Welcome!

Hello and Welcome to my blog! I am a 26 year old, recent architecture school graduate, living in New York City, and amongst other things I'm trying to start my own design firm, Zipper 8 Design.

I have always loved good design, especially products for the home, and so last summer when classes were over, and I had some extra resin lying around the house, I decided to see what I could make with it. And that's how my very first ever Beer Cap Trivet was born. That first trivet is clunky, used a ton of resin, and a lot of very unique bottle caps, plus it has a slightly frosted sort of look. But, it holds a special place in my heart because it was the first. (I'll post a pic here later, stay tuned to see my first attempt at product design!) From there it was a quick step towards better trivets, thinner, slightly smaller, and super clear. And idea had been born! My friend Katie and I jumped on it, and quickly started brainstorming what else you could do with bottle caps. Did you know there's a huge market on Ebay to purchase old beer bottle caps? Neither did I, but I soon learned and was buying up all the fun caps I could find. (And there of course is my first mistake... spending so much money on caps when I could have just started collecting them from friends!)

From there we decided that while trivets were super fun, coasters would be even better! And then came the first major hurdle in the process. What the hell do you use as a mold for making coasters? Katie headed off on a summer road trip and I started researching anything and EVERYTHING we could possibly use as a mold. It took a lot of trial and error, but finally I got it! And then and there Zipper 8 Design was officially born.

Don't worry, I'm not going to bore you with endless talk about my business all the time, for that you can visit the more official Zipper 8 Design blog (http://zipper8design.blogspot.com). The purpose of starting this blog is to discuss more personal issues, things that come to mind, other amazing artists and the like. I hope you enjoy what you see here, thanks for reading!!

Allison