Imperfections

Confession: I am an orderly person. Ok, ok. I realize this is not much of a confession especially to those who know me personally. Many of you have seen me completely rewrite a page of notes when two different pens were used to write them, or have been the victim of me straightening out your clothing because it was "bothering me", or have noticed that it is impossible for me to get any work done if my bed is not made. To put it nicely, I like things to be nice and neat. To put it honestly, I'm a control freak.

The thing that's cool about art is that it forces us to get rid of these controlling mentalities. Michelangelo claimed that the figures he sculpted were already inside the stone, he was just setting them free. And while I'd never be bold enough to compare myself to Michelangelo, I do understand where he was coming from. Art is about freedom, it's about using what does exist to create something that has never existed before. And if we control it, we'll never get it right. If we control it there will never be anything new. We'll just end up with what we already had.

This is what Laughing Soul does for me. If you haven't noticed, bleach is difficult to control and impossible to erase. When my paintbrush drips on a shirt, that drip then must become part of the design. When bleach won't soak in to one part of the fabric, I have to work around it. And the cool part about this is that these uncontrollable "imperfections" usually end up making the shirts look so much better than I ever would have imagined them. I don't have to be afraid of messing up because this freedom of design is what makes Laughing Soul unique. I only hope that when you wear a LS shirt, you are reminded that your "imperfections" are sometimes the best parts about you.

Website Launch!

It's nearly 1 a.m., so this is going to be a really short post. Just wanted to say that I officially launched my website tonight! Check it out at http://www.laughingsoulapparel.com . Take a moment to look around, you'll find a few new designs and men's shirts as well. And once again, thanks to everyone for your support - without you I would have never gotten this far. It still seems surreal that at 23 I own my own business and (gasp!) it is actually generating an income. But like I've said before, I owe it all to those of you who are here right now, in the beginning. So thanks again!

And So It Begins...

Let me just jump out and say it - the first post on any new blog is always awkward. As a reader you don't know what to expect and as a writer you have nothing to refer back to. But awkward and difficult as the first post is to write, this is probably the most excited I have ever been about starting a new blog. Why, you ask? Because this is where I get to share with you everything that's going on in the world of Laughing Soul Apparel!

If you know nothing about Laughing Soul, let me start at the beginning. This company was sort of born by accident - I made a shirt for myself using bleach to paint the design and every time I wore it people would ask me where I got it and then ask if I could make them one. Eventually people started encouraging me to sell them on a larger scale and I put off doing so for lots of different reasons... (insert lame excuses and a year's worth of time here)... but eventually I realized that my bleach design shirts could be a bigger hit than I had first imagined, and so took the plunge into the world of creating a small business.

It certainly hasn't been easy, but it's been one of the most rewarding things I've ever done. (And of course, I'm nowhere near finished yet!) I will be the first to admit that I know nothing about creating or owning your own business, yet somehow I've learned as I've gone and it has all worked out for the best. But I would be lying if I said I had done this all on my own, so I want to take this chance to give a big THANK YOU to everyone who has encouraged and helped me along the way. Without all of your encouragement, help with technical and legal issues, brainstorming conversations, connections to other helpful people, and support of my art I would be nowhere right now. So if you're reading this know that you are important to me and this company, because this is only the beginning and you have been right alongside me as I start off on this big adventure. So thanks again, and make sure you check back for more info on how Laughing Soul is growing and expanding... all because of you!