Presentation Next Post

Thanks for the feedback folks! It's interesting to see who's reading. I only see the small amount that publicly follow the blog, so it was all new names to me.

Hi! How are you? Feel free to say howdy.

Anyway. Consensus seemed to be in favor of me posting up my senior presentation, but it's going to take me a bit to get the slides into picture format. So instead, today, some progress pictures and shots from a little bit of dress-up.

The red quilting is growing. It's nearly big enough for the back part of the vest/jacket it's going to line. Still have to do the two front pieces though.

The back of the jacket so far, just want to show off my lovely handstitched armholes.

Checking out how it looks placed inside as lining.


I also recieved my leather, and cut the pattern for the arm-guards. It's a layer of heavy suede, and a layer of thick wool.


Monday night, my lovely friend Diana helped me take stock of the pieces I've made so far by taking some shots of me putting them on/taking them off/wearing them together. It gives me a good idea on how they look, as well as the motions involved with wearing them. Some of my favorite shots:

Quickie Quickie

Sorry for the brevity, but I've misplaced my camera, so all you get is a bad iPhoto shot and some pictures I took a few days ago. Oh, and a bunch of sketches.




Yes, I went through a lot of sketches with this one. And a *lot* of modeling. I think, though, once the drawings got more specific, the physical models came out a lot better. At the moment, in between typing, I'm drafting the top portion. Nearly there! Making paper hinges and paper D-rings was pretty fun though~! Next step: cut pattern in heavy wool and suede.


And after two or three more baths of a million different colors, I have some shades that are red or just about. They are supposed to look different, don't worry. Sewing them together in the hexagonal pattern usually known as "Grandmother's Flower Garden" I doubt it will look much like flowers when finished though! This will eventually be the lining in a coat, then I want quilt it through all the layers, through to the outside of the coat, then make that dimensional with a thick stitch (just on the outside, black on black) and add pupils.

Had a good chat today on the 'reality' of the pieces I make. I don't know exactly the reasoning behind it yet, but it seems really important for me to make things that are very 'real' They might be strange, but if they are considered, and finished, and crafted just as they 'would have been' if the people and places really existed, I think it helps bring it out from being costume. I mean, it's not fashion either--I don't intend for people to buy and wear them, and I want to give them more of a context than you see from fashion generally. But I don't think it's a coincidence that I look at fashion more than I look at a lot of 'art garments' or 'art for the body' or whatever you want to call it.


Okay--reader choice time. All 17 of you. Recently I did a powerpoint on my work and influences that I think summed up a lot of my thoughts and concepts as far as my work goes. Would you be interested in me posting it up with a paraphrased version of my talk? It's a good summary, dunno if 30 pictures might be a bit much though. Let me know!

Chainmail and Reds and Drawings

Misplaced my camera's SD card, so there was little to post, but now I've got it back and am ready to update!

The chainmail is done! Well not in this picture, I still needed to put the buckles on the one side. I really rather like this shot though--The gesture of putting it on is so much more clear to me, seeing this. Perhaps I need to take more photos of putting on/taking off the garments. It seems important...

On my creepy mannequin. I'm super happy with the form. Unfortunately, it doesn't have shoulders, so I'm going to once again subject one of my friends with duct-taping to make a torso/arm form to draft on.

I also really like this hook--it's actually from two separate closures. The ring is from an army bag, and the odd hook thing is from some sort of strange harness I've had lying around.

My critique for it went really well, even if it was not wholly finished. Hearing peoples reactions and thoughts about the narrative behind it is always interesting. Particularly the ideas of when and where it's taking place--the level of technology present, the climate, the surroundings. All things I need to think about.



In other news, I've begun dying a load of silk in different shades of red. Easier said than done, it wants to turn pink. I need to set up a really strong yellow pot and leave it all in there forever.

And I got a new sketchbook--I shelled out for a moleskine, and it does make a big difference to be able to use watercolors in my sketch book. Sorry for the bad quality, it's difficult to get photos of drawings.

A drawing to go with the door piece. The proportions are all messed up, but I'm trying to draw from life/photos more. I like the coloring though, I haven't used watercolor in a long time.

Door to Nowhere Part Two

Critique Day

The Piece:








The Crit:
The second the words "nostalgia" and "loneliness" came up, I knew it wasn't really going to go well. I'm not totally sure how to get across that the items I'm presenting are meant to be 'in use' not 'used.' I suppose I set myself up for it by using reconstructed/'old' materials--but that ties into the characters and narrative. Of course, my audience won't know that unless I tell them, so now I'm stuck trying to figure out just how much narrative I should tell, and how much I should leave to infer.
This was further confused by the fact that they first told me that I needed to talk about the character and narrative in my presentation, then later told me that I shouldn't really make any of that clear, so I'm confused.
I think I may start trying to write somethings out here in the following weeks, see how it goes...