Blog Feed: Only Lauren

Empowering Our Girls One Stitch at a Time

Published on 2012-03-14 21:48:19

When my grandfather moved to this country, he became a tailor. He created beautiful garments. My guess is he was taught to sew by his mother, Reina (who I have a picture of somewhere sewing). He started three sportswear lines named after his three children, Renee Sportswear, Estelle Sportswear, and Mark Sportswear. I suppose he dreamed of passing [...] > read more

Our Lady of the Perpetual Party

Published on 2012-02-08 17:54:36

“In desperation [Janis Jopilin] dumps her bag onto the floor of the limo. Its contents are truly awesome. Janis has a baglady’s compulsion to carry her whole life with her. There are: two movie stubs, a pack of cigarettes, an antique cigarette holder, several motel and hotel room keys, a box of Kleenex, a compact and [...] > read more

An Artist is Like an Athlete…

Published on 2012-01-30 16:46:20

An artist is like an athlete… An athlete does not dive into a sport without some sort of warm up. I am the same way. When I haven’t been working in the studio for a while, I do a warm up project before diving into new work. So, after taking time off during the holidays to be [...] > read more

Project Runway Episode 12: The Finale Collection

Published on 2011-11-12 15:41:45

One designer, twelve challenges. This is the Studio 109A Challenge. That is how I started this series of posts about the Project Runway Studio 109A Challenge back on August 10th, about one week after Project Runway Season 9 started. It’s three months later, and this post marks the end of Project Runway Studio 109A and [...] > read more

Back to School and Blogging for The National Postal Museum

Published on 2011-11-10 20:42:46

I think it’s really important to give back, especially as an artist. Today’s elementary, middle, and high school students become tomorrow’s art collectors. This week I had the opportunity to blog about my experience teaching fourth grade art on The Smithsonian National Postal Museum blog. Below is a copy of the post. The original post [...] > read more

Project Runway Episode 11: This Is For The Birds

Published on 2011-11-07 12:31:09

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a  quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. “The Raven”, Edgar Allen Poe There have been a couple of times this season [...] > read more

Project Runway Episode 10: Sew 70′s

Published on 2011-11-03 21:38:37

And now back to our regularly scheduled program… Between being out of town for my brother’s weddidng and working on the “What Women Want” challenge, I got a little off track. Like many of the Project Runway contestants, I think at this point in the Studio 109A Challenge, I also lost my drive, but I [...] > read more

Project Runway Episode 8: What Women Want

Published on 2011-10-17 21:55:21

The client: Artspace. The challenge (inspired by Episode 8 of Project Runway): to design a commemorative handbag that women will want. Episode 8 of Project Runway Season 9 found the designers creating a look for a client’s wife or girlfriend. My challenge was to design an accessory, consistent with my client’s brand, that would celebrate the [...] > read more

Project Runway Episode 9: Image is Everything

Published on 2011-10-05 22:26:54

First, I would like to welcome the Stylin’ News & Observer readers to the Project Runway Studio 109A blog. I am skipping the Project Runway Episode 8: What Women Want Challenge (for now). I do have a client for the What Women Want Challenge and am in the process of working on very special design, which [...] > read more

Project Runway Episode Seven: Can’t We All Just Get Along (Part 2)

Published on 2011-09-27 17:59:00

Last week I blogged about my visit to Spoonflower fabrics. If you recall, in Episode Seven, the Project Runway Season 9 Designers had to design their own fabric, create a collection, and produce a fashion show. As many of you know, from my jewelry line, I am inspired by ephemera, everday items of passing interest [...] > read more

Project Runway Episode Seven: Can’t We All Just Get Along (Part 1)

Published on 2011-09-21 20:58:25

In Episode Seven of Project Runway, the Season 9 designers designed fabrics, created a collection and produced a fashion show. I am acutally going to devote two blog posts to the episode, the first of which will spotlight my visit to Spoonflower. In the interest of full disclosure, the fabrics featured on Project Runway Season 9 Episode 7 were designed [...] > read more

Shop Local: Spoonflower

Published on 2011-05-16 09:46:05

If you read last week’s post, you know that I am designing an accessory line. My “vision” for the line is to incorporate the some of the same imagery I use in The Ephemera Jewelry Collection. Since most fabrics with images fall unde > read more

From Studio 109A: And Now For Something Completely Different

Published on 2011-05-05 13:50:58

  “All artists get discouraged. All artists have deep inner wells of self-pity into which we periodically dive. All artists specialize in self-doubt. It is how we hone the creative imagination.” Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way La > read more

The Invisible Children: Breaking the Silence

Published on 2011-04-25 09:50:39

In April of 2006, I saw this photograph on The Oprah Winfrey Show that haunted me. The photo was of a group of children in Uganda who on a nightly basis were being locked in cages for their own safety. Known as the “nightwalkers,” they w > read more

Not Your Ordinary Day in Studio 109A

Published on 2011-04-17 13:56:19

Ten years ago this month, my husband and I moved to Raleigh from Florida. In that time, my husband and I bought a house, had our daughter, and I launched my career as a professional artist at Artspace. So, yesterday was just another ordinary Saturday > read more

From Studio 109A: The High Price of Commissions – Part 2

Published on 2010-12-10 08:41:44

Last Friday during the First Friday Gallery Walk in Raleigh, another artist asked me if I was still blogging. She said that she reads the blog and missed it. I suppose I could say the blog posts have been less frequent because I have writer’s b > read more

From Studio 109A

Published on 2010-11-03 10:24:36

Sorry for not posting this past month, but family distractions got in the way. This month, however, I am back in the studio. Last month, I donated a bracelet to the SPCA Fur Ball. I have been supporting the Fur Ball for several years now. Founded in > read more

Not Just Another Ordinary Day: Goodnight As the World Turns

Published on 2010-09-25 21:24:53

It was just about a year ago that The Guiding Light went off the air. I confessed to you then that years before I moved to Raleigh and became an artist, I spent a summer in the fictitious town of Oakdale, Illinois, the setting for As the World Turns. > read more

Lesson Learned from Mama Chili’s

Published on 2010-09-10 11:35:46

“The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing. ” Thomas Edison Last w > read more

Debriefing: Through the Looking Glass

Published on 2010-08-20 09:59:20

Through the Looking Glass is now finishing its second week at Artspace, and if you haven’t seen the show already, you have a week left. On Saturday, August 21st, Artspace is having its Family Fun Day to celebrate the end of The Summer Arts Prog > read more

Through the Looking Glass: Installation Video

Published on 2010-08-08 20:08:57

First, I want to send a special thanks to all of the people who came last Friday night to see the Through the Looking Glass exhibition at Artspace. If you didn’t make it Friday night, the show runs through August 28th at Artspace. The building > read more

Day Three of Through the Looking Glass Installation: The Finishing Touches

Published on 2010-08-05 16:18:44

Day three of the installation is behind us. Emily put the final details on the drawings, drew frames around her prints and the jewelry panels, while Nick (Emily’s very talented husband) and I finished edging the floor with black duct tape and > read more

Day Two: Through The Looking Glass Installation

Published on 2010-08-04 16:14:08

I arrived yesterday to Artspace to find Emily Cash Wilmoth putting ink to The “Fat” Hatter. Day two of the installation was packed with hanging the frames for the jewelry, installing the “checkerboard” floor, cutting, adhering > read more

Art Unravelled: Through the Looking Glass Exhibition Begins

Published on 2010-08-03 16:45:49

First of all, I am sorry for not posting last week, but I was putting the final touches on the Through the Looking Glass  series of pieces. The three-person Through the Looking Glass show opens this Friday in the Lobby of Artspace during the First F > read more

“Summer” on the Hudson Valley with Branches

Published on 2010-07-19 21:57:23

My family and I just returned from five days in New York City. We saw shows, The Statue of Liberty, Central Park, The Empire State Building, Radio City Music Hall and ate. One of the highlights of the trip by far was New York’s High Line, an > read more