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Pick of the litter

Sonja Silver wearing her original raincoat, featuring lining pattern illustrated by Chandler O'Leary. Photo by Summer Hess Briggs.

UPDATE as of June 12: Just four days left, and we have less than $2000 to go! We’re almost there!

UPDATE as of June 8: One week left, and just over $6000 to go! We can do it!

Thanks to you, we’ve blown past the halfway point of the funding goal on the Constellation coat! And we’ve been named a Kickstarter staff pick! Our Kickstarter campaign is winding down, though, and we’re not yet at our goal. This is our big chance to make the coat (as well as the Constellation scarf) a reality—if we don’t make our full goal, we get zero of the funding already pledged and we are back to the drawing board. So if you haven’t yet made your pledge, now is the time. So head on over to Kickstarter and help us get to the finish line!

 

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Going strong!

"Made in Tacoma" promo photo for Sonja Silver's original raincoat, featuring lining pattern illustrated by Chandler O'Leary. Photo by Emilie Firn.

Photo by Emilie Firn.

Wowsa! Thank you so much for your overwhelming response to the raincoat! Thanks to you, our Kickstarter campaign is already closing in on the halfway point, and we are that much closer to making the project a reality. Thank you so, so much. Please keep spreading the word—it’s working!

Constellation pattern illustrated by Chandler O'Leary

If you haven’t already made your pledge, or you’re looking for a way to support the project but the coat itself isn’t for you, there are lots of other rewards to choose from. Each features my Constellations design in a different format, and each is an affordable piece of art in itself. First up is an 11 x 14″ archival art print of the Constellation pattern. The print is set up like a giant Polaroid—square on a white bordered background—and can fit in a standard size frame for easy display. This print is done the same way as my 50 States and sketchbook prints—digitally printed with museum-quality inks on 100% cotton paper, and signed with my insignia. The difference is that this print is only available as part of the Kickstarter campaign—I won’t be offering it in my shop afterward. This print is available at the $40 reward level.

Constellations of the Zodiac greeting cards illustrated by Chandler O'Leary

Next are my brand new Constellations of the Zodiac greeting cards! I singled out each of the 12 zodiac signs from the pattern, and turned them into individual cards—each card is blank inside, and comes with a matching envelope. I’ve been offering these cards in my online shop and at craft fairs as a “teaser” for the coat project, and they’ve already been a big hit.

Constellations of the Zodiac greeting cards illustrated by Chandler O'Leary

Here are all 12 designs, and how they look on the cards themselves. Each card makes a great and unique form of “personalized” stationery (I recently had a Leo buy a whole box of them to use as her “from the desk of” cards)—or you can get a box of all 12 designs to use as birthday cards for the people in your life. At the $10 reward level on Kickstarter, you can take your pick of a single card; or at the $50 pledge level you get the whole box of 12.

Scarf featuring constellation pattern illustrated by Chandler O'Leary

Last but not least, Sonja and I are offering the Constellations design in the form of a wearable scarf! We haven’t had it produced yet, so I don’t have an “action shot” to show you, but you can see the finished design here. Every constellation in the pattern is featured, along with our logo/insignia and a hand-painted border that’s unique to the scarf. The finished scarf will measure 20 x 20 inches. To be honest, I am just as excited about the scarf as I am about the coat, and you can bet I’ll be wearing mine constantly! You can snag one of these babies at the $70 reward level on Kickstarter.

Sonja Silver wearing her original raincoat, featuring lining pattern illustrated by Chandler O'Leary. Photo by Summer Hess Briggs.

Photo by Summer Hess Briggs.

And of course, there’s the coat itself, at the $240 reward level. When pricing the coat, Sonja did her best to make a product that is both designer-quality and competitive with what else is out there on the market. Since many of your average made-in-China, plain-jane jackets are $300 and up at department stores, I think she did pretty darn well. Also, as I said the other day, Sonja is limiting her first production run to 200 coats. If she offers this coat again in future, or releases other colors or lining designs, the price will very likely increase. So in exchange for putting their faith in us and helping get Sonja’s new apparel line out into the world, our Kickstarter backers are getting the coat at the lowest price.

So there you have it! Thank you so much again for all your support—and keep it coming! We can’t wait to get these things into production and into your hands—the finish line is ahead, and we’ll all get there together.

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Hot under the collar

Process photo of constellation pattern illustrated by Chandler O'Leary

I tell you what, this has been the year of long-term projects coming to fruition. There have been so many things I’ve had to sit on for months, and it feels so good to finally be able to share them with you! And the one pictured above might just be my favorite of all.

Sonja Silver wearing her original raincoat, featuring lining pattern illustrated by Chandler O'Leary. Photo by Summer Hess Briggs.

Photo by Summer Hess Briggs

This is my friend Sonja Silver. She’s a dyed-in-the-wool Tacoman, and has owned a women’s clothing boutique here for nearly two decades. Over the years, she’s watched women of all shapes and sizes come through her shop, and has developed a keen eye for clothing that’s both well-made and well-designed. But she had a gap in her business: for years, her customers had been asking for coats and jackets, and Sonja had never been happy with what was available in the marketplace.

So she has spent the last year designing her own.

Sonja Silver's original design for a raincoat

It turned out to be quite the challenge—Sonja was inspired by the classic swing coats and car coats of the 1950s, but wanted the hard-wearing functionality of an outdoorsy shell. Basically, her goal was to make something that was both a workhorse—and a thoroughbred. After all, we live in the Pacific Northwest—we wear jackets pretty much all the time here, in all weather.

chandler_oleary_studio_painting

Here’s where I come in. Sonja called me up one day last spring, and told me about her coat project. She said she wanted the coat to be lined with fabric that was as unique as the design of the coat itself, and asked me if I’d be interested in illustrating a pattern repeat for her.

Process photo of constellation pattern illustrated by Chandler O'Leary

Needless to say, I didn’t so much say yes as squeal it.

Process photo of constellation pattern illustrated by Chandler O'Leary

Sonja had the idea for a constellation pattern—something that could be both playful and sophisticated at the same time. We both wanted the pattern to be hand-painted, to help transform the coat into a piece of wearable art.

Constellation pattern illustrated by Chandler O'Leary

Here’s the finished pattern. There are 27 different constellations represented, including all 12 signs of the zodiac and some perennial favorites from the skies in both the northern and southern hemispheres.

Sonja Silver wearing her original raincoat, featuring lining pattern illustrated by Chandler O'Leary. Photo by Summer Hess Briggs.

Photo by Summer Hess Briggs

What I love best, though, is seeing the pattern “in action,” doing its job as part of the garment. While I was painting fish and birds and Greek gods, Sonja was hard at work on creating a working prototype of the coat. She went through many different test fabrics and design changes, trying the fit on women of all shapes and sizes to make the design as universal and versatile as possible.

Sonja Silver's original raincoat design, featuring lining pattern illustrated by Chandler O'Leary. Photos by Kathy Chakerian.

Photos by Kathy Chakerian

And now, at long last, it’s ready for production!

Sonja has launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise the necessary funds to produce the coat, and it’s officially live and up and running. The campaign will run until June 16, and we’re already 1/4 of the way there!

This is the third Kickstarter campaign I’ve been a part of (you can read about the other two successful projects here and here)—for those of you who might not know how it works, a campaign is run like an NPR pledge drive, with tangible rewards offered in exchange for each funding level. So this is not a donation platform—it’s an exchange of goods for capital. We must make our funding goal by the time the clock runs out, or we don’t get any of the funding already pledged. It’s an all-or-nothing thing, and that ensures that the project will be done right, with enough capital to get the job done. And to make sure she doesn’t get overwhelmed by too many orders all at once, Sonja has limited this first production run to 200 coats.

Sonja Silver's original raincoat design, featuring lining pattern illustrated by Chandler O'Leary.

That reminds me: a note about the prototype featured in the Kickstarter campaign. The fabric used for the lining was just a test fabric we had made in a small quantity when we were looking for manufacturers. We weren’t happy with the black background of that fabric, as it turned out a little on the light side. So while you’ll see it in the Kickstarter video, we ended up going with a different manufacturer for the final lining fabric.

Final lining fabric for Sonja Silver's raincoat, featuring constellation pattern illustrated by Chandler O'Leary

Here’s the real thing—the actual lining fabric that will be used in the finished run of coats. As you can see, the black is a true black, and the pattern pops from the background the way it’s intended to.

Sonja Silver talking to local manufacturers for her raincoat

The best part of Sonja’s vision here is that this project has been brought about almost entirely by local women. From apparel design to illustration to construction to marketing, it’s local women who have made this thing happen. In an age where the vast majority of all garments are made overseas, in sweatshop conditions, that’s really saying something. Sonja’s coat is made with fabric sourced and printed in the United States, and the garment itself is pieced and sewn right here in Tacoma. I love being able to say that—I love being able to put our beliefs into action in this way.

Emilie Firn photographing artwork in Chandler O'Leary's studio

The Kickstarter campaign even has a fantastic video made by a local gal—the lovely Emilie Firn (shown here snapping photos of my process materials in my studio).

Sonja Silver wearing her original raincoat, featuring lining pattern illustrated by Chandler O'Leary. Photo by Summer Hess Briggs.

Photo by Summer Hess Briggs

And last but not least, one other local gal has had a “hand” in the project: Sonja’s grandmother Lena, who was the inspiration for the coat. Sonja says her goal was to make a coat that had the same attributes Lena had: she’s hardworking, she’s beautiful, and she’s got your back.

Constellation pattern illustrated by Chandler O'Leary

So if you’re looking for your next go-to jacket, or you have a woman in your life who is, visit our Kickstarter campaign and make a pledge! And if a coat isn’t your thing, there are many other pledge levels and reward goodies to choose from. Even a pledge of $1 helps move the project forward and gives us better exposure online (if all my social media followers and email newsletter subscribers pledged $1, we’d instantly reach the halfway point of our goal!)—and of course, helping spread the word through your social media platforms will also help us meet our goal. But most of all, we just can’t wait to see women wearing the coat, out there in the real world. So take a gander at the campaign and snag your coat here!

Thank you for your support!

Sonja Silver wearing her original raincoat, featuring lining pattern illustrated by Chandler O'Leary. Photo by Summer Hess Briggs..

 

 

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The holiday rush

Studio photo by Chandler O'Leary

Every day this month I’ve brought a stack of packages like this to the post office, fulfilling orders and sending my goods to every corner of the country and beyond. Normally this is the week that the orders taper off, as folks finish off their Christmas list or the holiday USPS deadline looms. This year, though, the orders are still coming in thus far, at an astonishing rate that keeps me busy the whole day, every day.

So I just wanted to pause a moment to say thank you—for your support for what I do, for your support of small and local businesses like mine, and of artisans of every stripe who make their living from what they create. I can’t begin to express what that means to me—except to keep making things, in the hope that it’ll mean something to you, too.

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Chicken scratches

Tacoma Food Coop chicken illustration by Chandler O'Leary

If you’ve read about the squash in our attic, our crazy food-shopping habits, and my illustrated political rants—you probably already know that the Tailor and I are freakishly into sustainability. So you can imagine how happy I was when our lovely new local food co-op asked me to design a reusable water bottle for them. I’m honored to be the first Tacoma artist in what we hope will become a series of limited-edition artist-designed bottles.

Tacoma Food Coop water bottle illustrated by Chandler O'Leary

What I love most about this is that the bottles are manufactured by the kind folks at Liberty Bottle Works—right across the mountains in Yakima, WA. Thus far, at least, Liberty is the only U.S. manufacturer of metal water bottles. So being able to support an industry right in my own state was a big deal for me.

Tacoma Food Coop water bottle illustrated by Chandler O'Leary

The hitch is that there are only 200 of these—once they’re gone, that’s it. So visit the Tacoma Food Coop, grab your bottle and fill ‘er up.