After wrapping up his stint on “;Project Runway”; in September, designer Richard Blayne Walsh returned home to Seattle to find life simultaneously the same and different.

“;It's a weird thing. I'm kind of a celebrity in people's eyes. When I'm walking on the street, people come up to me, ask for photos and autographs, but I'm not very star-struck. It's just me. I'm just normal,”; he said by phone from the Hotwire coffee shop in West Seattle, where he's been back at work as a barista since returning from New York.

“;People go into fashion and go crazy thinking they have to design these big gowns, and I'm not like that. I do streetwear. I'm chill, I'm relaxed. I just want to dress everybody else, not just your Upper East Side fashion person.”;

His even temperament is well suited to easing back into his pre-celeb life of entertaining design ambitions in between earning a living. Hawaii fans will get a chance to see what he's been working on since leaving the show in late August.

“;I work fast,”; he said, which suited him well in the design competition that called for conceiving, designing and constructing competition-worthy garments in a few hours. Back in the real world, it took him just a month to come up with a 25-piece American Indian-inspired collection that he debuted Monday in Seattle, under the name Richard Blayne.

“;It's very loud, with lots of color. It was a huge turnout, high energy, so fun,”; he said, while hoping for the same reception Saturday night when he presents the collection during a fashion show at Skyline at Twist in the Hanohano Room at Sheraton Waikiki. That's day two of a “;Girlicious!”; weekend featuring Walsh.

Day one entails a fashion show competition at Pearl Ultralounge in which Walsh will pass judgment on about a dozen local designers vying for top Hawaii honors, including Dan Weaver, Olivia Turner, Christine Gardner, Sasha Dominy, Louize Hakim and Natasha Li.

Having just been through the process of being judged and critiqued on national television, he says, “;It's not just about talent, but about who they are,”; knowing that having a story to tell and being the kind of person other people want to work with are crucial to success.

Walsh said he often gets together with the show's winner, Leanne Marshall, a few hours away in Portland, Ore., and also remains in touch with another of the finalists, Jerell Scott, in Los Angeles. Although Walsh says he loves Seattle, he feels a move to LA, New York or Europe would be more conducive to his success.

“;In Seattle it's very hard. It takes longer for people understand what I'm doing, although they're very respectful and they totally support me.”;

In the meantime he's perfectly happy working at the coffee shop and designing in his spare time.

“;It's interesting that people think that because I'm a designer - I live, eat and breathe fashion - but I love working here where I have my community. It's kind of an escape where I can interact with all these people who I see every day; they're just like my family.”;

A retreat to welcoming surroundings might be just what he needed, when, after coming so close to the “;Project Runway”; finale - having missed the opportunity to show a collection at New York Fashion Week by a week - he was ousted along with Terri Stevens in Episode 9's Zodiac challenge, with judge Michael Kors snarkily noting Walsh's design made it look as if his model were “;pooping fabric.”;

Even so, Walsh says he wouldn't have changed a thing about his work, although he expressed some exasperation with the process of television.

“;It's interesting to see what goes into it and how people react to what they're seeing. They think it's all real when sometimes things don't happen the way they appear, and that's all I'm going to say.”;

One thing that was accurate was Walsh's preoccupation with tanning, which caused many viewers to assume he's from LA or Miami instead of the rainy Northwest. He's actually amping up his tan in preparation for his Hawaii trip and sounded disappointed to hear of recent cloudy skies.

Of course, there's a geographical and biological explanation as Walsh explains how he grew up in Yakima, southeast of Seattle, “;which is like a desert, so in Seattle I'm starved for that,”; he said. “;My mom tanned when I was in the womb, so I came out a natural sun worshipper.”;