Grampians!!!!!

Well, the suitcase is packed (thank goodness for that extension bit!), including coffee, pool noodle and party shoes. The wool for the workshop was packed in ziplock bags and goes nicely in the hand luggage, and will be light to heft up into the compartment! 

Miss Jenelle and our lovely driver Mr Jenelle (aka Rob) are picking me up at 4:30am (GAG!) so it’s an early night here at Chez Amy.  It’s been a strange day, out of the normal routine, knowing I’m going away for a week.  I put one more coat of resin on the WoW beast, so that will have a good weeks curing before I play with it again. Only 3 weeks to finish it when I get back, so I can’t afford any mistakes, which is a little daunting. I like a little room for error. I have found it slightly unnerving that everything so far has gone so well……

It will be good to have a week’s break from it though, and come back to it with a fresh eye and renewed vigour. As I painted on another coat of resin today, I was actually looking forward to the process of sanding it and making sure all the little imperfections that I could see were taken care of. It’s my baby and I want to make her as beautiful as she can be.

Whilst I’m away, we’re getting new windows installed, so I’ve cleared room in the studio for the builder. I had hoped to leave my studio looking tidy and lovely, but it is definitely not that!

You will see in there my new little half scale mannequin (named Jenelle after a certain petite lady I know) with the results of three hours playing with paper at TAFE the other night. Everyone was very impressed with Jenelle, and it certainly is a great way to work through design ideas without using metres of paper and fabric.

The highlight of my week was seeing this photo posted by the World of Wearable Art on facebook – it’s been taken for the latest Air New Zealand ad campaign. My design from 2010, BioLumina features on the right. Slick, no? I feel very proud that out of all the outfits in their collection, mine was chosen for this. It was also 1 of 100 garments recently exhibited in a mini-WOW show in Hong Kong.

Can’t wait to see the show this year, but for now, it’s focusing on making a felt jacket in the Grampians (which I will no doubt wear in NZ!). A holiday away for a week – WOW – I can hardly believe it!

Ciao dahlinks!

Svenja

Saturday afternoon, Shandy’s, and more shibori.

Yikes! Just remembered the shibori in the pan – I really should start using a timer and definitely stop trusting myself to remember! No burnt silk today though. I’ve spent a good morning doing some fibreglassing – no crunchy hair thanks to the lovely little cap Matt picked up for me at one of the factories he visits – stoilish, no? 

They also have beard snoods  - perfect size for Mishka!! Awww, looks like he’s off for yet another operation – noooooo!!

I’ve had my first two weeks back at TAFE doing  a night class in Advanced Pattern Design – so awesome!! Even though it finishes at 9pm, my usual bedtime, I am so pumped with ideas that I don’t even care! Walking to the car afterwards also gets my heart pumping – no matter where I park it seems I have to trudge through the dark with bagloads of stuff in dangerous shooz. So anyway, I am using this class to help me work on my design for the Bernina Art U Wear competition. It was also the perfect excuse to order a half size mannequin to work on – should arrive any day now. It’s just so more workable, trying out ideas on it in paper or fabric – obviously you use less material, and you are able to see the whole design at once.

I’d heard of Julian Roberts and his Subtraction Cutting method, and now I have been exposed to the Transformation Reconstruction by Shingo Sato – here is his new book and dvd – WANT!!

So I’m going to have a play with these techniques to make quite an architectural design, which is very different from my usual ‘organic’ look. Last week I hauled out my organzas to have a play with – whilst Mish decided to explore my Japanese Slipper – cheeky thing actually tried it!! 

I need a stiff fabric, and although I love organzas' stiffness and sheerness, I found some perfect material at Trads – it’s almost like upholstery fabric it’s so stiff! And two shades of silver – perfect! Can’t wait to play with it on my new mannequin this week.

A week tomorrow and Miss Jenelle and I will be off to Grampians – I KNEW it would creep up on us! We meet tomorrow to trawl through the stash and reassure ourselves that we everything we need, and no doubt convince ourselves that we really do need to take more.

I haven’t even had time to think about the design for the felt jacket I will be making, life has just been so busy! I am happy with the progress of the WoW piece, so don’t feel too pressured about having a week off – in fact, I’m sure it will be quite rejuvenating. I did an experiment with some of my beautiful new foil this week, and I think it’s going to work beautifully. 

I’ve just sat down to try and update my documentation of the piece, and am daunted at how much has happened that I need to fill in! So that’s me for the rest of the afternoon, as most of my sewing is done and the fibreglass resin is in the process of hardening.

One last picture before I go – more madness at The Lido Bar with photophilanthropist and a beautiful mask my mother gave me ( I drove home from her house in the purple kombi wearing this!) He seems to think he disappears when it’s on….. I’m not convinced……

Happy Creating, all – I’ll catch up with you after Grampians Texture!