How She Makes It

03/15/2024

Breaking this account’s hiatus to share a great news article from Berkeley News on the new show I‘ve been designing!

https://news.berkeley.edu/2024/03/12/tdps-student-designers-the-river-bride

Working on The River Bride has been an amazing experience. If you’re in the Berkeley area, come see the show, and look forward to more pictures coming soon!

03/15/2024

Breaking this account’s hiatus to share a great news article from Berkeley News on the new show I‘ve been designing!

https://news.berkeley.edu/2024/03/12/tdps-student-designers-the-river-bride

Working on The River Bride has been an amazing experience. If you’re in the Berkeley area, come see the show, and look forward to more pictures coming soon!

“We didn’t start with what we wanted it to look like, but what does it feel like to be in this world?” said Mirin Scassellati, the scenic designer for the upcoming play, presented by the Department of Theater, Dance and Performance Studies.

08/26/2023

Playing around with color and natural/found materials today 🌈

07/28/2023

In case you ever wondered “what does it take to work professionally in props?”

Some days, it requires complex artistry—everything from woodworking to welding to painting to upholstery to electronics.

And some days, it’s about picking beans out of canned soup 😁

07/27/2023

It’s been an amazing summer working at the Contemporary American Theater Festival! Working with so many amazing artists and getting to work on such a high caliber of theater has been an amazing opportunity. As the season comes to an end this week, I wanted to share some of the projects I’ve gotten to work on… starting with my biggest project, this couch reupholstery!

From removing the yellow fabric (from the previous show this couch was in!), to reupholstering the couch and all of the cushions, it was really cool to get to see this project all the way through from beginning to end.

Photo credit to me and

Show: Your Name Means Dream
Writing and Direction by Jose Rivera
Scenic design by David Barber
Lighting design by Christina Watanabe

05/31/2023

It’s a book nook!

This was such a fun project to work on, partially because it had so many elements—lighting/electrics, embroidery, model making, sewing, and more! Figuring out how every element needed to come together—and how to get all of them into the box succinctly—was a challenge, but I’m so proud of how this ended up. Should I make more book nooks? What other environments would you like to see?

03/03/2023

New painting, inspired by my newest muse (and the newest addition to our little team)! Everyone, meet Blink. Currently his main skills are portrait modeling and trying to eat shoes, but we’re very excited to have him anyway ❤️

Swipe to see the little model posing with his likeness. I’m not just saying that to get you to swipe. Seriously. It’s worth it.

Done in gouache and colored pencil.

01/31/2023

“From the Witches Notebook”, a new collection of pen/watercolor doodles 🌿🍄🦎

01/21/2023

Frog.

New drawings coming soon!

01/11/2023

I’ve been taking a break from crafting over the holidays, but that just means it’s time for another throwback craft!

This one is a crochet project from last summer. This lovely little poison doll amigurumi was super fun to make and I just love the way she came together—especially the little ringlets in her hair!

What kinds of crafts do you want to see more of in the new year? Let me know, and I’ll try to make it happen by the end of 2023!

12/05/2022

Another project that hasn’t made it to social media yet—this costume for Erica Gillespie (performer and choreographer) in her dance showcase titled “Sub(Em)merge”. This project was co-designed by myself and Vincent Chao and created with the help of the UC Berkeley costume department.

We really wanted to capture the feeling of water rippling across skin, and I think this costume does that. Halfway through the dance, she removed the blue wrap to reveal the 50s-bathing-suit inspired costume as the dancer emerges from the feeling of drowning. This was a zero-budget production, so the only materials used were things recycled or left over from other shows, and the design had to adapt to fit those constraints. You can see our initial designs (design presentation drawn by Vincent, other sketches preliminary designs by me) and how much they evolved before getting to the stage!