“Whale Tails” was inspired by a curious campground stranger who was not familiar with whales during my last trip to Big Sur.
It all started with a whale sighting off of Kirk Creek Campground. I was trying to follow two Humpback Whales that were swimming along the cliff and as I went around looking for them, I walked across some tents where a group of bikers were setting up to spend the night before continuing their bike trip down HWY1. They thought I was looking for a place to set up a tent as well and were very kind to try to guide me to the other open spaces but I told them that I was actually “stalking” some whales that were swimming by and I was trying to get a better look. At that moment all conversations about campsites came to a stop and many exciting “What?”, “Where?”, “No way!” and “Are you for real, there are whales out there?” took over the conversation. It was great to see how excited they were to know that something that for me seems so common could be so amazing for other people. As expected, I couldn’t help myself and immediately went into Whale Watching Interpreter mode sharing knowledge and facts about them, and sharing my binoculars to help them get a better look at them. It was at that moment that one of the campers asked me; “How do you know there are humpbacks?” Which I tried my best to explain the different things we look for to help identify the species such as spout shape and size, estimated size of the whale, if they have dorsal fin or knuckles, fluke shape and coloration and behavior pattern. All seemed so easy in my head to know the difference between each specie but it was not easy for them to understand without a visual comparison. So, I thought of making a design that shows the most common seeing species around Southern California (this obviously does NOT include all species but the ones that are commonly seeing). Of course, I couldn’t just stop with plain flukes, I had to give it a little more meaning so I wrapped them with a Ti Leaf lei. Why a Ti Leaf Lei you ask? Well, giving a lei is giving love, appreciation and respect, it symbolizes many meanings but most of all it is a gift from the heart. I love “my” whales so gifting them on a design to you to love, appreciate and respect makes me happy and I hope this design will make you happy too! Plus, this design also allows me to share some knowledge and help people who are not familiar with whales see a little bit more what I and many other whale lovers see better. You would be surprise to know that a lot of people still think all whales are the same size and have pretty much the same shape so showing some of the different characteristics in a cute design with pulling out a fat research book cannot be any better! ***Clockwork center row; Sperm Whale, Orca (Killer) Whale, Minke Whale and Pilot Whale. Clockwork outside row; Blue Whale, Fin Whale, Gray Whale and Humpback Whale.
- Original art design
- Handmade screen print/NOT mass produced
- Water based, non-toxic paint
- 3.6 oz., 65% polyester/35% ring-spun cotton
- 30/1 fine jersey
- Fashion fit for feminine silhouette
- Side-seamed, ribbed scoop neck, taped neck and shoulders, double-needle sleeve and bottom hem
- Sublimation friendly
- Features a Tear Anywhere label
- NAFTA Certified