Things that will be changed for the final design: taller, suspension harness for ergonomic adustability, longer straps. Email me.

New interior pockets on the Courier Pro.

New ergonomic addition to the Courier Pro. Strap now mates with the bag at a 45° angle.

Custom embroidery for Goro!

I apologize for being a bit absent lately, I’ve been busy doing design and prototype work for a certain large company in the area and getting custom orders done. I’m still taking custom orders, as well as preparing to restock ready to ship bags for this fall! If you have any questions feel free to use the contact form and I’ll get back as soon as I can.

Madeline

Just finished editing together the first video in a series for Aspirium. I really enjoyed working with Megan John. To check out her work, visit http://www.meganjohn.net and http://www.aspirium.net.

Made some new Tremonts. Check them out!

All new Tremont as well as the Commuter and Commuter mini feature a mix of reclaimed vinyl and 18Oz truck tarp vinyl for maximum durability. The new Courier Pro now features a complete 18Oz truck tarp interior for the main compartment:

A custom made bike tool burrito. You put in your tools, fold it over, roll it up and strap it to your bike saddle with a toe strap. Pretty simple and nifty! I used truck tarp vinyl on the exterior to make it easy to keep clean.

When I first started bicycling here in Cleveland and in Boston, I noticed two things. One, that bicycling is fucking awesome. Two, young angry homophobic/transphobic white men in cars really hate bicyclists. I wouldn’t say that the assault of “faggot!” and “queer!” really bother me as much as a real personal attack would. In fact they bounce right off, knowing that it doesn’t matter that I’m a pansexual genderqueer woman, just that I’m riding a bike and enjoying my day. ^_^

I had thought about making a bag a long time ago that would be the “Fag Bag”, but fag has less history with reclaimation compared to queer. Besides, fag is an adjective, but queer is a verb. I think what I do with Blicksbags queers the bike bag industry, or perhaps the role of the product designer. Anyways, I decided to go along with embroidering “Queer” onto a bag, with a little exclaimation mark for good measure. Of course, I drew the characters with a little retro vibe, like an old school ad marketed towards the housewives of the world.

I ran into a bit of trouble with my old White sewing machine, the timing went awry and I couldn’t figure it out for a while. Eventually I realized it was a combination of problems: rotary hook timing, needle bar height, and probably the biggest one, a presser foot that was pushing the needle away from the hook! I switched some parts over from another machine I have and got it working better than ever.

I ended up doing two layers of embroidery to give it a subtle puffy 3D effect (not that it doesn’t pop anyways, with the neon green on black). Also, I found a pack of pink trim in my studio, just enough for one big bag which was perfect.

Me modeling the bag on Coventry in Cleveland Heights. It’s a great fit!

I decided I’m going to put this one up for sale, and if people are interested maybe making some other Courier Pros with queer imagery or references. You can check it out here!

DIY beauty dish to the left, umbrella high to the right.

Artist Harris Johnson let me take some quick portrait shots in his studio, so I got to test out the new DIY beauty dish. As you can see, the beauty dish offers a much softer light source than the shoot-through umbrella. The umbrella was actually intended primarily as a fill for background on these, personally I would have preferred using a reflector on the right because it’s overpowering the BD (which I’d want to use as the key light). Even just a little reflector on the face would be great, and a rim light on the shoulder and hair on the right…next time, for sure.