Any Other Name

Whew. And with that, I'm done with classes, at least for a couple of weeks until they start up again. I'm working on a summer line, and my inner vision of what I'm creating is gelling up nicely.

This is probably a good time to elaborate on this "inner vision" nonsense I just mentioned. Often in the past, when I've been heavily creative, I've found that all of my creations have sort of locked together into an increasingly coherent collection of artifacts reproduced from an inner world, complete with its own cultures, people, flora and fauna. Worldbuilding (held entirely within my head) was my favorite pastime when I was in middle school, as it was the most entertaining thing I could do without writing or reading or otherwise looking distracted in class. I scraped through classes with my sanity barely intact, but with a great ability to flesh out entire places that could never exist, all the way down to crude beginnings of theories of physics that could explain the more fantastical things I'd create.

Since I've been increasingly productive with sewing (when I'm not slaving away at schoolwork), I've noticed that my inner focus is again resolving on a place, and this time my world actually somewhat meshes with some of the other artists in my immediate circle. The Collected Worlds artist co-op idea was initiated independently of me, but neatly coincided with my decision(discovery?) that the people I had been dreaming of were cross-dimensional Romani-like travelers. I'm very happy that there is a great deal of collaboration to be had on this theme.

I don't know if I'll go too much more into the details of this setting for my designs, other than to mention that it seems to be a natural extension or contextualization of my values in design - that is, practicality, durability, universality, innovation, and multi-sensory beauty. I should make some kind of catchy anagram.

This quarter, by the way, is looking a bit difficult - 20 credits, including physics, psychology, and two intensive spanish classes. I may need to focus on making base garments that I can modify/embellish in class as needed.

As for infrastructure development, I have filled my body cast with foam and will be finishing it off to make a dressform, I bought more fabric scraps, and I also bought a professional Flickr account because I had too many Maker Faire pictures to share! I invite you to take a look, as there are lots of fun pictures of the Faire, as well as projects past. Oo look, it's my catecholamine stencils! I wish I knew where I put those. They got lost sometime in the last move.

That's all for now, gentle readers. I hope to be putting new thngs up on the Etsy store soon, and you may be seeing a new model. I will (of course) mention it here when new things do go up, as well as offer a promotional code just for you, my readers.

I'm continuing to work on the curtains I promised to have done yesterday for a professor at my school, who needs them for privacy in his sculpting studio. This is the soothing kind of work I can use right now while I cope with the stress from the upcoming Interdimensional Art Show, where my friend Molly Porkshanks will be presenting shaman-inspired haute couture, and which I will be modeling for. I will be in character as a playful bird spirit guide, and my outfit is overwhelmingly awesome with EL wire and wings. I'm very much looking forward to this.

In return for making these curtains, I get to use my school's sculpture studio space to make my dress form! We took a body casting of me months ago, but PVA sealer and polyurethane foam are not exactly living room safe materials to be playing with. The sculpture yard is a superfund site anyway, and they also have containment and cleanup supplies that I wouldn't have if I sneakily did it in the parking lot behind my apartment complex. The kind professor does human form sculpture quite often, and has experience doing exactly this, though not necessarily with insulation foam!

Once I have a dress form, I'll be able to more quickly adjust clothing, which means I'll have more range in my designs. Right now, I try to make my designs as forgiving as possible of different body types to make up for the clumsy fitting. Honestly, even fine fitting will not fit most people - the variability of the human form is really astounding. However, being able to model to a real human form (rather than eyeballing it while it hangs on a chair or something) really helps.

When I move into a new apartment next month, I hope to be able to move my studio into a lighter and more spacious area. There are talks of getting a shared studio space locally with the artists involved with the Interdimensional Art Show. This is very exciting, as it means I might be able to stop watching for pins in my own bedroom!