Kirsten Southwell

Design, textiles, rocks, and outdoor thrills. www.kmsouthwell.com

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I’m writing a bi-weekly gossip e-newsletter. Here’s my visual explorations for the graphic identity of the newsletter, called Wow! I’m presently only sharing the newsletter with friends but plan to open it up to the public in a few weeks once I’ve gotten in the rhythm, but its super fun to design for. 

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I ALSO love this portrait of Renna that looks like it is from another time 

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I took these film portraits of Kate, Lillian, and Erin from our road trip to Wisconsin and I love love love them [both the portraits and the subjects]. 

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Photography instruction captured in action by my friend Aria 

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I made this double-panel stained glass for my friend Izzy! This one was much harder to figure out how to solder together/hang, but I really love how the colors from the two panels combine. 

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What I’m learning is that this trip is kind of like an exotic family beach house trip. Boredom is part of the experience, you sleep in super late, you sit around talking, making the meals are the highlight of the day. Today, right before an ENORMOUS thunderstorm (which caused so much static in the air that I was getting shocked by my laptop), Renna and I were designing some sweatshirts inspired by cattle brands used by Oregon ranchers. Because its about to be MAHBIRTHDAY I thought it would be fun to create a pattern of “brands” that I felt captured my life up to year 28. I don’t have a picture of the sweatshirt mockup (using my favorite sketchy Hong Kong print-all-over apparel company CowCow) but here’s a sample of the fabric pattern.

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Ohmygosh, I made every part of this ring and every part was heartbreak! The original stone was a faceted piece of agatized whale bone, BUT I crushed it as I was setting it, which, fine, if you’re going to work in bone you have to accept the sad sad risks. Luckily I had the beaut of an opal that was more or less the same size, which I had cut out of this supply of boulder fire opals my friend Anna gave to me. And that prong setting! Heartbreak!!! Soldering those teeny little wires, guys, tip your fucking jewelers this shit is no joke. But whatever! I did it all! It’s rose gold and opal for my pal Erin for her birthday who is incredibly worthy of all the fancy things.

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I feel like I’m always offering to collab with designer/artist friends and it rarely works out. But when it does, it’s so fun and I get pushed to learn a ton of new things (real hot take on creative collaboration, *I know*, but still). In this case, Chicago friend and dreamer Tara wanted to turn one of CC Hudson’s illustrations into a stained glass piece for her boyfriend. I said “yes, no problem” without realizing there would be tons of problems! Did you know cutting corners out of glass is a daunting task that requires lots of water and a handsaw? And then the structural stability! Anyway, with Judy’s help it worked out great for the most part, and I got to get the closeness that comes with teaching new friends how to solder. Check out the rest of CC’s work: www.charlottecroyhudson.com

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Nothing in this world makes me sleepier than updating my website, which I did, and somehow survived. I added pictures of this new piece I made, which is two panes of stained glass stacked on top of each other. The top pane is two different textures of clear glass while the bottom pane is a grid of colored squares. I soldered them together and made this cutie fixture with tassels to hang them together. 

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I have tried to get into the habit of taking the summers off for making quilts, so this one will be the last of the season! I made it for my friends Amy and Nathan to celebrate their marriage from the fall! I LOVE THEM! They had a big role in picking the colors, and I’m really glad they did because I tend to go muted... My coworker Kyle documented Kelly and I holding the quilt and also took some cute process shots of Kelly and I that I am now sharing with you because look at how much fun we’re having and it’s not even Saturday! 

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We are in the throes of directing new imagery for the website redesign for the museum! It’s been a huge undertaking, involving collecting, organizing, and indexing all of the museums images into one database and aligning it with all of the written content on the website to make sure everything is covered. To fill the gaps, we’ve created shot lists for our museum photographers to cover, but it seemed like there was a need for more specific art direction. So, Kyle Obriot (Creative Director of Photography) and I went into the spaces and took reference images for what we were seeking. Even though I’m mostly sharing these images because MOM LOOK I WORK AT A MUSEUM LOOK I’m also really proud of them as my first foray into collaborative photography direction. Even though I’m technically “modeling”, these images are used more to direct composition and lighting once we have “real” models to work with. 

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HERES THE FINISHED PRODUCT, IM STRUGGLING TO WRITE A CLEAR ARTIST STATEMENT. But yeah, Mom’s wedding ring, can’t wait to wear this dress to Pretty Woman tomorrow! 

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Today I deconstructed my Mom’s wedding ring and melted the gold into a little nugget that will become a shirt button this weekend. Thanks to Mom for being a good sport!

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This is the most metalwork I ever, ever want to do. I can’t tell you how many times I melted different components of this thing, but here it is! Enameling! Cloisonné! Lapidary! Metalwork! All in one!

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Me, reflected in Sonja’s stained glass window!

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Sonja gets a stained glass window!

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Mona gets a stained glass window!