Tonsina Forest Photoshoot

Tonsina Forest Photoshoot

This morning I woke up in Seward, Alaska, my home town for half of the year, and geared up for a frosty photoshoot in Tonsina Forest. I drove along the coast of Resurrection Bay with my rig loaded to the gills. Today's gear included samples of our brand new merchandise, hot off the local screen printing press...The sun came up and filtered over the mountains surrounding the bay and then entered the mossy trees of Tonsina Forest.  I chased light from tree to tree and hung the garments for pictures for our new website. We have a brand new collection of beautiful pieces that I have designed and curated throughout the year, and we can't wait to show our loyal customers the Winter Collection. We have new garments with updated silhouettes and a fresh color palette that I think you will love. This has been a year of new...and I am so grateful for the changes and evolution that we've experienced as a company this year.  I am looking forward to this holiday season ahead to travel to Sitka on the 18th of November with my dry bags of AK Starfish Co. gear in tow, and then on to Juneau for my 12th year of Public Market. I'll be at the Dimond and Old Seward shops in Anchorage for the month of December, and can't wait to see my friends and families that have been visiting us since 2003.  Thanks for your endless support, Alaska!!  Here's to a Winter filled with love and light...
Mermaid Rock

Mermaid Rock

This island of rock and mussel shells, seaweed and limpets is a place I go. It rests just off of South Beach; a black sand beach in Resurrection Bay. This rock in all of her changing moods has been a source of inspiration and contemplation since 2002 when I had a notion to celebrate our strength and abilities to regenerate like Starfish do. On an especially cold and blustery day in February, I went to that beach and sat in front of that rock with a litany of details that were the stuff of life's upheavals.

In that natural space of quiet contemplation the idea of regeneration and a Starfish's unique ability to "grow back" struck me as an important quality. That inspiration gave birth to the design that has grown into a symbol that many Alaskans have adopted as their own. That same symbolic design now travels across the United States and beyond quietly expanding its shared strength. This is the spot I've dubbed Mermaid rock; it changes with the tides the weather, and the season.

It is one of the special spots in Alaska that I've befriended; it's associations hold weight and the frequency of our visits have, in St. Exupery's word "tamed" us. In the busyness of my life as a business lady with an ever expanding number of stores and staff and a new company to manage and grow, these quiet spaces and places are proving vital in staying connected to my source of energy and inspiration...