creativestory: Carmella Vargas || models: Nora Grod & Casey Hoelting
Portland has an effect on the creative spirit. It shakes the inner Maker, urging it to manifest, yielding the stuff of dreams, bar napkin sketches and well-intentioned dares.
Cassie Ridgway of Mag-Big is one such Maker. Trained in poetics and critical theory, her pursuit of scholarship applied now to advocating small production manufacturing and supporting area designers. Mag-Big is more than a retail location with local wares. Mag-Big is a fulcrum for the independent design and manufacturing scene of Portland.
“I wanted a career, but I wanted it to be stylish,” says Cassie. And it has been that and more: in-tensely rewarding and good for the planet, making clothing sustainably and helping others sell their conscientious products has synthesized the pas-sions of the like minded for the greater good.
Embracing the calling of a Maker is no linear endeavor. Stoking the coals and feeding the fire that keeps your craft alive is as demanding as the craft itself. Cassie is also a musician. “I wish I had more time for my band. If I had all the time in the world, I would rehearse with the guys more, and open myself up to
First Lady Independentsof
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the possibility of touring.” Not one to do things half-heartedly, she contents herself with a small show now and again, utilizing the sewing studio above Mag-Big as a late-night rehearsal space. Keep an ear out for Love Tackle, Cassie’s folk band.
“Make it work” is a phrase bandied about these days and Cassie’s efforts tend to transcend this edict. Unmentionable: A Lingerie Exposition this last February winter went off without a hitch. This, despite work-ing with a dressing “room” for 17 models plus their 8 dressers which was but a 10’ x 10’ box of PVC pipe and
drape. The changes, deftly executed in under a minuet and a half, included more than a few were corsets.
Alley 33 is an annual spring fashion show, held in the alley that is nominally SE 33rd at Hawthorne. Featured will be 25 Portland-based designer-manufacturers with both a local pres-ence and national distribution and highlight ready-to-wear garments for everyday. Whether you are looking to update the wardrobe with local love or you’re a sartorial fiend in need of a fix, save the date: August 28th, 2013.
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I stand by Portland’s small
production Makers with all my heart and soul. I learn
from them. I relish the discourse we cre-ate and the friend-
ships we foster.
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Cassie Ridgway in the Mag-Big studio | photos by Dan Cole
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Labyrinthine Labor of Love
Art is both product and process. Learning new techniques inform a style, style changes and iterations become a body of work. The means inform that which is made, and who the Maker becomes.
Amira Mednic of AMiRA Jewelry was schooled in fine art New York and was intent on leading the life of gallery shows and studio hermitage until a tour of Latin America changed everything. As a volunteer in South America she learned how to macramé from a local artist. The artist who was selling her wares on the sidewalk in a plaza where art-ists gathered every weekend taught her some basic knotting skills. The experience brought back the memories of childhood summers spent knotting friendship bracelets.
photography: Beth Olson Creativestory: Carmella Vargas model: Emily Olson
AMiRA
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While living in Argentina, Amira applied her new found skills with locally available string, seeds and beads. Once returning to the States, she began incorporating the jewelry making skills gained while working at a bead shop during high school, and started sharing that with family and friends through in-home jewelry parties. “By adding colorful macramé to my jewelry process, I was incorporating my painting interests into my jewelry making - fusing the two. And, I felt I had something unique to share - the story and the art.”
Portland is known for its sense of community, especially among Artists. The strength of that community stems from being from and want-ing to reach beyond its geographical bound-aries. Amira became aware of NAKATE, a Brooklyn-based company that uses the
“Often my instinct is to travel, to make a journey somewhere else, somewhere new. And, this journey and this somewhere new is not always a physical place, but can be an idea, as well.”
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creation of their pieces as an opportunity to establish rela-tionships connecting Ugandan professionals and artisans with marginalized women in rural villages – using African talent to nourish African growth and development.
To fulfill her desire to bring the AMiRA collection to a more socially responsible level, she began supporting NAKATE by sourcing materials from them. What resulted inspired NAKATE’s founder Shanley Knox, to ask Amira to design a new line incorporating the Ugandan paper beads with macramé and metalwork, bringing together AMiRA Jew-elry in Portland with NAKATE in Brooklyn, a collaboration between cultures, countries and coasts to support women everywhere.
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AMiRA Jewelry brings exotic elements of fiber, texture and color to not simply reproduce a style of cultural motif, but synthesize them. Her trav-els, adventures and taste for the rare spices and textures that are a departure from the everyday are reflected in each piece.
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Some like it haute …and spicy
Some of the best things about Oregon come in bottles. Aside from the obvious microbrews there’s Marshall’s Haute Sauce.
When the Marshalls bought their first house, Sarah was most excited about having a garden.
Growing food, canning it, making things from scratch, hyperlocal style. She started making her own condiments and hot sauces. Not one to keep a good thing to themselves, those privileged enough to get a taste started asking for whole jars.
photography: Daniel Colestory: Carmella Vargas 17
It was obviously time to look into having her product in the marketplace.
Marshall’s Haute Sauce started in November of 2011 and quickly outgrew their production capacity. They afforded a commer-cial kitchen space thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign and have begun to offer other small batch producers. Highlighting local NW ingredients Marshall’s Haute Sauce uses artesian products like honey, Bee Local, Jacobsen Salt- harvested from the Oregon coast. Their spices come from a locally owned shop, Stone Cottage.
We have 2 seasonal sauces: Ghost Chili Apple and Cranberry Red Jalape-no. These seasonal sauces highlight Oregon Cranberry Bogs and Apple Orchards. 18
We felt these ingredients were unique to Oregon and wanted to put that into a bottle. Our core sauce fla-vors include Serrano Ginger Lemongrass, Smoked Habanero Barbeque, Red Chili Lime, and Habanero Carrot Curry.
This two-maker operation strives to sup-port other small businesses and get as many ingredients as locally as they can. In the summer their produce comes from local farmers they’ve met through work-ing at farmers markets together. In the winter they buy from local stores who can provide high quality of produce from farms outside of Oregon.
“There is something magical about my husband and I being the only people to pick out and process every ingredient in our sauces.”
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You can find Marshall’s Haute Sauce starting this June at the Pioneer Square Farmers Market on Mondays, the NW Portland Market on Thursdays, in Lake Oswego and PSU Markets on Saturdays, and in Milwaukie on Sun-days. If you find yourself without a decent condiment in Seattle, Urban Craft Uprising will start carrying Haute Sauce for the first time this summer. And of course, you can always find it at Mag-Big, right here in PDX.
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Ca
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art
photography: Daniel Colestory: Carmella Vargas photo retouching: Shae Mcintosh models: Shae Mcintosh, Kat Olsen22
Affectionate Fashion and the New Timeless
Carolyn Hart, is a local women’s clothing line created with love and the enduring passion of a woman who wants to share the virtues of a live well lived. Garments with classic lines with a flare of edginess, making for women’s wear that is as fun as it is timeless.
First Fridays, seasonal shows and collaboration with other designers and local jewelers keep this Maker busy and in the loop. A true Maker, she creates her own challenges. Caro-lyn challenged herself to a year-long project to create one unique piece of clothing every
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Designing every day is like a dream for me, reflected in each and
every garment I create.
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month.” This is a challenge I’m plac-ing upon myself so that I never settle and take the easy, plain old road!”
That challenge has produced incites invaluable to an independent maker. While draping one of the first dresses for this project, the course of the design began to change, and she strayed from the sketch. “But that is my favorite part of designing. Yes, I will color outside of the lines if I re-ally want to!”
While being bent on innovation, Carolyn knows the value of nostalgia. She started 2012 by reviving an old design. It was a favorite but the photo didn’t quite do it justice. It took 12 yards of fabric in total to create it, 100% silk and “feels like it has a life of its own”.
Carolyn’s creative passion and love of life are stitched into every garment with an appreciation for the past and excitement for what comes next.”
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Mag-Big carries the makers in this publication and hundreds more, all from Portland, Oregon! www.Magbig.com
www.facebook.com/SausePDX www.Betholsoncreative.com
www.danielgcole.comwww.amiramednick.com
www.marshallshautesauce.comwww.carolynhartdesigns.com
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