Amy Cakes 4/30/25 Amy Cakes 4/30/25

Euro Trash Girl, pt. 1

For my recent trip to Europe (London/Spain/Lisbon), I revived my Olympus superzoom 70G film camera that my parents gave me for Christmas when I was 12. This was my first time purposefully using Kodak film and the results were pretty spectacular. Below are some themed groupings from my travels.

BUILDINGS & VIEWS

MOMENTS & DETAILS

SEMANA SANTA & THE BULLFIGHT

The week that I chose to be in Spain just happened to be Semana Santa (Holy Week), which is a huge deal for the majorly Catholic country of Spain. The cities that I visited are particularly known for their traditions of daily processions during Holy Week. It’s an experience that is difficult to document in images alone, since the energy of the crowd and the music from the marching bands add so much to the visceral experience. In Malaga (the birthplace of Picasso), the week ends with a bullfight where matadors wear outfits painted with Picasso motifs.

I saw a lot of similarities between these traditional Spanish events, which added a lot of context and understanding of Spanish culture and history for me. Unlike sporting events in the U.S., the bullfight is a spiritually charged experience, much like the religious processions that happen throughout the week. When the matador communes with the bull, hypnotizing it with his red cape before dealing the final blow that will end its life- the crowd goes silent in contemplative reverence. Similarly, during the Semana Santa processions when one of the many floats depicting often brutal scenes of Jesus from the stations of the cross passes, the crowd falls silent and will shush each other if others do not follow suit.

Amy Cakes 2/9/25 Amy Cakes 2/9/25

Kim Hastreiter’s AMAZING FRIENDS

In tandem with the release of her new book ‘STUFF’, Paper magazine co-founder Kim Hastreiter curated a group show at Jeffrey Deitch gallery in NYC that opened February 8th. I was honored that Kim asked me to make a piece for the show. I made this crafty clown house based on a similar cardboard gingerbread house I made for Kim in December.

After the opening, Kim hosted a soup party for 150 guests at a neighboring space. A week before the event she called me and asked if I would make table decorations for the two gigantic tables that guests would be seated at to liven up the event. This was no small task, but I had a lot of fun combing through 99 cent stores and then assembling these decorations.

some of the table decorations from Kim’s soup dinner

Amy Cakes 1/26/25 Amy Cakes 1/26/25

Vest for Sarah Squirm

At the beginning of 2023 I was unemployed and very bored. I wanted a creative project, but I wanted to make something for someone else. Who better than comedian Sarah Squirm?! I knew that I could make her something insane and that she would appreciate it. I set to work making this sweater vest using a lot of intarsia and some crochet to craft the eyeballs popping out of their sockets. Thankfully she really liked it and my friend Leia took some great pictures of her wearing it with a knit clown collar I also made.

It’s a casual Sunday routine for me to watch SNL the day after it airs. The week of January 25th I was going back and forth between watching Timothee Chalamet host and working on seaming a sweater I had been working on. At the end of the show I glanced up to see Sarah wearing the vest and not only wearing it but flaunting it! It was a very nice surprise and something I will never forget.

It was difficult to get screenshots of it since Peacock blocks computer made screenshots, but I think the artful chaos of these images are fitting to the garment and Sarah’s style.

Amy Cakes 1/1/25 Amy Cakes 1/1/25

AMAZING STUFF @ WHAAM

In December Kim Hastreiter collaborated with Whaam gallery on a curated Holiday Department Store like no other! I supplied some of my knitted creations. Kim also had the brilliant idea to have me do a day of offering to creatively wrap presents for people. They could bring anything, choose how much they wanted to spend, and I would wrap it accordingly. It was an absolute blast!

Amy Cakes 5/1/23 Amy Cakes 5/1/23

Clown Collars

Take a look at these clown collars I made!

At the beginning of 2023 I had the idea to create fun knitted adjustable collars. I also wanted a creative project that would be quick enough that I could make several of them in a relatively short amount of time. These are also a great project to work on while traveling. It took a couple tries to get the base pattern to look just how I had envisioned, because I wanted the finishing to look clean and I had the hardest time getting the front edge of the collar to lay nicely. When I finally got it I felt very accomplished!

Like many crafters, I hoard a lot of random materials with the hopes that some day the perfect purpose for them will come along. For this project, I got to dip into my stash of colorful cord locks and paracord. Picking out the perfect complimentary cord lock and paracord was one of my favorite parts of making these. Most of these have sold, but drop me a line if you’re interested in purchasing or commissioning one!