Meh...

Okay, prepare yourselves for a bit of bleat/moan/whinge here. Take it with the grain of salt that I am - this is a recognised and regular part of the creative process, it's just a bit painful. I've got less than seven weeks left, and as usual, everything is falling apart. I'm going mad because I'm working in ridiculously cramped conditions. I won't even grace my old 'studio' with that title anymore, as it is just a giant pile of stuff that I keep tripping over and losing things in. My new studio has stopped - the floor has not been touched - apart from some muddy footprints by persons unknown but highly suspected!!#$%@!!!
I'm stuck with where I'm going with my WOW pieces - it's a 'make-or-break' kind of situation at this stage, and uncertainty can become almost paralysing. I've come this far, it's not quite there, I don't want to lose the magic, how do I not screw this up?
Luckily I have done this enough now to know that despite the deadline, it is time to step back. It's time to stop desperately thinking and experimenting.  Often it is helpful to go back to the ideas and images that originally inspired me, to re-find my direction when I am lost.
Ok, that was quite cathartic - now moving right along!
I always like to have some pictures to show you, so here's some arashi shibori in process on a metallic polyester fabric.

These then turn into lovely springy pleated tubes, which I was going to cut feather shaped pieces out of, but when I was playing around with it, found this lovely way of using it to texture a surface.

And here is a sneak peak of the process of airbrushing the leather with dye, which is nicely disguised with a little ghost imaging!

Quite ethereal, really! And a lovely note on which to end. I'm sure I'll have a more positive report next time, once I have found my Mojo once again!

Did I miss something here?!!

Somehow, not sure sure how, it has become February of 2013!! Of course, my next thought after that is how many days left until the World of WearableArt deadline. By now you all know it is April 1st for photo submissions, so I don't need to spell out the urgency.
However, challenges keep getting thrown in the way to slow me down.... A few weeks ago we had torrential rain, which showed up some weak spots in the new studio, and put a stop to the concrete floor getting sealed.  At the same time, we welcomed 3 new bodies to our home, meaning further space was lost, and the pace of life ratcheted up yet another notch. Tonight I have finished painting the floor ( a tasteful understated whitewash with glitter swirls!!)

Note running stain from storms near fabulous new Air Conditioning unit!

If it gets sealed this week, I might get to move in on the weekend! However, I'm thinking I will just use it as a construction space for the next 6 weeks as I can't get bogged down in creating the new space whilst trying to finish 3 major pieces - these take precedence!! To top it all off, I have received word from Mainfreight this week that my last 2 WOW pieces are at the port ready for pick up. Now where am I going to put those?!!
This is the current state of my upstairs studio/dressing room/general dumping ground!!

Cardboard templates, feathers, leather off-cuts - everything is there!

I thought I'd share with you a delightful image that I wake up to each morning, which creates peace & beauty in my mind, and makes me smile - my beautiful mermaid of serenity, draped in the jewellery that I wear.

Once the WOW deadline has been successfully reached, my immediate reward is a SvenJen adventure (with my partner in silliness Miss Jenelle), this time to Fibres Ballarat, to do a workshop with Marjolein Dallinga. Whooo hoooo!! Can't wait!
Happy Creating folks, remember to give your time to the things that make you happy - this life can be a short one. Make it count.

Aaaaah, another weekend dawns! As you know, last weekend was successful on both the artistic and engineering fronts. Whilst Matt slaved away building the studio, I trotted off to Ikea looking for storage solutions for it. The sea of people was terrifying, but it was a most successful trip. On my return, we had the obligatory session with allen keys, but as it was just some  clothes racks, it wasn't too much of  a challenge!

On my way back, I couldn't resist a stop off at Loot. If I had any room here at all, I would have also indulged - unfortunately, I recently found a massive mirror for my studio in a skip bin for nix!!

 In the current state of disarray, this is the neatest part of my current upstairs studio. This is my desk where I have been tooling, dyeing and painting leather. It and Betty Bernina are the two constants at the moment as everything shifts around them, as the studio accommodates my dressing room, and starts to move downstairs.

This week on the way to work I found some fabulous 'Footpath Fruit' - a black metal shelving unit which has become the perfect mobile interim storage for my shoe collection! It wouldn't fit any which way into the Kombi, but was only around the corner, so I popped it in and had it hanging out of the sliding door whilst I carefully drove home! Luckily, discovering footpath fruit is a valid excuse for being late for work around here!!
Just look at the studio progress this week - and as of tonight it's even further along! This wall has been sheeted, and the third wall has been half sheeted. Just that and the doors to go before I start painting - so exciting!!  It's starting to look like quite a decent room now - I just want in!

I thought Matt's tools and the offcuts made rather a lovely image..

So, this has been just a quick update before this weekends adventures which start at 8:30am tomorrow (before the heat gets crazy!) with a visit to MacLace for rivets for my leather.
 Happy creating, folks!

Studio Progress Report

One week until there will be three extra humans living in our house! No more for me the luxury of spreading my work throughout the entire house. Currently the entire lounge is filled with 6 mannequins, 2 heads, a torso, cardboard patterns aplenty, and a multitude of moulded leather pieces drying on towels on the floor, not to mention a pile of leather scraps down the hallway! I don't think this will work with a full house. I have worked hard today to get past this stage of designing the shapes for my pieces, which creates this incredible mess! I feel I have been pretty successful in this - I've really only got two headpieces left to design and cut. Unfortunately I can't show you the chaos, as it will give too much away, but here is a picture of the leather as I cut it into shape with a stanley knife - hard work indeed! Then I soak it in the bath for a while before I mould it into shape and let it dry.

Back to the building of StudioSvenja. Last weekend and during the week, I spray painted the roof of StudioSvenja. Stained hardwood, it would never be pure white, but I am happy with the result of 'shabby-chic' white! It already looks so much lighter.

From this.......

Today, whilst I was working upstairs in the air-conditioning, Matt was out picking up more building materials. When he dared rest for a while, I said "How's that construction going there?". (Cruel, yes, but after all, I need to move in ASAP! As it is, there are going to be racks of outfits and bolts of fabric cluttering up the  house for a few weeks yet!) Guilted, he went down, and did great work, and now my fabric stash shelves are finished. So too are the seven fluorescent lights!

....to this!!!!

\

 

The man at work.

Over the last few weeks, I have been practicing my leather-working skills on a special commission - an armband designed by photophilanthropist. The first version was too thick and flat - it had no life. The second did not allow for the shrinkage that occurs after I discovered how I could mould it - and so became mine!

The third encorporated all the lessons I had learned, and is ready to present to the designer for his birthday tomorrow.

It has been really good to have a practice piece with purpose - I have learnt moulding, dyeing, edge burnishing and finishing - all knowledge to be applied to my WoW designs. With ten weeks to go, I feel as though I might manage to finish my three entries! For the first year ever, I hope to enter more than one. It will be the 25th year of The World of WearableArt, and my fifth year as a designer. A special year indeed.
Happy Creating!
Svenja

2013 begins

After a civilised evening with friends, ending with a most welcome gift of Moet & Chandon, 2013 has begun. It has been a beautiful, quiet, and peaceful day for me. Just what I needed. I enjoyed starting the day by working in my long-neglected wet studio, making the new diary cover as is now my annual tradition. This year I have incorporated materials from my nuno felt bridal collection, and have used new techniques I learned at Viltes'workshop, which seems such a long time ago now!

The initial layout....

The final product!

Done by 11am, it was brunch time with Matt, and a toast to the new year with some Veuve - no better way to start! We admired the fantastic progress of StudioSvenja by Mr Matt - it won't be long now! I'm looking forward to the opening party already!
I think it's going to be a cracking year - Best Wishes to all for the same!
Svenja

Studio Progress

With three teenage children about to descend upon my home for the foreseeable future, work progresses frantically to re-house me in my new studio downstairs, also accommodating the industrial machines I have recently bought! Having combined my dressing room and studio upstairs in order to free up a bedroom, I'm currently working all throughout the house (not entirely unusual anyway!). My current World of WearableArt designs for 2013 are taking up most of the lounge! I'd love to show what I'm up to, but of course, I cannot. However, I can tell you that I am loving working with leather....

Back to the studio.... it's certainly come along way from the last update of the framework for the first wall! This weekend we have the framework for the entire room, and this afternoon the framework for my shelves and storage area for fabric bolts was completed.

Looking through the corridor - doors either end, fabric shelves to right.

Shelf framework, 1 more shelf to go on top, bolt storage area at rear around 1m wide.

It's starting to really look like a room!! Yesterday I spent sometime sitting on a deck chair within the framework imagining the space, and deciding what was what to go where, as when you are having a room custom built, these decisions need to be made early on! After an hour or so, I was satisfied that I had taken everything in to account, and made best use of the space. Remind me of that later, okay?!
Visible progress will slow for a while, as fiddly filling-in, and electrical bits happen. Sheeting won't occurr until the end to provide light and ventilation as long as possible. However, enough progress has been made to get me pretty darn excited!!
Last week, I had another great day on the road, at one stage ending up in IKEA (terrifying!!) where I intended only to check out the food market. I ended up having an early lunch there, so I experienced the Swedish Meatballs for the first time. The soft toy section then beckoned me, where I found these lovely mice and rats, (seen here perched on a saggy baggy elephant!), now ensconced on the sunvisors of the kombi for random throwing at people..... they should be cats, as I am known as the crazy cat lady in the kombi, throwing cats at people....

 and I ended up going through the store backwards. Not a good idea. When I wanted to go and find something I had seen earlier, do you think we could find it? Not a chance....

Since then, Matt and I have survived Christmas, and are soon to face New Years. I'm hoping to have a quiet one, celebrating New Zealand style at 9am Australian time, to wake with a fresh head and ready to perform my now annual ritual of felting my new diary cover for the year, incorporating all sorts of meaningful bits and pieces.
I hope you all have a pleasant start to 2013, and that the year brings creative goodness to all!
All the Best,
Svenja.

A box, a burger, and an overload of bling!

Last Sunday we set off on a mission to Chandler Markets to pick up our smoked salmon for Christmas, and any other treats or treasures we might find. In the first few rows of stalls, I came across this gem for $100.

Merry Christmas to meeeeeeee!!

I can't believe I actually had to think about it!! No, I don't really need it, but c'mon!! It's in pristine condition, has all the design lines for pattern draping on it, is my size, and it was $100 instead of the $500 it would normally cost me!! Mine. She'll be perfect in the new studio.
Next I snavelled the last 2 packets of Tasmanian smoked salmon, much to the annoyance of several other shoppers at the stall - sorry kids - you snooze you lose! Luckily I didn't wait to be served and just took them out of the esky - as the stallholder was saying to one customer "I think I've got a couple left in here" I waved them around and said, "Oh no you don't!!"
The rest of the weekend was spent playing with paper, pins and staples as I tried to lock in my design for WoW 2013. It's time to start making! Huge as this last week at work has been for Matt, he was determined to make progress with the studio - and here is the framework for the first wall!

This morning, I set off on an errand to pick up a wooden box for my mother from her friend on the other side of town. It always seems a little alien on the Northside, and I managed to go the scenic route due to my 5 year old refidex - there are a lot of new roads! Mission accomplished, I headed home to the more comfortable zone of the Southside, where I decided sustenance was required urgently, and that a Grill'd burger was just the thing. In a post-burger food coma, I decided that I really, really didn't feel like heading into work, so after a quick call to the boss, was let off the hook - yahoooo!! Well, I am up to date with everything, and it IS Christmas!! Loot was just down the road, and we'd wanted to go there, so it was only sensible to go - I were almost there! After admiring a patchwork 'Alice in Wonderland' style high-backed armchair in Far Pavilions I decided that as I was halfway to Sunnybank, it would also be sensible to go there to search for interesting Chinese and Indian shops. What a disappointment! Nothing but restaurants and normal shops! To cheer myself up, on the way home I decided to revisit the wonderful Indian shops I had found on Logan Road a week or so ago and possibly buy a sari. Here I had a wonderful experience at Kamalz Indian Fashion, where the two proprietors remembered me from my earlier visit, and welcomed me warmly.  Of course, one had to get the bangles to match, and also pictured is the evening bag our hostess kindly gave me on our way out - just fabulous! Such a gracious couple (we were even served glasses of water on a tray - most welcome in such hot weather)! I look forward to our next visit.

 Then the pièce de résistance for me - a stunning pink and green lacework sari.

The extra bit at the end of the sari for making your bodice and sleeves!

Stunning embroidery and embellishment on a variegated leaf green mesh

 Tomorrow I have another adventure day, starting off with visiting a new fabric shop in Eagleby, not that there's much left in the coffers for purchasing! Looking forward to another day on the road in the Magic Bus! If I don't manage an update after this - all the best for the festive season folks, and a new year of peace to you all.
Svenja