Summer Bustle and Final-Project Catch up.

Unfortunately, I seem to have left my camera at the studio today, so no pictures of what I'm currently working on. But rest assured that I'm both working hard on my internship (with an opera company, help with set and costume) and making my own work, though mostly smaller, more sellable things right now. Lot of screen printed scarves and bandanas and cute dresses coming soon. And hopefully an Etsy in the works. I'm collaborating with my mate Astrid a lot on these little things, and it's been a great motivator for us to bounce off of each other.

But anyway, at least I finally got picture of my final Projects project. They're a little odd looking, partially because my teacher doesn't seem to have focused them too well, and partially because I was scanning in slides.

The project invovled making a relic, or something to be passed down through a family. I made a quilted suit of practice armor for a little boy with horns.


Front--the two front and back panels are all hand-quilted and corded, the sleeves and side panels are machine-corded, and the shoulders are machine quilted (I was just about finished the hand work at 10 o'clock the night it was due, so everything else became machine work real fast. The little knobs are functional frogs and loops. All the giant piping on the piece was hand made, it's hard to see, but it's seamed together at intervals that get closer and further apart, with I think mirrors the idea of horns.

The back-the holes are to accomodate for horns, this particular boy has four, like a Jacobian sheep.

My crit for this piece wasn't terribly helpful, but I had Chrissy Day, my experimental costuming teacher take a look at it, and I think some of the things she said really struck me. I think the phrase was 'narrative or situational garments,' the idea that myt pieces often force the viewer to think about the person who would be wearing it and why. Which is great, because that also goes back to a lot of my illustration work (I acutally started out going to school for that, not Fibers) So I'm trying to expand upon that idea this summer.

Oh, and here's some bonus shots of a dress I did quite a while ago, and never really got good pictures of.



Made out of every scrap of 18 XXL red t-shirts my old boss gave me because they were misprinted.

New Jersey Convalescence

Thanks to everyone that's left a comment, it's really great to know that people are reading this! Sorry I've been absent, the end of the semester really kicked my butt, I wasn't really eating or sleeping for a while there, and moving into my new place was a two week long process.

But I'm here now to start giving a recap on what I've been doing. Not all of it is photographed yet--you'll only get a little peek at my armor, sadly. I'm not totally sure how to scan in my slides yet, so I took a picture of the slide up against a lights.

Anyway, on to the work. Here's some Charlie Archeopterix for you. I was inspired by the Fursuit maker I met recently while helping Seamus on his documentary, so I took that idea and applied it to a more sculptural idea.


Just the newspaper and foam-form.

Some scales for his belly--thanks to Sam for donating her purse to the cause!

Getting some fur on his body---that's all sewn on individually with mono-filament, I'll try and get a close up of his scales at some point.

Finished! He still looks at a little raggedy, but it was 7 o'clock in the morning on the day of the crit when I sewed the last scale down. I'll fix him up this summer a bit better.

My critique went well~~!

Not quite as exciting but just as labor-intensive, my double-cloth weaving. I scanned in a sketch I had done, then made a pixel-drawing from it the dimensions of the warp that I was winding. Unfortunately, the cloth wove almost 4X as long as it was wide (so the warp was longer?) and so I had to 'skip' every other line on my pixel drawing. But still, I think it came out okay.


In my insanity, I actually did a little side project with a screen I'd already burned and made some cutesy pillows. Too many cutesy pillows. I have like 6 of the lumpy misshapen things hanging around my room now. You want one?


And here's a bit of a look at my armor. Better pictures when I figure out how the heck to scan a slide properly.

A shot of me working on it, courtesy of Diana (I was doing that damn quilting up until the night before it was due! all the construction was done that night/morning)


And a shot of my slides~


Oh, and finally, a happy customer (sort of!) I found a home for my pink dress so it's no longer shoved under my bed. Sam'll do well by it, I'm certain.

Getting down to the end

So it's final project time, and I'm feeling a little spread thin over 5 project. But just a few more weeks to hold on.

Anyway, here's the final result on my jellyfish skirt:


50 hours of embroidery, but it made it into the juried exhibition that my school is holding for our president's inaguration. It was the only piece of mine that did (I submitted 3) but still, I don't think many sophomores got in at all--I don't think too many entered pieces at all.



Fibers Field trip!

Last week we headed out to see the Hot House Exhibition at the Reading Public Museum, which was incredible. It really drove home to me how important our teachers are in the world of fibers. Mi-Kyong Lee, Warren Seelig and Chrissy Day all had work in the show.


My screen-printing design. Electric animals + light bulbs. I did two runs, one in teal, one in pink. The pink ones are currently a pile of pillows at the studio. They'll come in handy for nap time, they're pretty cutesy and dumb, but I like them.



My warp painting--I shot for a gradated plaid, and I think it came out pretty well, considering my weft dyed completely differently from my warp, even though I was using the same color.

And now I'm currently over my head working on my Beast.

Basically a paper/wire/foam structure I'm going to 'skin' in old stuffed animal fur.


Cleaning and gutting the stuffed animals turned out more difficult than I imagined. Thankfully I have friends (free labor)

Pile of smelly stuffed animals.


They're so scary when they're inside out.



Hardcore washing with synthrapol and detergent to get the stank off.

More later--working on some quilted armor and double weave.

Sugar Dress and Weaving

Sorry I've been absent, I lost my camera and was extremely busy for a week or so there. But now I've finished with a few all-night projects and I'm back with some great pictures courtesy of my mate Diana.

So the sugar dress took a drastic turn when I accidentally burned some of my sugar while trying to get it crystallized. The black, glassy pieces that resulted in a brand new idea for the dress, and I just went with it, despite having really limited time.

I ended up using the sugar as sequins, sort of loosely couched onto a cheesecloth dress that I dip-dyed (that was a process in and of itself, I'm not great at dying, and getting that color was quite difficult.)

Last minute working

Hanging at the crit.



I also recently finished my warp-painted weaving, but I'm lacking in pictures of it right now. But here's some shots of my dyed weft. Oddly enough, I used the same dyes for the warp and weft, and they came out totally different. Same string too, the only difference is the weft was immersion dyed and the warp was painted with alginate thickened dye. What came out brown on the warp was pink on the weft. Still, the overall effect was really nice.


More later--including the finished jellyfish skirt, weaving, and some of my new projects.