Posts Tagged ‘Jesse Bonny’
Jesse Bonny’s label, Dun, has been a Pour Porter Shop designer practically since we launched just a little over a year ago. What makes Bonny’s label so unique is not just the fact that she grows many of her supplies, but yucca cordage, which figures largely into many of her pieces, she creates from scratch. This is a time consuming process and a handicraft you don’t see utilized much anymore. Bonny also repurposes old fabric, leather, and other items to make her pieces so each item she produces is one-of-a-kind, not to mention limited edition! Make sure to see the latest accessories she created for us at the Shop and visit her beautiful little shop Dun Market to see more of her work.
We’re very pleased to announce that Jesse’s interview is the second installment of our 2011 Designer Interviews Series. Enjoy!
Yucca Cordage Process: Top left to right 1.Yucca leaves placed in bucket of water 2. Yucca leaves one week later Bottom left to right 3. Scraping leaves to extract fiber 4. Drying the fiber
Photos by Jesse Bonny
1. What was the first thing you ever made with your hands?
Hmm, mudpies? I remember as a kid my sister and I would gather up things (milkweed, pokeweed berries, honeysuckle berries, cattails, weeds of all sorts) in our nature-y, one acre backyard and mix them together to make a “witch’s brew”. I was always fascinated by magic (incantations and spells, not card tricks) and ghosts, and all things otherwordly.
2. You’ve suddenly found yourself in the middle of an eastern deciduous forest. Make an accessory or clothing item from things you’ve found from this forest, describe and sketch it.
One of my very favorite things: gathering! Ok, so I decided to make a little fringe “top” (we are very easy going here in the forest) out of basswood bark cordage with moss epaulets. Worn with cargo hiking pants. (mannequin image from here)
3. What is your signature accessory or piece of clothing that you’re never without?
At the moment, elastic waist pants. {Jesse was expecting her second daughter when she completed the interview!}
4. What gets you out of bed in the mornings?
A combination of my 3 year old {and now newborn} and hunger! It’s an immediate call to duty more than inspiration of any kind. I usually like the fact that it’s more about doing than thinking in the morning.
5. Recipe of your favourite meal/dessert/edible treat?
Mmmm, one of my favorite meals is really easy to make and very flexible:
- 1/2 to 1 pound of sausage (ground or sliced links)
- 2 or 3 large potatoes diced into cubes (can substitute or combine with any root vegetable: sweet potatoes, turnips, beets)
- 1 large onion diced into large sections
- 1 or 2 bell peppers cut into large pieces (I prefer red)
- Put everything into a casserole dish, coat with oil (I use coconut oil) and stir it around. Stick it in the oven at 350 degrees for 45 to an hour, stirring half way through.
6. Favourite plant
Wow, this is a hard one for me. I’ll narrow it down to a couple categories and to only things that grow in my yard.
- -Favorite plant for eating: mulberry tree-I have a red mulberry and a white mulberry tree in my backyard. In June the berries ripen and we just hang out and eat our fill right off the tree. We also had a mulberry tree when I was growing up, so it has sentimental value as well.
- -Favorite plant for crafting: yucca of course! The bonus for yucca is it’s nearly impossible to kill them. I got my first yucca plant in exchange for digging the whole thing out of this woman’s front yard. She had been trying for years to kill, she told me. It was a huge plant with an extremely long tap root, it took me nearly an hour to dig the whole thing up.
- -Favorite medicinal plant-plantain. Plantain has amazing drawing properties. If you have anything poisonous on/in your skin (bee stings, poison ivy, etc.) it will help to draw it out. Just chew up the leaf (the person who is using it should use their own saliva) and put it over the affected area. You can really feel it working, it is crazy! I used it last summer {2009} for something that may have been poison ivy and it totally got rid of it.
7. Ideal shelter?
I have researched this subject A LOT, as I am planning to build a house for myself and my family in the next 5 years or so. Thus far the plan is for an adobe/straw bale hybrid house. Adobe on the east and south sides for thermal mass (heat collection from the sun) and straw bale on the west and north for insulation. A greenhouse for sun collection and an extended growing season. Corrugated metal shed roof for rain collection with a large cistern. Probably a tile floor (more thermal mass!), maybe an earthen floor but those seem like a ton of extra work. Really simple, small floor plan with a loft for the kids. Fireplace, nice bathtub, and lots of outdoor room.
8. Favourite book
I love to read!
Fiction: Last Things by David Searcy Non-fiction: Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price, Mother Nature* by Sarah Hrdy, The Descent of Woman by Elaine Morgan, The Great Cosmic Mother by Monica Sjoo and A Pattern Language* by Alexander, Ishikawa, and Silverstein
9. Favourite photo you’ve taken
I have a couple that I really love. The black and white one was taken on our honeymoon in Yellowstone, the color one was taken at a dog park in Santa Fe with a crazy ice storm approaching (another of my favorites is on the splash page of my website, it was taken on a ziggurat in Crestone, CO).
10. Film you think that should be required viewing
Only required if you have similar taste to me, but a few of my favorites are: *Jesus’ Son*, *Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me*, *Out of Sight*, *No Country for Old Men*, *Terminator 2: Judgment Day*, and *U-Turn*.
Remember when I posted about Dun Market, the delicious little webshop run by Jesse Bonny? Well, Jesse being the total sweetheart that she is, agreed to make a few necklaces for the Shop and I’m pretty much super excited to now be offering them. They’re 100% handmade from repurposed materials and gourds grown in Jesse’s own garden. They’re bold, incredibly unique pieces that reflect Bonny’s warm, organic style. Welcome Dun!
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