I recently visited the  The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach for the first time. Even though I have mixed feelings about zoos and animals living in captivity, I can’t help but be fascinated by the beauty of the ocean and sea life. Seeing the animals playing made me so happy, I felt like a kid again.

The sea otter is so darn cute and amusing I could have watched him all day! The sea otter wears the heaviest fur coat in all of the animal kingdom. This has, sadly, made it an extensively hunted species in the past. The good news is … they have been protected in more recent years and remain on the endangered species list. They use rocks as tools to dislodge their prey and open shells, such a clever little character! They also help protect kelp forests from damage from over population of sea urchins (they eat them for lunch). We just added a new wallet case featuring a little sea otter by artist, Kelly Vivanco. Look at this adorable little guy holding his sea urchin lunch.

I absolutely love the penguins! Always so formal, they make me feel under dressed.

The jellyfish are so gorgeous and graceful and fun to watch (especially with glass between us). Jellyfish have roamed the seas for at least 500 million years (or more) which makes them the oldest multi-organ animal.

The sea lions love to chat!

The seahorse is so prehistoric and mystical looking to me. The male seahorse actually carries the eggs for the female. When he gives birth, his belly swells from contractions and he expels anywhere from 5 to 2,500 tiny seahorses, depending on his size! Geez! Freakishly fascinating creatures! He is then ready to mate again within hours with the next female seahorse that comes along, they are not a monogamous lot!

Speaking os sea life, I love this new painting by Caia Koopman. It depicts the endangered monk seal. Caia’s painting is part of a multi-artist print release done with PangeaSeed, a Japanese/Hawaiian marine life focused environmental organization. The prints are available here.

Last night my boyfriend and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary at what we think is the swankiest dance & dinner club in Los Angeles, Maxwell DeMille’s Cicada Club.

When you enter you feel that you are stepping back in time and you are … the Cicada Club was a high-end men’s clothing store/haberdashery back in 1928. It is situated in the famed Art Deco Oviatt building in downtown Los Angeles.

They offer fine dining and talented dance orchestras that bring you back to the the golden days of Hollywood. Last night, one of our favorite bands was playing, Janet Klein and her Parlor Boys. They perform lovely, naughty and obscure music from the 1910′s, 1920′s and 1930′s. They play Old Time Jazz, Blues, Ragtime and Novelty songs. Janet is always adorable and a hit on the ukelele!

The Cicada Club is often featured in movies (“Pretty Woman“, “Mr. and Mrs. Smith“, “J. Edgar” & “The Artist“) and television (“Madmen“) and print (Vogue). It is such a rare gem to have such a gorgeous glamorous place in our fine city. If you are in the LA area you should stop by … but don’t forget to overdress!

The Parlor Boys.

Dining and dancing at the Cicada.

Me & my friend Carolyn enjoying the atmosphere.

Ron, Karyn, Carolyn & Greg – celebrating their nine year wedding anniversary.

Janet Klein with a fan in similar chevron dresses.

The deco glamour begins at the entrance.

The details are amazing.

Look what we found! Rusty Frank, swing teacher and tap dancer, wearing Classic Hardware
at the Cicada Club with the likes of William H Macy and Cicada Club owner, Maxwell DeMille. Photo courtest of photoswithclass.com.

Jewelry display in stores and even at home can be a fun process but it helps to have some design inspiration from time to time. At Classic Hardware, we do trade shows and craft fairs. We find it easier to pin everything on our display boards for easy travel and quick set up. However, if you have a store and some space to create and spread out your jewelry and accessories, it can add a dimensional quality that is very appealing to your customers. I like using vintage finds such as books, plates, small drawers, boxes and suitcases. A great place to find these items are flea markets and yard sales. If you prefer modern fixtures, there are lots of display companies out there, like Acme Display or Rio Grande .

Below are some ideas Classic Hardware has used:

Here are some images of how we have been featured in stores:

One last thing, we just posted a step by step video on YouTube about how to create a display from a vintage frame. If you have any display ideas, please send them to us!

Bernie Dexter is a pin up model who has for modeled for several retro inspired clothing companies and lucky for us … Classic Hardware jewelry as well. Bernie is one of the most recognized pin up models in the rockabilly and retro pin up girl genre.

I first met Bernie years ago at a musicians benefit concert in August 2008. We had several mutual friends so it was nice to get to hang out and get to know each other better. I was familiar with her husband, Levi Dexter, of the band Levi and the Rockats  from many years ago. He was a huge influence in the rockabilly music scene since the 1970s.

In the past few years Bernie has designed her own vintage inspired clothing line. The designs are adorable and we love that it is all American made! She has a great eye for patterns and design and has had great success on popular websites like Modcloth. Her designs are also sought out internationally, especially in England and Australia.

Bernie is a very personable, fun sweet gal and I really enjoy when I get to spend time with her. She has a huge fan following on Facebook where she is often posting new designs and pin ups shots mainly taken by her husband, Levi, who does a great job with the photography. They are a very adorable team!

Check out her website www.berniedexter.com for all the latest.

We thought it would be fun to put together a short commercial-type video for Classic Hardware. My long time friend Breezy (Bryan Petty) came up with the concept of “cooking up” our products in a retro setting. I added to his idea with the product that keeps coming out of the oven as an homage to “I Love Lucy“  when she pulls the long bread out of the oven, “Pioneer Women.” When I was a little girl my grandfather phoned me after a rerun of that episode aired, he told me that he had baked the actual bread for the show at the bakery he worked at in Hollywood, CA. I do Love Lucy and that episode has always been dear to my heart because of Grampa.

Breezy works in post production on one of my favorite shows, Always Sunny in Philadelphia along with Sean Palsgaard, who did the cinematography on this video. Breezy did the directing and editing and we think he did a great job all round! A special thanks to Ron Groeper, my sweetie, for letting us use his fantastic photo studio. Kudos to them and the lovely ladies of Classic Hardware, for their hard work and for being fun characters. Deirdre Hartman (The Villianess) and Michelle Oura (The Temptress) and then there’s me … The Damsel in Distress.
Watch it here and Please let us know what you think of it!

This season at Classic Hardware I collaborated with four talented artists and asked them to create an Endangered Creatures Collection.
Kelly Vivanco painted a touching series of bears. Bonni Reid created a wild series of big cats. Melissa Contreras did a lovely gouache series of baby animals from Africa and
Simon Sotelo did detailed etchings of winged creatures. We have the images available on our vanity cases, necklaces, bracelets, rings, earrings and some money clips and cufflinks, too.

The best part of the story is we have teamed up with the non-profit organization, Born Free USA. We are donating a portion of the proceeds from each sale to them. Their mission is to end suffering of wild animals in captivity and rescue individual animals in need as well as protect wildlife in their natural habitats. Here is Oliver the monkey having some fun at the Born Free primate sanctuary.

As some of you may recall, “Born Free” was an award winning movie in 1966 about an orphaned lion cub names Elsa based on a true story. Elsa was raised by George and Joy Adamson and then released back into the wild. Real-life husband and wife Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna played George and Joy in the film. There is a great PBS documentary about the movie that you can watch here

They became wildlife activists in the process and began Born Free in the UK along with their son William. Among the many great things they did for animals, was house the famous Christian the Lion, prior to him being released back into the wild of Africa. This video is an amazing account about Christian the Lion. It brings me to tears every time Christian recognizes his caretakers after a year in the wild!

We are very happy to begin our collaboration with this wonderful organization. Here is the Born Free USA press release.

And just to make sure we covered our bases, we ran it by Bugsy, the Classic Hardware studio cat, He gave it the paw of approval. We hope you will, too!

Last Thursday night I was watching Project Runway and was so excited to see Anna Sui as the guest judge! She is one of my favorite designers.  Her line is fun, modern and well made with a great retro flair (be it the 40s, 60s or Edwardian) and a laid back rock and roll romanticism. Her use of color and mix of patterns are always creative and unexpected. Plus, she stays true to her classic black and cream palette that is timeless.

I was even more excited when I realized she was wearing a Classic Hardware necklace on the show.  It was a double star necklace I had created for her a couple of years ago. She has told me that she wears Classic Hardware on a regular basis and has bought my necklaces for her runway models as gifts and also for her store. I feel very honored to have such an amazing designer, who I admire so much, enjoy my work as well. Anna Sui Rocks!!! Check out her work HERE.

I was fortunate enough to attend a couple of her runway shows. New York Fashion Week is this week. Her Spring 2013 show is this coming Wednesday. Check it out HERE.

Anna Sui going Classic

Anna on the judges panel

Me with Anna in her Soho store

Last weekend we had a booth at the Hootenanny in Orange County, as we do every year. Once again it was a great show with tons of bands and loads of people. It was really nice to meet up with our customers and friends. My fave bands of the day were Old Man Markly, The Supersuckers, The Reverend Horton Heat and of course, Rancid.

The following day we went to Crafted at the Port of Los Angeles. Some great crafts and a cool space. Inspiring stuff! Check it out!

It was recently brought to my attention that there is an overseas company operating a website in England, who is knocking off many of the vintage repro dress designers here in the USA.

In the case of Trashy Diva they not only stole their designs, they also used Trashy Diva’s pictures straight from their website.  Please read their blog here for more details.

We love Trashy Diva clothes and their stores in New Orleans, LA. Their quality is impeccable and their designs are gorgeous. Plus they are super sweet!  At Classic Hardware we produce and believe in US made products  and admire our friends and business associates that do the same!

Me with Candace the lovely owner and designer of Trashy Diva

One of my favorite artists, Caia Koopman, recently had an opening in Los Angeles at Thinkspace Gallery. Thinkspace is an innovative gallery that shows the work of up & coming pop surrealists, lowbrow artists and beyond. They were previously located in Silver Lake but have really taken off since their move to gallery row in Culver City a few years ago.

I met Caia several years ago at Thinkspace and began collaborating with her, utilizing her gorgeous works on Classic Hardware jewelry and vanity cases. Caia has grown and really expanded as an artist since we first met. It was really fun to see her, she is super sweet and personable and exudes great enthusiasm about what she does. Her latest series, ‘Between Wind and Water’, is a new edgier direction for her. The work combines the themes of fairy tales and fantasies with elements of street art. In some of the pieces she has reduced her usual vibrant color palette to mysterious blues and haunting blood reds. The images border on creepy yet cool and are thought provoking, as always.

Juxtapoz Magazine has done and interview with her here and Hi-Fructose did a studio visit recently as well check out the pics here

The other artist in the show, Sarah Joncas, is a Canadian artist, currently based out of Toronto.  Her style is painterly and detailed with themes that are dark and mysterious.

Caia, Me and Sarah

If you are in the LA area try to make it by before June 30th, if you are not, you can view it here. Enjoy the show!