Featured AHSC Arts and Crafts Vendor: Orange Caterpillar

Editor’s Note: From handcrafted jewelry, fabric hand bags made with Asian inspired prints to Asian influenced apparel and creative home decorations, AsianWeek will be featuring Asian-inspired Arts and Crafts vendors each Tuesday to kick off the summer festival season.

The featured vendors all have previously participated in the Asian Heritage Street Celebration (AHSC) – the largest pan Asian street fair nationwide that takes place the third Saturday of every May in San Francisco.

Produced by the AsianWeek Foundation, the AHSC is committed to supporting and promoting these creative and hardworking craftsmen vendors who may otherwise not get the online attention and exposure they deserve.

Orange Caterpillar

Amidst the hustle and bustle of San Francisco’s Sunset district sits a unique boutique that specializes in fusion American and Asian designs for women.  Orange Caterpillar is comprised of leading Shanghai designers who devote

solely to chic and stylish alternative to today’s mass produced clothing lines.  Through its fashion and accessories, Orange Caterpillar strives to reflect a fresh outlook on modern trends, resulting in individualized works of art. 

The designs by Orange Caterpillar is different from other shopping experience, because none of the clothing is mass-produced. Also, custom-made clothing orders and tailoring services are available.  To add the final touches to your outfit, Orange Caterpillar offers an array of high quality hand-crafted handbags, scarves, and rare jewelry pieces.

Orange Caterpillar designers’ vision for San Francisco was to bring a new sense of personality, through its alternative and uniqueness to fashion unavailable elsewhere.  With a team of sharp eyes for sleek fashion alongside years of experience in the merchandise & textile field, a visit to Orange Caterpillar will be sure to not disappoint even the most sassiest shopper.

For more information about Orange Caterpillar, please visit http://orangecaterpillar.com/.

Featured Arts and Crafts Vendor: InCharacter Asian Calligraphy

Editor’s Note: From handcrafted jewelry, fabric hand bags made with Asian inspired prints to Asian influenced apparel and creative home decorations, AsianWeek will be featuring Asian-inspired Arts and Crafts vendors each Tuesday to kick off the summer festival season and into the fall.

The featured vendors all have previously participated in the Asian Heritage Street Celebration (AHSC) – the largest pan Asian street fair nationwide that takes place the third Saturday of every May in San Francisco.

Produced by the AsianWeek Foundation, the AHSC is committed to supporting and promoting these creative and hardworking craftsmen vendors who may otherwise not get the online attention and exposure they deserve.

InCharacter Asian Calligraphy

Owner and calligrapher Cecilia Swift is the sole proprietor of InCharacter Asian Calligraphy.  Started in late 2000 with painting Chinese characters on gold plates, she soon expanded to painting tiles, panels, picture frames, shadow boxes, and other media as backdrops to present her calligraphy as a result of customer demands and a quest for new challenges.  Along with Chinese calligraphy, Swift also works on Japanese kamons (family crests),  and takes custom orderes for name calligraphy in the Chinese, Japanese, and Korean languages.

In addition to her business, Swift has made contributions to the arts community through completion of special commissioned projects, creating awards for organizations, designing & writing martial arts certificates, and tattoo character design templates. A former software engineer, Swift created and still maintains her own website, www.incharacter.biz, where she showcases and sells her calligraphy.  Swift also attends and sells her ware at
craft fairs and art shows throughout the Bay Area.

For more information about Cecilia Swift’s products, or to make a purchase, please visit: http://www.incharacter.biz/.

AHSC Featured Vendor – Monkey + Seal

Editor’s Note: From handcrafted jewelry, fabric hand bags made with Asian inspired prints to Asian influenced apparel and creative home decorations, AsianWeek will be featuring Asian-inspired Arts and Crafts vendors each Tuesday to kick off the summer festival season and into the fall.

The featured vendors all have previously participated in the Asian Heritage Street Celebration (AHSC) – the largest pan Asian street fair nationwide that takes place the third Saturday of every May in San Francisco.

Produced by the AsianWeek Foundation, the AHSC is committed to supporting and promoting these creative and hardworking craftsmen vendors who may otherwise not get the online attention and exposure they deserve.

Monkey + Seal

Monkey + Seal is the collaboration between San Francisco-based artists Rick Kitagawa & Eve Skylar. Both artists have been drawing since they were kids, doodling on printer paper with crayons.  As kids, Kitagawa’s wide ears and big eyes & Skylar’s round face, large eyes, and penchant for the water resembled those of a Monkey and a Seal, respectively. This ultimately became the basis for the name of their future business.

After meeting in UC Berkeley’s Asian American theater troupe in 2005, the two realized that they were passionate about art, not English or Integrative Biology. Studying at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco for their second bachelors degrees, they both realized that their true dream was to change the world for a better through their art. But they themselves were a bit indefinable: Skylar studied visual development for film and games, but found work in illustration and a love for painting. Rick studied illustration, but found himself in the printmaking and painting studios most of the time, and both ended up doing graphic design work on the side.

Monkey + Seal was thus born to create a space for these two artists who are part of a growing generation of individuals who are not fine artists nor illustrators nor animators nor designers, but are an indistinguishable mix of all of the above. Their products include handprinted silkscreen microfiber ties of bold colors and designs with local flavors, intricate and detailed prints, and tshirts with colorful designs.

With Monkey + Seal, Kitagawa and Skylar have decided that they want to bring other artists up with them on their quest towards changing the world, and have resolved to become “Artists Empowering Artists”.

For more information about Monkey + Seal or to purchase their products please visit  www.monkeyandseal.com. They will also be at the Alternative Press Expo (www.comic-con.org/ape) in San Francisco on October 1st and 2nd.

AHSC Featured Vendor: Melinda Mae Handbags

Editor’s Note: From handcrafted jewelry, fabric hand bags made with Asian inspired prints to Asian influenced apparel and creative home decorations, AsianWeek will be featuring Asian-inspired Arts and Crafts vendors each Tuesday to kick off the summer festival season.

The featured vendors all have previously participated in the Asian Heritage Street Celebration (AHSC) – the largest pan Asian street fair nationwide that takes place the third Saturday of every May in San Francisco.

Produced by the AsianWeek Foundation, the AHSC is committed to supporting and promoting these creative and hardworking craftsmen vendors who may otherwise not get the online attention and exposure they deserve.

Melinda Mae Handbags

Melinda Mae Handbags was established in 2007 in Fremont, CA, selling herhand-made handbags with Asian-inspired fabric prints. The designer, Melinda Mae, was inspired by her grandmother, who was a seamstress who could make anything crafty.

She purchased her own sewing machine after creating pillows and clothing from a borrowed sewing machine in junior high.

But she soon found out that she could easily replicate handbags that she saw in stores; with that idea in mind, Melinda Mae Handbags was born.

By creating her own business, Mae wanted her own brand to express her creativity, designing handbags for people like herself while inspiring others to pursue their dreams and aspirations.

Inspired by her days relaxing on the sun in the beach, influenced by soulful music and the nightlife—her handbags are personally hand-made to show playfulness, quality, and functionality. These uniquely designed bags reflect “playful days and soulful nights…to celebrate carefree attitudes and enjoying life.”

Melinda Mae Handbags will be presented at the Capsule Design Festival (www.capsulesf.com) in Hayes Valley in San Francisco on Sunday, September 18th.

Her business also supports up-and-coming independent artists.

For more information about Mae and her designs, or to purchase handbags, please visit her personal website athttp://www.melinda-mae.com, or drop by Modern Mouse in Alameda, Eni-Thing in San Jose, The Usuals in San Jose, and RAG SF in San Francisco. These stores sell Melinda Mae handbags.

AHSC Featured Vendor: Alissa B. Custom Jewelry

Editor’s Note: From handcrafted jewelry, fabric hand bags made with Asian inspired prints to Asian influenced apparel and creative home decorations, AsianWeek will be featuring Asian-inspired Arts and Crafts vendors each Tuesday to kick off the summer festival season and into the fall.

The featured vendors all have previously participated in the Asian Heritage Street Celebration (AHSC) – the largest pan Asian street fair nationwide that takes place the third Saturday of every May in San Francisco.

Produced by the AsianWeek Foundation, the AHSC is committed to supporting and promoting these creative and hardworking craftsmen vendors who may otherwise not get the online attention and exposure they deserve.

Alissa B. Custom Jewelry

Alissa B. Custom Jewelry (formerly known as BennettsBeads) started out merely as a hobby 15 years ago for Santa Cruz resident Alissa Bennett. Her mathematical background inspires many of her designs; she graduated from Lehigh University with a Master’s degree in Business Management, and an undergraduate degree in Engineering.  After leaving her corporate analytical job in New York 7 years ago, she relocated to San Francisco and continued customizing jewelry.  As the demand for her pieces began to increase, Bennett turned her hobby and passion for creating  jewelry into a small business.

Bennett’s jewelry are one-of-a-kind pieces that strive to appeal to women of all ages, careers, and lifestyles.  Using a variety of gemstones, crystals, glass beads, and metals, her handcrafted designs combine classic with fun and elegance.

Additionally, Bennett enjoys working with individuals to custom design pieces that are unique to each person. The recent expansion of Alissa B. Custom Jewelry into the bridal market allows the opportunity for the designer to work with brides to create custom jewelry for both the bride and the bridesmaids for gifts.

For more information about Alissa Bennett’s products, or to make a purchase, please visit:http://www.etsy.com/shop/AlissaBcustomjewelry.

Featured AHSC Arts and Crafts Vendor: Korrupt Label

Editor’s Note: From handcrafted jewelry, fabric hand bags made with Asian inspired prints to Asian influenced apparel and creative home decorations, AsianWeek will be featuring Asian-inspired Arts and Crafts vendors each Tuesday to kick off the summer festival season.
The featured vendors all have previously participated in the Asian Heritage Street Celebration (AHSC) – the largest pan Asian street fair nationwide that takes place the third Saturday of every May in San Francisco.


Produced by the AsianWeek Foundation, the AHSC is committed to supporting and promoting these creative and hardworking craftsmen vendors who may otherwise not get the online attention and exposure they deserve.


Korrupt Label

A scorpion reflects fashion designer Henry Miyoshi's Thai background.

Crafty Thailand-born Henry Miyoshi of Korrupt Label handcrafts each of his deconstructed T-shirts and hoodies with a punk rock aesthetic, layering with texts, images, and patches in his West Oakland, California workshop.

Instead of relying on digital imaging technology like Photoshop, Miyoshi prefers to use copy machines to size his images and old fashioned collages and paste ups for printing. He often uses imagery of bugs, reflecting his childhood exotic bug collection in Thailand. Using multiple screens on the back and front of his shirts, texts and images are delicately layered to create a personal narrative on each shirt. Tea-dyed patches are screen printed and sewn upon, creating the unique layering effect of his wearable works of art. Along with T-shirts, Henry also creates hoodies in a similar manner.

Keeping with his deconstructionist theme, his past sewing included sewing T-shirts and pants with dental floss after cleverly cutting apart his shirts and re-stitching them back together again. In the future, Henry hopes to expand his line to include womenʼs styles and return to his couture line of deconstructed menʼs suit coats and clothing.

For more information, please visit: www.korruptlabel.com.