Thomas : Full name, Thomas Christopher Bonilla.

Thomas : July 30, 2025, Dog!

Thomas : Exactly. All I know is it's either Monday or, like, if it's a weekday or a weekend. Those are the only determinations I know.

Thomas : I think it's just the feeling of when my body knows I'm gonna rest a hair longer today, and it's, like, 20 minutes probably.

Thomas : Rosemead, California.

Thomas : Now we are in beautiful Morongo Valley, California.

Thomas : I guess you can say leather smith. I'm gonna say that for now, but, full time craftsman, I guess you can say. I also do lapidary work, which is stone cutting and shaping jewelry too.

Thomas : Hell, yeah. Wow. First setup was from a generic skateboard from Fedco or something like that. Christmas day style, and that shit lasted a couple months.

Thomas : I think it was called Switch Stance.

Thomas : It's like '94, I'm gonna say 1995.

Thomas : It was a hand me down from Felipe, my older brother.

Thomas : Don't remember. It was all scratched up. Trucks were all used. I think those might have been Venture trucks from Daniel Shimizu.

Thomas : I don't remember there being anything besides our city, Rosemead or RSMD, like, the Rosemead crew. Then Lawrence Ave Crew, which that didn't come till a later when my generation got a little older. It was like all the younger crew, older, chilling at the garage and raging hell in the streets.

Thomas : Definitely my older brother, Felipe and Daniel together. They were skating and taking me on actual adventures. They just told me “we're jumping on the bus 20 line, and we're taking it to Montebello” to skate some ledges till the sun went down. And then, I think it was my goal in life, to take my skateboard and go as far as I can for free or whatever. Like, just use it to skate as far as I can.

Thomas : Fuck. We were going to downtown when I was 10 or 11 years with the older crew. And then, when I was hanging out with my crew, we were all adolescent 12 and 13, we'd all be taking the bus everywhere like downtown late at night. Staying out till, like, 2AM, just skating and running around the streets like idiots.

Thomas : Hell Yeah.

Thomas : Bus routes. I mean, as far as advice, I just watched Daniels skating and how he elevated himself to where he wanted to go. And I saw that, I have to be the one to take myself to where I wanna go. Be self-motivating. You know what I mean? Basically, his friends that he grew up skating with didn't go as far as he did, like my brother and my brother's friends and shit. Like, it was Daniel and Jason Hernandez that made it out of the crew. And from my generation, I feel like I kinda made it out of my crew. When I was young, I was taking the train and the bus to Hollywood where Shimizu had moved to, and where Nuge, and Hellrose guys were living. I would kick it there for a whole week or a whole weekend, and then go back to Rosemead for school and skating and hanging with my friends during the week. And then back to Hollywood for the weekend again, growing up fast, basically.

Thomas : Like, sleeping on the floor, sleeping under the foosball table, sleeping in the kitchen. Like, I didn't give a fuck. All I wanna do is wake up and go skating the next day. My eye wasn't on the prize as far as, like, I wanna be fucking famous and be in all the magazines. I just wanted to fucking have fun and shred with my friends. That was my goal. And then slowly, I would get into the magazines and people would ask to shoot photos or video, and I'd be like, fuck. Yeah. Fucking let's do it.

Thomas : Damn. So many. But I guess just leaving the country for the first time! One of my first experiences feeling a part of skateboarding was at a Supra party for Muska's shoe release party. I just had a photo come out in Transworld Magazine, same issue and article with Chad Muska interview. While at the party, Muska came up to me that night and he's like, “Thomas Bonilla, what up?” He gave me props for the photo and I am like, this fool knows my fucking name. I'm like, oh, that shit hit. It's crazy.

Thomas : But the surprise too. Yeah. So that was a solid good number one. And then for two, just traveling.

Thomas : Out of the country, my first was Australia. 24 fucking hours to get there. That was crazy.

Thomas : I was in a band called LS Demon with Nuge, Figgy, Rich, and Dustin Dollin, on a Thrasher (Magazine) Skate Rock Tour. And the other band travelling was Jake Phelps' band, Bad Shit, with him, Tony Trujillo, and Trixie. This whole trip was fucking bananas.

Thomas : The shit was crazy. Two weeks, tent and hotel stuff, shredding and playing shows, all the way from Sydney to Melbourne.

Thomas : I did. I have, like, photos and a little digi cam shit, and, like, a Polaroid that I took. Frank Gerwer showed me documenting stuff on your own. Like, he showed me how to live it on a trip, basically. Like, it's not just a skate trip. You have to have fucking fun too and do some other shit, man, that, like, shows you who the fuck you are. You know?

Thomas : He took me to go get my first shave in New York City, like, straight razor. I couldn’t believe it, I'm sitting next to Frank Gerwer getting straight razors on day one of my NY trip.

Thomas : Because of his influence, I'll walk around and will find some shit or explore a place the way somebody who lives here explores this shit, like, Frank taught me that kind of shit. Appreciate the fuck out of that.

Thomas : I was talking about Australia, like, landing at the airport and instantly I am there with Jake Phelps, Julian Stranger and fucking Tony Trujillo are there. And, like, already intimidation. And Jake already felt like I rubbed him the wrong way. So, I was like, fuck this motherfucker, I’ll do my own thing. Then a couple days go by and we are all at a show, I’m in the pit when I see Raven Tershy gets pushed to the ground by this big fucking big ass dude, and I react, push this fool and got Raven off the ground. Then I stand up, and I'm like, what up? I'm ready to go heads with him. And then the whole mosh pit starts scrambling, and it gets back to the normal pit rowdy. Then the next day, Jake comes up to me and starts talking to me. I mean, he was just seeing who I was, basically.

Thomas : I'm not there to impress anyone, I'm just gonna enjoy this experience, man. But, yeah, after I became homies with Jake and all them dudes! Big love to Preson (aka P-Stone), big love Jake Phelps and Thrasher magazine!  All that shit was fun. Watching Julian Stranger fully ripping and the natural flow of that shit. Also Peabody, Raven, Grant, all watching them at skate parks in Australia. Dude, Half of us were all sitting down, drinking VB’s and Cooper’s beer all day watching these people fly around.

Thomas : Going back, I had a pretty bad accident 13 or 14 years ago now. I had a really bad motorbike accident and broke my femur in 2 places, and my kneecap. They couldn't reconstruct my kneecap because it busted into too many pieces. So I got a bar with pins holding me up and with no kneecap, basically.

Thomas : Yeah. Is it common? I don't know. I was at, like, county hospital, and they just did what they could. My recovery time was very long, nine months, bedridden and just kind of immobile and didn't know what to do with my time. And I drew and stuff, but I didn't wanna do tattoos. And then Nuge came over, with some leather stuff and was like, I did this when my knee was kinda bad. Like, check it out.

Thomas : Right!? So, I made some stuff, and then I found the place called Tandy Leather, and started taking classes to learned more shit. And then I just practiced and fucking practiced and practiced. And then, seven to eight months later, I was like, fuck. I think they're kinda good and maybe start selling them. I basically just didn't wanna not do anything while being down. And this is what I started, and it's been fucking pretty rad ever since. But, yeah, I've just been growing with this, growing with skills, growing tools.

Thomas : It was a free class! It showed me how to use all these little tools on the leather, like, all the prep work that is important and how to paint and stain it. And I basically just keep translating those skills into everything I fucking make.

Thomas : Yeah. First It was like a little kit. It was this one.

Thomas : It's pretty much the same tools. The only elevated level, I would say, is this blade just makes my work deeper, which is better. But next level comes with time, and time is what makes it cleaner. Like, when you look at some of my first works, it's like it doesn't look that even. Or, like, my carved lines don't look that smooth back then. Like, if you look at this, all of this right here is however long I've been in this, a custom, design that I've made over the years. Like, this whole stack of paper, these are all drawn.

Thomas : Probably the staining. Because it gives that final look to all of the work you've been working on. Like, bam!

Thomas : Exactly. Because right now, all it is is a vision to me. Like I'm gonna be painting the chain silver, and then I'll maybe put a highlight on the flame, like, to two tone from this part and the flame. And then the font will be, like, either white or something to pop.

Thomas : But, like, even when I paint it, it still doesn't look done. There is also a clear coat that prevents the stain from penetrating that part of it, but it doesn't go as deep or dark. Clear coating is what gives it the different tone. I just gotta keep being creative, making stuff I wanna fucking create.

Thomas : Skate setup? Heroin 8.5 board with some Volume 4 and TCB stickers! Indys and OJ’s Sammy Baca wheels, my homie!

Thomas : Damn. Rian, how long has it been?

Thomas : Was I a little irritating kid to y'all back in the day?

Thomas : I was the youngest.

Thomas : If I got out of line, yeah, my brothers were there.

Thomas : Oh, yeah.

Thomas : Yeah. I just wanted to hang with the homies!

Thomas : Exactly. Into all kinds of shit.

Thomas : Like, if you did it, you really did it. You were out skating. Yeah.

Thomas : And then that's how I learned how you meet other people and that's how you can get through a new area is knowing someone else or a crew wherever the fuck you go.

Thomas : We started dating in Rosemead. I was running a small business out of my homie's house, and she was already kinda big time in her business. And she introduced me to ideas on how to take my business to another level. Basically, showing me how to be a business.

Franny : Yeah. I think I just had had a crush on him.

Thomas : [Big Smiles]

Franny : I just wanted to hang out with him and make art. Yeah. And also do things that we didn't really get to do growing up because I was shy. And then had the strength to say like, hey, I wanna hang out with you and skate and, like, do art.

Thomas : I reached out to her.

Franny : He slid into my DMs and I was like, ew. What do you want? I'm just kidding. I was stoked. I hadn’t talked to him in a while, and it was nice to reconnect, and then it all just kind of happened.

Thomas : Also that time of our lives, it was like let’s hit the gas on this and go. Fingers crossed.

Franny : Full throttle.

Thomas : Yeah. I am continuously, spitting out all my ideas. I'm like, oh, let's do this. Let's do that. And then he takes these ideas and… does it.

Thomas : I will pick up an idea and figure out how to do it.

Franny : I often get surprised because he has already created what we've talked about previously. We have a really good banter and back and forth of ideas.

Thomas : She'll help me out a bunch with hard parts on designing imagery. A customer will give me a list of words and she's like use this type image or, like, what if you did this? And it's like we are both firing on ideas. Being able to bounce back and forth on ideas helps.

Franny : It's a really good balance of, like, yin and yang too.

Thomas : It works.

Franny : Yes, the stone work.

Thomas : Basically, taking a rock and turning it into a gem or stone, basically. That's the first definition of what lapidary is. She will have an idea of what she wants a stone to look like, and then I'll basically take the colors, materials or whatever it is she wants and transform it all the way down into that little stone. And then she'll take that and put it into the jewelry.

Franny : I started, doing hair accessories 18 years ago for fun, and it kind of exploded from there. Then with social media and all that, there was some big companies stealing my work and I wanted to make this harder for them. So, I switched everything to in-house production. I’m taking my craft and constantly evolving.

Franny : I went to Pasadena City College for 2 years and I studied metal fabrication, lost-wax casting, like, woodworking, and all that. Through these experiences I kinda just settled in to this medium I really, really love, which was silversmithing.

Franny : Just diving deep into it and loving, like, rocks and glass and just how it turns into its own thing as it evolves.

Thomas : She got me into attending vending shows with her together, selling our stuff.

Franny : Yeah, we attend different markets every weekend, celebrity events, online sales and things.

Thomas : Online stuff happened during Covid, and became huge.

Franny : Next step is just, like, a bigger in-house production set up.

Thomas : Yeah. Or a storefront.

Franny : Hah, hah. Yeah. Dream. But a storefront, eventually. Something fun.

Thomas : Something where people can maybe come see us or, experience our world. Get something custom made or, like, come in.

Thomas : Let’s go to Japan!

Franny : I have my passport ready!

Thomas : I got you. Okay.