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A Day in the Life of Tanya Aguiñiga

This month’s Designer Dailies spotlights furniture designer, fiber artist, and community activist, Tanya Aguiñiga, who heads Los Angeles-based Aguiñiga Studio. If you follow fashion you’ve seen her rope bracelets. Today we get to see how she dips and dyes rope to make coral shapes for an underwater-inspired installation she is creating for the Laguna Art Museum.

In the studio by 9 AM, Lydia (Studio Manager) dying rope for coral mock ups.

Laying out dyes ropes to dry.

Painting unraveled ropes for coral shapes.

Making fan corals shapes with glue.

We begin arranging mock-up coral shapes for an underwater inspired installation I am making for the Laguna Art Museum.

Meeting at Do-Not-Touch Gallery in Culver City to discuss an upcoming collaboration for a Social Design product in Mexico.

Zoe and Peter at Do-Not-Touch make a pizza for us to share for lunch.

I drive to downtown LA to get more materials for our Laguna Art Museum piece before heading to my next meeting.

Shopping the downtown fabric district.

Buying notions and textile supplies.

Head to my next meeting at the LA Mart in downtown to discuss an upcoming exhibition.

Checking out the LA Makerspace while at the LA Mart, this is the window children painted to activate the space.

Fashion designer Darren Romanelli comes to pick up his Soft Rock Lounge to be used in his office.

Back to the studio where Lydia and Dan are finishing up a Soft Rock Lounge for our client to pick up.

Some of my students from Otis College of Art and Design come to the studio so we can talk about their Senior Degree Projects. We get drinks at the restaurant in my building while we talk.

The talk with Otis students goes on late into the night, so we take a little break outside my building.

The students and I end the night with pho down the street from the studio at Viet Café. The restaurant has a great selection of random books to read while you wait for your food.

My night ends with ginger fish pho and brown rice.

Marni Elyse Katz is a Contributing Editor at Design Milk. She lives in Boston where she contributes regularly to local publications and writes her own interior design blog, StyleCarrot.