![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
So far, i've posted about using pinterest as a design tool in initial communication of visual research in costume conception, and a look at the development of the costume design for the character of Sally Applewhite. Today, let's take a look at the second of the two ladies in the cast: Lana Sherwood, played by Katja Hill. ( Read more... )
Some time back at the beginning of the design process, i posted about using pinterest as a design tool in initial communication of visual research in costume conception, for an upcoming production of It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play. The play's dramatic conceit is that it presents a "radio play" version of the classic film's story, in which the audience in the theatre functions as the "live studio audience" complete with interaction like Applause-sign responses and so forth. The broadcast is ostensibly happening on Christmas Eve, 1946. Five actors voice all of the roles and the play runs straight through with actual commercial breaks, just like a radio play would have. So, all the characters only have the one costume and very few props and pieces to work with in creating the world of It's a Wonderful Life.
The show, opening at PlayMakers this Saturday night, now exists as an entity in terms of the costumes, and I thought it would be fun to write about how the designs moved from blobs of research images to real costumes worn by actual people.
First, let's take a look at one of the ladies in the cast: Sally Applewhite, played by Maren Searle. ( Read more... )
The show, opening at PlayMakers this Saturday night, now exists as an entity in terms of the costumes, and I thought it would be fun to write about how the designs moved from blobs of research images to real costumes worn by actual people.
First, let's take a look at one of the ladies in the cast: Sally Applewhite, played by Maren Searle. ( Read more... )
Millinery class: wire-frame projects
Nov. 17th, 2012 03:38 pmMy millinery students presented wire-frame projects this past week, and i have a few photos to share.
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
Class: wig/hat hybrids
Oct. 30th, 2012 12:55 pmMy millinery class presented their third round of projects today, of which i have three images to share: a Muppet wig, a steampunk-dreadlock creation, and a commodore dog hat. The premise of the project is to address a costume element which relates to hair, but which in theatre would not be solved by traditional wigmaking. Students use millinery principles and craftwork techniques to create a wearable object.
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
Casting a hat block in 2-part rigid foam
Oct. 11th, 2012 04:28 pmSecond-year graduate student Candy McClernan already took my graduate millinery class some years ago, before applying to the program. Now that she's an enrolled graduate student, rather than just coast through a semester having already earned that credit, she decided to do a devised independent study: "Millinery II," if you will.
She has been working on several exciting projects as part of her research, and recently completed one of the topics on her list: replicating a vintage hat block by casting it in Foam-It 5, a two-part rigid foam.
( Read more... )
She has been working on several exciting projects as part of her research, and recently completed one of the topics on her list: replicating a vintage hat block by casting it in Foam-It 5, a two-part rigid foam.
( Read more... )
Class: Blocked hat projects!
Oct. 2nd, 2012 04:04 pmMy millinery students presented blocked hats this morning, and wow! They did some great work!
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
Two more buckram hats
Sep. 18th, 2012 12:39 pmTwo more quick pix of some of my students' buckram hat projects.
Buckram hat in Chinese brocade after a Buddhist school hat, by second year Leah Pelz
Buckram hat trimmed in silk shantung, ostrich plumes, and fox tails after a hat
from the film The Duchess (2008), by first-year grad Denise Dreher
Buckram hat in Chinese brocade after a Buddhist school hat, by second year Leah Pelz
Buckram hat trimmed in silk shantung, ostrich plumes, and fox tails after a hat
from the film The Duchess (2008), by first-year grad Denise Dreher
Class Projects: Buckram foundations
Sep. 15th, 2012 08:56 amThe topic of this semester's crafts class is millinery, and i have a wonderful group of students! Everyone's projects turned out fantastic for their first round, buckram foundations. Unfortunately, not all of my photos of them did.
The unit requires them to make a fascinator, a pillbox, and a more complex structure. By this means, they practice techniques like manipulating buckram shapes and wiring and mulling, on progressively complex forms. I have a massive class this time around--usually my enrollment is capped at six students but in this one i have eight: five graduates, two undergraduates, and our wardrobe supervisor. Everyone came to the class with a range of experience, from folks who had never made a hat before to those with previous millinery experience, and two who have already worked as my assistant milliner on mainstage shows.
Here are some photos that did turn out well of their projects.
( Read more... )
The unit requires them to make a fascinator, a pillbox, and a more complex structure. By this means, they practice techniques like manipulating buckram shapes and wiring and mulling, on progressively complex forms. I have a massive class this time around--usually my enrollment is capped at six students but in this one i have eight: five graduates, two undergraduates, and our wardrobe supervisor. Everyone came to the class with a range of experience, from folks who had never made a hat before to those with previous millinery experience, and two who have already worked as my assistant milliner on mainstage shows.
Here are some photos that did turn out well of their projects.
( Read more... )
Conformateur for J. B. Mast Co.
Aug. 31st, 2012 10:28 amOne of my former graduate students, Randy Handley, recently purchased an antique Allie-Maillard conformateur. I had the good fortune to be able to inspect and photograph it while recently visiting him, and an interesting historical twist presented itself.
I've been researching conformateurs for quite a while, and particularly since i acquired my own. I've gotten pretty good at taxonomizing differences between models and dating their age and original likely retail value based on things like whether they have a brass nameplate or a mother of pearl nameplate, mostly wooden keys or mostly brass keys or even mother-of-pearl-inlaid keys. Randy's conformateur had one element to it that is new to me though. Let's take a look...
( Read more... )
I've been researching conformateurs for quite a while, and particularly since i acquired my own. I've gotten pretty good at taxonomizing differences between models and dating their age and original likely retail value based on things like whether they have a brass nameplate or a mother of pearl nameplate, mostly wooden keys or mostly brass keys or even mother-of-pearl-inlaid keys. Randy's conformateur had one element to it that is new to me though. Let's take a look...
( Read more... )
While traveling and researching in the UK last month, I had the good fortune to check out the current exhibit at the Stockport Hat Museum, Hot Heads - Inspirational British Millinery, running through December 30 and showcasing ten of Britain's most talented contemporary milliners.
Each milliner has a single display case in which three to five hats are shown. Of course Stephen Jones and Philip Treacy had hats on display, and it was lovely to have the opportunity to get up close to their work, but in the world of couture millinery they are everywhere and expected--i was more excited about being able to see up-close the work of a couple lesser-known British milliners: Zara Gorman and J. Smith Esq. Gorman's display includes her acrylic, wood, and leather hats, while Smith's features a topper of fur and bone and a stained glass effect hat. In both cases the designs are striking and inspiring, but in both cases I admit to being a bit disenchanted at the finishing quality upon close inspection. Then again, both milliners are early in their careers and who knows what kind of runway shows the hats had been subjected to before display.
In addition to the displays, a video room loops three related videos featuring milliners Philip Treacy and Stephen Jones. Though i was not allowed to take photographs of the hats on display, thanks to YouTube and SHOWstudio i can share the videos.
Deborah Miller, a workroom milliner at Stephen Jones' atelier, making one of his signature designs.
In the second video, Philip Treacy talks about hatmaking while he creates a "feather salad" hat in real time. In this film, Treacy pulls out a roll of sparterie (aka willow, spartre, etc) and says he buys it from Japan. For all of us eternally on the hunt for a sparterie source, there's a lead! You can watch how he shapes his signature feathers as he talks, and there's some wonderful advice and reminiscence.
The third and final video in the exhibit is Stephen Jones presents "Glamour on a Budget, which is amusing enough I suppose but not nearly as educational from a skilled milliner's standpoint as the two others. It's more of a glimpse into Jones' personality than his craft.
In addition to the featured milliners, there is also a display of excellent designs by Welsh milliner Kate Jones of Milliflorae. Her hat of wood veneer curls won first runner up in the Talenthouse/Vogue/Stephen Jones millinery competition and I appreciated being able to see it up close as well--really lovely! Too bad her website mispells Stephen Jones' name in its splash page slide show...
In general, if you find yourself in the UK a visit to the Stockport museum is always worthwhile--i learn something new every time, even in perusing the permanent collection, and this current exhibit is worth a look for sure!
Each milliner has a single display case in which three to five hats are shown. Of course Stephen Jones and Philip Treacy had hats on display, and it was lovely to have the opportunity to get up close to their work, but in the world of couture millinery they are everywhere and expected--i was more excited about being able to see up-close the work of a couple lesser-known British milliners: Zara Gorman and J. Smith Esq. Gorman's display includes her acrylic, wood, and leather hats, while Smith's features a topper of fur and bone and a stained glass effect hat. In both cases the designs are striking and inspiring, but in both cases I admit to being a bit disenchanted at the finishing quality upon close inspection. Then again, both milliners are early in their careers and who knows what kind of runway shows the hats had been subjected to before display.
In addition to the displays, a video room loops three related videos featuring milliners Philip Treacy and Stephen Jones. Though i was not allowed to take photographs of the hats on display, thanks to YouTube and SHOWstudio i can share the videos.
Deborah Miller, a workroom milliner at Stephen Jones' atelier, making one of his signature designs.
In the second video, Philip Treacy talks about hatmaking while he creates a "feather salad" hat in real time. In this film, Treacy pulls out a roll of sparterie (aka willow, spartre, etc) and says he buys it from Japan. For all of us eternally on the hunt for a sparterie source, there's a lead! You can watch how he shapes his signature feathers as he talks, and there's some wonderful advice and reminiscence.
The third and final video in the exhibit is Stephen Jones presents "Glamour on a Budget, which is amusing enough I suppose but not nearly as educational from a skilled milliner's standpoint as the two others. It's more of a glimpse into Jones' personality than his craft.
In addition to the featured milliners, there is also a display of excellent designs by Welsh milliner Kate Jones of Milliflorae. Her hat of wood veneer curls won first runner up in the Talenthouse/Vogue/Stephen Jones millinery competition and I appreciated being able to see it up close as well--really lovely! Too bad her website mispells Stephen Jones' name in its splash page slide show...
In general, if you find yourself in the UK a visit to the Stockport museum is always worthwhile--i learn something new every time, even in perusing the permanent collection, and this current exhibit is worth a look for sure!
Artisan focus: H'atelier, Manchester UK
Jul. 8th, 2012 11:09 amWhen i was in Manchester at the end of June, I had the opportunity to visit h'atelier, the boutique studio of resident milliner Jen Scott Russell. She works entirely in one-of-a-kind and bespoke hats--her studio is full of handmade hat designs displayed in a fun but elegant atmosphere.
What I particularly loved about the retail space was the shared presence of her workspace--customers and browsers are in this way afforded a view of her hats in progress, the blocks all stacked into cube shelves, the trimmings and feather boxes, the blocking station, and so forth. This is a savvy move, i think, in that people want to see what goes into the making of a hat--they don't appear fully formed from some millinery egg, and they aren't just flung together with spit and hot glue (or at least, not at the level of quality that h'atelier produces). By giving her clients the option to observe her artistry and artisanship, Ms. Scott Russell provides a lagniappe to the standard millinery experience.
I took several shots of the shop and workspace which are included below, and should you find yourself in Manchester, h'atelier is a millinery must-see!
( Read more... )
What I particularly loved about the retail space was the shared presence of her workspace--customers and browsers are in this way afforded a view of her hats in progress, the blocks all stacked into cube shelves, the trimmings and feather boxes, the blocking station, and so forth. This is a savvy move, i think, in that people want to see what goes into the making of a hat--they don't appear fully formed from some millinery egg, and they aren't just flung together with spit and hot glue (or at least, not at the level of quality that h'atelier produces). By giving her clients the option to observe her artistry and artisanship, Ms. Scott Russell provides a lagniappe to the standard millinery experience.
I took several shots of the shop and workspace which are included below, and should you find yourself in Manchester, h'atelier is a millinery must-see!
( Read more... )
Hat museum archives, Stockport, UK
Jul. 3rd, 2012 01:36 pmI've posted before about the hat museum in Stockport, UK, from the perspective of a museum visitor (Reader's Digest version: well worth the trip for anyone who loves hats), but this year, i returned as a scholar.
The museum has an archive of hat resources and a study room, which you may peruse by appointment. I did exactly that last week, and had a fantastic experience poring over old documents, reference books, catalogues and the like.
The archive is not huge--25 archival boxes, a row of hanging files, and a full cabinet of books and periodicals--and largely pertains to the historical hatting industry in the UK, with minor sections on other European countries. The information mostly pertains to mens hat production as opposed to ladies millinery, and it was extensive enough to keep me busy for a full 7-hour day (the museum was open from 10am-5pm).
I spent the majority of my time sifting through loose documents stored in archival boxes--these are sorted generally by subject but not taxonomized. For example, a box might be described as "industrial equipment and tools" and all the papers and catalogues inside pertain to that topic. So, from a researcher's perspective, if you have specific areas of interest, it's easy to determine which boxes might contain items of relevance to your research.
Once you open a box, the documents inside are not yet catalogued or databased. One of the curatorial assistants said they had plans to do so, but as with all institutions time and money were short. I didn't mind this though--there's something more like a treasure hunt about sifting through such things, and the nature of serendipity can provide the opportunity to chance upon something randomly fantastic that you might not have otherwise found, had you just gone directly to the document you needed.
( Read more... )
The museum has an archive of hat resources and a study room, which you may peruse by appointment. I did exactly that last week, and had a fantastic experience poring over old documents, reference books, catalogues and the like.
The archive is not huge--25 archival boxes, a row of hanging files, and a full cabinet of books and periodicals--and largely pertains to the historical hatting industry in the UK, with minor sections on other European countries. The information mostly pertains to mens hat production as opposed to ladies millinery, and it was extensive enough to keep me busy for a full 7-hour day (the museum was open from 10am-5pm).
I spent the majority of my time sifting through loose documents stored in archival boxes--these are sorted generally by subject but not taxonomized. For example, a box might be described as "industrial equipment and tools" and all the papers and catalogues inside pertain to that topic. So, from a researcher's perspective, if you have specific areas of interest, it's easy to determine which boxes might contain items of relevance to your research.
Once you open a box, the documents inside are not yet catalogued or databased. One of the curatorial assistants said they had plans to do so, but as with all institutions time and money were short. I didn't mind this though--there's something more like a treasure hunt about sifting through such things, and the nature of serendipity can provide the opportunity to chance upon something randomly fantastic that you might not have otherwise found, had you just gone directly to the document you needed.
( Read more... )
In April, i spoke to the Durham-Orange Quilters Guild about costume craft artisanship, and part of my presentation involved providing them with a PDF of Ruby Carnahan's 1952 pattern, Hat for Ship and Shore. That pattern is one of my favorites, in that it illustrates so well how the most simple shapes can create the most versatile and sophisticated hats, and the hats made from it can be formal or casual, packable, easily reworkable by changing out a garniture, just SO full of potential for a milliner of any sewing skill level.
(Recall if you will that this pattern originally came to my attention from Barcelona milliner Cristina de Prada, in this blog post of hers. You can see Cristina's versions of this pattern as well as that of her colleague Nina Pawlowsky here.)
In doing that presentation, i was reminded of how much i love the hats i've made from that pattern, that i wear them perhaps more than any other hats, and i thought i might make a couple as birthday gifts and for my upcoming trip abroad. (I'm spending July in the UK again so there will be perhaps some posts on UK milliners and museums coming soon.)
The Carnahan hat is a one-piece pattern cut once in fashion fabric and once in lining, or twice in fashion fabrics for a reversible version. The first step in a successful iteration of this hat is fabric choice--too lightweight and it looks like a child's party hat. Which is fine if you are making a child a party hat, but most of the time that's not the goal. I have made this hat in several upholstery-weight fabrics and once in a sturdy herringbone denim (which i LOVE for an upscale casual look). In this post i'm going to show a couple of tips on using home-dec fabrics for this hat, and another unusual fabric that worked great.
Maybe a month or two ago, my coworker and I took a reconnaissance mission/field trip to Loomcraft Textiles, a large home-dec fabric outlet on I-40 near Burlington, NC, which Piedmont residents may recognize from a HUGE sign on the front that says "FREE FABRICS!" They do indeed have a large bin of free remnants of about a yard or two in length, and also an enormous warehouse of mill ends and short bolts and deep discounts. My coworker grabbed a couple pieces from the bin to use to make a dog bed, but my mind was on hats! I chose a couple lengths of heavy chenilled fabric of the sort used to upholster a couch.
( Read more... )
(Recall if you will that this pattern originally came to my attention from Barcelona milliner Cristina de Prada, in this blog post of hers. You can see Cristina's versions of this pattern as well as that of her colleague Nina Pawlowsky here.)
In doing that presentation, i was reminded of how much i love the hats i've made from that pattern, that i wear them perhaps more than any other hats, and i thought i might make a couple as birthday gifts and for my upcoming trip abroad. (I'm spending July in the UK again so there will be perhaps some posts on UK milliners and museums coming soon.)
The Carnahan hat is a one-piece pattern cut once in fashion fabric and once in lining, or twice in fashion fabrics for a reversible version. The first step in a successful iteration of this hat is fabric choice--too lightweight and it looks like a child's party hat. Which is fine if you are making a child a party hat, but most of the time that's not the goal. I have made this hat in several upholstery-weight fabrics and once in a sturdy herringbone denim (which i LOVE for an upscale casual look). In this post i'm going to show a couple of tips on using home-dec fabrics for this hat, and another unusual fabric that worked great.
Maybe a month or two ago, my coworker and I took a reconnaissance mission/field trip to Loomcraft Textiles, a large home-dec fabric outlet on I-40 near Burlington, NC, which Piedmont residents may recognize from a HUGE sign on the front that says "FREE FABRICS!" They do indeed have a large bin of free remnants of about a yard or two in length, and also an enormous warehouse of mill ends and short bolts and deep discounts. My coworker grabbed a couple pieces from the bin to use to make a dog bed, but my mind was on hats! I chose a couple lengths of heavy chenilled fabric of the sort used to upholster a couch.
( Read more... )
For my fortieth birthday last week, my dearest friend from highschool and i planned a special vacation--a retreat to the Grove Park Inn resort and spa in Asheville, NC. I could wax rhapsodic for pages about the beauty of the mountains, the fascinating history of the inn itself [1], the beautiful Mission style antiques filling every room and hallway and lounge, and the relaxing mineral spring pools in the spa. But, this blog is about craftwork, and the relevant info here is found in the galleries and art studios in the Asheville area.
The Grovewood Gallery is located on the grounds of the Inn, and features the work of over 500 artists and artisans in its 9000-ft gallery space. The buildings in which the gallery is housed were once the home of the Biltmore Industries' renowned weaving and woodworking facilities, and exhibits about the history of those workshops may be found both in the gallery itself and next door in the Homespun Museum installation.
As you can imagine, there's almost too much to look at--jewelry, furniture, stained glass panels and lamps, sculpture, paintings, pottery, fiber art and other wearables, you name it. One of my favorite artists featured is Ellyn Bernstein, who keeps a farm in Henderson, NC, and uses the wool of her sheep to create wearable art through the nuno felting technique.
Essentially, nuno felting is a variation on the traditional wool felting process in which woven silk serves as an integral part of the finished textile. Because the wool fibers shrink up and the silk fibers do not, the textural nature of the finished piece has a very interesting depth and complexity to it. Ellyn has an excellent overview page of her process on her website, here. She studied art and design in college and spent 13 years as a successful painter in Charlotte, NC, before embarking on the new focus of farming.
"With this change in my life, my medium changed," Ellyn says. "The sheep that I was now caring for were to be put to work and my felting began." She is involved in all steps of her process, from raising the sheep which provide the wool, to dyeing the fibers she uses to make her creations, creating the garment patterns, felting, sewing, embroidering, hand-finishig, you name it.
What really drew me to Ellyn's display at the Grovewood was a collection of her felt hats. As a milliner, I am always drawn to hats, but often i find in the arts/crafts gallery realm, the stylistic focus of the pieces displayed can be...well, fairly ordinary. The pieces tend to be made from beautiful materials, yes, but show a pedestrian millinery sensibility, and from a fashion standpoint can be utilitarian or even staid. Hand knitted caps, felted bretons and berets, with ornamentation that comes off as rote: a single fabric flower perhaps, a pompom or tassel. Which, fine, everyone wants warm ears in the wintertime but where's the adventure or the spark in a knit toboggan, no matter how cool the yarn from which it is made?
This is where Ellyn's work really leapt off the shelf: her shapes are far more adventurous and contain an element of the glamourous, often peaked and folded into dramatic shapes reminiscent of the svelte cloches, whimsical toques, exotic turbans, and sophisticated bicornes of 1920s millinery.
( Read more... )
The Grovewood Gallery is located on the grounds of the Inn, and features the work of over 500 artists and artisans in its 9000-ft gallery space. The buildings in which the gallery is housed were once the home of the Biltmore Industries' renowned weaving and woodworking facilities, and exhibits about the history of those workshops may be found both in the gallery itself and next door in the Homespun Museum installation.
As you can imagine, there's almost too much to look at--jewelry, furniture, stained glass panels and lamps, sculpture, paintings, pottery, fiber art and other wearables, you name it. One of my favorite artists featured is Ellyn Bernstein, who keeps a farm in Henderson, NC, and uses the wool of her sheep to create wearable art through the nuno felting technique.
Essentially, nuno felting is a variation on the traditional wool felting process in which woven silk serves as an integral part of the finished textile. Because the wool fibers shrink up and the silk fibers do not, the textural nature of the finished piece has a very interesting depth and complexity to it. Ellyn has an excellent overview page of her process on her website, here. She studied art and design in college and spent 13 years as a successful painter in Charlotte, NC, before embarking on the new focus of farming.
"With this change in my life, my medium changed," Ellyn says. "The sheep that I was now caring for were to be put to work and my felting began." She is involved in all steps of her process, from raising the sheep which provide the wool, to dyeing the fibers she uses to make her creations, creating the garment patterns, felting, sewing, embroidering, hand-finishig, you name it.
What really drew me to Ellyn's display at the Grovewood was a collection of her felt hats. As a milliner, I am always drawn to hats, but often i find in the arts/crafts gallery realm, the stylistic focus of the pieces displayed can be...well, fairly ordinary. The pieces tend to be made from beautiful materials, yes, but show a pedestrian millinery sensibility, and from a fashion standpoint can be utilitarian or even staid. Hand knitted caps, felted bretons and berets, with ornamentation that comes off as rote: a single fabric flower perhaps, a pompom or tassel. Which, fine, everyone wants warm ears in the wintertime but where's the adventure or the spark in a knit toboggan, no matter how cool the yarn from which it is made?
This is where Ellyn's work really leapt off the shelf: her shapes are far more adventurous and contain an element of the glamourous, often peaked and folded into dramatic shapes reminiscent of the svelte cloches, whimsical toques, exotic turbans, and sophisticated bicornes of 1920s millinery.
( Read more... )
I'm so pleased to have a new installment of the Interviews series, this time with milliner Jan Wutkowski. Jan is not only a working milliner but also maintains a busy teaching schedule of millinery classes all over the country and internationally, and owns and operates her own boutique, aMuse: artisanal finery. Here's what she had to say about the art and the craft of millinery.
Q. How long have you been designing hats, and how did you get started?
I was very fortunate to live in Australia in 1995. For the first 6 months I lived in Brisbane, Queensland, and was actively looking for something to study and immerse myself in--some artistic skill to bring back to the US and try to make a living at. Living there seemed like such a fairy tale anyway, I mean, who gets to go live in Australia for a year and have nothing to do but have a great time and learn as much as you can? I looked into taking classes in the old craft of applying gold leaf to frames, statues, chairs, and other objets d'art, but it just didn't seem right for me.
I then moved to Melbourne, Victoria, for the remaining 6 months, and was lucky enough to live just a couple of blocks from an amazing working craft gallery. Lots of artists showing how they created their work--spinners, printmakers, blacksmiths, glass blowers, and milliners, all under one roof. Every week I'd go to the gallery and watch the milliners blocking straws and felts, covering buckram, and many other millinery skills. The next week I'd go back and see the finished product waiting for someone to purchase it. I was amazed! But I contacted the millinery school because I found out they could teach me to make handmade felt, not to learn to make hats. I'd never even heard of handmade felt until I moved Australia, but quickly fell in love with the whole process.
After I took the feltmaking class I enrolled in the millinery classes. I had been a collector of vintage hats for years and loved to wear them, but it had never occurred to me at all as to how they were made; I just knew I loved these little works of art, little sculptures you put on your head. I'm also one of those souls who have tried every art and craft around but I'd always lose interest after the first year or so. Millinery? It stuck and I've never looked back.
( Read more... )
Q. How long have you been designing hats, and how did you get started?
I was very fortunate to live in Australia in 1995. For the first 6 months I lived in Brisbane, Queensland, and was actively looking for something to study and immerse myself in--some artistic skill to bring back to the US and try to make a living at. Living there seemed like such a fairy tale anyway, I mean, who gets to go live in Australia for a year and have nothing to do but have a great time and learn as much as you can? I looked into taking classes in the old craft of applying gold leaf to frames, statues, chairs, and other objets d'art, but it just didn't seem right for me.
I then moved to Melbourne, Victoria, for the remaining 6 months, and was lucky enough to live just a couple of blocks from an amazing working craft gallery. Lots of artists showing how they created their work--spinners, printmakers, blacksmiths, glass blowers, and milliners, all under one roof. Every week I'd go to the gallery and watch the milliners blocking straws and felts, covering buckram, and many other millinery skills. The next week I'd go back and see the finished product waiting for someone to purchase it. I was amazed! But I contacted the millinery school because I found out they could teach me to make handmade felt, not to learn to make hats. I'd never even heard of handmade felt until I moved Australia, but quickly fell in love with the whole process.
After I took the feltmaking class I enrolled in the millinery classes. I had been a collector of vintage hats for years and loved to wear them, but it had never occurred to me at all as to how they were made; I just knew I loved these little works of art, little sculptures you put on your head. I'm also one of those souls who have tried every art and craft around but I'd always lose interest after the first year or so. Millinery? It stuck and I've never looked back.
( Read more... )
First up, congratulations to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
puppetmaker40, the winner of my first-ever book giveaway contest for a copy of Margaret Peot's Successful Artist's Career Guide. And, I hope a few of the rest of you check the book out as well. I'm very excited to incorporate it into my classes in the fall.
Next, a signal-booting announcement. Remember back when Talenthouse hosted the Stephen Jones millinery contest? They've partnered with another famous milliner, Dillon Wallwork, and UK's excellent HATalk E-Magazine [1] to host another millinery contest in honor of Queen Elizabeth II's upcoming Diamond Jubilee! Very excited to see the visibility of millinery and hat-wearing on the rise.
You can enter the contest here through May 3rd, with voting set to run from the 4th through the 11th. First prize winner receives free enrollment at one of Mr. Wallwork's famous millinery courses at Chateau Dumas. Swoon. Really looking forward to this contest, as i'm hoping it will be a similar sort of fantastic cross-section of milliners around the world!
[1] I suppose in the interest of full disclosure, i was a featured Milliner of the Month some years back in HATalk, but i am otherwise unaffiliated with them or anyone else hosting these contests. Just a chapeauphile and interested milliner is all.
puppetmaker40, the winner of my first-ever book giveaway contest for a copy of Margaret Peot's Successful Artist's Career Guide. And, I hope a few of the rest of you check the book out as well. I'm very excited to incorporate it into my classes in the fall.Next, a signal-booting announcement. Remember back when Talenthouse hosted the Stephen Jones millinery contest? They've partnered with another famous milliner, Dillon Wallwork, and UK's excellent HATalk E-Magazine [1] to host another millinery contest in honor of Queen Elizabeth II's upcoming Diamond Jubilee! Very excited to see the visibility of millinery and hat-wearing on the rise.
You can enter the contest here through May 3rd, with voting set to run from the 4th through the 11th. First prize winner receives free enrollment at one of Mr. Wallwork's famous millinery courses at Chateau Dumas. Swoon. Really looking forward to this contest, as i'm hoping it will be a similar sort of fantastic cross-section of milliners around the world!
[1] I suppose in the interest of full disclosure, i was a featured Milliner of the Month some years back in HATalk, but i am otherwise unaffiliated with them or anyone else hosting these contests. Just a chapeauphile and interested milliner is all.
Some time ago, i had the incredible good fortune to obtain that most coveted of custom hatter's tools, a conformateur. Mine is handmade of ebony and brass with mother-of-pearl carved fittings; it's a very early model, the Allie Aine invented in France in 1844 (mine has a date stamp of 1846). This conformateur is in amazing condition, with only minimal repairs required.
If you are unfamiliar with exactly what a conformateur is, does, and looks like, check out this great post by Tricia Roush of House of Nines Design about her recent conformateur acquisition, an Argentinian model by a maker named Vega.
But this post is not about the conformateur itself, rather it's about a recent minor repair which definitely makes me feel like i'm living in the future.
( Read more... )
If you are unfamiliar with exactly what a conformateur is, does, and looks like, check out this great post by Tricia Roush of House of Nines Design about her recent conformateur acquisition, an Argentinian model by a maker named Vega.
But this post is not about the conformateur itself, rather it's about a recent minor repair which definitely makes me feel like i'm living in the future.
( Read more... )
Digital fabric design: where do i begin?
Jan. 12th, 2012 06:49 amIf you follow what's going on in the technical theatre industry at conferences such as USITT, and via blogs like this one and other media, you've seen a growing number of examples of the use of digital fabric printing. From Disney's sublimation printing department, to fabric yardage pre-printed with age for regional theatre, to reproducing historical folding fans by digitally printing the designs onto silk, i've covered ever more of this type of work of late.
It's clear that theatrical costume designers and crafts artisans need to develop a familiarity with the processes of digital textile design and printing [1]. I've begun to encourage my students to take on projects that involve elements of digital textile print design, like this fan leaf design by first year grad student Leah Pelz
But it does beg the question: how does one learn how to go about such things? Obviously digital fabric design classes are out there, offered through a college of textiles, but that's not an option for most of us working in the field.
I received two books for Christmas which might be of help, if you're hoping to get some grounding in textile design to actualize the kinds of projects that present themselves in the course of costume production. Neither are ideal for theatre artists, but then again, we're not exactly a huge demographic. Both are useful in different ways, and laid out in such a way that you can pick and choose what you need from them to get done what you need doing.
The first is A Field Guide to Fabric Design by Kimberly Kight. Kim is the author of the blog TrueUp, which also hosts a fabric design forum for discussion of relevant topics. The book purports to deal with designing fabric "for quilting, home dec, & apparel," and it's a pretty succinct overview.
I will admit an aesthetic bias, before i even get to the content: I love the way this book is laid out, organized, and graphically designed. The images are great, the paper quality is nice, the font families are easy to read, and it's full of all kinds of useful info for the novice who wants to learn all about textile print design, from basic nomenclature to various method tutorials (both digital and analog). She also addresses things like copyright and licensing issues, which are of more pressing relevance to those designing fabrics for sale, but are useful to know from a costume design perspective as well.
In terms of digital design, Kight's book has a few tutorials on working with both Photoshop and Illustrator (versions CS3 or later), and she has some excellent insights into how to create stuff like a cohesive color palette for a design, or making a decent-looking scatter-print using spot-repeat grids.
The other book is Digital Textile Design, by Melanie Bowles and Ceri Isaac. Let me start by saying, if i had an aesthetic bias in favor of Kight's, i've the opposite with this text. Plainly put, i found this book hard to look at. From the font choices to the non-intuitive layout, to the (IMO) hideous and already-dated-looking images/designs, it was not easy on the eyes for me. Even the size and paper used kind of turned me off, because it felt like a low-rent workbook. Then again, it does seem to be aimed at a fashion-school textbook-buyer's market in some ways, so maybe that's to be expected. It's got some of the same basic information to be found in Kight's book, but is less comprehensive in terms of related chapters on things like color theory and fabric types and even some of the terminology.
The good thing about the book is that it's got a ton of actual step-by-step digital fabric design tutorials. Mind you, they aren't very clearly written, and i wound up using them more as vague signposts on a road of progress--a couple of them resulted in some cool exercises that helped me understand new ways of working with images and design programs, and some of them were essentially useless without liberal use of the Adobe Help site. Again, if the text is taken as a workbook meant to be used in tandem with an in-class instructor, maybe its vagueness in places is not a problem in that context? I'd think you'd want it as "idiot-proof" as possible, myself. Figuring it out on your own, it's hit or miss.
I think though, after reading both of them and working through their respective tutorials and guidelines, if i had to recommend a course of action for the average theatre craftsperson or costume designer who wanted to begin working with digital textile designs, i'd recommend buying the Kight text. If you suck at Photoshop and Illustrator, her book will get you going conceptually, and Adobe's support pages have so many really good instructional videos that you can hunt through them for the specifics on how to do something like "select just this part of the image" or "paste this but mirrored" or whatever.
After reading both these books and doing some tutorials, i put my learning to the test, and spent a day off futzing around with Photoshop and Illustrator to see what i could come up with in the realm of random textile design (meaning, not with some specific stage need like the Parchman Hour prison stripes.
A while back I had scanned all these funny old 19th century ads and cartoons that have to do with historical millinery/hatmaking, and decided to see what sorts of fabric prints i could make with them as jumping-off points. I've begun grouping them on Spoonflower in a collection called Vive les Chapeaux!. So far i've got two hatters' ad prints for making hat linings and such, and a hilarious border print that i'm thinking about using for cafe curtains in my millinery studio. Fun!
[1] No, i don't believe that digital printing and design will ever entirely supplant the artistry of surface design techniques, from batik to screenprinting. This post is not about that debate. This post is about the rise of digital design and printing as one more tool in the toolbox, as it were.
It's clear that theatrical costume designers and crafts artisans need to develop a familiarity with the processes of digital textile design and printing [1]. I've begun to encourage my students to take on projects that involve elements of digital textile print design, like this fan leaf design by first year grad student Leah Pelz
But it does beg the question: how does one learn how to go about such things? Obviously digital fabric design classes are out there, offered through a college of textiles, but that's not an option for most of us working in the field.
I received two books for Christmas which might be of help, if you're hoping to get some grounding in textile design to actualize the kinds of projects that present themselves in the course of costume production. Neither are ideal for theatre artists, but then again, we're not exactly a huge demographic. Both are useful in different ways, and laid out in such a way that you can pick and choose what you need from them to get done what you need doing.
The first is A Field Guide to Fabric Design by Kimberly Kight. Kim is the author of the blog TrueUp, which also hosts a fabric design forum for discussion of relevant topics. The book purports to deal with designing fabric "for quilting, home dec, & apparel," and it's a pretty succinct overview.
I will admit an aesthetic bias, before i even get to the content: I love the way this book is laid out, organized, and graphically designed. The images are great, the paper quality is nice, the font families are easy to read, and it's full of all kinds of useful info for the novice who wants to learn all about textile print design, from basic nomenclature to various method tutorials (both digital and analog). She also addresses things like copyright and licensing issues, which are of more pressing relevance to those designing fabrics for sale, but are useful to know from a costume design perspective as well.
In terms of digital design, Kight's book has a few tutorials on working with both Photoshop and Illustrator (versions CS3 or later), and she has some excellent insights into how to create stuff like a cohesive color palette for a design, or making a decent-looking scatter-print using spot-repeat grids.
The other book is Digital Textile Design, by Melanie Bowles and Ceri Isaac. Let me start by saying, if i had an aesthetic bias in favor of Kight's, i've the opposite with this text. Plainly put, i found this book hard to look at. From the font choices to the non-intuitive layout, to the (IMO) hideous and already-dated-looking images/designs, it was not easy on the eyes for me. Even the size and paper used kind of turned me off, because it felt like a low-rent workbook. Then again, it does seem to be aimed at a fashion-school textbook-buyer's market in some ways, so maybe that's to be expected. It's got some of the same basic information to be found in Kight's book, but is less comprehensive in terms of related chapters on things like color theory and fabric types and even some of the terminology.
The good thing about the book is that it's got a ton of actual step-by-step digital fabric design tutorials. Mind you, they aren't very clearly written, and i wound up using them more as vague signposts on a road of progress--a couple of them resulted in some cool exercises that helped me understand new ways of working with images and design programs, and some of them were essentially useless without liberal use of the Adobe Help site. Again, if the text is taken as a workbook meant to be used in tandem with an in-class instructor, maybe its vagueness in places is not a problem in that context? I'd think you'd want it as "idiot-proof" as possible, myself. Figuring it out on your own, it's hit or miss.
I think though, after reading both of them and working through their respective tutorials and guidelines, if i had to recommend a course of action for the average theatre craftsperson or costume designer who wanted to begin working with digital textile designs, i'd recommend buying the Kight text. If you suck at Photoshop and Illustrator, her book will get you going conceptually, and Adobe's support pages have so many really good instructional videos that you can hunt through them for the specifics on how to do something like "select just this part of the image" or "paste this but mirrored" or whatever.
After reading both these books and doing some tutorials, i put my learning to the test, and spent a day off futzing around with Photoshop and Illustrator to see what i could come up with in the realm of random textile design (meaning, not with some specific stage need like the Parchman Hour prison stripes.
A while back I had scanned all these funny old 19th century ads and cartoons that have to do with historical millinery/hatmaking, and decided to see what sorts of fabric prints i could make with them as jumping-off points. I've begun grouping them on Spoonflower in a collection called Vive les Chapeaux!. So far i've got two hatters' ad prints for making hat linings and such, and a hilarious border print that i'm thinking about using for cafe curtains in my millinery studio. Fun!
[1] No, i don't believe that digital printing and design will ever entirely supplant the artistry of surface design techniques, from batik to screenprinting. This post is not about that debate. This post is about the rise of digital design and printing as one more tool in the toolbox, as it were.
One of the biggest stumbling blocks for theatrical milliners in terms of creating a wide array of historical shapes is, well, literally the blocks! If you want to do a blocked felt or straw hat, you must have something on which to block the material, so you're limited by the blocks you own or can readily make or rig.
In the past i've posted about a range of options for addressing this issue, from conscripting everyday objects to serve as makeshift blocks, to hand-carving a block in stacked foam, to experiments with the rare blockmaking medium esparterie.
All of these methods are problematic, though. Blocking on a rigid object like a clay pot or ceramic vase is difficult because you can't pin into the base and there's no grooves for ropes to hold the felt in place. Hand-carving a foam block is extremely time-consuming, messy, and sculpturally challenging, not to mention that it means being in a particulate respirator for as long as it takes. And esparterie, well, if you find any for sale, you have lucked out at any price, and if--like me--you own a precious few sheets, you don't just use them up willy-nilly.
Because i'm always on the hunt for new approaches to traditional craftwork, I've begun a journey of experimentation with a new (or new to me, at least) way of creating block shapes using 3D CAD/CAM technology. CAD stands for Computer-Aided Design, and CAM stands for Computer-Aided Machining, so when you see that abbreviation of CAD/CAM, that really just means using computers to help you design and make something cool!
It first occurred to me that CAD/CAM hatblock production was possible back when i took some CAD classes through the College of Textiles at North Carolina State University--we were manipulating 2D pattern shapes for apparel, and 3D renderings of designs, and i found myself thinking about the possibilities for millinery in these technologies, the programs and the robots used to produce the patterns.
I'd begun talking about these possibilities with one of my professors there, but we needed funding for research and both of us had 203948 other responsibilities and besides the machines and software we would need to use were also in use by 34985 students in legitimate classes, and then the economy imploded and a lot of the kind of grants we would have wanted disappeared... My 3D CAD hat blocks went back into the realm of the someday, when i could get my hands on the right technology to begin to work on it.
Then, along came TechShop RDU. The short version is, they're kind of like a think-tank super-tech workshop-studio and inventors' social club, that you buy a membership to the way you do a gym. You can then have access to an enormous quantity of equipment and tools and software (provided you go through the proper Safety and Basic Use (SBU) class for each thing), and also plug into an incredibly creative and skilled group of fellow members. They've got everything from sets of standard screwdrivers and tape measures up to welding stations, woodworking powertools, screenprinting stations, a blacksmith forge, and a full computer lab with 3D software like Autodesk Inventor. They even have a sewing shop with industrial machines and computerized embroidery capabilities. I've posted about it before, and this December i finally had the chance (meaning, the time) to activate my membership and begin taking some classes specific to this hatblocking project.
One of the incredible benefits of membership at a TechShop is that you can take up to 12 hours of Autodesk Inventor software classes completely for free, no extra charge. (Many of the SBU classes have nominal tuition charges, presumably to pay the instructors and cover the materials used.) So, the first thing i did with my membership was to take 9 hours worth of those classes--enough to grasp the basics of 3D part drafting in Inventor. I have some long-term plans to do a series of block designs by this means, probably over the first 6 months of 2012.
But, you may be wondering, how do you go from a 3D design for a hat block, to the block itself?
That's where the ShopBot comes in. Basically, a ShopBot is like a robot assistant in the wood shop--if you can tell it what you want cut and carved, it'll do it. TechShop offers an 8-hour class which combines some CAD/CAM software instruction and guided drafting help with the standard ShopBot SBU certification.
ShopBot uses a kind of software called PartWorks, though you can import files from other drafting programs like Inventor, AutoCAD, Inkscape, Illustrator, etc. If you have any kind of familiarity with vector-based drawing programs, you can probably pick up PartWorks quickly. It was clear to me when i began fiddling with it, i could be prototyping very simple block shapes by the end of the night.
I decided to start as basic as basic can be: band blocks and maybe a brim or two. I went down to the scrap pile in the wood shop and found a likely-looking piece of 1.5"-thick medium-density fiberboard (MDF)--since this was to be my very first try at such a thing, i wasn't about to try using a more traditional blockmaker's wood like poplar, that i'd be heartbroken (and broke) if i messed up. Looking at the MDF in the scrap pile, i figured it was a great thickness for a band block if my attempt worked, and could be shellacked and covered in foil to stand up to the steam of a test blocking run. I don't know, longterm, whether MDF makes much sense for non-prototype blocks, since it's basically like some super dense cardboard; it would probably warp and lose its structural integrity with the steam and pressure involved in heavy hatblock use.
( Read more... )
In the past i've posted about a range of options for addressing this issue, from conscripting everyday objects to serve as makeshift blocks, to hand-carving a block in stacked foam, to experiments with the rare blockmaking medium esparterie.
All of these methods are problematic, though. Blocking on a rigid object like a clay pot or ceramic vase is difficult because you can't pin into the base and there's no grooves for ropes to hold the felt in place. Hand-carving a foam block is extremely time-consuming, messy, and sculpturally challenging, not to mention that it means being in a particulate respirator for as long as it takes. And esparterie, well, if you find any for sale, you have lucked out at any price, and if--like me--you own a precious few sheets, you don't just use them up willy-nilly.
Because i'm always on the hunt for new approaches to traditional craftwork, I've begun a journey of experimentation with a new (or new to me, at least) way of creating block shapes using 3D CAD/CAM technology. CAD stands for Computer-Aided Design, and CAM stands for Computer-Aided Machining, so when you see that abbreviation of CAD/CAM, that really just means using computers to help you design and make something cool!
It first occurred to me that CAD/CAM hatblock production was possible back when i took some CAD classes through the College of Textiles at North Carolina State University--we were manipulating 2D pattern shapes for apparel, and 3D renderings of designs, and i found myself thinking about the possibilities for millinery in these technologies, the programs and the robots used to produce the patterns.
I'd begun talking about these possibilities with one of my professors there, but we needed funding for research and both of us had 203948 other responsibilities and besides the machines and software we would need to use were also in use by 34985 students in legitimate classes, and then the economy imploded and a lot of the kind of grants we would have wanted disappeared... My 3D CAD hat blocks went back into the realm of the someday, when i could get my hands on the right technology to begin to work on it.
Then, along came TechShop RDU. The short version is, they're kind of like a think-tank super-tech workshop-studio and inventors' social club, that you buy a membership to the way you do a gym. You can then have access to an enormous quantity of equipment and tools and software (provided you go through the proper Safety and Basic Use (SBU) class for each thing), and also plug into an incredibly creative and skilled group of fellow members. They've got everything from sets of standard screwdrivers and tape measures up to welding stations, woodworking powertools, screenprinting stations, a blacksmith forge, and a full computer lab with 3D software like Autodesk Inventor. They even have a sewing shop with industrial machines and computerized embroidery capabilities. I've posted about it before, and this December i finally had the chance (meaning, the time) to activate my membership and begin taking some classes specific to this hatblocking project.
One of the incredible benefits of membership at a TechShop is that you can take up to 12 hours of Autodesk Inventor software classes completely for free, no extra charge. (Many of the SBU classes have nominal tuition charges, presumably to pay the instructors and cover the materials used.) So, the first thing i did with my membership was to take 9 hours worth of those classes--enough to grasp the basics of 3D part drafting in Inventor. I have some long-term plans to do a series of block designs by this means, probably over the first 6 months of 2012.
But, you may be wondering, how do you go from a 3D design for a hat block, to the block itself?
That's where the ShopBot comes in. Basically, a ShopBot is like a robot assistant in the wood shop--if you can tell it what you want cut and carved, it'll do it. TechShop offers an 8-hour class which combines some CAD/CAM software instruction and guided drafting help with the standard ShopBot SBU certification.
ShopBot uses a kind of software called PartWorks, though you can import files from other drafting programs like Inventor, AutoCAD, Inkscape, Illustrator, etc. If you have any kind of familiarity with vector-based drawing programs, you can probably pick up PartWorks quickly. It was clear to me when i began fiddling with it, i could be prototyping very simple block shapes by the end of the night.
I decided to start as basic as basic can be: band blocks and maybe a brim or two. I went down to the scrap pile in the wood shop and found a likely-looking piece of 1.5"-thick medium-density fiberboard (MDF)--since this was to be my very first try at such a thing, i wasn't about to try using a more traditional blockmaker's wood like poplar, that i'd be heartbroken (and broke) if i messed up. Looking at the MDF in the scrap pile, i figured it was a great thickness for a band block if my attempt worked, and could be shellacked and covered in foil to stand up to the steam of a test blocking run. I don't know, longterm, whether MDF makes much sense for non-prototype blocks, since it's basically like some super dense cardboard; it would probably warp and lose its structural integrity with the steam and pressure involved in heavy hatblock use.
( Read more... )
Blocked hat multiples, part three
Sep. 27th, 2011 09:49 amToday, the trimming of the final two hats from In the Next Room!
Recall from prior posts on this topic that the hat trim is intended to be a physical representation of the metamorphosis of the character of Mrs. Daldry over the course of the play, and that the first two hats progressed in decoration from a reserved veiled hat to a more adventurous hat with a single upright "wing."
But what about the third and fourth hats?
( Read more... )
Recall from prior posts on this topic that the hat trim is intended to be a physical representation of the metamorphosis of the character of Mrs. Daldry over the course of the play, and that the first two hats progressed in decoration from a reserved veiled hat to a more adventurous hat with a single upright "wing."
But what about the third and fourth hats?
( Read more... )
