We prepped until midnight only to get up at 5am for an early start to the Market. I always wondered what these vendors did in the morning. I definitely got my answer. This is hard work! ![]() I think my mind numbing moment was how to pitch the tent. I know I'm an outdoor person, but this tent was all Greek to me. Good thing Lauren had a serious instinct with that sucker, plus she's Greek. Here's a pic of our evening Explorer load up. Silentely I think Lauren and I were going, holy crap we've got to get up early! Huge thanks to Laurens brother who let us borrow his wheels. I love people that support Catch The Cuteness! We did our best to make the booth festive and inviting. For our first market, I think it was a total success. My favorite moment was a kid pointing at the Cowfish while looking up at his momma saying, "I know why that fish is called a Cowfish!" It was by far the cutest most wonderful successful moment.
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![]() My apartment has blown up with CTC apparel! We're getting ready for the Jack of all Trades Market, this Saturday in Jack London Square, Oakland. This is our first booth. We really don't know what to expect. Sure we've got product, but there's clearly so much more than that to get people to visit. We're squeezing out all our creative juices to make it look awesome. The good news is the weather is going to be perfect this weekend. I hope I'm not jinxing it right now, but the weatherman predicted the upper 70's. That's T-shirt weather! CTC T-shirt weather. You'll find me wearing the cowfish. Swing on by for early holiday shopping! Click here for information on the event! ![]() Do you know why I like Sylvia Earle? It's because I love the ocean and the wonderful beaches connected to it. Sylvia protects the ocean. Growing up I was fortunate enough to have a dad that loved to fly. It was his obsession and luckily for all of us he too loved the ocean. My mother called our plane the magic carpet. Back in the 80's and early 90's we'd fly over untouched beaches and land on dirt runways. We loved going to places that people couldn't get to. And the shells that would line those beaches!! Millions! Walking the beach then was living a dream. We'd have the perfect birds eye view as we flew over lagoons. Some immaculate and others, let's say, an exposed "drainage" pipe with a slick, didn't look to hygienic for those swimming near by at the four star hotel. It was easy for us to say, "oh hell no!" and move along. It was clear for me then, that the ocean was an easy way to dump waste. My mother reiterated her disgust as she spoke over the planes engines that filth like that would make us sick. I still see her pointing out the window, saying "look!." She was outraged. My mother used to live in Florida in the 60's. She loves talking about the little beach she used to walk on that was covered in shells. All different shapes and sizes, not to mention the colors! It was a treasure box of goodies. She naturally called this beach, Shell Beach. A few years ago she returned to her beach. I remembered how excited she was to walk those same steps she did in the 60's. But she returned disappointed. Her face was one of disbelief. Shell Beach didn't have one shell on it. They just disappeared. Last year I was fortunate enough to go to Morocco. I was walking along the rolling dunes of the Sahara. I couldn't believe where I was! I could hear the oceans beauteous rumble in the distance and taste the salt in the air. I wanted to run into the ocean free! But when I walked over the final dune what I saw broke my heart. Here I was in the middle of nowhere and yet everything that washed ashore was manmade, mainly PLASTIC. There were a few crumbled bleached out shells, the kind you poke with your toe and move on. I didn't need a birds eye view to see the damage. Sylvia Earle is the Muhammad Ali of Marine explorers and conservationists, she's giving us the one-two-punch for us to be active in protecting our fragile ocean. Glamour magazine just voted her one of the top inspirational women of 2014. Take a peek here. Isn't she a beautiful inspiration? The thing is, I think she's just getting warmed up. This is my mom to the left with Sylvia! Sylvia was honored at the Explorers Club in New York. But I have to say, my mom is quite an inspiration on her own. Can't you see her pointing out the window of the airplane?!! Kids learn through their parents. I'm pointing, and I'm disgusted. If you are curious about Sylvias foundation, it's called Mission Blue. And please, I highly recommend watching her documentary, it might change the way you think about fish in general. Right now It's streaming on Netflix. I'm not gonna lie I got a little choked up when she went into the Japanese Fish market in Tokyo. You could see the emotion on her face.
I know my story is long today. I didn't mean for it. But I couldn't help but ponder the situation. The world is changing. I'd hate to say, "back in my day" while referring it to wildlife, even if it's a simple shell. Let's protect our oceans. I support Mission Blue. Here's a behind the scenes peek at how we get our organic onesies silk screened. The whole system was completely new to me, so when I got the tour I was blown away by all the work it takes to create my cute little images. Check it out! It's all about artist working with artist! I was so happy to have found them through mutual friends in San Francisco! I'm not gonna lie, I'm a little scared! A year ago, if you asked me where I'd be, I never thought I'd be making a wimpy thumbs up at my silk screener.
That's Nancy to the left, she's my go to gal, and runs the show. During a print, I'm in constant contact with her, she's a champion for answering my questions, which I generally have a tun because again, this is all new! The learning curb is steep, but you'll see, one day I'll do the double thumbs up. It was difficult not to be inspired after last nights Giants victory against Kansas City. People were flooding the streets drunk with baseball pride. We won! I thought it would be fun to share my own play by play on how I started my Shrimp n' Lobster World Series victory print. This is pretty much how I do all my work! Don't worry I didn't forget Shrimp! Lobster is clearly hamming it up in the last pic. After it's been penciled in and I feel it's time for a more permanent mark I grab my micro pen, a 01 point. Normally I use the 005 point, I've worn out at least 3 in the last couple months, but this picture needed to be a smidge bolder, GIANTS bold. I think it looks pretty cool as a black-and-white, what do you think? I put the original aside and then make a copy so I can color as many prints as I'd like, or just keep it as it is.
Check the final result the post below! I hope you like it. And that my friends, is my World Series play by play. I can't tell you how grateful I am for the support I have. Catch The Cuteness by far is not done all by myself. Everything has been a collaboration, a collaboration of creativity, time and energy, all done for the same cause. And that's to get CTC out for everyone to see! To say it plainly my friends are amazing. Lauren, who has also been assisting me in marketing Catch The Cuteness, produced this little shoot at my mom's house. Once again, we have amazing friends and mothers that were more than happy to share their cute babies and show off their early modeling skills. I love these kids! Also, huge thanks to my mom! She's been my number one fan and enormous supporter of getting Catch The Cuteness off the ground. Thank goodness for mothers. You gotta love them. Here's a look back at our photo shoot we did in August. Keeping Babies Happy Even The Big OnesIt's been a long time since my first student film at NYU and this photo shoot brought the memories back! Photographer Brian Slaughter brought all the bells and whistles. This was no point and shoot event! I have to say, Brian was a magician with the kids, he's a natural. ![]() We're more than just children's clothing. While I have been building the Brand Catch The Cuteness, I have also been working on a Children's Illustration book called, Shrimp n' Lobster go to Paris! You might recognize Shrimp n' Lobster, they are our product logo! They are more than just environmental mudbugs. They are adventurers! At the moment my work is getting put into a dummy book which will then be submitted to Publishers. So this morning I wiped the slate clean. I have spent the summer building the side of my fridge with all the wonderful places to explore throughout Paris. Often times I would get jealous of my little mudbugs. It seriously looked like they were having fun! But what's wonderful about finishing a project that I've worked so hard on, is starting a new one. Shrimp n' Lobsters adventures come from growing up with a family that LOVES to travel. My father asked me long ago what it was that I took back with me from all the adventures he and my mother had taken me on. I said, I'd love to experience those same places with my own family. His response was, "That's my girl!" My father was killed in a plane crash in 96' and I never forgot that conversation. It's amazing how one question made such an impression on me, and I was just a kid. But here's the deal, I don't want to share Shrimp n' Lobster with just my family, I want to share them with the World. Yes, that's a bit Grandiose, what an ego-maniac (again), who am I to go for something so big? But as Shrimp n' Lobster say, "Sometimes big dreams come from small places." So I'm just gonna go with it. ![]() This is all it takes. Pencils, pens, and a blank sheet of paper. Ah, and lots of erasing. ![]() I drew a picture. First it was a sketch. My friend Damien loves Manatees, and has been studying them for years. As an artist I have found a lot of pleasure making cards for my friends. This Manatee's eyes were already telling me hello, and he wasn't even finished. Can you see it? Clearly I felt I was already onto something as I continued literary diarrhea next to my cute sea creature. I was trying to figure out how I could educate kids about the Manatee. What are the hazards, and why have they been on the endangered species list. All these things are highly important to me. How can we protect these sweet wonderful creatures?! Have any of you been inspired in such a way where you can't put the pencil down? Isn't it an amazing feeling? I was quite content with my final product. How cute is my manatee? And I don't mean that as an ego maniac. I just love them, the sweet Sea Cow. I wasn't even sure what I was going to do with the little guy, I printed the card and sent it away, but I was unsatisfied. Until one day I was talking to my friend Lauren and happened to have purchased a piece of baby clothing for a friends shower. I looked at my Manatee and the clothing and then.... Cute! Lauren and I both said it in unison, we could have joined a cappella group. I'll say it again, "CUTE!!!"
Later on that day, as I was pondering this moment of "Eurika!" I came up with the name of this educational company: Catch The Cuteness. My Manatee was created January 15th, 2014. And Catch The Cuteness was born on March 27, 2014. It's been a long road of sorting out the right images, and the right product to frame my work. I hope you are pleased with the final product as much as I am! But I still have more to tell you...and It's about my favorite little travel mudbugs I call. Shrimp n' Lobster. ![]() On October 16th we donated our cute and curious Cowfish as well as a CTC hoodie to the WINGS WorldQuest Auction in New York City. It was such a privilege to gift these items to such a fantastic organization. The money for the purchase of our items will benefit women in exploration, whether focused in conservation, scientific discovery or continued support for a better understanding of our world. Yes we still have so much more to discover! We tipped our hats off to Sylvia Earle who was the Keynote speaker for the event. Sylvia has paved the way for female scientists. She's a renowned oceanographer and biologist and quite the legend. If you haven't checked out her documentary Mission Blue, I highly recommend it. On a fun note we got positive feedback on our little items that went on quite a bidding war! What's not to like about the Cowfish? Especially with the hoodie! Fall is definitely in the air. Layer up! If you are curious about WINGS WorldQuest please visit their website: http://www.wingsworldquest.org/press-news/ |
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Charlotte Rygh lives in the big town, small city of San Francisco. Mother nature is her favorite form of entertainment... Well, that, and a good movie. Archives
March 2015
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