Four days off, and I can’t say I’ve achieved much…… but I have enjoyed a bit of relaxation – quite the novelty to me! We enjoyed a trip to West End markets on Saturday morning, where I found this felted chooken selling her eggs – isn't she gawdjuss!! It’s a beautiful venue, with some impressive fig trees in         the surrounding park.

Last week my latest internet purchase arrived - a rolling stool so I can now wizz between my three sewing machines! It had a white vinyl cover, so I immediately made one up in dyed silk - much better!





Saturday afternoon we hung out on the front verandah in the beautiful autumn light, and Mishka was looking particularly handsome........

Also interesting but not so handsome was this gekko skeleton resting on the floor boards......
The studio is once again a shambles, although looked good briefly this morning - I could see floor! No more though, after trying to finish the last minute additions to the WoW works. At least I've worked it out now, and after sewing the wrong pieces together late this afternoon, I promised myself not to work on it any more today! Technically I have four days to finish, photograph, do dressing instructions and pack them - in a crate which I'm not even sure is going to fit them....
This time next week my WoW garments will be at the Mainfreight depot. All I can say is – it’s going to be a long week! I'm guessing there'll be a little bit of celebrating on that night - here is a pic of Matt & I getting some practice in this weekend!

Easter Break 2014

Hakaturi in the forest!

A studio shot of Hakaturi, apparently!

I was going to call it Easter Holidays, but seeing as it is only 1 week, I think the word 'break' is far more appropriate! It has been an action packed last week of college, starting with my Photoshop tutorial on Tuesday. Here I played with putting different backgrounds behind shots of Hakaturi taken in my front garden - loving the results!! It's great to have these options!

An underwater version of BioLumina

I also had a play with a pic of BioLumina from WoW, changing her colour and background. No, not really my photo to play with, and I don't intend to publish her more than this, but it's nice to work with images that are meaningful to me. Any issues, and I'll willingly take this down. I've also had a play with this years images, but of course, cannot show...
I believe most of you would already know that both entries this year have been accepted? This weekend I look at how to fit them into the shipping crate.....




Tuesday night turned into a trip down memory lane as I spent the evening at my mothers house with her and my sister. Ostensibly to discuss Maman's wardrobe for her trip to France in a few weeks, it turned into a photo-fest of my late Dad, to a soundrack of old records that my sister and I went mental to, plus a delicious meal, not to mention copious amounts of wine. I do believe Maman and I stayed up until 2am!! Slight fragility on Wednesday was the result, ie. I didn't make it to work!!

Mushrooms and Lichen

Thursday was 'Studio' day, and Janice sprung some eco-dyeing on us, as well as the sampling of a two-piece collar (always good to practice.) This meant a trip around campus, where along with all sorts of fabulous leaves, we found mushrooms and lichen to try. (Can I just say that the lichen was on wood destined for firewood...)

Silk scarves wrapped round reobar found in the TAFE nursery

Wynnum Rd/ Balmoral Cemetery

Bamboo on TAFE campus

Sadly, neither of these did very much, in fact, strawberry leaves were the major hit! It was great fun though, and I loved seeing my fellow students fascinated by the possibilities. It also meant I got to discover a little more of Mount Gravatt TAFE campus, and Janice discovered this lovely patch of bamboo, which I thought would be a fabulous background for a photoshoot. On my walk this morning I found a spot by a very busy Wynnum Road, looking up into the cemetery. Limited, I know, but not bad for down the road!
Also at TAFE is this lovely concrete structure, which I coveted for my WOW shoot this year, but due to weekend access issues, was unable to use.

Mt Gravatt Resevoir

Concrete Structure at TAFE

I also checked out the reservoir at Mt Gravatt, which has lovely textured walls as well as good access and reasonable privacy. Photoshoot opportunities everywhere we look - yaaaay!!

Gold silk and metallic silk organza

Following a visit by Laura Stead-Churchill at TAFE promoting the opening of the renovations at Indooroopilly, who have become involved with the Fashions on the Field at the Brisbane Racecourses, I got a wee bit interested in the idea of entering some of these events. I saw this fabulous book image on a book cover in the library, which was disguising a very boring book on  "An Ethonographic Approach to the Chinese Fashion Industry."
MEH!!
Further inspiration was found this morning in Style magazine with this fabulous shoe by Nicholas Kirkwood.
I believe my current design for 'Studio' could be modified to suit racewear, and I'm thinking about using this fabulous gold silk and metallic silk organza from my studio stash, and modifying some shooz in similar way to the above with some bomaki shibori frills. Be keeping you tuned soon! Happy Bunneh week, all!!

April 2014!

Well, today was my first time to myself in around 3 weeks, and luckily, it was one of those really loooooong days! I feel like I've lived a whole weekend today, which has been great. After a sleep in, it was off to the markets where sadly, no treasures were found, except this nice sparkly headband!
It was great to be back in the studio, where I started some of the adjustments on my WoW pieces, as well as the labelling, and I'm starting to think about the dressing instructions! (almost a dissertation in itself!) I looked at one of my pieces, which even I struggled to put on correctly at the photo shoot, but I think with the press-studs and labels I am applying to orient it, it shouldn't be too hard to get it on the right way! Although I know there are quick-change requirements for our pieces, I feel as though you can't take everything into consideration. I'm making a one-off art-work, which evolves underneath my hands, and it's hard enough trying to make it multi-fit, let alone quick-change friendly. I often use lacing as it is multi-fit friendly, but I know it is time consuming for dressers. What's a gal to do?! Lacing doesn't feature in my work this year, but I know that my pieces are time consuming to assemble!!
For the first time in my six years of entering, I am making changes after the photoshoot! Nothing major, just a little extra volume to make this epic piece go up another level, to hopefully a stage-owning presence!

Half scale

Full scale

As well as these bits and pieces, I was working on my TAFE Studio garment pieces as well. This week I found out that whilst 1/2 scale toiling has its uses, it can also be an incredibly hard step to go from half to full scale pattern pieces. I really struggled to translate the information, and was amazed at how awry some measurements went! It has been slow progress this week, but I feel that the learning process has been well worth it. In the end, there were technical adjustments combined with intuitive guesswork - I got there in the end! Final full scale toile coming up!

Tech drawing of my Studio project

Although I have missed some Technical Drawing and Photoshop classes in the last week (due to my office replacement leaving and me having to go in to work - pooh!!) I have also managed to keep up with that work. Technical Drawing is almost a meditative experience as you ink the lines over your pencil tracing - it's so easy to wobble and go astray, but if you tell yourself that you are going to be fabulous and breathe deeply, you reach a stage where you can do it! Sometimes....!! It's been an interesting experience formalising a very organic design into a technical drawing - but it can be done!!

Hakaturi

I'm also rather proud of my recent efforts in Photoshop to remove this image of one of my Hakaturi pieces from the photo background - a complex image to deal with! I've now done two of the three pieces, using different techniques as I explore this programme. Yikes, my eyes, my hand - this is not comfortable work!! I hope to make a composite image of the three pieces modelled by Callum (in the front garden) into one.
Life continues on in its' crazy path, but I seem to be coping with what it is bringing me. Could I maybe request a little more downtime? Oh that's right, if I get it, I fill it........

WOW shoot 2014 DONE!

WoW (ha hah!!)! It has been a huge weekend. The week finished on Friday with a mega day of patternmaking, when I finally learnt to grade! This is a little like what my homework looks like! Brain-hurty stuff for an organic, draping kind of gal!!!

Chefs Callum and Jezabel

I quite often get to go home early on a Friday - but oh no, not this one! No, not when I had to finish my garments for my photoshoot the next day! Still sewing at 1pm Saturday afternoon, I finally stopped before packing the last piece into the kombi - it all seemed too neat and easy - what had I forgotten? - ready to head off to the industrial wastelands of Salisbury with my fantastic handler, Jenelle, AKA Bunneh. We were lucky enough to be able to park right on our deserted site and unload the many components of the 2 garment shoot - nothing forgotten! We were well ahead of time, which was fortunate, as I found a few alterations that needed doing - so pleased I packed my hammer and rivets!!
Here is what the studio workbench looked like on departure!

Our fantabulous photographer Chantal arrived, and then both our stomachs went into hyperdrive as our wonderful model Jess arrived. Oh no - this was really happening!! We soon got over that though, and got straight into it. As you know, I can't show you the results of this for many months, so..... All I can say is thank you to my fabulous team of ladies for an amazing afternoon - love your work!!
We headed home, exhausted, but  needing to recharge in time for our celebratory pizza night, which was greatly assisted by Mr Haynes' pizza dough skills - thanks Jeremy! A great night in the courtyard was had, resulting in many full bellies!!
We enjoyed something of a sleep-in, before I sadly had to go to work in the office - I know, but at least it was quiet on a Sunday! I returned home to get ready to head off to Gallery 159 for the opening of Kay Faulkner's weaving exhibition.

Kay Faulkner, giving us the stories behind her creations

Us!

The embellishment plan....

 So, it's back to the last few weeks of TAFE for this term, where we are working on our design for our 'Studio' project. 1. I love that I have a subject called 'Studio'. 2. It's SO fantastic that we get to design, present in fashion sketches, pattern-make, dye, and embellish our creation. Squeeeeee! I have made a toile for my design in half scale - feeling blessed to have made it in silk taffeta scraps from Wendy Makin - can't find the calico!
I have chosen some designs that will challenge me - that's why I'm here!


It has to be said that the 1/2 scale designs are very cute - here I am ironing my mini-toile with my mini iron!!
That's all for now - hope you all had a great weekend, and stay tuned for more news!

Women Afoot

Kym Frame

This weekend got off to a great start on Friday night, when I attended the opening of Kym Frames latest exhibition, Women Afoot at Graydon Gallery, New Farm.
It was certainly a popular event, with the crowds barely able to move through the space, ceding way only to those bearing the absolutely delicious nibbles and drinkies! (You know by the weight when you pick up a finger sandwich how good it will be, and these did not disappoint!)
It was a beautiful exhibition, featuring Kyms' beautiful paper casts of feet, as well as photos documenting the process.

Janet de Boer

As castees ourselves, it was extra meaningful to myself, my sister and my mother to see them, and to hear and see the quotes of all the women involved. I was delighted to catch up with Janet de Boer, who opened the exhibition in great style, of course, wearing her fantastic Pendragon shoes. Congratulations Kym, on a beautiful exhibition and the fundraising for  the Second Chance Programme that it supported.

Saturday was spent entirely in the studio, working on one of the WoW pieces. Great headway was made, much damage to fingers sustained - hit with hammers, pinched in rivets, stretched around layers of leather trying to hold rivets in place, and spray painted. Hence taking it easy today and wearing my wrist brace! I felt comfortable slowing down, even with only one week to go before the photoshoot, due to Saturdays success. I'm quite excited now, and can't wait until I see the results. This year I have let both creations just grow and grow, and I am not looking forward to the next phase - figuring out how to pack them!! Hmmmmmmm......

WoW 2014 photoshoot looms!!

With my photo shoot for this years WoW garments only  10 days away, I am pretty focused on completing these gals at the moment! The last week or so has been interesting as the many components I have been making over the last few months come together to form the whole image. It is a time of interaction with the pieces – often I have no idea what step is next until I look at them and they tell me what they need.  In a way it is the most enjoyable, as it is a form of communication – I feel like I’m not making something on my own but conspiring with it to bring it to where it wants to be. Look, I know that might sound a bit nutty, but for a control freak, I feel like I hand a lot of my control over to the pieces themselves at this stage. I have to listen to them, and frankly, I enjoy that.  It’s almost a time of recklessness, where things just have to be done so I just do them!! And look, it must be working, because even my mother thought they were looking good when she cast her eyes over them today!! Whooooooo!!!

As well as the WoW work, I have been greatly enjoying my TAFE studies, which this term includes a subject called Studio, where our brief is to design, pattern-make, and embellish a garment.  This continues on from our design subject last term, where we had to draw inspiration from an artist, (in my case, Georgia O’Keefe) collect other inspirational images, and come up with a design based on these components.  Apart from natural imagery, I have found myself very attracted to the beautiful sculptural works of Iris Van Herpen and Yiqing Yin, as my visual diary shows.

This term I have had to explore at least 6 versions of a design, all of which I have based on a form of bomaki shibori embellishment of which I have had samples pinned on a mannequin for at least 6 months, just waiting to be utilised . 

The fact that we have to use calico for this is not too distressing for me, as at least it will have the body to hold the pleats! I will be able to dye it – I am thinking dip-dyed slate grey tones to fit with my Cloudlines theme – and I will brush metallic paint or foil on the pleated fabric whilst it is still on the pipe from shibori shaping. I hope to also include beading as a second form of embellishment, using large-scale beads covered in organza to contrast the pleated shapes.  

Playing with calico bomaki shibori tubes cut in half and stitched along the middle to create an edge 

I'm liking that action around the bottom!

The patternmaking for this is a great challenge – this is what I’m at TAFE for!! It was easy for me to begin with the embellishment side of things – that’s what I do – but the structure underneath is all important. With this in mind, I am trying to make it as much of a challenge as I can, with my two final designs featuring a keyhole back, low cut back, and tapered and supported bell-shaped skirt.

The long version which I would like to do....

The bell skirt version

The keyhole back

All of these features present some interesting challenges.  I had no idea how to modify the block to do this, but with some expert help from my teacher Helen Spencer, I have some patterns ready to toile. I don’t even want to think about the lining yet!

This weeks draping excercise

Draping is also a component of our patternmaking class, and I just love it! As a very visual person, I find it immensely helpful in understanding the principles of patternmaking. Not to mention just enjoying the beauty of this technique.

Sadly, I won't be able to show you pics of the coming shoot until September, but I know you are all used to that now! Hopefully though, I will be able to show you progress shots of my Studio progress over the coming weeks.

Musings on Wearable Art

Since first finding out about the unique spectacle that is the World of WearableArt in around 2006, it has slowly and insidiously worked its way into my life until it now is my life. I structure each year around entering and travelling to the World of WearableArt, and I’m back at college studying fashion so I can better realise the ideas I have. Over the past five years, I have established a profile strongly linked with my success in this arena. Just recently I was asked to teach a workshop on Wearable Art, and this is making me think about how it might be possible to do that.
Firstly, where does wearable art sit in the creative spectrum?

Iris Van Herpen

Although I believe that fashion is an artform, and is highly suited to express the creative concepts of the designer/artist, I think wearable art is in another category entirely. It’s a complete one-off, never to be made again, so is not meant to be a part of a co-ordinated range. It’s pure expression, unconstrained by most aspects of practicality. It’s often made in unusual and unrealistic materials, exploring their potential or using them in order to convey a concept. Both fashion and wearable art, however, use the human body as a base for sculptural works.(On further musing, I think that catwalk couture is wearable art, and the collections that spring from them are fashion - just look at the work of Iris Van Herpen!)
I also think there is another genre in between, produced by the Craft-Arts movement in (predominantly) America, which is often referred to as wearable art, possibly better described as artwear or ‘art to wear’.
This is the making of fashion items using artistic techniques like weaving, shibori and other dyeing techniques to make magnificent and unusual, one-off, but still, essentially, fashion items. Of these three related categories then, it would seem that wearable art is most strongly aligned with what is accepted to be art, in that it has no other purpose than to express ideas in a visual form
Wearable art, like most art forms, is a very personal thing. For me, it’s about exploring ideas that interest me, exploring aesthetics that appeal to me, and most importantly, problem solving using the skills I have, or gaining more in order to do so. In summation, I draw upon myself, as any artist does.
So how do I teach other people to do this? Do they want to know about the multitude of ways I make things or the way I come up with the ideas? If so, how can I do that?!
My brain is a constantly whirling storehouse of images and concepts, and I reach in and pluck one out to explore and develop. In saying this however, I do seem to remember a time when I would look inside for things and there was nothing. No fruit. Not a bean. Empty. I think what I am trying to say is that a large part of the process is a long term project, feeding the eyes and brain with images and ideas, as well as building up a library of practical skills. I feel that at this stage of my existence that I have an entire arsenal of images and techniques to explore.

However, with wearable art encompassing such an enormous breadth of materials, this could not be a technique based workshop, as I am currently doing with feltmaking. Perhaps a  presentation format would be more suited, surveying the different ideas and techniques I have explored, and directing people to further useful sources? Although some of my works have been widely publicised, a lot could be explained in further detail regarding conceptual development and construction. Would this help anyone?
Food for thought for me, and I welcome any discussion on this topic!