tales of a copper queen (or further explorations of bisbee)

i think aitor and i want to live here forever. so our last day was bittersweet. we decided to spend the day exploring and walking around old bisbee (and trying to see if i might find a store to sell to there).



we started the day with a quick trip to what we think is warren, arizona. it is hard to figure out what town is what around here. there seem to be tiny towns right on top of one another. but i also found this listing that calls warren a ghost town. so, were those ghosts who sold us all those frames and fabrics at the thrift shop? spooky. this place is totally haunted. i actually think bisbee has now sort of swallowed up these little surrounding company towns. i mean, they are just steps apart.



on our way to exploring old bisbee proper, we stopped at their biggest historical hole - the lavender pit mine (which, weirdly, produced copper ore and not lavender at all). it is pretty cool. when it rains, the water that pools up in the bottom is so stained by the copper in the soil that it looks like a big pool of blood. haunted blood pool!

we started our visit to bisbee with a stop at an awesome store called va voom. it's sort of a vintage, antique and curiosity shop with surprisingly reasonable prices for such a tourist destination as this. i was deeply tempted by a big vintage quilt top but settled for a beautiful old bakelite viewmaster (a burgeoning obsession of mine). the owner, kelly, is also really nice and loaded us up with information about things in the store and things around town.



bisbee, by the way, is a hilly place filled with city steps. we were first introduced to the concept and importance of city steps by oue friend will in pittsburgh (pittsburgh, another former mining town, boasts an impressive collection of city steps). these were the first form of public transportation in these working class settlements. there are even some places remaining in both towns that can only be reached by steps. it's a bitch to move in or out, but door to door salesmen must pose less of an annoyance.



we wandered about the little town built into a mountainside, looking at impressive graffiti and going into the many antique shops until antiques made no sense to us anymore. i was pretty taken by the pattern on this quilt:



but my dwindling budget had me priced out. i guess i'll just have to make one after i finish the epic quilt i am currently working on.

we also stumbled into the amazing optimo hat shop (at aitor's urgings) only to have some amazing conversations about the world of millinery work. we were also introduced to this wild turn-of-the-last-century contraption used to measure the irregularities of the skull.



all tuckered out (and with the nightly monsoon looming in the sky), we decided to go. but after following directions to the local food co-op, we found ourselves on the main street of what must have been another ghost town, lowell.





obviously a storm was rolling in so we hurried back to the trailer park. we basically see rainbows here on a daily basis. but today, even that was topped by seeing lighting strike through a double rainbow! well, that's what it looked like; i'm sure the physicists among you could explain why that is actually impossible.



we finally got to weather a storm in our tiny trailer home where we spent our last night here eating soup, laughing, listening to the radio and making things. oh, and blogging.



good night, shady dell and bisbee. we know how much we will miss you.

arizona adventure fun day.

can you believe that this is what we wake up to here?

the winding story of how we happened upon this magical little place called bisbee starts with aitor hitch hiking though arizona a couple of years ago. he was trying to get to tombstone and ended up here (a far better destination, we would soon discover). he was basically dropped off at the shady dell but ended up staying in a hostel in old bisbee. he called to tell me of the trailer park and we have been scheming coming here together since.

because of this connection to tombstone (twenty miles to the north) and because we are keen on historical relics, we started our adventure day there today.





what a weird place. the whole town is a strange tourist trap (although people do live there). the storefronts are mostly souvenir shops and aitor was like a walking target for the historical reenactors to toss historical jibes at. not to be a total dick, but shouldn't they just have been confused and alarmed by all of our clothes? even aitor's get-ups are from at least forty years in their future. if i were them, i would have gotten scared, gone home and not gotten shot at 2:00pm and then again at 4:00pm. but, as a wise woman once said, "twenty twenty vision is perfect."

on a hot tip from faythe and nathan, we had planned our next stop to be the international wildlife museum on the outskirts of tucson. this is a huge repository of taxidermy animals that is meant to, somehow, promote conservation. okay, i shouldn't be so glib about it - hunters are very active in conservation efforts. i know this. still, this museum did leave me with a "we've killed one of everything" kind of feeling.









again, more tourism based on shootings. in spite of my cynical sideway comments, the displays really did leave me with the (presumably) intended awe of the natural world. i especially liked the displays where the dead animals were fighting. and all my vegetarian gusto aside, there is meticulous craft involved in the sculptural innards of these figures. see:

after our brains were all filled up with images of stuffed elephants and giraffes (they were in corners too dark to photograph), we decided to take a little jaunt through tuscon mountain park. it was incredible. the park houses one of the biggest saguaro cactus forests in the world. the was a storm rolling in over the mountains (which seems to happen every evening) so we stood in a turnout and watched lightning strike the mountains while thunder growled all around.



on the way home, we were treated to a magnificent display of storm and sunset. it's hard to describe (and very hard to photograph) but we were driving towards a huge double rainbow underneath which all the clouds were smoldering pink in the sunset. really, quite spectacular.

hey, let's go live in some paintings (or how i learned to stop worrying and went to arizona).

what kind of monster wouldn't find this beautiful?

or this...



you'd have to be an actual monster. i really feel as though we are just passing through ideas of what beautiful is. this place really gives saskatchewan a run for its living-sky money. only, arizona manages to have both wide open spaces and mountains. aitor and i are both pretty awestruck.

we rolled up this evening to our digs for the next few nights, the shady dell trailer park in bisbee, arizona.



and look what greeted us:



this is the most extravagant we have yet let ourselves be on this trip - four days and three nights of living out of a restored 1950's trailer. really, it costs about as much a motel. our budget (and fate) led us to the little "homemade" trailer that we will be staying in for the next few days. we immediately fell in love with our little temporary home in the desert. it defies physics in its ability to house us and, we believe, is the actual form of romance.





wow.

so long, suckers.

today we escaped from los angeles with one final tourist stop before we left - we had to. we took beachwood up to where it ends, at which point we did a very brief hike to some hollywood sign photo spots. from this vantage, one can also turn around and see los angeles.



you have to believe me that the city is down there. in a brazen act of irony, the pollution in the air manages to erase most traces of development making this scene look gently bucolic. but don't be fooled; there is no misty ocean down there, just a sea of airborne crud. speaking of which, my asthma has been so bad here i could hardly hike the forty steps it took us to see the hollywood sign. it was time to hit the desert - the real desert, not the one that has been watered enough to develop lawns.

and what wonders the california desert held once we pushed into it!



the next stop on our inadvertent cult movie tour of america tuned out to be cabazon, california. the more awesome among you may remember those dinos from peewee's big adventure. as it turns out, the cabazon dinosaurs actually serve a greater purpose in sharing creationist resources to dino fans. you can also climb in the belly of one and buy geodes.



you can't tell from the photo, but this dino's face was full of screaming children. i was unable to save them because the admission into its tail was too hefty for my pocket book. i wanted postcards instead. besides, i think it was a clever grift.

tonight we sleep on the very edge of california. tomorrow, we enter out true love of arizona.

jurassica (and other points of interest)

at the adamant urging of our friend leah, aitor and i managed a visit to the museum of jurassic technology. this visit was today. los angeles can be so overwhelming to outerlanders like us that we were pleasantly surprised to find the museum to be walking distance from josh's place. nothing is walking distance from anything here. and if it is, you drive. but after being cooped up in the car for such long stretches, walks are very well received.

i can't quite describe the experience of visiting the museum. it is at once confounding and uplifting, occupying a space wherein ridiculous truths and ridiculous lies seem about the same. it's very hard to tell what's real there, but some of the information shared surely is. they also don't allow flash photography or tripods in the museum so my photographs are equally obfuscated. here is one depicting things to make string out of (from one of my favoirte exhibits - about string games):



on the way home, we found a curiosity of our own:



i guess if nobody is walking around one can do anything one wants to the sidewalk.

with minds fully boggled by the museum (and urine encounters), we powdered up and went out to an art auction. i felt very swanky, indeed, to have somewhere like an art auction to go while in los angeles. it was a fundraiser for faythe levine's indie craft documentary, handmade nation, and was hosted at the poketo studio space.











we also discovered that not only did the building have a roof with a stellar view of los angeles, but that said roof also had an outdoor pool and hot tub. an upshot of traveling is that one might have one's swim trunks in the car at any given time. i have no pictures of aitor in his trunks on this roof in los angeles; but for those who know, seeing aitor in his swim garb is a rare treat anywhere...and should probably be done in person.

good night, los angeles. we have to get going. i'm also afraid we might start to dislike you if we stayed too long. i mean, no offense. it's just a feeling.

house cleaning.

i am late on all fronts in announcing these things (i blame my current itinerant lifestyle), so i decided to do a small post from the comfort of my friend josh's los angeles living room to update you all and convey the exciting pieces of news i have collected while on the road.

#1 - upcoming programming from city of craft.
jen and leah are cramming the toronto summer full of crafty activity in my absence including a clothing swap (with tutorials on reworking old clothes), a children's-themed craft sale/day (with the workroom and good catch). check the website and facebook page for more details and updates.

#2 - goodegg industries.
i am actually appalled at how late i am in reporting this, but my good friend and city of craft co-conspirator, jen anisef, has teamed up with her pal laural to launch goodegg - a new shop to showcase the art and craft works coming out of canada. it's worth a good poke around. both of these ladies have exceptional taste and are deeply supportive of/thoughtful towards the canadian craft scene.

#3 - makesomething.ca
speaking of good taste and mad skills, karyn from the workroom has also taken the leap into the blogesphere with makesomething.ca. as with everything i have ever seen karyn take on, it is impeccable, useful and brilliant right from the start.

#4 - all citizens on etsy.
the all citizens shop has also taken a plunge - into online sales with a new etsy shop. the hope is that this online outlet will supplement the modest income that the shop is able to bring in at their rural saskatchewan location. i think i get to claim some part in this through encouragements. so i will do so. since i suggested that serena do this, you have to go buy things there so that i am not proven wrong. also, if you have never heard of all citizens and their story, you should go read their old blog.

post script of no importance: today we ate lunch in a mall food court (century city mall) that was unlike anything i have ever seen. it was also one of the most satisfying meals i have encountered yet on the road. los angeles is full of weird surprises and glamor...and the waiters look like movie stars.

reform school.

when i asked my friend faythe what shop to visit in los angeles she told me that reform school made the top of her list, so we made the trek across hollywood to get there. what a great place! there is a sort of independent art/craft shop that just makes me feel at home. and it has been sublimely comforting to find more and more of such shops popping up in the wake of this explosion of indie craft.

i met tootie there (one of two owners) and am happy to say that she took a few sweetie pie buttons. i hope this is the beginning of a long relationship. those ladies really have a nice sense of aesthetic, at once colluding with indie craft trends and clearly putting their own stamp on it through curation. they also have an art-o-mat!