The lead-up: LaBricoleuse turns 3 with a New Look!

[labricoleuse]

Okay, there's a bad Dior pun in the title. Sorry.

This June will mark three years since i first began writing La Bricoleuse, and i have to say, i am really quite proud of what it's grown into.

I originally conceived of it as a forum for process-tracking and illumination of behind-the-scenes info on a fine arts career the very existence of which was (at the time, basically still is) largely overlooked or unknown: costume crafts artisanship.

In the past three years, the focus expanded to include all kinds of related info--reviews of exhibits and books and productions, spotlights on other artisans, info on pursuing higher education in the field, and the fluidly-defined "Ask LaBricoleuse," which functions somewhere between an agony-aunt column, letters to the editor, and a general FAQ.

I have a lot of nebulous ideas of what i'd like to do to mark three years of blogging here, but the first is already in place: a new custom layout and graphic signature!

If you read the posts through a feed or aggregate or LiveJournal friends-list, you won't have noticed (hence, the link), but a large amount of traffic is from search engines and click-through links to specific past posts; i wanted to establish a blog-specific look that was a bit more unique-looking than the standard style templates.

In order to give credit where credit is due, the new template was coded by grrliz with supporting graphics by gossymer. I made the header graphic myself, using a production photo of Mrs. Gardiner's parasol in the recent production of Pride & Prejudice.

And in related news, when i started labricoleuse, i was hard-pressed to find another blog covering any of the topics i wanted to read about--millinery, dyeing, mask-making, etc. Now though, there's a proliferation of them; every time i surf around i find a few more!

• Chapeau du Jour is the blog of Armando y Montez, and features amazingly creative blocked hat designs as well as illustrative photoessays on creating excellent millinery trims and garnitures.
  
  
• Denishe Hats is written by Denise Shea, a Massachusetts milliner who does custom commissions in straw and felt.
  
  
• Many Hatty Returns is a blog after my own heart, taking its cues from a basic focus on the history of millinery/hatmaking and headwear. MHR is written by Darla Sycamore, a hat history enthusiast whose nom du chapeau is "Alice Dickens." MHR also maintains a CafePress storefront selling notecards featuring 19th-century hat photography.
  
  
• Church Hats--the name says it all! This blog is maintained by Lola, a Chicago-based milliner with 40-plus years' experience designing and creating one-of-a-kind church hats.
  

Comments

[pinkveneer.livejournal.com]

thanks. the other hat is by susan bradford. (http://www.sheepskin-by-susan.com/sbhat.html) her site doesn't show her hats in the best light, but if you're ever at the cambridge artists co-op (just up the street from the loeb drama center) you can catch them there. oh, and i think susan uses romanoff sheep, not persian lamb.