Parasols in the New Year! And some links.
Jan. 1st, 2008 11:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
labricoleuseHappy New Year, dear readership! Hope if you celebrate any midwinter holidays that those were lovely for you and yours as well.
I have been on a much-needed break from craftwork, running around doing holiday-related personal life stuff so thus, no project posts of late. The semester will be starting up soon though (next week, wow) and my course this time is "Decorative Arts"--glovemaking, shoes, parasols, jewelry, body padding and macropuppetry, all kinds of cool subjects coming up here.
Speaking of parasols, my parasol textbook will be available for purchase by month's end (perhaps as soon as the end of the week, in fact), and i would like to do some promotion for it. I plan to send out a press release to relevant publications and online fora. If you moderate an email list or BBoard whose readership would be interested in such a resource, edit or subscribe to a magazine or journal on related topics, or have any other suggestions of avenues for promotion, please comment and let me know! I'm starting a list.
Incidentally, i'm doing this whole thing myself through Lulu Publications, a print-on-demand publisher. I never even contacted any other "traditional" presses for a number of reasons. I wanted a quick turnaround to be able to use it in my class--i knew i would finish the manuscript in the summer or early fall, and knew the parasol class was going to start within a few months of its completion. The target audience of the book is a small one--really, the only people guaranteed to need it are the six students who take my graduate seminar in Decorative Arts every other year. Certainly that readership is potentially larger--however many costumers and propbuilders out there might care about how to create custom parasols, probably some of the folk involved in Civil War reenacting or Victorian historical costuming societies, etc.--but it's never going to be a book that sells huge numbers of copies or that would be financially sensible for any traditional press to invest in publishing. Thankfully, i live in this fascining modern age that allows me to write a book and put it out through a resource like Lulu, making it easily available to any of those folks who might want it. Hence, my desire to do some very minimial promotion--i know if I could have found a book with this information in it, i wouldn't have written it myself. Surely there are others in my former predicament!
Anyhow, i have a couple of links i wanted to share as well.
Caesar's Super-Glue
Monsters and Critics' science section had a fun article recently about the discovery of an extraordinary adhesive compound developed by the ancient Romans. Apparently they used this stuff to adhere ornaments onto helmets and other battle gear. According to the article, "despite such a long exposure to water, time and air, the superglue did not lose its bonding properties." My feeling is, where can i buy a tube of this stuff? :D
ETA:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mmcnealy had trouble with the above link (still works ok for me) and provided an alternate link to this story, here. Thanks!
blog.mode: addressing fashion
This is a fascinating exhibit that's right up my alley at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute right now (through April 13, 2008), juxtaposing art and fashion exhibition with the online medium of blogging! You can go to the museum and see the exhibit itself in-person (and record your thoughts and responses in a comment to the exhibit's blog via computers in situ if you wish) but you can also participate online. Curators or museum professionals post every few days about another piece in the exhibit--several detailed photos, historical background, some analysis or explanations--and every post is open for (screened) comments by readers! In the sidebar you can see thumbnails of posts already blogged, as well as thumbnails of upcoming posts--mouse over them to see the date on which a particular forthcoming piece will be blogged! This introductory post explains more fully the concept behind the exhibition. There's an RSS feed as well, which might be a cool way to experience the exhibition serially, particularly if you won't find yourself in NYC before it closes but still want to read all about its featured pieces!
Ok, 2008, here we go!
I have been on a much-needed break from craftwork, running around doing holiday-related personal life stuff so thus, no project posts of late. The semester will be starting up soon though (next week, wow) and my course this time is "Decorative Arts"--glovemaking, shoes, parasols, jewelry, body padding and macropuppetry, all kinds of cool subjects coming up here.
Speaking of parasols, my parasol textbook will be available for purchase by month's end (perhaps as soon as the end of the week, in fact), and i would like to do some promotion for it. I plan to send out a press release to relevant publications and online fora. If you moderate an email list or BBoard whose readership would be interested in such a resource, edit or subscribe to a magazine or journal on related topics, or have any other suggestions of avenues for promotion, please comment and let me know! I'm starting a list.
Incidentally, i'm doing this whole thing myself through Lulu Publications, a print-on-demand publisher. I never even contacted any other "traditional" presses for a number of reasons. I wanted a quick turnaround to be able to use it in my class--i knew i would finish the manuscript in the summer or early fall, and knew the parasol class was going to start within a few months of its completion. The target audience of the book is a small one--really, the only people guaranteed to need it are the six students who take my graduate seminar in Decorative Arts every other year. Certainly that readership is potentially larger--however many costumers and propbuilders out there might care about how to create custom parasols, probably some of the folk involved in Civil War reenacting or Victorian historical costuming societies, etc.--but it's never going to be a book that sells huge numbers of copies or that would be financially sensible for any traditional press to invest in publishing. Thankfully, i live in this fascining modern age that allows me to write a book and put it out through a resource like Lulu, making it easily available to any of those folks who might want it. Hence, my desire to do some very minimial promotion--i know if I could have found a book with this information in it, i wouldn't have written it myself. Surely there are others in my former predicament!
Anyhow, i have a couple of links i wanted to share as well.
Caesar's Super-Glue
Monsters and Critics' science section had a fun article recently about the discovery of an extraordinary adhesive compound developed by the ancient Romans. Apparently they used this stuff to adhere ornaments onto helmets and other battle gear. According to the article, "despite such a long exposure to water, time and air, the superglue did not lose its bonding properties." My feeling is, where can i buy a tube of this stuff? :D
ETA:
mmcnealy had trouble with the above link (still works ok for me) and provided an alternate link to this story, here. Thanks!blog.mode: addressing fashion
This is a fascinating exhibit that's right up my alley at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute right now (through April 13, 2008), juxtaposing art and fashion exhibition with the online medium of blogging! You can go to the museum and see the exhibit itself in-person (and record your thoughts and responses in a comment to the exhibit's blog via computers in situ if you wish) but you can also participate online. Curators or museum professionals post every few days about another piece in the exhibit--several detailed photos, historical background, some analysis or explanations--and every post is open for (screened) comments by readers! In the sidebar you can see thumbnails of posts already blogged, as well as thumbnails of upcoming posts--mouse over them to see the date on which a particular forthcoming piece will be blogged! This introductory post explains more fully the concept behind the exhibition. There's an RSS feed as well, which might be a cool way to experience the exhibition serially, particularly if you won't find yourself in NYC before it closes but still want to read all about its featured pieces!
Ok, 2008, here we go!
