Vanndearlyn Vong uses her art to raise money for the Long Beach Southeast Asian Anti-Deportation Collective. She hopes to keep the traditional practice of Khmer ceramics alive for generations to come.
Bryan Phillips is the creator behind Swell Guy Customs, a Long Beach-based company that creates hand-painted one-of-a-kind sneakers.
Holding back tears, Jay Quintana recalls how he started his career in the beauty industry as an eager-to-learn student, spending the first two to three years learning everything he could about makeup from YouTube videos.
Maricar Cruz’s entry into costume making was more about necessity than pleasure, though these days it’s quite the opposite for the 35-year-old Long Beach designer.
What can you make out of molten metal? Derek Franklin is here to find out.
Walking into 70-year-old Kwang Nyon Kim’s shoe repair shop in West Long Beach is like taking a step back in time. With aged paint on the walls and old industrial machines, Mills Shoe Repair has been standing for decades. Kim took over the shop nearly 40 years ago and hasn’t retired because the labor, as he puts it, became part of his body.
Shah gets in a meditative rhythm while creating in her garage studio, making dozens of mugs, tumblers, plates, planters and other functional items a day.
Solis said she creates with metal because she knows metal will outlast her, but she also has hope that one day she won’t need to make jewelry that makes a statement because being queer or undocumented will be more widely accepted and using different pronouns will be more normalized.
Holed up inside his 150 square-foot studio Estrada will work from morning until dusk cutting, gluing, sewing and designing his leather-made wares.
Peter Beck’s hands, particularly his knuckles, are covered in little scars—battle wounds from a decade of woodworking. For more than half his life, the 17-year-old has built model boats that have become increasingly intricate over the years.
