sword+fern

2009-11-14T17:11:00.000-08:00

i haven't posted in a long time. the days are getting to that place where you can't tell if it is 7 am or 7 pm.
i found some photos+a video of my room at Content.. thanks to those who documented for me.
found at: coolhunting.com, alishahenson.com, childhoodflames.blogspot.com, meyes.blogspot.com, minhternet.com

2009-11-10T20:03:00.001-08:00

new in the shop

2009-10-26T13:38:00.000-07:00

i found an old table on the street and had to fill it with treasures for you.
airplants, cups+saucers, heavy old brass pins, wooden bangles,vases, blank books wrapped in fabric,letter press journals, origami, rocks, scissors, paper, green raindrops..

DJ New Moon Poncho at PICA 'blackout' halloween party!

2009-10-23T14:45:00.000-07:00

PICA is throwing a halloween party at the ACE Hotel & Kerby+I are DJing!
Come dance to Paradise Garage disco classics, Brazilian funk, New wave, and more with us AND see a special performance by our sweet friends FLESHTONE! on a spooky night at the Cleaners!!!
here's the link to the party where you can buy tickets-only $6!
We'll also be playing set at Valentine's on Dec. 5th..cozy winter beats!

anne mathern

2009-10-22T02:36:00.000-07:00

video still(+great photo of my friend roscoe) from doomhawk, 2007 by mathern
crawl space gallery in seattle is closing.
too bad, it was my favorite art space there.
anne mathern's conceptual video +photo work is awesome-
see more here + here

that's how we live-our life is wild+gold+we are home.

2009-10-21T14:21:00.001-07:00

photo of my room at CONTENT 09 from Mallory Freed-bottom, +top, Jesse Champlin

COME TRUE

2009-10-20T13:11:00.000-07:00

Sword+Fern shout out on NY Times 'The Moment' blog

2009-10-17T10:19:00.000-07:00

Women's Fashion

October 15, 2009 , 2:27 pm

The Insider | Yacht’s Claire Evans

By Elizabeth Spiridakis

Sarah Meadows Claire Evans, one half of Yacht, an electro duo based out of Portland.

The Insider profiles emerging tastemakers in the fields of fashion, design, food, travel and the arts. Here, the Portland, Ore.-based singer Claire Evans shares her essentials. Evans is the neo-Annie Lennox half of the electro duo YACHT. They just finished a mini-tour with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and are currently rocking Europe.

Name: Claire L. Evans

Age: 24

Occupation(s): Singer in the band Yacht, artist, science writer.

Home Base: Portland, Ore.

Retail Standby: Rad Summer, which is where my most Gothic, audacious show frocks come from, and Stand Up Comedy, for waterproof Slow and Steady Wins the Race pumps and sci-fi design zines.

Music Venue: The Mormon Temple Tabernacle in Salt Lake City.

Music: The best that the L.A. punk scene had to offer in the late 1980s: Descendents, Suburban Lawns, Black Randy & the Metrosquad, the Screamers, the Weirdos, Nervous Gender.

Provisions: Andy & Bax Military Surplus. A surprisingly comprehensive stash of tiny plastic bottles, ropes, hooks, knives, duffels, compasses, bungees and water bottles. Everything you might need to survive the apocalypse, essentially.

For gifts: The Internet.

Restaurant: I’m a vegan tourist. In Portland, Blossoming Lotus for raw vegan cheesecake. In New York, Blossom for celebrity drag-king sighting and seitan, or Red Bamboo for the callalloo soup. In Los Angeles, Elf for the mind-blowing kale salad.

Drink: Dirty gin martini.

Party central: The Rob Walmart van in Portland, wherever it may be.

Momentary style obsessions: Justin brand cow-roping boots, cupro, Alexander Hi-Tek ’90s Madonna-in-”Truth or Dare” round sunglasses, opacity, a post-apocalyptic spirit, Lindsay Crouse in “House of Games,” black, Gareth Pugh fall-winter ‘09, getting jewelry custom-made by a lapidarist and gem hunter in the West Texas desert.

Reading material: If it’s not one yellowing ’60s sci-fi paperback, it’s another. Right now I’m reading “Picnic on Paradise” by Joanna Russ, one of the great feminist fabulists. I’m on a long-term quest to become a living science-fiction encyclopedia. I even have a blog about it.

Art pick: Everything that AIDS-3D is doing, for perpetuity.

Museums: The Palais de Tokyo in Paris. The shows are always great, and if all else fails there’s usually (in fair weather) some very Euro-hesher critters skateboarding and bongo-drumming all over the beautiful marble statues out back. A close second: the 3D Museum of Art and Photography, in Portland.

Movie: “Paris Is Burning.” O-P-U-L-E-N-C-E!

Vacation destination: Deer Run on Big Pine Key, Fla. It’s a vegan bed-and-breakfast on an island covered in miniature deer. You heard it here first.

Something you are looking forward to this fall: Going on tour in China.

Claire’s Portland Neighborhood

Here are some of her favorite Portland haunts that she visits regularly. The map above is interactive!

View The Insider: Claire Evans in a larger map

3D Center of Art and Photography — A hole-in-the-wall collection of lenticular prints, rotating stereoscopic photography shows and a tiny 3-D film screening room.

Cameron’s Books — Everyone in Portland loves Powell’s Books, of course, but Cameron’s is for when you’re feeling a little seedy and you don’t know what you’re looking for. Eighty percent of my science-fiction novel collection began its life at Cameron’s.

Food Carts (SE 12th and Hawthorne) — Vegan poutine, late-night outdoor summer hangouts and some delicious thing called a “Whiffie.”

Huber’s — The oldest bar in Portland. Has an Art Deco, speakeasy feel, and is famous for its elaborate performances of flambéed Spanish coffees.

Junior’s — Definitive Portland brunch.

Nationale — Imported French sundry goods, papier d’acier and vintage pumps.

Rad Summer — Well-curated vintage, staffed by the most oppressively space-age psychedelic babes I have ever seen.

Stand Up Comedy — Margiela, Mary Ping and a periodicals collection that is way ahead of its time.

Sword + Fern — Handmade jewels crafted from sea glass, crystal and junked car parts.

Rm. 207

2009-10-16T18:38:00.000-07:00

See my new work at Content alongside 37 more of Portland's finest.
I will be inhabiting room 207 for the evening, Sword+Fern style.
I invited a special musical guest you will LOVErs..(get it?) to play in the room with me to complete the atmosphere.
For 10 bucks , you can hear music in the lobby by DJ automaton+dirty mittens, walk around poking your head into each designer's created room to see what inspires them to make, and hang out with your friends in the Cleaners by the bar, where live mannequins will model looks by each designer.
See you there!
Portland Independent Fashion Event, Content-this Sunday, at the Ace Hotel, open 5-10 pm-one night only, $10.

cornucopia land

2009-10-06T18:10:00.001-07:00

a few of the one of a kind treasures now for sale in the shop.
out-of-towners, send me an email to purchase:
vintage wooden+gold costume bangles, $22 each
EB recycled jewels, earrings, $35-$48; necklaces, $45-$115
vintage necklaces, $35
antique handmade ceramic teacups, bowls, cups, +plates, $12-$45

the way things fall

2009-10-06T14:14:00.000-07:00

some images of the shop design this past summer, by Laura Dart of d'art photographie.
She is a bright light and drops in to the shop on her travels to snap photos sometimes.
See more of her work here.

etsy 30% off sale, blog, new photos on the way later today.

2009-10-06T12:41:00.000-07:00

my ancient future necklace is featured this week in this etsy fall fashion guide, and coincidentally, it is 30% off for a limited time in my etsy shop . message me to get the sale price.
i am shooting a handful of photos of new necklaces and earrings so do stop back in the next couple of days and have a look.
most of them are brand new styles and lots of them include black + bronze leather, and blue, aqua, + grey recycled glass pieces.
fall is here and it is gorgeous.

2009-10-04T17:47:00.000-07:00

.jane fonda,'70
.matt greene,'09
.alexandre herchcovitch,'09
.pattern
.ancient alphabets
.gold thread
.yarn mask

Join me for a quiet full moon first friday, and a 30% off parking ticket/i'd rather be surfing sale all weekend

2009-10-02T13:44:00.000-07:00

hi, I'd rather be surfing, but i gotta give you an important message from the management:

Come by the shop+studio for first friday tonight, I'll be open and having a 30% off parking ticket sale.
I gotta pay off this expensive fine so help a sword+fern out, and get cool stuff for cheap!
Everything in the shop is on sale all weekend..
There's also a great show next door at grass hut, so come visit us.
I'll be rocking some disco, no wave, and Brazilian funk while I crank out some jewelry for you.
See you soon,
you're my hero!

handmade basic dry goods are on their way to the shop this season.

2009-10-01T13:43:00.000-07:00

Women are making amazing things by hand.
And you can buy them and support these independent business owners who care about using salvaged and toxin-free materials at sword+fern.
Here's a preview of few of the new dry goods making their way across state lines to the shop for fall and winter:
Recycled canvas totes by Alice of forest bound:
forest bound uses exclusively found and salvaged materials like canvas from WWII Navy supplies to create durable, utilitarian tote bags. Great effort is put into hunting for well-worn historic textiles and hardware throughout New England. Much time and care is spent working with these unique materials to make every bag one of a kind.

Recycled wood bangles by Jillian+Kaleb Driedger:
Jillian +Kaleb save found pieces of wood from construction sites and fires to make new, one of a kind jewelry.

Blank hand woven sketchbooks by bookbinder+illustrator Natalie Stopka:
100% pure beeswax handmade candles from beekeeper Angela at Swarm:
Handmade ceramics for holding candles, plants, +spices by Borah Betts of Fort:
Hand-screened extra big soft cotton scarves by Georgie Russell of Hand&Shadow ( i also carry her teeth+hair t-shirts in tons of sizes and colors):

And, cross-emblazoned pillows by longtime favorite, Liane at Enhabiten:
(so glad they are finally getting a spot in the shop!)

cozy+ cozy +cozier..

2009-09-29T16:41:00.000-07:00

2009-09-27T14:26:00.000-07:00

fuego luna oscura

2009-09-24T16:42:00.000-07:00

jazzerific

2009-09-23T16:18:00.000-07:00

vizzsssssualist

2009-09-17T23:01:00.000-07:00

order of today.

traanslatiingting crrueattures

2009-09-17T14:52:00.000-07:00

.jane's addiction
.hawkwind
.KAF
.susun weed, herbalist
.NOW marchers
.michael rovners 'fields'

guess what? sword+fern has some nice new CANADIAN t-shirts for sale.

2009-09-17T13:04:00.000-07:00

TEETH SHIRT
HAIR SHIRT
Ever since my life became a veritable cornucopia of radness last year around this time, it has had several recurring themes associated with it. One of these themes is CANADA, and the special people in my life who are CANADIAN. My good CANADIAN friend Jen Kovach who is a party martyr and also a savage savvy business woman, introduced me to Hand and Shadow when she was trying to convince me that there's more to Canada than beer and free health care.
Hand&Shadow is textile designer Georgie from beautiful Vancouver, Canada.
Today she came and dropped off a bunch of amazing soft t-shirts with hand screened designs of HAIR +TEETH. This is really great for me, it will help me to remember to brush both of those things. I just bought a new toothbrush yesterday. Georgie was kind enough to bring several colors and sizes of her shirts to the shop, the color palate is nice and full of rich chocolate browns, stone grey, lavender purple, and black of course. Each shirt is one of a kind since she hand screens them with a special process that only rad Canadian people know how to do. Each shirt is $40.You will love feeling a tiny bit of CANADA in your closet and in your heart.Being friends w/ my Canadians also makes me want to yell in text apparently.

2009-09-17T01:39:00.001-07:00

This is the rhythm of the night. My life. Oh yeah.

emergence sea

2009-09-12T21:50:00.000-07:00

poster by sword+fern
arthur russell video by p.niblock/live in seattle -1985
our portrait videos by happyplayground.com/christine taylor

metal moon connection:CONTENT 09 at the Ace Hotel

2009-09-07T15:15:00.000-07:00

on the night of october 18, 2009, we will draw new rings around the moon with the full intention of meditating on what it means to be together+healthy+draw in our community, full of action,light,sound,and art. it will be a magic time, and i am working on a special collection of jewelry to show. here are some of my inspirations for the collection:

.."and now the time has come to assess your own unconditional love and courage. Who are you really? And what do you value the most? It is time to shine, to light up the world around you."-BHC
..when time inevitably draws us close: multidimensional healing power becomes art and celebration, and i draw a circle around you and you build a life around me
..the galactic underworld comes to a close: textile moon,labours of love have made us strong, women in domes,metallic driftwood,conspiring cloaks,days of dark lightness.
learning to live in the new world: listen to things, be in circle,grow in spirit, intentional flames,futuristic breath, calm cape,open heart, folded hands, folded heart, open hands,aligned excitement, empowered action, accelerated genius, healthy lives, peaceful people.. galactic night brings the canopy of light.."people will start to actively participate in throwing out the old and seeking new paths."-BHC