Auralis Studio Newsletter: April 2025

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April is slipping away, and somewhere between embroidery, introspection, and the urge to stop tossing out perfectly good clothes, this newsletter was born. After four Saturdays in Art Papi’s Laboratorio de Gusto, I walked out with needles in my head (and hands!)—and a plan: this summer at Auralis Studio, we’re launching workshops to mend, darn, sew, and reimagine your clothes, with or without a sewing machine, and keep them out of the landfill. ♻️

Curious? Fill out the survey at the end to help us shape the offerings. And if you’re in the mood for a fashion-tech gem, check out my discovery of the month: Create One x Resonance Brands, a groundbreaking platform from NY and the Dominican Republic.

As always, we still have open consulting slots for next month, and our online school is going strong.

Let’s stitch our way into 2025. 🧵

Textile Repair, Mending & Reimagining Workshops (en español 🇵🇷)

For everyone who’s ever told me they have a pile of clothes waiting to be fixed—pieces they don’t want to throw away but don’t even know how to sew a button on—this summer we’re cooking up something just for you!

We’re putting together two hands-on workshops to help us reconnect with our clothes, extend their lifespan, and learn to care for them with our own two hands:

🧵 Basic Level (by hand): Learn how to hem, sew on buttons, fix zippers, mend rips, add patches, and even do some decorative embroidery — all without a sewing machine.

🪡 Intermediate Level (with machine): If you’ve got a home sewing machine (or want to get one), bring it along and learn the basics to use it with confidence, make quick alterations, and tackle creative or functional repairs.

📍These workshops will be taught in Spanish, either virtually or in person in Puerto Rico, and the survey to help us organize them is also in Spanish (sorry, non-Spanish-speaking friends — but stay tuned!).

Why does this matter so much to me? Because here in Puerto Rico, we’re in a waste crisis: we have 29 landfills, 11 of which were ordered closed by the EPA years ago, and 17 are currently out of compliance with federal environmental standards. Textile waste is the second-largest material we dump here—right after organic waste.

As someone who lives here, it feels urgent and necessary to teach people not to toss or blindly donate clothing (which often just ends up in landfills in other countries). Instead, let’s learn how to care, repair, and love what we already own.

👉 Take the survey (en español) and let us know what you’re interested in!

Laboratorio de Gusto by Miguel Figueroa

The Laboratorio de Gusto, created by my dear friend Miguel Figueroa, was a deeply inspiring and much-needed experience at this moment in my life. Miguel invited us into his creative process as he brought Art Papi to life, and along the way, he reminded us—with both strength and tenderness—that continuing to create is, in itself, an act of resistance in while living inside a system that so often throws us completely out of balance.

I met Miguel back around 2014, when we were both living in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. I invited him (along with the whole crew of wandering Puerto Ricans in NYC at the time) to the one and only “Sangiving/Pavera” I ever hosted in my home/studio. He arrived just as the 24-pound turkey (sfuffed with mofongo, obviously) I had somehow managed to roast came out of the oven—though I had absolutely no idea how to carve it, let alone serve it nicely.

Miguel, dressed in his finest grunge-boricua couture—black skirt, patent leather boots, and a white jacket—tied on an apron like he was scrubbing in for open-heart surgery and took full control of the crisis. With the skill of a reincarnated Valldejuli (if you know, you know), he deboned, carved, garnished, and plated that mofongo-stuffed turkey like we were sitting at the Last Supper. He saved the dinner for all of us.

If you haven’t grabbed your copy of Art Papi yet—go now and get it! It’s a bilingual (English & Spanish) book every Puerto Rican should own.

If you’re reading this newsletter, I promise you’re going to love it. Here’s the shop.

And if you want to see Miguel talking about El Laboratorio, click here,. Want to hear about the making of the book? Click here ...

One of the exercises in the lab was to make a fashion collage, and honestly, it was so much fun I almost started believing I was a 25-year-old designer again. But beyond the play, it confirmed something deep: I am, and always will be, a tropical woman. What I loved when I made my first collection for NYFW in 2010—that love for flow, linen, and ocean breeze—is still very much alive.

Rediscovering that taste, after years buried in manufacturing and Excel spreadsheets, felt like finding a beautiful seashell on the shore: unexpected and perfectly mine. For me, fashion will always be fabric in motion, hammocks, bare feet, music in the background, bicycles, straw hats (pavas), and that delicious blend of Caribbean beauty and practicality. That’s never going to change.

Estafani from Ressonance Brands presented: Create One

At the fashion talk we held last month, Ruby introduced us to Estefani, a strong ally of sustainable fashion in the Dominican Republic. During her presentation, Estefani spoke about Create One,, the platform she leads, where designers and creatives can design, manufacture, and sell their products all in one place, taking advantage of the manufacturing infrastructure in the Dominican Republic’s free trade zone.

A true gem! Fun fact: Create One was founded by the creators of Costello Tagliapietra in New York, which gives the platform a very efficient and strategic connection between NYC and the Dominican Republic—especially when it comes to logistics. It’s definitely worth exploring!

Schedule a Call with Me

My consulting services are designed for individuals and businesses that need support with their operations, from the products they create and sell to logistics, supply chain, and infrastructure.

I have over 15 years of experience in the creative industries, including seven years working in a factory, where I learned about manufacturing processes—from traditional analog methods to advanced technological solutions.

If you need guidance, let’s schedule a call here.

The Online School Continues!

The three master classes I teach online have been continuously improved. Soon, we will move them to a new platform and offer them in English.

PS… you can find all previous newsletters here.

See you in May!