Meet the Maker: Jennifer Cullin of Paper Feather

Just off Western Ave on the backside of Pike Place Market sits a small shop bursting at the brim with creativity and charm. The Paper Feather, owned and operated by Jennifer Cullin, is an homage to all things paper.

WHAT’S YOUR BACKSTORY? WHEN DID YOU START CREATING YOUR PAPER ART? 

I was a substitute teacher for 8 years and always loved crafting with the kids. I started making cards for friends and family on the side and eventually decided I wanted a permanent change. I started my business online and was working from home in the town of Duvall, but then made the move to downtown Seattle.  I knew I wanted my own studio and was walking along Western Ave where I found a storefront/studio space for rent in Pike Place Market.  I knew immediately there was something special about the space and was so happy when I got approval to open up my own shop!

She opened up Valentines Day 2012 with only a few offerings including her handmade cards, postcards, and gift tags. That was 5 years ago and she has now filled the shop to the brim with all of her paper art, expanding to original art, calligraphy, matted prints, a variety of greeting cards, paper flowers, journals, and stationery sets.  She also does custom wedding invitations, chalkboards and party/special occasion goods.

What inspires you and your creations?

I try to always keep up with current trends. I also love birds, so they inspire a lot of my work. "The Fat Bird" greeting card was my first creation and he shows up in a few different pieces around the shop now. 

The Fat Bird!

I also love to travel and use those experiences as inspiration. My favorite places are probably Paris, Italy, and New Zealand. Great birds in New Zealand.

What is your favorite thing to create?

Probably artwork or calligraphy pieces. I love to just go home and create art without thinking.

Who are your favorite artists in Seattle? Anyone readers should check out?

Brooke Westlund is my neighbor on Western Ave. and I love her art. Alex Achavel is another artist in Pike Place Market I really like. Ethan Jack Harrington has a gallery in Belltown that I love to visit. He creates great oil paintings. Lucca in Ballard is probably my favorite shop in town.

Where are your favorite places to get art supplies? 

Definitely Daniel Smith in South Seattle for art supplies and Paper Source in Queen Anne for everything paper. 

Your work spread across a lot of different mediums, did you start in one area and expand or have you always loved to work with different supplies?

Well everything in my shop is handmade. I hand pick all the paper, sketch out and create all the ideas, hand print all the designs once I know what I want. 

I am entirely self taught and have slowly expanded what I work with. I love experimenting with different things. I started with simple methods and have since expanded into more mediums and techniques. Now you can find pieces made with water colors, oils, chalk, and pen. I'm working with resin now with my paintings and love foiling and calligraphy.

Anything coming up in the future we should look out for?

Yes! I am going to start doing calligraphy and card making classes. Look out for more information on this, but essentially I would set out tables and supplies and have wine and snacks and invite people in to learn to create their own paper goods! 

I also want to expand my card business into larger markets. I currently have cards at a few places around Seattle (Once Upon a Time, Sassafras, and Bella Umbrella), but would love to sell them to a broader audience.

Hopefully we will see Paper Feather creations across the U.S. soon! We for one cannot get enough of Fat Bird and think the rest of the world should be able to enjoy him too! 

Paper Feather is located at 1520 Western Ave and is open Tuesday - Friday from 12 - 3 PM. If you are interested in Jennifer's wedding services you can email her for an appointment at thepaperfeather@hotmail.com. 

You can also find her at the Pioneer Square First Thursday Art Walk in a tent in Occidental Park. 

Temple of the Dog

Seattle is known for a lot of things…rain, coffee, evergreens, rain, and, of course, grunge. The Seattle grunge scene (also known as The Seattle Sound) includes famous bands such as Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains and was responsible for 100% of flannel sold between 1984 and 1998. 

Today, we are here to talk to you about Temple of the Dog, a band that is celebrating their 25th anniversary and just wrapped up two shows at the Paramount Theater.

Now, we’re going to be honest with you here…the grunge scene is a complicated mess of musicians working together and collaborating for years, but Temple of the Dog is an important one to know. Let’s see if we can break it down for you:

Mother Love Bone was made up of Andrew Wood (lead singer), Jeff Ament, Bruce Fairweather and Stone Gossard. Sadly, Andrew Wood died right before the release of their first album.

With the end of Mother Love Bone, Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard would go on to create Pearl Jam with Eddie Vedder and Mike McCready.

Chris Cornell, who is the lead singer of Soundgarden, was Andrew Wood’s roommate.

In the months following Andrew Wood’s death, Chris Cornell approached Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament and asked them if they would like to collaborate on an album to pay tribute to Andrew Wood. Mike Mcready and Matt Cameron joined them and, thus, Temple of the Dog was formed. Here is a helpful graphic:

This Soundgarden/Pearl Jam super group only had 1 album with the most well-known song being Hunger Strike (you know, the one where you don’t mind stealing bread from the mouth of decadence. I’m going huuuuuuuuuuuuungry). Not to confuse you more, but Hungry Strike featured vocals by Eddie Vedder who sat in on this singular Temple of the Dog song (Chris Cornell covered all other lead vocals).

The band is celebrating 25 years since the album was first released and doing a (short) tour that sold out in mere seconds online (including 2 shows in Seattle). Since the band members were already working on other successful projects, the band has never actually toured making these shows even more of a hot ticket. We still aren’t exactly sure why the music Gods blessed us with tickets, but we aren’t going to argue.

The band played every single song from their album and included covers from Mad Season, Mother Love Bone, Bowie, Black Sabbath, and Jimi Hendrix. There was some harmonica playing, some guitar slamming, and some swinging around of the microphone stand. The biggest highlight for us was when the entire crowd sang Hunger Strike in lieu of Eddie Vedder. It felt like the entire theater knew the words and sang along. Amazing. It was an incredible night and lets hope it's not another 25 years before they play again!

What to Do in Seattle Center (that park where the Space Needle is)

Seattle Center is the most popular park in Seattle for obvious reasons. There is a lot to do and see so let us give you our tips on what check out. 

Space Needle 

This one doesn't need much introduction. The Space Needle is the most visited place in Seattle and it's a tad bit noticeable as a 605 foot tall Jetson-esque shaped tower. The Space Needle was built for the 1962 World's Fair in Seattle.

Insider tip: Adult tickets are $22 to visit the Observation Deck or you can take a trip up to SkyCity, the rotating restaurant at the top, and for a $35 food/drink minimum get access to the observation deck and delicious food! 

Visit site.

Chihuly Garden & Glass

We did an entire post on Chihuly Garden & Glass because it is AMAZING! Dale Chihuly is a pretttyy famous glassblower from Tacoma, WA (Washington is full of the most talented people). This museum in Seattle Center is a tribute to his beautiful work. Even if you aren't a "museum person" give this one a shot, we think you'll be impressed...like super duper impressed. 

Insider tip: Save big bucks and get a dual access ticket for $36 to visit Chihuly Garden and Glass and the Space Needle.

Visit site

MoPOP!

Museum of Pop Culture - MoPOP

MoPOP (previously EMP) is made for the cool pop culture fans out there. They basically cover everything that is awesome about pop culture and nothing else. Exhibits highlight Horror and Science Fiction films, the Grunge Era, and obviously, the Seahawks epic Super Bowl win. And don't get too excited, but they have a David Bowie exhibit coming in 2017. We think this goes without saying, but no Kardashians allowed. 

Insider tip: Check out Campout Cinema. Their movie screen is MASSIVE and their movie nights are so cool! Camp out in a huge room with LED stars above you and watch cool movies. 

Visit site.

Pacific Science Center 

The science center is an interactive museum for people of all ages. Seriously, even the exhibits you can tell they made for kids, we love. The have a butterfly house and exhibits that teach you about dinosaurs, medical science, and earth's atmosphere. Best yet, the IMAX theater is located here and it plays all the best movies that will blow your mind because... IMAX.

Insider tip: There are some giant flowers outside the Pacific Science Center. They are more than flowers, it's an art exhibit called Sonic Boom. When it's sunny hang out beneath them and wait for them to soak up enough solar power to start playing their echo-y songs! 

Visit site.

Key Arena 

This is where Beyonce comes when she visits Seattle. I think that sells itself.

Visit site.

Teatro Zinzanni

The dinner show of all dinner shows. Teatro Zinzanni never disappoints. It has everything...comedy, acrobats, singing, dancing, cabaret, audience participation, and magic. Your ticket includes a 5-course meal, a three hour show, and a whole bunch of entertainment (even the servers get in on the dancing). The show rotates constantly, so you can keep go back and experiencing new performances. It is expensive (tickets range from $89 - $173 depending on your seat in relation to the stage), but we definitely recommend checking it out at least once.

Insider tip: Your ticket does not include any alcohol or gratuity, and they automatically add $6 per person to your bill for gratuity. You can bring you own wine to the show (if it's not on their menu) for a $20 corkage fee.

Visit site.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Visitor Center

Across the street from the EMP are the offices of The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. For those of you not aware, Bill Gates started this small company, Microsoft, and then made like 1 gillion dollars and now puts a lot of that money toward helping others. This visitor center is free and showcases all of the cool stuff they are doing. Think inventing new ways to teach children to ensure they never fall behind in school and eradicating diseases worldwide. They are awesome, go get inspired.

Visit site.

Seattle Repertory Theater 

This is a small theater that creates a incredible lineup of shows every year. It has two stages, and since it is smaller in size every seat is a good one! We have seen several shows here and they have all been phenomenal. 

Visit site.

Pacific Northwest Ballet 

It's a ballet. We aren't ballet experts, but we think this one is pretty up to standard. Beautiful dancers, beautiful costumes, beautiful stories. Oh, and The Nutcracker starts this week so if you haven't been now is a good time to start! 

Visit site.

Seattle Monorail 

To be honest, the monorail doesn't have much of a purpose for locals, but it is a cool thing to ride as a visitor. This was built with the Space Needle for the 1962 Worlds Fair and you can ride from Seattle Center to Westlake. You get great views of the Space Needle and get this, it goes THROUGH MoPOP, which is really cool. Also, Frasier and Niles rode it in a special anniversary episode of Frasier. 

Visit site.

The Armory 

The Seattle Center Armory is where you go when you are hungry after all your sightseeing. It houses over 15 restaurants ranging from Mexican, to Japanese, to American, to Starbucks (yes that is a category of food here). It has also public restrooms. Take note. 

Visit site.

The Tallest Drinks in Seattle

The Smith Tower's Temperance

The Smith Tower got a facelift this year! For those of you who haven't been to the new and improved Observation Deck yet, we highly recommend it. Along with the all-time favorites like the lever-operated elevator, The Wishing Chair, and the incredible views at the top, the experience now includes a much higher amount of educational content and a speakeasy style bar! Seems so obvious now that the space was always missing a bar, how did we not figure this out sooner?!

The staff was incredibly friendly and helped us land on a delicious cocktail named Serenity for our drinking pleasure. In true speakeasy fashion it was strong, but good. And you can sip it in comfy chairs as the sun sets on Seattle. It really is a beautiful space with a wonderful view.

The Smith Tower is 35 stories tall (462 ft.), placing it in 3rd place on the list. It might not be the tallest, but something about standing amid all the buildings that have sprung up since 1914 is pretty magical. 

Space Needle's SkyCity

SkyCity is the high-end, rotating restaurant at the top of the Space Needle. The restaurant is the shape of a donut, wrapped around the Space Needle right beneath the observation deck. When you exit the elevator you are led to a table along the outer edge; definitely try to get a table against the window -- watching the city circle below you is a ton of fun! When you eat/drink at SkyCity you also get complimentary access to the Space Needle's observation deck, so make sure to factor in time to head up before or after dining.

At over 500 ft. tall, SkyCity sits in second place on our list of tallest drinks in Seattle! 

Insider Tip: Going to SkyCity does comes with a food and beverage minimum. Dinner is a tad pricey at $35/person, but they have a promotion right now for Sunset Hour with a lower minumum of $25. For comparison a ticket to just the observation deck is $22, so we think this is the way to visit the Space Needle! From 2:30 - 5:30, Monday - Friday, you can go to the top, have a drink while the sun goes down over the city, and visit the observation deck. It ends December 16, 2016 though so hurry on over! 

Columbia Center's Sky View Observatory

Columbia Tower is the tallest building in our skyline and also has the highest observation deck in Seattle (we covered it here). Your ears will pop as you ride the elevator up to the 73rd floor. When you arrive, you will be granted beautiful 360-degree views of the entire area and this is the only observation deck that includes unobstructed views of the Space Needle and the floating 520 bridge. On clear days you can see as far as Mount Hood in Oregon. 

Their cafe/bar is a bit lacking compared to the other places on this list. It's the Panera Bread to the Space Needle's McCormick and Schmick's. But, they have local beer and wine and happy hour, which is exactly what we were looking for when we visited after work at 5:00 PM. We sipped on a Naughty Nellie from Pike Brewing Company and a red blend from Chateau Ste. Michelle.

At 900 ft. this is the tallest you can be in the city while sipping on an adult beverage! 

The Tallest Geographic Point- 35th and Myrtle

Well what do you know? The tallest geographic point in the city is not in Queen Anne, it is in West Seattle in the Delrigde neighborhood at 35th and Myrtle St. We wouldn't recommend drinking here though (do as we say not as we do), as the city frowns upon opening beers on street corners, but we found a really great bar, The Westy, nearby where you can enjoy a nice taplist along with wine and cocktails.

This one is obviously a bit off trend from our previous three, but we thought it would be a fun one to include-- now you know a little piece of Seattle trivia! 

Standing at the tallest geographical point in Seattle!

Alright folks. That concludes our drinking in tall places post. it was random. It was fun. We raise our glass to you for reading Rain or Shine's recommendations! 

Cheers!