Sleep, Sleep, and more Sleep

It's over and done with. Sadly, in my sleep-deprived, near-comatose state at the end there, I neglected to get any decent pictures of anything. Which is a shame, because I'm really quite proud of both pieces.

However, not all is lost! I do have my photo-project from Experiment Costuming--which means much nicer pictures than my normal snap-shots. Big thanks to Diana and Betty and Ryan for helping me out with these.


Experimental Costume and Performance, 2008


T-Shirt Remix


Thrift Remix


Lost in Translation



Scale/Accessory: Body Extension








Action/Movement Garment

Exciting news and Final Projects

So...uh...next Wednesday I'm trying out for a Fashion-based Reality show. No, really! I have no idea what it entails other than that. They're holding the casting call at one of my school's buildings, so I was like, "What the heck, I'll email them" My email was a little bizarre (I think I referred to MTV as 'banal' at some point...but hey! I like banal, tacky stuff) so I was really surprised when they called me this morning.

Wish me luck? I guess!

On a more important front, hahah, let's see what I've been up to currently! I've been busy catching up, and that seems to have made me behind again.

Advanced Fibers--"Membrane"

I'm stretching the assignment a little to include 'light' as something to fill a membran, if only because I've had this idea of 'stained glass crystal-cluster lamps' for a while. It's a little hard to explain, the pictures will probably help out.

So I started by making some paper crystal models out of bristol. There's about 6-7 different structures, but most have been disassembled to trace them onto the plexiglass, some of which you can see here. As a tip: don't use plexiglass if you can help it. I had to buy a dang jigsaw to cut it, and it smells awful because it melts a bit as you're cutting. Big props to the hardware store on 20th between Pine and Spruce for taking pity and giving me $10 off. Thanks dude!

Then i drew out some stained glass designs for each face. They're all blow-ups of details of real windows I've found online.

Then I dyed a bunch of china silk in really nice, jewel-tones for the glass. China silk is quite translucent, and takes color really well. Except for the red! I had to over dye it three times to get that deep color (first bath, Acid Red, second, Golden Yellow, third, MX Scarlet treated as an acid dye)

Cutting out the designs. I originally wanted to use silk crepe and reverse-applique it, I must have been insane. Even in the best situation, that would have taken me forever. And it was far from the best situation, the silks kept slipping around. So I went a bought this odd coated cotton (? Maybe? it's from Jomar, so who knows?) It cuts super cleanly, so I'm just gluing it all in. As long as it looks clean I don't think it'll raise any issues.

One of the plexiglass crystals assembled. I'm shooting for each lamp to be a group of 3-4, and for there to be 3 lamps. Don't know if this is possible~!

Partially covered lamp. These will probably be illuminated by LED christmas lights wrapped up in some sort of fabric to diffuse the light.



And Projects "Production"

Me and my mate Astrid really want to collaborate over the summer to create a whole collection of clothing, so this is our test-run. If it goes well, our adviser, Mi Kyoung, is going to help us write a proposal to get studio space over the summer. We're making three garments right now, each loosely based on Space, Ice and Earth, respectively.

Ice:



Working on the bodice right now, it's some sort of odd Christmas garland I'm covering with wool and fabric medium to tone it down a bit. The netting is just sewing thread, it's going to get a good deal denser, then will probably also get treated with medium. Astrid is working on the bottom, which I believe will be shredded cotton gauze, treated and stiffened at the end to resemble icicles.

Space:


Pieces of the skirt. The fabric took the black dye rather oddly, and now I'm going back with bleach to create an almost shibori like effect. The coloration really reminds me of hubble space photos.

These don't look like much now, but they'll be coiled together to form the top, forming spiral shapes reminiscent of galaxies.

Ughhhh, so much left to do! I haven't left the studio before 2 o'clock at all this week I think. Just have to pull through for 2 more weeks!

Sometime next week I want to make a post about all the talented ladies I work with up here, you folks should know about them too!

Comic Books and a Rivet to the Head

Pt. 3 I suppose! I already posted about this on Craftster, but I sort of forgot to update it here. I keep losing track of what I've posted and what I haven't. So I posted my crude little drawing of my plans to knit a comic book page, and I've managed to so far make 2 panels.



The drawing it all started from. This was then scanned, and redrawn pixel-by-pixel in two tones in photoshop. I just resized it to the number of stitches I wanted it to be (i.e-100 pixels wide = 100 stitches wide)

The first panel in progress, with the gridded diagram behind it. All knitted on #2 circulars

Second panel finished up with the grid hanging up behind it. I still need to block these a little more, I'm just nervous to do so because the black yarn is bleeding a little bit (my own fault, I dyed it and must not have washed it out well enough.

Both of them done so far. Hopefully I can finish up this piece over winter break, I'm 2/5ths of the way there.


As a bonus, here's some 'in progress' shots from Experimental Costuming.




My two-headed boy outfit. Yes, it fits me and my friend Diana. I'm reworking the suspenders though. And trying to engineer a two-person shoe, which is proving quite difficult.


Everyone I spoke to with metals experience told me it couldn't be done, but I managed it! A 4 foot sphere made of pop-riveted spring steel. Don't pop-rivet spring steel. It's a nightmare. Drilling it alone was a nightmare. But hey! By some miracle of engineering, it worked. Next semester I'm taking Metals in Sculpture so I can learn to weld and avoided this whole problem.

Getting covered in sweaters.

A Great Man, A Great Chair

Pt. 2 of god knows how many in the catch-up game.

So about a month ago, we got our second assignment in Projects. The new President of our college, Mr. Sean T. Buffington, has taken an interest in the Crafts Department ever since we showed work at his inaugural gala (not to mention dressed up in 50's outfits and helped serve and usher) So he came in and gave us a commision--make a piece for him that both represents him in some way, as well as our own way of working. He gave a short presentation on Crafts objects he already has in his life as a starting of point...but sadly there was no fibers work in it, unless you count a cheesy, etsy-esque stuffed owl his partner got for him...lame!

But in anycase, I didn't find the generic antiquey things and personal effects, or the ubiqutous scandanavian mid-century design all that inspiring. Instead, I decided to work from the man himself. Every since I saw the hand-made t-shirts emblazoned with his face and the words "Buff Daddy" on students at his inauguration, I knew he was a personality to contend with. So I made a portrait of the man, of the 'chairman of the board,' so to speak.




Behind every great man, there is a great chair.

Sitting happily in his office now, it stares at the interns and office workers whenever he's not around to do so.

'Chair for Buff-Buff'
Found chair, new upholstery, applique


Behind the scenes:

The original chair, already half disassembled. I found it in a little side-hallway off of our 'student gallery' down by the ceramics studio. It was with a bunch of other junk, so I decided to assumed it was trash. By the way, taking the upholstery off of this piece of crap was a pain~! So many little freaking staples.


The old cushion. The fabric was this really awful fabric that was almost like a burlap. The arm cushions, when I pried them open, leaked this pollen-colored powder that I can only assume was once foam. (it's worth noting that before I got this chair, I was working on another, only to find some very noxious looking green and peach-colored mold under the fabric. Old furniture is pretty gross)


Unfortunately I don't have any other 'inbetween' shots but here's a rundown on how I got to this stage.
1) Paint--two coats of white, one failed attempt to mix liquid pigment with paint to get orange (got a nasty fleshy color) then two coats of Bright Pumpkin. Orange is Buff's favorite color
2) Replaced upholstery on the actual framework of the chair (under the cushion.) More difficult than I imagined, I had a hard time restuffing it.
3)Did the armrests twice--the first attempt is in the picture, in gray, I later re-did it with the teal fabric and more stuffing, looked much better.
4) Re-did the cushions
And not shown, but
5) Appliquéd the face. Three dang times before I got it right. Finally had to use reverse applique to get the finer black lines to work. There's actually 2 faces, a serious one (shown) on one side, and a happy (sort of 'special') looking one on the other, no picture of that yet, sorry! And now I have 2 creepy almost-faces hanging in my studio.


Alright, that's 2 projects~! I'll try and keep going tomorrow~

ooooookayyyyyyy

I'm a terrible blogger. It's only now, probably because I have a paper due tomorrow, that I'm updating things! And I know have a backup of about 40 pictures. Oh jeez.

Where to start? How about with our recent symposium? The American Crafts Council (publishers of American Craft) came to our school to have 1 of 3 symposiums about "Making, Meaning and the Marketplace." From my limited amount of experience with the larger craft world, we sure do love to talk about what is and isn't craft. I don't get it~

Anyway, the sweet part is that me and my mate Diana were ushers at the event, and were asked to wear some of my costumes for the occasion. Which means beautiful photos by the official Crafts Dept. Photographer, Ken. You've see the white piece before, but the red one is new, it was for my 'Lost in Translation' assignment. The pants on the white piece are new as well!


Diana in her red ruffly long-johns. These were a pain to pattern, the ruffles are acutally a part of the construction and seamed into the leggings (so the pattern for them had about 20 pieces to keep track of.) They're surprisingly comfortable though!

A clearer photo of my white jacket than I had before. And now it has pants. Also very comfy, but very, very hot.

Both of us and my good friend Kali (on the left) and her 'bathing beauties' coffee filter bikinis. Oh, and see those railings? Funny story. Building maintenance decided to paint them with oil paint 3 hours before the show. So they were still wet and sticky, and people would be walking their artwork through them--not good! So me and my teacher freaked out a bit, then brainstormed and ended up covering the entire length of the railings in iridescent cellophane (we have a massive roll in the studio that someone found in the trash about 5 years ago. Still going through it!)

Okay! So this is entry #1, I'm going to split these up a bit so they're not massive post. Hopefully I can get another one up tonight.

School Daze

Back in school, and back to the crazy schedule of class/work/studio. But now I've got my own space, which is absolutely grand, even if it is already crammed full of supplies. I'm a terrible packrat when it comes to fabric...and yarn...and trim, and anything I can get my hands on.

Some pictures of where I spend just about every night:

I've got a desk for sewing, and a fabric-covered table for drafting/drawing/pinning/putting my computer on. I have about 30 yards of that red knit, so now it's my decor as well. I believe it came from some gala my school hosted, and it's been kicking around for a few years.


Supply madness--so much stuff!

So that's the space. What have I been working on, eh?

Well, in Into to Jewelry, I'm a big old newbie. Never touched metal in my life, but I really love it, and I think I'm picking it up okay. Our first lesson was a riveted brass piece for our notebooks.

Front Cover

Inside cover--you can see the rivet on the bottom where I messed up, but it's a small thing. I'm learning!

Advanced Fibers--our first assignment is "Drawing"

Some samples.

The one I'm going with-it's going to be a full length dress with a design like the tree drawing above. The leaves are going to be a big, gathered collar around the person, and the length of the dress will be the intertwining trunks. It's worked with 4 strands of thick string on a very loosely woven fabric, so it goes pretty quickly.

For Experimental Costuming, we did a quick t-shirt remix, then a thrift store remix. I did the same things last year, but they're always good to warm up with.


I patchworked my t-shirt--it got very small very fast, and I ended up using the scraps to make an open meshy shirt to go with it.

And my remix--I got an awful pair of short-overalls. Shortalls? And made a rather kinky looking vest.



I liked this project because I really broke away from my usual flat-patterning method. I let the shape of the pieces dictate the form.

And for Projects--no in progress pieces, it's sort of a mess right now, but here's the sketch/instructions I wrote up for myself.

Long story short, I scanned a comic, drew it with pixels, and I'm now knitting it. Then I'm going to felt it. It's going to be immense, the first panel is more than 2 feet wide. Crazy amount of work there.