Architxtr-April

The zine for all things design

architecture interior design art photography life W H E N N AT U R E M E ET S D E S I G N p g 1 0

APRIL 2021

fashion

ISSUE NO 3

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architxtr a nexus of design for the want to be artist ar-chi-tec-ture “the art or practice of designing and constructing a building” “the complex of carefully designed structure of something”

tex-ture “the feel, appearance, or consistency of a surface or substance”

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Editor’s Note

“Succulents”

“Nature meets design”

Featured Artist

Featured Author

Scotland

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Featured Photographer

Entrepeneur of the Month

“Nature Close up”

Contact Page

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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Barbara Goffin Photography

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EN2021

DOING THE

NEW BEGINNING After just graduating college with a Master of Architecture degree, gosh doesn’t that sound fancy, I had no idea what I was going to do next.

See this degree was a six-year long commitment and a goal of mine since the 7th grade, so every goal and decision I made revolved around getting through school. My vision, however, seemed to stop there. I just assumed I would get an internship at a great firm and work my way up. That was until February 14th, 2020 when I found out my husband and I were expecting a baby in October.

With eight months until graduation and possibly my hardest two semesters yet, being thesis project and all, I would have to make some new decisions. Would I be a stay at home mom? I have so much respect for SAHM, but that life is just not for me. Would I find a firm to work a nine to five every day? This is a hard one to answer because this was the original plan, however I want to be with my baby. So, what now? I focus on school, prepare for graduation, life with a new baby, and all while in a freaking world pandemic of course. October, I gave birth to Layla and December I graduated.

If you know anything about architecture school, you know there are portfolios created and submitted every year or so to advance into the next portion of the program. I really enjoyed the design aspect of this and would probably spend

THING

more time looking at magazines for inspiration than past portfolios. Sorry Bob McLeod. There lies the idea for starting my own magazine. Of course, my passion still resides in architecture but also art and interior design and wood working and photography and traveling and... Dang how do I combine my love for all of these while still being able to be in Layla’s daily life? Boom. My ultimate dream job.

Here is to a new year, a new job, and a new family. Welcome to the artsy mess that is my brain, I hope you find something useful and learn something cool.

Marquessa Pichette Mother, Wife, Editor & Chief of architxt

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SUCCULENTS

Photo by: Barbara Goffin

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| NATURE BY DESI

Which has the biggest I M P A C T?

I was fortunate enough to visit Copenhagen, DK where one of my favorite architecture firms, BIG, resides. I was so inspired by the “8 house,” pictured to the right, that I got an abstracted diagram of the building tattooed on my forearm. There is nothing else like being at the top of the building on the outside hallway looking down into this beautiful garden. Yet also being able to look out past the walls onto miles of land. The way that BIG designed the building to interact with the landscape surrounding the building is tastefully done. The landscaping that takes place in the interior courtyard creates a different more structured feel than the surrounding empty fields. So, this makes me question does nature decide the design of a building or does the building just react to the existing nature? In this specific location it seems to me that the fields provided a blank canvas yet perfect for view of the sunrise and sunset. Then along with the outer views comes the inner courtyard views. There is a nice juxtaposition between the two types of greenery. So, in this case the nature inspired the design and then the design inspired more nature. This way of design seems to attract me as most of my favorite buildings do something similar. I think in order to have good architecture there needs to be both design impacted nature and nature impacted design.

I read an article called “Architecture and Nature: A Framework for Building in Landscapes” written by Andreea Cutieru. The article does a good job of highlighting the overall affect nature and design have on the human experience. “The relationship of man to nature and of architecture to the landscape is continuously renewed, and architecture built within the natural landscape represents a certain kind of poetic exploration, as well as a renewed perspective on the human scale.”

-Marquessa

SIGN, DESIGN BY NATURE|

WHEN NATURE MEETS DESIGN

C T?

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FEATURED

Matthew Chirhart has known he has wanted to work in a creative field since he was little. At age 13 he learned about fly fishing and started on his flytying journey. He has a passion for all things making and working with his hands. He has worked many odd jobs but always dreamed his career would be fishing related. 2 years ago, he started Shadowline Fly Co. purely as way to make some extra cash from his hobby. He now has been able to quit his 9-5 day job to pursue Shadowline full time. With a sixmonth-old baby at home it was a little scary, but his flies can currently be found in 2 fly shops and will hopefully be starting a website soon.

Featured Artist Matthew Chirhart Personal instagram : @volksfiend Business instagram : @shadowlineflyco

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FEATURED artist

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Matthew packages the flies he sells in recycled cigar boxes that he attaches foam to the bottom inside of for the flies to hook into. Making for easy travel and display

FEATURED artist

STRONG ARM MERKIN

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FEATURED artist

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Examples of flies you can purchase shadowlineflyco@gmail.com @shadowlineflyco

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FEATURED

MOM’S GARDEN

S

ince I can remember, my mother was committed to sustainable activities, always recycling, composting and reusing everything she could! She washed and reused zip loc bags, bread bags, when she occasionally bought a loaf of bread, and even reused the wax paper lining in cereal boxes. She had a love for gardening and canned much of what she grew for our family of eight. My grandparents’ neighboring farm provided us with fresh eggs and milk.

It was wonderful! I miss days on the farm and helping in the garden. I reflect on those experiences especially as we see the effects of increased pollution on our land and the impacts on our health.

I grew up in Clear Lake, Wisconsin, a small village on the west side of the state. It happens to be the home of the founder of Earth Day, Gaylord A. Nelson. He was born and raised in Clear Lake and much of his inspiration for founding Earth Day on April 22, 1970, came from his time spent in the outdoors around Clear Lake and the St. Croix River.

My mom was always thrifty but I believe that influence came from the Earth Day founder being from our hometown and her wanting to be part of the solution.

My older siblings were in high school when they held the first Earth Day rally and cleanup! The Clear Lake school has done a huge clean-up effort for about eleven years now in the local park and for village residents followed by an event at the school. I am proud to be from this small town with a big heart for others and for the environment.

“his inspiration for founding Earth Day on April 22nd, 1970,

came from his time spent in the outdoors around Clear Lake, Wisconsin”

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e each individually have a part to play in making the world a better place to live and raise our families. Everyone deserves clean water and air to live a healthy life.

Since many of us have been spending increased time at home, this Earth Day month is a great time to consider ways to conserve, reuse and repurpose around our homes for a more sustainable and healthy future!

Since I was very young my mom instilled in me her mindset of sustainability. She used Basic H®, a non-toxic biodegradable general purpose cleaner, all around the house in a myriad of ways! She loved the cost effectiveness. Basic H is created by the company I now partner with to help people get healthy and to create a healthy environment. They were the first company to be certified climate neutral and they launched the first-ever Earth Day product.

And their commitment to being Beyond Organic, to sustainability and to non-GMO policies make them a company I can trust.

FEATURED author

-Cindy Hatella https://pws.shaklee.com/made2thrive @Made2thrive

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SCOTLAND

Photo by : Marquessa Pichette

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Photo by : Barbara Goffin

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FEATURED

Featured Photographer Anna Rekow Anna is an artist, photographer and speaker in Wisconsin who loves capturing art in the everyday experiences of life.

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FEATURED photographer

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FEATURED photographer

Featured Photographer Anna Rekow

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EOTM

QUALITY HANDMADE ITEMS BY A SISTER-RAN SMALL BUSINESS

TINTIE CO. When a shipment from Tintie Co. arrives the items are quality yes, but the detail that goes in to every inch of the package is outstanding. My order of masks came with hearts cutout of dryer sheets making the masks smell amazing and fresh. It was beautifully wrapped in a twine with the sweetest of thank you notes. It also came with a card that had extremely helpful wash instructions that I would have had to google if not there.

I chose to ask Austine and Catie if I could feature their business in Architxtr because I am so beyond impressed at what they have accomplished. These sisters have kept busy not only attending college but also helping their community out one mask at a time. They are a “small business” technically but the impact from the donations they have made, also the local shops they buy their fabrics from, the detail that goes into every item, makes them a big deal in my book.

-Marquessa

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ENTREPRENEUR OF THE MONTH

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WHAT EXACTLY IS TINTIE CO.?

Q| What exactly is TinTie co?

A| TinTie Co. is a small, Instagram-based business in Orlando, FL run by me (Austine) and my sister, Catie. We sell homemade goods, most notably our masks, and donate proceeds to local charities within the sunshine state.

Q| How and why did you get started?

A| This all started about one year ago.

We came home from USF because of the pandemic and at the time, there was a mask shortage everywhere, even within our own community.

At our family’s restaurant, since everything was take-out only and our dining room was closed, our mom and aunts set up a sewing area within the restaurant to sew masks to sell to our customers and to help donate to essential workers. Catie and I have never sewn before in our lives, nor have we ever touched a sewing machine; It was during this time at the restaurant that we learned how to sew. Us two, our mom, and aunts all teamed up with a local Vietnamese church and together, we sewed and donated over 15,000 masks across 3 states and various hospitals/ organizations. The restaurant was soon sold afterwards but people were still contacting us about masks. Catie and I really enjoyed sewing and decided to start a small business of our own to sell masks and to try and find other means to help out our community. That’s when we opened up TinTie Co. on Instagram and started advertising to our friends and family, who have supported us along every step of the way.

Q| Who came up with the name TinTie Co.?

A| I came up with the name. We were both sitting in our kitchen and writing out different words or terms that described us.

I started writing different combinations of our names and we settled on (basically) the last half of our names, Ca-Tie and AusTin-e. I dropped the ‘E’ since TineTie Co. didn’t have much of a ring as TinTie Co. did.

Q| How much money have you donated so far?

A| As of April 2021, we have donated about $3,800 across 10 different organizations in Florida. We also partcipate in a food drive last year where we donated a can of food/ non-perishable item for every 3 masks sold and donated over 250 items to our local food bank during the Thanksgiving season.

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Q| How do you pick where to donate to?

A| Being that we were raised in FL, we decided to dedicate our business to supporting local organizations within our community that can help provide, empower, and strengthen the people around us.

Q| Do you plan on expanding from a social media store? Create a website?

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A| We actually had plans in the beginning of this year to expand TinTie Co. to a website. It was a goal that we had in mind; it was all planned out and it was like we could see it playing through. We purchased the domain name, decided on the platform we would open our business on, and then attempted to create a website.

Let me tell you, creating a website is not easy at all. Unfortunately, this revelation came through after we purchased the domain name and platform. Days went into understanding how to use WordPress, but two months later, we ended this project. If the time comes again where we do find the time to open an online store, a website will surely be something that we look into again.

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EOTM Q| How do you market TinTie Co.?

A| We solely market through Instagram or by word of mouth.

Catie is a Global Business Major with a concentration in Marketing at USF so she takes all of our photos and edits/ posts the vast majority of them. She creates product videos and also makes our Instagram posts for us to share on the feed. I’m in charge of the captions and making the ‘stories’ that just show what we’re currently making/ up to, and I’ll help with whatever Catie needs help with to edit/capture our products.

A lot of our friends have seen us share TinTie Co. related-posts on our own personal accounts and that’s usually how they discover our business and pass it along to their friends and family. We are so grateful for those who have supported us along this journey, it was truly an unexpected project that we took on during COVID. We had such an overwhelming amount of support, we couldn’t thank everyone enough for their kindness and generosity. It is thanks to all of them that TinTie Co. grew to what it is today. <3 Q| How do you choose the fabrics and patterns?

A| We love getting feedback and suggestions from our customers on what patterns/ colors they’d like to see. Sometimes when we go to our local fabric store, we’ll browse through every aisle until we find a fabric that sticks out or is super cute and fun; something we can make a collection or Mask Monday with. Other times, we’ll look online and see what colors are ‘in’ or most asked for. Whenever choosing any fabric, we also consider what shade/ pattern would complement people’s skintones.

Q| Can you describe how they are made?

A| We offer 2 different styles of

ENTREPRENEUR OF THE MONTH

masks: the contour style (designed to fit to your face’s natural contours) and the pleated style (rectangular, accordion mask that can fold to be larger or smaller). To make the masks, we use templates that we have been adjusting throughout the past year to place on the fabrics to trace. We then cut it out and start sewing the multiple pieces together.

Every mask has an interior layer and an exterior layer, and for our contour masks, they have a pocket that you can place additional filters into. We iron and place a label on each of our masks and trim off any excess thread and check them one more time before they’re ready to be shipped out.

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EOTM Q| How many people make the items?

Who makes what?

A|Catie and I sew and make everything that we post and sell. I specifically make the contour masks while Catie makes the pleated masks. Since Catie is busy running our Instagram marketing and taking and editing all of our photos, I’m the one that’s primarily in charge of product production: from preparing, tracing, and cutting out both of our fabrics to making the thank you cards and lettering to cutting out the mask elastics.

Q| How long does it take to make a mask? Scrunchie? Headband?

A| For a single contour mask, it can take about 5 minutes from start to finish. A pleated mask can take about 7 minutes, since ironing the pleats and folding is involved. A scrunchie can take about 5 minutes and the headbands can take up 30 minutes. Recently, Catie has been making mask necklaces and because it’s all hand threaded and designed, it can take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour.

Q| Do you plan on making this a full time gig?

A| At this time, we don’t plan on making this a full time gig. I am graduating from USF School of Architecture with my Master’s and Catie is also graduating this semester with her Bachelor’s in Global Business and is already interning at another company.

Q|Are you looking to expand with more items?

A| We’re always looking for things to make!

We love taking in requests and sometimes, those can spark new products for the shop.

Our friend, Kayla Johnson, messaged us about making her a custom-colored scrunchie headband. After researching and creating test pieces, and also posting our process along the way, we received lots of love and requests from other people for this to become a staple within our store and thus, the scrunchie headband emerged.

This all stemmed from Kayla’s request!

Q| Anything new in the next coming months that you can share or sneak peek?

ENTREPRENEUR OF THE MONTH

A| We’ll be releasing a 3-mask collection sometime in April that’s inspired by the fact that my sister and I are going to be graduating and working soon. You’ll have to follow us @TinTieCo on Instagram to find out! :)

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architxtr NATURE CLOSE UP A collection of photos by : Barbara Goffin

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NATURE CLOSE UP

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NATURE CLOSE UP

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NATURE CLOSE UP

If you would like to be featured feel free to submit any art/photography/articles to architxtrmag@gmail.com follow us on instagram @architxtr.magazine

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