“My name is Chris Cornell, and I’m here to induct my hometown heroes, Heart.” That’s how the Soundgarden front man started his Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame induction speech (televised this past weekend).

Cornell continued by saying, “Let us now praise sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson.” before mentioning the rest of the original band. “Together these people made magic.”

Yes they did. And still do, after over 30 years of playing together – and even after breaking up for a while.

Upon seeing the sisters (who also happen to be mothers) accept their award and rock out together, I was reminded:
a) how special it is to even HAVE a sister
b) how lucky we are to work together, and how meaningful our professional journey has been
c) how I can never take that for granted

Ann and Nancy could have made music with anyone I suppose, but they would not have made Heart. The fact that they are sisters brings an intangible synergy that makes the music that much better.

Heart. It truly is magic.

Photo of Patti and Lizanne as girls

We are born to our parents, and may have spouses, but it has been said that the people with whom we really share life’s journey are our brothers and sisters. Working with Lizanne has given me the opportunity to deepen my bond to her. Sometimes, our work relationship is so easy, I can’t believe it. And sometimes, it is so challenging, I want to retreat.

But it is always my sister that I come back to. She is a rock, a guiding light, a force of nature, a confidant, a protector, a mother. And as we work together, side-by-side, and come together to make decisions from our individual perspectives, our business grows, and we move deeper and deeper into sisterhood. At the end of the day, I think “How wondrous it is to be doing something remarkable with my sister. How magical.”

There are many phenomena in business, but this one has held true for Waxing Poetic:  whenever we consider each other, our business benefits. We, the sisters, should always drive that point home… this true core of our business: our connectedness. When we are operating from a place of family, of love, of togetherness, we move mountains. When there is mutual trust, respect and love, and a shared vision, great things happen.

I am inextricably bound to my sister. And maybe that is the greatest lesson that working with her has given me: it is GOOD to be bound by love, all of us, even if it sometimes challenges us. We can’t deny it, we can’t walk away. Unconditional love. It makes us look in the mirror, summon up what we got, and rise to the occasion. And somehow, one of the things that makes the magic in the end.

Here with some real heart: Heart performing Crazy on You at the 2013 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame awards.

Thanks to my sister Lizanne, and all the sisters out there that inspire and bring heart to what they do.

Xo,

Patti

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Style and Substance and Stubbornness and STRAIGHT UP ROCK AND ROLL (and poems, always poems, and performance, and love, and all of that, and an uncanny and uncommon capacity to forgive and transform herself, her friends, her fans, her language of origin, her history, her loves, her family, the very definition of family, her place in the world both as a would-be-art-student kicking around Fort Greene Brooklyn during the rough-n-tumble years when one would go to classes at Pratt and then scurry away but Patti? OH NO SHE DID NOT.

Instead she and best friend/soul mate/collaborator/and true love (an unusual kind of love but a lasting brave transformative one ) Robert Mapplethorpe stuck it out in a leaking, all-but-condemned building where they made shrines to Love and classical poets, drew until their hands hurt, told stories, wrote music, made mischief and set things in motion for the eventual flights elsewhere (but never too far from each other, and certainly not too far from love).

Patti sometimes talks a little before her concerts (because so what if yes she’s a mama and been married and loved and lost and is well over the age she broke everyone’s hearts first with HORSES – life changing, ever so, and onward: she’s still performing and kicking to dust any rueful remarks that after a certain age, you really just shouldn’t…).

One of our friends saw her last year and reported back this: that Patti said something to the effect of she got into music because it was a way to connect further to love (and to the world! and to revolution! and all that wonder!) in a way that words could only do to a point –

because all the poems in the world are lonely little boats
waiting to be launched without a sea
of feeling or an ocean
of possibility and both of those things require
movement,
performance,
transformation
and the righteous backing of a most excellent band of fellow curious comrades…

and maybe too, maybe (we hope so, and in JUST KIDS she says as much…), the ‘magical’ inclusion of some self-invented style (a white shirt, skinny black pants, stompable boots, a wry smile…). So earnest it might be read as a sneer but listen a little more (turn up GLORIA on Spotify or whatever form you can find it right now) and just…be wowed with all this wonder. Patti was, and is. Also, she’s from Jersey (like the Pagliei sisters and a whole slew of our friends/fans at WP), and she’s tough, and gorgeous, and brilliant (and everything we hope to someday be.. as much as she has pulled off).

And humble. And how.  Here is a little gift for the tried-n-true, and new, Patti Smith fans: http://channel.louisiana.dk/video/patti-smith-advice-young

Xo WP

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Our flagship Los Olivos Boutique turns 3..

We love the way back journeys, and here’s another.  The “Before and After” story of our Waxing Poetic Boutique in Los Olivos, California (which experienced some major TLC before we opened our doors to the public in  April 2010… read on!).

It is every artist’s challenge, and dream: a blank canvas.  For us, this space was it.  A challenge and the most fun we have ever had (until we designed store #2 in Summerland!).  The interior of the boutique consists of a mix of custom woodwork and fixtures that were crafted from locally milled and carved Santa Ynez walnut, Italian artifacts, warm antiques, and lively “frescoupage” wall panels.   The “antiqued-up” décor and friend-crafted interior is a physical manifestation of  imaginative artistry and unique craftsmanship of our jewelry.  Check out the Before and Afters…

The Main Floor: We paid homage to Patti’s familial and design roots and created an Italian inspired interior, combining the brand palette of mixed metals with the classical palette of oil paintings and old frescoes to come up with  the color scheme. Local artisan crafted fixtures, industrial antiques, old book, & letters, Italian artifacts and some of Patti’s personal objects were combined to bring Waxing Poetic into the space.

The Main Wall:The one main wall in the store was the perfect place for this large antique Italian armoire.  The back of the armoire was upholstered with a hand-blocked linen remnant from Raoul Textiles.  Custom jewelry stands were assembled from a mix of hand-carved walnut and antique corbels and decorative Italian architectural remnants.  Antique pig skin books and vintage objects create niche displays.  Ephemera from Patti’s collection are tacked to the fabric back, along with the story of the brand’s beginnings.

Bay Window Nook: “Frescoupage” walls were hand cut and installed on location by designer Stephanie Kheder.  The coffered trim on the panels was milled locally, again from reclaimed walnut wood.  We used 18th century Italian artifacts to create one of a kind mini shelves upon which to perch the jewelry.  The center fixture is a repurposed steel water fountain.  Hand carved local wood sills disguise the plain “contractor” grade windows.  Hand carved cornices with hand-gilt logo shields and metal colored striped scalloped curtains create a warm boutique vibe.

Fireplace: The existing fireplace just didn’t work style or color-wise, so it was replaced with custom cut 6 x 12″ (12″ x 12″ tiles cut in half) tiles that were laid in a sleep custom floor-to-ceiling herringbone pattern.  The hearth was also removed so the tile could continue seamlessly to the floor, allowing room for the large display armoire.  The mantle is a piece of old Italian wood trim, customized with hand cut arch detail, upon which a blown up model shot rests.  Bronze library swing-arm lamps, re-upholstered, velvety tufted slipper chairs and an antique Italian hand-painted pedestal create a cozy seating area.

Cash Wrap Area: Our cash wrap was custom made to fit the interior by Erich Riedl.  He used mis-matched 18th century Italian wood griffin feet as the base of the piece and created the rest to match, using cool burning LED lights that create a “float” effect.  The mirror was cut to spec and hand-distressed to burn in our logo in a very subtle way.  A small gold Italian regency chandelier from the owner’s childhood home personalizes the space.  Walls are Benjamin Moore “Champion Blue,” one of Waxing Poetic’s signature packaging colors.

Chandelier/Ceiling: The chandelier is a reproduction set piece that was found at a local consignment store, re-gilded by Patti, and fitted with silicone-tipped bulbs to create a candle effect.  Looking over the store and blessing it is an 18th century oil painting of the Virgin Mary, from which much of the interior’s classical palette was pulled.  The walls are painted a warm stone color, to bring in more of the brand’s colors and tone down the wood ceiling.

So, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY and thanks for the memories!  We heavily-heart Los Olivos (and if this post goes up before May 5… come join our Cinco de Mayo party…  here’s your  invitation)

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Flora appears courtesy of Botticelli’s Primavera (Allegory of Spring)

Flora, the Goddess of Flowers unknowingly has attracted our Honey Bee.

See this masterpiece of pastoral abundance here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primavera_(painting)

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Venus, beautiful Venus, Roman goddess of Love and Beauty. She shows up everywhere,the best paintings , in the most beautiful poetry, in our favorite myths. She appears in different forms, under different names (the Greeks called her Aphrodite), and in sometimes different costumes, and she’s far from perfect as a character – but what she IS, or IS while and when we believe or tell each other old myths and stories, IS something, someone, utterly enchanting: a human-looking, love-generating, awe-inspiring immortal embodiment of all the things which keep us going forward: LOVE, FERTILITY, VICTORY, TRANSCENDENCE, BEAUTY, REGENERATION (see also SPRINGTIME!!!), PROSPERITY, RENEWAL, WONDER OUT OF NOTHING BUT THE POSSIBILITY OF WONDER, BEAUTY and a particular kind of GRACE.

And so we’d like to say this: LOOK AT BOTTICELLI’s wondrous depiction of her magical ‘birth’ – fully formed, prosperous, beautiful, and floating in on enchanted seafoam in a lovely scalloped shell.

She is both easily accessible and elusive in all her stories. She blesses the rich and poor alike. She helps warriors win just battles, and lends her wondrous, life-affirming aura to all manner of people and situations (so long as they give love back and around those nearby). She forgives slights and helps transform the world for people she formerly feared or felt threatened by. Oh? Yes.

Venus’ son, you see, is the Roman god Cupid, aka Eros. He fell in love with a mortal beauty, Psyche, and she with him—but Venus put some very strict rules on their romance, and Psyche wasn’t allowed to see her husband. She peeked anyway. She broke the rules, and was cast out – but not for long. Venus was willing to be proven wrong, in a way, perhaps her daughter-in-law wasn’t only after her beautiful, immortal son for the chance to become immortal herself, and…after a fair amount of trials (and a lot of help from animals and magic creatures), Psyche proved herself deserving in Venus’ opinion: she had been doing everything out of, and for, and because of, and because she wanted to give back some more…

LOVE.

And so all was forgiven and changed and healed and Eros + Psyche had a beautiful little child which they named PLEASURE, and all of it happened because of LOVE.

Venus is a creature of myth, some might say fiction, but she is also entirely real in so much that she’s the sum of all our best wishes and most poignant heart-ward journeys.

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