La Bricoleuse

I have two of my students' parasols to share with my readers today. I'm so proud!

( sporty bicycle pagoda and velvet-trimmed figured faille )

I've had a couple queries about the nature of my parasol book, which i figured i'd answer here.

Q. What kinds of projects are in the book?

A. There aren't specific projects, per se. The book was developed as a textbook for a graduate level production course that i teach, and contains information on custom patterning techniques that you utilize and adapt according to the type of parasol you desire. It's intended to be a reference manual for artisans who may be given a research image or costume design rendering that they will then have to realize. It's a guide for making your own patterns, not a step-by-step book with specific projects included. If that is what you are looking for, the book Victorian Parasols by Millicent Rene contains several pre-drafted patterns for specific parasols. (Of course, to use them you need to make sure that you have a parasol frame with the right number of panels in the canopy. Six and eight panel frames are the most common so you shouldn't have trouble locating the right type.) For non-industry costumers, it will be helpful in situations like, "I saw this amazing parasol on eBay but it went for way more than i could afford...wonder if i could make one just like it?"

Q. What sort of photos are included?

A. Most of the practical illustrations are diagrams, hand-drawn illustrations, and period references. Some of the photos illustrate the text, and there is a short section at the end of photographs of various kinds of parasols in my own collection and the collection at my workplace, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Most of the book is information-based, not research image based. For research images (19th century mostly), try either the Rene book mentioned above or Ladies' Vintage Accessories by LaRee Bruton.

Q. Do i need to be an advanced costumer to use the information in the book?

A. That's a tough one. As i said, i wrote it for graduate level students in our Costume Production MFA program, who are by and large quite advanced in their skill level. However, I do describe three different canopy patterning methods--drafting with geometry principles, draping, and generating a "sloper" from an existing cover. I think if you are a good seamstress and can do pattern adjustments like moving a dart or changing a sleeve shape, you will find one of the methods that will work for you. It depends on how your brain works! Parasols look simple, but can be deceptively difficult to work with. I would say, this is not a book for a beginner, but should be useful for intermediate stitchers with an interest in parasol making.

Q. How much history is included?

A. There is a short section on history in the introduction, which touches on the development of the sunshade in various cultures as well as etiquette and innovations in frame design. There are already a few very good resources out there with more comprehensive, in-depth historical information; this book is more like the equivalent of a tailoring method book. For a good chunky history book, try A History of the Umbrella by TS Crawford. I will say that one thing i'm quite proud of is the extensive glossary at the end of parasol terminology. It sure beats talking about them in terms like "the hingey part rubbed a hole in the fabricky part where the spiny part attaches, and there's a broken spokey thing at the top near the whatsit." I'm a big vocabulary nerd.

Oh, and shipping through Lulu can be strange--sometimes it's really expensive for a single book, but way cheaper if you meet a minimum. It may be beneficial to pair up with friends and order multiple copies, or surf the site for other books of interest. There are a lot of cool costume-related small-audience texts on there on subjects like costume armor, historical needlework, vintage knitting patterns, etc.!


And now, some links:

This thread on the Fedora Lounge board has a wonderful series of photographs of a hatter making a custom fedora.

ThreadBanger is an online "television show" site with tons of DIY clothing alteration videos as well as a recent piece on the costumes of Sweeney Todd.

Research paper writers, you need to know about BibMe.com, which will automatically generate a bibliography for you in a given style of your choice. And it's FREE.

Happy 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: 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 finally have all the stuff to make my post about the parasol development for The Little Prince. Though they are technically props, parasols are frequently the responsibility of the crafts artisan, because they are often designed by the Costume Designer to match the costumes of their carriers. I've written a forthcoming book on parasol manufacture for costumers (out in January 2008, more info as soon as it's available, of course!), so when it comes to traditional parasols, it's safe to say i know my stuff.

( pictures, design renderings, and a video of my inverting parasol! )

I've been out of town for a few days, so no exciting projects in the completion stage yet, but I do have a collection of interesting links for your delectation, on such subjects as hats, shoes, crochet, and parasols! What's not to love about that?


Historical millinery:

If you sign yourself up for their mailing list, you can access the online magazine at Victoriana.com, which currently features an archive of 15 issues. Some of the articles are modern research pieces on historical elements of Victoriana, but many are reprints of period articles from original sources (Harpers, Ladies Home Journal, etc.). There are several period articles on hatmaking techniques, including an excellent one entitled "Wings, Breasts, and Birds" about the applications of avian taxidermy in period millinery, as well as lots of fashion plates and the like.


Shoe modification:

Sassyfeet.com features a whole section of the site on ideas and techniques for customizing footwear. The author has written the site from a modern fashion perspective, but the techniques could also be utilized for altering modern footwear for the stage using historical inspiration. (This link sent to me by trystbat.)


Crocheted models of hyperbolic space:

What? No really. So, obviously theoretical math is way off-topic for this blog, but i saw this posted on a discussion board i read and had to share the link here. Essentially, Cornell mathematician and fiber crafter Daina Taimina worked out a means of creating physical models of hyperbolic space using crochet. The results of her work are visible in an online exhibit hosted by the Institute for Figuring. Longtime crochet enthusiasts will recognize such things as "circle ruffles"/"lettuce edging" (hyperbolic plane) and "lettuce tassel" (pseudosphere). Crochet instructions are listed along with the forms, should you feel the overwhelming need to trim your parasol with a few pseudospheres or run a hyperbolic plane along a sleeve hem.

Parasols:

Speaking of parasols, various news sources are predicting the return of the parasol as the next big thing. Concerns about the climate, environment, global warming, and the projected potential increased risk of sun-related cancers are the rationale. Here are two recent parasol articles you may enjoy perusing:

News & Observer, Raleigh, NC
LA Times

And, perhaps it's premature to announce, but I've been working on a chapbook on parasol repair and construction and it's almost finished! It's my goal to get it completely written/illustrated and galley-proofed and available for purchase by the time i teach my unit on parasols in the spring 2008 semester.

Some time ago i made a post inquiring about cage crinolines; the reason for this being that our designs for the mainstage show The Illusion featured two such petticoats, and as is so often the case, historical construction is the best starting place for research and development of materials and techniques.

koshka_the_cat was a wonderful help in pointing me toward the resource of Wooded Hamlet Designs' Cage Crinoline Kit, including links to images and video of her own experience building with the kit (including process shots here), which comes with an instructional DVD and all the requisite supplies. The Wooded Hamlet site also has a page of comparison research photos, illustrating components of an original cage crinoline circa 1850 and corresponding components on their own repro kit.

By a stroke of fortuitous luck, we also received a donation of impeccably-preserved historical garments from Ms. Helen Tibbo (the subject of this post here) that included a bustle cage constructed in the same fashion.

( Lots of cool photos and more! )

I thought i'd kick off 2007 with the final installment of my four-part studio setup series!

For those who haven't been following this series, Part One is here, which addresses the equipment and inventory needs of a typical dyeshop or "wet room," Part Two is here, which focuses on specific equipment and inventory utilized in leatherworking, distressing, and shoe-related areas, and Part Three is here, which is an overview of millinery equipment and various supplies used in hat and headdress production.

As for why i first sat down to develop these lists, some background:

The MFA program where i teach allows the students to focus in a range of non-design areas of professional costuming: draping, tailoring, craftwork, or costume shop management. The fall semester's management seminar topic was "Sourcing and Supplies"--this is not just how and where to find everything from a spoon busk to an industrial shoe-patching machine, but also strategies for addressing shop supply inventories, storage, etc.

I gave a guest-lecture in that course last semester on the appurtenancing of a crafts space. The thrust of the matter was, what if a managerial candidate was hired and coming into a space where s/he had to either set up a crafts shop from scratch, or analyze the existing inventory of a crafts area and do supply ordering for the beginning of a season with no aid from a staff crafts artisan. I am posting a brief overview of what i touched on in a four-part series:

Setting up a Dye Shop/Wet Room
Cobbling, Leatherworking, and Distressing Equipment and Supplies
Millinery Equipment and Supplies
Specialized Crafts from Parasols and Purses to Plaster Molds

This post is the fourth and final one. I want to touch on a variety of areas, not all of which will be applicable to all shops. A manager may just as easily find herself or himself working at a Shakespeare Festival shop (where armor is of great import), as at a LORT theatre that only produces shows in 19th or 20th century settings (not so much armor, perhaps, but potentially lots of parasols or jewelry). This is the "everything else" post, stuff that didn't fit under one of the other three topics but is nonetheless important to consider!


Jewelry--Whether you think your shop will actually custom-make jewelry in-house, your crafts artisan is guaranteed to have to repair it or alter it on occasion. Supplies include:

Findings--clasps (lever and magnetic), jump rings, split rings, chain
Ornaments--Bulk beads and pendants
Soldering iron/solder/flux
Polyclay & push-molds (useful to make your own cabuchons and the like)

If you think your crafts artisan(s) may be manufacturing high-end jewelry in-house, you might want to look into investing in some precious metal clay (PMC) and a mini-kiln, and perusing the catalogues of an industry supplier such as Rio Grande.


Craft-props, a.k.a. "Propstumes"--These items often fall to the crafts artisan's responsibility to make, since even though they are technically props, the costume designer is usually responsible for designing them. Potential supplies needed:

Purse frames
Parasol frames
Pocketwatch fobs and findings

It can be hard to find quality modern supplies in this area. For example, nearly all modern long-handled parasol frames have a six-paneled dome. What if your designer has created one with a ten-paneled dome? Sure, you can work out a way to alter the frame, but it's easier if you have an acceptable frame to start with. And what about unusual purse frames, like accordion-hinged reticule closures? I regularly check local "junk shops" and eBay for these items.


Masks, Moldmaking/Casting, SFX makeup--Masks may come around once in a while for your crafts artisan, but chances are, a craftsperson who can cast things will save your butt (and budget!) many times over, particularly if you need something like 40 large ornamental medallions or buttons or similar. Buy one or two and have her/him cast as many as you need. And, I always argue that production should hire a specialist when SFX makeup is required--prosthetics or extreme gore effects. However, all too often in theatre no one wants to budget for that and it often falls to the crafts department to come up with SFX appliances for stage use. These are some of the materials that may help out with these projects.

Alginate
Plaster
Gauze
Latex
Silicone
Oak tanned/kip leather (tip: bellies are often cheapest)
Phlex Glue
Thermoplastic sheeting and mesh
Casting rubbers, plastics, and foams
Mold release products

Be aware that many casting products have a definite shelf-life. It does no use to keep things on hand if they will be useless by the time you need them. Ordering these kinds of supplies needs to happen as projects come up, unless you are heading up the kind of shop that you know you will have several casting projects per season.


Bigheads, Walkarounds, Macropuppets, etc.--these are some supplies useful for creating extreme-shape frameworks in-house.

Skirt hooping
Steel slatting
Aluminum armature wire
Body-mount options such as snare drum marching mounts and backpacking frames
Head-mount options such as bike or hockey helmets
Acrylic rods/bamboo/dowels/etc.


Armor--these are some supplies useful to have if you plan on manufacturing stage armor in-house.

Industrial felt
Sculpt or Coat
Shellac
Backer rod (ethafoam tube)
Glover’s needles
“Apoxie” (2-part epoxy clay)

...Or, if you need to purchase-and-alter armor, check out the vacu-formed shapes sold by vendors like Costume Armor, and the metal helmets and pieces made by Windlass Steelcrafts (sold by a number of vendors).



Note that these lists are to be treated as suggestions, a jumping-off point. Also be aware that if the dimensions and ventilation of your craft space are limited, you may wish to avoid all products that would require the use of respirators. If you do use casting media, solder, and adhesives that require respirators, be aware that OSHA requires you to have a training program in place for all employees that will need to use respirators. When ordering these products, make sure you always ask for the MSDS. You need to have them on file, and they have a lot of good information that will help make decisions like what types of protective gloves and respirator filters to purchase.

And, that concludes my series on setting up a crafts studio! Hope it was of some use or perhaps at least interesting to read about in parts. Or, if you hated it, rejoice! It's over!

Now we can get on to all the exciting topics that Spring has in store, namely tons of hats and shoes, which i don't know about you, but hats and shoes are two of my very favorite things in the world, and i'm super exciting to be teaching seminars on both this spring. We've got some cool stuff coming up on our mainstage, too, so i suspect there will be more posts on distressing and painting/dyeing in that realm, as well.

Happy 2007, y'all!