Arrivals & Departures: Flight Jackets on a Healing Mission ✈️

Plus gift ideas for introverts, adventurers, and more of your favorite folks

Author

Emily Ruth Hazel
December 12, 2023

Welcome aboard from the flight deck!

I’ve been working on something new at Wild Honey Words that I’m stoked to share with you today…

First, a few quick holiday updates:

  • Happy Hanukkah to everyone who’s celebrating!

  • Need a last-minute gift that can still arrive in time for Christmas?

IN THIS ISSUE:

On my mind: how language & art can promote peace & healing

What’s in store: brand-new flight jackets + a pocket guide to gifting

Poem for the road: runway to the sky

Bonus track: the creative process of transformation

NEW ARRIVALS: Departures from the Ordinary

[Update 4/28/24: These limited edition flight jackets have flown and are no longer available as Wild Honey’s apparel line has been discontinued.]

Words and art can give you wings. So can wearing something you love. Introducing… Wild Honey Words Flight Jackets!

To bring more color into these darkening days, I’ve expanded our outerwear collection beyond beanies, starting with these three bold, expressive jackets.

Each print is designed from handmade artwork: a colored pencil drawing, a mixed media collage, and a glazed ceramic plate. A thematically connected word of encouragement is printed inside each jacket.

Feelin’ fly. Unisex flight jackets, left to right: (1) Go for the Bold! (2) Fresh Angles Innovator (3) Brave & Lucky Koi Collage

Is one of these calling you to the runway?

1. Making the Connection

It’s hard to say no to Googleability. Despite the fact that aviator-inspired jackets are most popularly known as bomber jackets, I wanted to be mindful about naming mine flight jackets—not to erase the history associated with these styles, but because normalizing violence often starts with our language.

On the other side of the coin, we can consciously choose words that humanize and sow seeds of unity instead of division. Because language can also be a vehicle for loving and peaceful empowerment. That’s why I created Wild Honey Words—to inspire the best in each other so we can rise together. May we never underestimate the power of language and art to shift and transform culture.

2. Cause for Compassion

Through the month of December, I will be donating 10% of the purchase price of every Wild Honey Words flight jacket to support the Gaza Pediatric Mental Health Initiative, which includes art therapy programs, made possible by the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund. The PCRF is a top-rated 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization providing free medical care and humanitarian relief for sick and injured children in the Middle East regardless of nationality, politics or religion.

3. Peek into My Art Process

Artmaking really is a transformation process. As many of you know, I love making art out of salvaged materials. Here’s a detail from the Brave & Lucky Koi Collage Flight Jacket:

The water is made of magazine pages, the fish made from a shipping box, with pennies for eyes. I created the textures of fins and scales by scoring the cardboard with a precision knife and pressing the netting from a bag of oranges into acrylic paint.

And this is the story of how a plate became a jacket…

Believe it or not, the geometric pattern on the Fresh Angles Innovator Flight Jacket started with a Groupon to a paint-your-own-pottery place in Manhattan one night with my friend Deanna back in 2011. My expectations were pretty low as I selected a square ceramic plate with undulating edges and started puttering with supplies. Before brushing on the colored glazes, I decided to apply masking tape that would resist the glaze while it dried, ultimately shaping white space into intersecting lines.

I was surprised by how well the effect turned out. It got me dreaming about designing dishes for companies. That plate moved with me from the East Side to Queens to the West Side to the Bronx. It migrated from being a centerpiece on my coffee table to showing off desserts at my rare house parties. I was always afraid of breaking it.

Finally, I decided: Why own something that mostly collects dust instead of holding nourishment and giving me joy every day? Now it’s a lunch plate fit for any Tuesday. Sure, it’s got a few chipped edges to show for it. Fortunately, I took this photograph before life happened.

Over the past several years, learning to use digital tools to expand the life of my art has helped me to hold things more loosely and to reimagine my art and writing, even beyond what I may have thought of as a finished piece.

It feels good to be learning how to translate designs like these. I’m doing what I’ve wanted to do for years: sharing my writing and artwork in tangible ways (and the learnings in the backstories) so these can become a part of your everyday life, if you choose.

I hope my flight jackets give your spirits a lift whenever you need one!

Pocket Guide to Gifting

Wild Honey wrapping paper for every occasion—keep it handy year-round!

Okay, where my introverts at? My bookish, creative souls? I see you.

Whether you’re a homebody shopping for a traveler/adventurer or an extrovert looking to treat yo’self, I’ve got something special for you at Wild Honey Words.

YOUR GO-TO GIFT GUIDE

Gifts for you AND your favorite folks.
For ALL the occasions, December and beyond!

For THE INTROVERT

For THE EXTROVERT

For THE BOOKISH OR CREATIVE SOUL

For THE FITNESS ENTHUSIAST

For THE HOMEBODY

For THE TRAVELER OR ADVENTURER

Pause with a Poem

Wherever you are, wherever you’re headed… this one’s for you.

Holding only what we need

to carry on, we walk down the aisle

of that silver-winged promise

we’ve been waiting for…

The runway ours at last,

our plane commits

to the air, angles for the moon.

Up here, anything is possible…

—Emily Ruth Hazel (from “The Distance Between”)

In this moment, what are you aiming for? What are you taking with you?

Thanks for flying with me!

Emily Ruth Hazel (she/her)

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