A question for you

A question for you all...

As you may or may not know, my day job is as a model for college and museum life drawing classes. That means that I take off my clothes, and sit very very still while students try to make drawings and paintings of me. At the beginning of the semester, we're lucky if the resulting charcoal smears are vaguely human shaped. By this time of the process though, some of the figure studies are showing quite a bit of promise.

Here's the question. Sometimes the students let me take snapshots of their drawings. I have a tendency to post the pictures in my own portfolio, with their permission. Would it offend folks if I also occasionally shared them here? It is a creative endeavor that I am a partner in, and as such I'd like to be able to talk about it. But there is no 'cut' to put the images behind, like there is in live journal.

Buttons

Just for giggles, I'm adding a line of pinback buttons to my Etsy shop. Here are the two that went in tonight. I've got ideas for more to come!

Come to think of it...anyone have any pithy, original fiber arts related sayings that should be buttonized? If I like it and can use it, I'll send you a free button as payment.

Basic Fighter's Tunic

I have to admit, sewing doesn't really inspire me. I don't wake up in the middle of the night with the plans for a new sewing project jumping around in my brain, demanding to be let out RIGHT NOW, like happens for some of my other art forms. But still, I've learned how to do it. I've even taken a couple of classes on sewing and pattern making at the local community college, just to figure out how to do it right. Mostly, this is because of my involvement in the historical recreation community. For some reason, the local Wal-Mart doesn't carry much in the way of fashions from the 1300's, you know? You can't just run out and buy this stuff. It all has to be hand made.

So, I learned to sew for myself, and my family. It is easier to get just what you have in mind for a costume if you make it yourself. And every now and then, I can get talked into hiring out my seamstress talents. Like in this case. One of our newer sword fighters asked me if I could make a basic tunic to go over his armor. He wanted black, mid-thigh length, and his other colors were navy blue and white. This is what I came up with. It is made of a sturdy bottom weight, and all the seams are reinforced. There is a slit up the sides for mobility. I added a sturdy navy blue and white trim so he wouldn't split the side seam up further--that is one of the first spots to usually fail in this kind of tunic. Then I added the same trim to the front neck slit for the same purpose, and to the arms just for decoration. I didn't continue the trim all around the neck line though, since the bottom of his helm would rub against it and rip it up pretty quickly.

(The trim amuses me. That pattern, in heraldic speak, is called 'embattled'. Now, how perfect is that for a fighting tunic?)

A silk I'm not sure I'd collect...

Fascinating! Since I do textile artsy stuff, I keep my eyes open for what other folks are up to. I found this article this morning: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/23/arts/design/23spiders.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1 . It is about some folks who have made a gorgeous, golden brocaded cloth...out of spider silk. Can you imagine! It is beautiful, and terribly strong. But I'm not sure I'd want to go into spider farming any time soon.

Twisted fringe again

A while ago I did a little tutorial on how to make twisted fringe. For that project, it was easier to twist the fringe with my fingers as I went along, since it was a relatively thick yarn and only took a couple of twists for each fringe. But this time I'm making the fringe for a belt woven out of cotton crochet thread. I could do it by hand...but it is ever so much easier with the right gadget for the job. And I am all about fiber gadgets! In this case, I'm using a Leclerc fringe twister. It is basically two alligator clips attached to bent metal rods. The rods are spun by rotating the top piece of wood.

Here's how: Separate out an equal number of threads, and attach the clips to the ends.







Rotate the top piece of wood, which spins the clips and so twists the threads together in their separate batches. Count how many times you rotate the handle, so your fringe is consistent.









Undo the clips, and tie the two bundles of thread together at the ends.







Let go. The bundles will twist back on themselves, making a stable fringe element.










And here is the finished belt! This was card woven, which I'll get into another time. But it makes for a very strong, sturdy band. This one is 5 1/2 feet long, not including the fringe. That makes it a nice length on me to tie around the waist. I'll probably end up donating this one to a gift basket, or to the prize box for the local SCA group.

Stenciling class

My local SCA group has an arts night every first and third Thursday of the month. If someone knows something, they put together a class and share it. Otherwise, we sit around with our various projects and spend the time comparing notes and chatting. Tonight was one of the class nights. Lady Nastas'ia Volkovicha led us through the process of making stencils, and then using them to make matching t-shirts with the local group's 'war dragon' symbol on it.

First thing we did was to trace the war dragon onto poster board, and cut it out. I started out using a sharp pair of scissors.







I quickly found however, that an exacto knife worked much better for the detailed part of things.







We sprayed the back of the stencil with quilt basting spray, and stuck it down to our t-shirts. There is a piece of cardboard inside the shirt, so the paint doesn't bleed through to the back layer. Then, we used some cheap foam brushes and fabric paint, and pounced the paint on straight up and down.



Then back outside to spray glue the second part of the stencil. This is Nastas'ia, our fearless leader for the evening. She is spraying outside, so the glue fumes don't make the rest of us even sillier than we usually are.









We carefully placed the other part of the stencil over the (dried) red paint, and pounced in the white. This took a couple of coats, as the yellow kept bleeding through the white.






A handy hair dryer sped up the drying process.








After it was safe to touch, the stencil came off, and we used fabric paint straight out of the container to outline the pattern.











Finished shirt! Start to finish, less than three hours. The paint needs to sit for three days now, so it will cure and become washable.

This was really, really easy. My mind is spinning with possibilities...

A bit of this, a bit of that...

It has been kind a scattered couple of days here in the studio. I've had family members home sick, and I've had a touch of it myself, so time (and brain power) to focus on any one thing has been kind of hard to come by. But I took measurements for an over armor tunic that one of the local SCA fighters has commissioned. I scrubbed down another gourd, with the intent of turning this one into a candle holder. And I made up a set of felted juggling balls, to fill a request. The lady in question wanted a set of four balls instead of the set of three that I usually make. I was more than happy to put it together for her. In fact, here's a picture of the set in process.

Hmmmm...Can you tell which ball still needs the most felting work?