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After a long long long hiatus, my favorite segment of the blog- Five Whats is back! It is a little Q&A with creative and talented people that I admire, some are friends, and some are strangers that I've become friends with. Today's guest is Michelle Peglau of Hortensia Handmade. I am obsessed with Hortensia ever since I first saw their neck warmer (picture below), everything is hand made by artisans in Peru. Michelle is based in New York and she runs the business with her mother who lives in Peru. I am fascinated that she's from Peru, which is well known for its alpaca wool and handicrafts. I was so happy to meet Michelle in person yesterday at the Divine Studio Holiday Sale, and I bought the beanie hat that she's wearing in the pic! She is such a nice and friendly lady that I know I will keep in touch with for a long long time! Without further ado, here are the five whats:
1. What did you have for breakfast?
Can’t start the day without a cappuccino that I make. I use my Bodum French press and a portable foam maker by Primo Latte. I get my coffee beans at Sweet Leaf in LIC. They sell organic coffee from all over the world by Stumptown Coffee, for me the best. I love eggs, any style, with either baguette or tortillas (a tradition I picked up from my husband) or I have some fruit with some good old Greek yogurt I get in Astoria.
2. What inspire you the most?
Colors…no doubt. That’s what gets me started. Then textures. I am obsessed with that now. I’m planning a lot of it for the new fall collection. Mixing colors, creating patterns and relieves. I have always been very drawn to ancient textiles. Ancient Peruvians made amazing textiles. That’s my most inspiring source right now.
3. What are your favorite things to do in Peru? Any "secret" places that we should know about?
I was born and bred in Peru and fortunately I get to go back a lot. I’m from Lima, the capital of Peru that is by the Pacific Ocean.
My old hood is called Miraflores and I love it because it’s near everything. From my mom’s apartment you can see the sea. I also recommend Barranco, a bohemian neighborhood by the sea cliff. There are many parks, old houses that have been restored and are now art galleries, designer studios, cafes, restaurants, bars.
Lima’s center is also great. Colonial architecture is all around. Some buildings are better kept than others but overall the whole center is coming alive. My favorites are the Museo de Arte de Lima, The Hotel Bolivar and The Plaza de Armas de Lima.
And you can’t leave Lima without having a ceviche and pisco sour. My favorites places to go are La Mar and Costanera 700. This last one is owned by a Japanese chef and blends both Peruvian and Japanese flavors.
4. What is it like in a day of Hortensia?
Every day is so different. We all do bit of everything. Right now I am getting ready for the Holiday season, at the same time planning Fall 2010 and doing everyday office work. What I usually do is plan my days and dedicate my creative time to at least a full day. I don’t read my email or get near a computer!
Since I’m in New York and my mom in Peru (same time zone though) we communicate via email, talk almost every day by skype and discuss our ideas or plans for the next collection. And surprisingly we are always in tune.
Hortensia is collaboration, a constant work in progress. I am very lucky to work with my mom and the ladies that are part of Hortensia’s team. We are all learning from each other, we all trust and respect our roles.5. What are you doing this holiday season?
I will be working very hard through Christmas!. But after that my husband & me will spend our first Christmas in our new place in Long Island City (In Queens, New York). We are spending New Year’s Eve in Lima with my mom & brothers. We are probably going to stay up all night, watch the sunrise and have an “aguadito” in a little restaurant near the beach.- Thanks to Michelle who took some time from her busy schedule to answer these questions and sending me some pictures of Peru!
- photo of Costanera 700 ceviche: http://www.thousandflavors.com/
We always enjoy our time in Beacon, even though we only spent about 3 hours up there, we looked at art, went to shops and met lot of very nice people. I visited Kristen from Clay Wood and Cotton and I loved the store! I wish there is a place like it in NYC or Brooklyn. The store looks great, Kristen and her partner have really good selections for the holidays, I'm honored to have my stuff in the store! I bought some coasters by Kristen, and also got this really really beautiful letterpress calendar by Ink+Wit's Tara Hogan, the artworks are inspired by her trips to Europe and across America, the colors are so soft and so pretty, I love it! This calendar inspires me as well, one of my plans for 2010 is to start making letterpress prints!!!
Mike Perry
Bryce
Yes, this young man is the artist, his name is Bryce. He is working on a book of poems that he wrote AND illustrated, and I didn't even dare to ask how old he is, is he even 10?! Chad and I are starting a collection of Bryce's work now because, mark my word, he is going to be BIG one day, probably soon!
We are going to Beacon for the Limited Run show at Open Space Gallery, where my prints, a couple of items from CHetCH, as well as my friend Alex's postcard set will be shown there. It's going to be a lot of fun, and I hope that other Brooklyn artists will be there as well.
I just got this email about a Fort Greene Holiday Sale (see above), I must check it out before we go upstate. You will find my friend Lily of Sunshine and Shadow's beautiful clothes, and I am excited to see some handmade jewelry by Aesa, plus lots of artworks by local artists. I can't pass on this sale since it's only a few blocks away, right?!
On Sunday, I'm planning on baking some holiday squirrel cookies, but before that I will go to Divine Studio's Holiday Craft sale, mainly for Michelle of Hortensia's handcrafted knitwear, which I have mentioned on this blog before.
p.s. Come back next Tuesday for my favorite part of this blog- Five Whats. My guest is going to be- ta da... Michelle from Hortensia! I just LOVE her knitwear and the way she runs her business with her mom remotely, her in New York, mom in Peru. So come back for the delightful Q&A session then! Have a fun weekend and stay warm, it is absolutely freezing in New York!!!
Another print I did for the "Limited Run" Show at Open Space. These new prints will be available on Etsy and my webshop after Christmas.
Chad's coat+
This guy=
Toggles! Specially made for Open Space "Limited Run" Show- opens this Saturday.
Squirrel pic: Moldovia on Flickr
As you know I've made some laser cut felt ornaments for the holiday, I love them but we don't have a tree at home, so I am so happy to see my little Owlette in this close-up tree shot by Clay Wood & Cotton in Beacon, NY, they carry some of my stuff there! It's a new store run by a couple of very nice ladies, one of them, Kristen, is actually a Clinton Hill neighbor. I also have a special connection with Beacon because my favorite gallery Open Space where I have shown in a couple of group shows is on the same street as CW&C (well ok, Main Street is a pretty long stretch but it's only a 10 minute walk from each other). I've been working on a print for this year's group show, hope they'll like it, and if I have time I will work on a couple more, will post pics soon. Think we might go on a day trip to Beacon next weekend!
I also want to mention this great shop where I got some nice flowers from called Stem, I can't believe that it is only a block away from me in Fort Greene, the selection is really amazing too, plus it feels good to support small local businesses in our neighborhood. Have a great weekend guys!photo: CW&C
New print this week- Rainbow Chart by Shannon Lucy, a CHetCH exclusive. This is a print of an original painting, it is printed on textured art paper to maintain the aged look of the original. Shannon has had a few solo gallery shows in New York and her works have been sold to some pretty high profile people, like this guy. We are so lucky to have this painting at home, and now, this Rainbow Chart! Only 50 prints are available.
Another CHetCH exclusive, a festive version of the Skull print by Faiyaz Jafri. We have the black version at home but I think the red one is perfect as a holiday gift, well, for those who are into skulls. Only 25 available!
Riding Hat, made to order by Siu Yin Chau. Silly me, I used the wrong picture on the site and this blog for weeks and didn't notice that it's different from the riding hat that I wear all the time! Anyways, here is the hat and I LOVE it, I'm really into red lately and this is another accessory that will go well with my usual dark outfits!
Memphis necklace made by CHetCH. Another red accessory that I can wear with my dark outfits, we created this cluster as a tribute to Memphis, the architecture design movement in the 1980's.
Watermelon USB Drive. This slice of watermelon looks so real and juicy that I actually had mistakenly picked it up and thought it was real! It holds 4GB of space and comes in a tin case, only 3 left.
Found this beach bag on Etsy by PloylyMingzyBb' from Bangkok (the name is a little funny, wonder what it means???) I think it's perfect for city dwellers as well, I do wish that I could carry this bag to a beach right this moment! The store has lots of beautifully crafted totes with nice leather straps, I love the red of this bag, with all the black that I wear this bag will really stand out!
photos: PloylyMingzyBb
At 10pm last night I decided to bake an apple cake, I found the recipe from House Beautiful and it seemed easy enough to make, and it only needs 2 granny smith apples. As a clumsy baker I did everything I shouldn't have or didn't use the right equipment to bake this cake. The recipe calls for light brown sugar but I only had dark so I used it, I mixed the butter and sugar when the butter was not soft enough resulted in sugar flying out of the bowl, to eliminate further splattering nightmare I mixed the batter by hand (with a spatula) instead of the mixer, I didn't use a springform cake pan because I don't have one, and I didn't sprinkle the thing with powder sugar coz I figured that it's sweet and pretty enough. I learned that I don't have to follow the damn recipe to a T, like I used to, and the cake turned out pretty good, actually delicious! It's a nice cake to have in the morning with a coffee, it's not too cakey and dense so it doesn't feel like I'm eating dessert (I'm kidding myself right now, but it IS lighter!) Let me know if you want the recipe, or buy the December issue of House Beautiful!
before
after
my shop, for 1 week only- Nov. 27 to Dec. 4!
Chad and I are going on a road trip to Nashville, his hometown. We usually fly down but this year we are driving because we'll get the chance to stop by all the great little towns in Pennsylvania and Virginia! Great antiquing and lots of fun places to go, we are really excited about Dollywood, I hope it will be more than just an amusement park! Another place that I really want to go is Roadside America in Shartlesville Pennsylvania that our friend Jenna told us about. It's a 6,000 square feet miniature village representing small-town America, see more pics here. The place looks strange but amazing! Let me know if there are places that I should check out in PA or VA!
photos: www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com
