jellyfish made out of PET bottles + gabriel gastelum's photography

I love jellyfish to the point where I’ve considered getting one as a pet. unfortunately, pet jellyfish are notoriously difficult to care for. another option are these fake LED pet jellyfish tanks. even if I was feeling impulsive enough to drop $170 on LED jellyfish I wouldn’t be able to because they’re sold out. a more realistic option would be to make some of my own like miwa koizumi’s PET bottle jellyfish designs. time to buy a heat gun.

and to the right is a fantastic self portrait by photographer gabriel gastelum. found on flickr.

the upcoming jewelry line is being finished up and I can’t wait to get everything put together finally.

I can safely say that I’m not jealous of the models that have to work with him, though. they’re constantly jumping, dancing, being thrown around like dolls (I wonder if any of them have been injured?) but they’re being tortured for a good cause, in my opinion.

bumblesea inspiration: fashion photographer nick knight

bumblesea inspiration: nick knight fashion editorial

I have some doubts about how healthy sea salt is in comparison to table salt, but it tastes all kinds of delicious. this has resulted in me running out of the stuff only a few weeks after purchasing it (shut up, I cook a lot.) I need more of the crack salt so I turn to google, which opened my eyes to the wonderful world of HIMALAYAN PINK SEA SALT?! this stuff looks so amazing it should not be edible.

bumblesea wishlist: himalayan pink sea salt

flickr photos, clockwise: 1. himalayan pink salt and goji berries by dessert first 2. salt of the earth by allanthinks 3. himalayan salt crystals by certified su 4.pink sea salt from natural green chemistry company by fooderati

in addition to pink sea salt, google also introduced me to an amazing blog called stuff white people like. stuff white people like #119:  sea salt. thanks mom, for making me even more white than I already am.

here you go stalkers, the newest bumblesea interview on aspiring couture. if you don’t feel like reading the whole thing, here are some highlights for you.

“The design for my next jewelry tag has the words ‘You can’t take this where you’re going’ on the back.”

“My boyfriend constantly asks me what I’m writing down, I yell ‘IDEAS!’ and continue violently scribbling my chicken scratch down. I wake up with ink on my face and sheets from me writing on my arms in bed the night before. There are sixteen to do lists on my desk right now. I’m never bored, my brain works faster than my body can keep up with.”

“Only take business advice from people who are successful in your industry. Seek these people out and form meaningful, long term relationships with them, everything else should turn into white noise. On the other hand, try to keep your head out of your ass. Let me know how it works out for you. Seriously, email me.”

metronomy is one of those bands that had to take time to grow on me. some of their songs are hit or miss but heartbreaker is one of my favorites. I fell in love with it last august, after being forced to listen to an entire metronomy album. this song will probably always remind me of walking home at 1 AM in the pouring rain, having to crash with friends for a month until the lease I snatched up for this killer apartment would finally be mine. sounds kinda depressing, but it was actually one of the best summers I’ve ever had.

fast forward to this august, I’m happily settled into my apartment, stumbling upon the video for heartbreaker on youtube. any video that features a car with curtains and a bird cage in the back seat is worthy of a blog post on bumblesea.

I like olga ert’s sculptures of little creatures covered in flowers. I think she’s primarily an illustrator and most of her work is done under the name “inkpanda”, you can check out her work on behance, blogspot, and flickr. I believe she’s japanese, but lives in russia and speaks russian on all her online profiles. obviously I can’t read anything that she writes so that’s about the extend of my knowledge of her work. but hey, it’s pretty, right? that’s all I need to know.

bumblesea loves: flower horse sculpture by olga ert aka inkpanda

bumblesea loves: flora / fauna flower creature by olga ert aka inkpanda

as you might already know from one of my previous blog posts, I’m in love with the wedding collection by the designer blushless. I can’t believe I had never heard of their work until aspiring couture came along. to be honest, I find most wedding dresses to be absolutely hideous. but blushless puts a modern spin on traditionally minimal dresses – resulting in the only wedding line I’ve ever found appealing.

bumblesea interviews allison o'grady of aspiring couture + blushless wedding dress collection

you’ve obviously got killer taste, and you’re creative to pull off a huge project like aspiring couture. what inspired you to represent indie designers and open a boutique instead of designing products yourself?

I do have a strong interest in designing items and do plan to create some in the future. I guess it came down to the fact that I didn’t have the time to sit down and start sewing a collection because I realized that no one was going to know about it! I thought that other designers might just feel the same way. I decided to just look around to see if there were designers worth showcasing. I was pleasantly surprised that their were tons! It seemed like a much better purpose at the moment to try my hand in starting a boutique. It has been a learning experience- now I know more about marketing products. If the boutique does well, I can eventually make some pieces and add my own items too.

what are some of the goals you’d like to achieve with aspiring couture? (long &/or short term)

Well, that is quite a loaded question! I am a dreamer, I always have been, and it is no different with Aspiring Couture. I want to hold lots of fashion shows, have a fashion magazine, participate in charitable events and more, to get these designers’ names out there. I want Aspiring Couture to be a very well known website and I would love to open a few physical stores around the country. I’m working on these things, but they are long term goals.

Short term, I would like to be able to support these designers by selling their products quickly! I would like to get into a groove on my blog where I am constantly updating and have an ever-growing reader base of people who are inspired by my writing and my finds! My current goal is to spread the word of Aspiring Couture.

the variety of emerging talented artists can be overwhelming, how do you go about narrowing your choices down? do you just go with instinct or is there a specific criteria you have for collections you carry, questions you ask yourself before deciding to work with a company?

There may be more specific criteria when Aspiring Couture becomes more well-known or starts offering more products, but right now it is based on what I love. I pick designers I would wear myself, each product is a representation of me. I do know that not everyone likes what I like, so I will eventually broaden the range of styles. So far I have gotten some great feedback on the boutique- I am glad to know people respond well to my choices!

were there any obstacles (anticipated or otherwise) you had to overcome in order to get to this point with the company?

Oh wow, of course! Some times I never even thought I would make it to this point. I didn’t have many unexpected obstacles as I did lots of research before starting. I knew what was coming and I could plan for it! Up until the launch I actually didn’t have too many problems at all. I had fun with that and was getting lots of emails at the time from designers. I was creating relationships and was very excited about the expressed interest!

I have run into a few problems more recently though.

1. I don’t have a business partner so it can become extremely hard when I become uninspired! I don’t have someone to bounce ideas off of, or to get inspiration from or even to talk to about the business. So I am the only one who knows what I go through on a day to day basis. It can be hard to hold it all in sometimes. Of course I do have lots of friends and people willing to help or even listen which is great. I don’t know what I would do without them.

2. When you have a product or website, you are the only one who knows about it at first. So the marketing can be challenging sometimes. Overall, I don’t think I am too bad at it, but it’s definitely a field I have a lot more to learn about.

3. I have always been pretty ambitious and never liked downtime. So I started Aspiring Couture in top of the 3 jobs I was already doing! It can become challenging sometimes because I would love more time to work on it, or network around and find some new friends! I hold my schedule pretty well, but it can be rough when planning a day full of meetings when something needs to be done on the site.

any current favorite product or designer you’re carrying at the moment – or is that too much like choosing a favorite child?

Unfortunately it is like picking a favorite child! They each have their area of expertise and they are all my favorite for what they do. I love the feathered hair pieces, and Selah D’or has such an elegant line for the office or events. Sofie Olgaard, on the other hand, has a great summer line! All of the people behind the lines are great. I want to make sure that my designers are great people who want to inspire others.

anything else you’d like to mention?

We are in the very beginning stages of holding an Aspiring Couture fashion show! I haven’t said too much about it so far, but lots of good things are in the works! We have some great ideas for sponsors (including a favorite cupcake shop!) and the venue is in one of the most affluent areas here in Northern California. It will be quite a production, and I am looking forward to it! It won’t be until next year, because planning for a show of this size is a big project!

thank you, allison!

to keep an eye on aspiring couture or get more info about allison’s future endeavors, you can follow the aspiring couture blog.

nets photograph by femme de manille via flickr

dragon fruit photograph by femme de manille via flickr

I obsessed over dragon fruit (enough to name a bumblesea necklace after them) after seeing some photos of them on flickr. I got my hopes up about how they’d taste, spent five bucks on a single fruit, and it ended up reminding me of a mediocre kiwi. maybe it wasn’t ripe. what can you do?

at least they’re pretty.