subcouture

PRESENTATION

Wonderful things come in small packages. 

Actual size: 1" x 1 3/4"

COLOUR

Pick a colour - any colour.  Now tell me it so I can begin my little project.

DORA

Meet Dora. 

I named her this before I had a child and knew the association attached to the name.   She was a Christmas present from my mother.  She was made by Scott Radke.  Dora protects our home and we love her.  

LET'S HEAR IT FOR EMBROIDERY!

THE BEACH

We went to the beach a couple of days ago.  The fog would roll in .....

and then roll out....

My man loves to catch fish, but on this day he caught this....

Sad and unbelievable.

This little guy stopped by for a visit....

He followed my sister around.  He thought she was a beautiful flower.  He must not have heard her scream.

COMMUNITY

HOME SWEET HOME

One winter I found this wasps nest lying on the ground.  I scooped it up, took it home, and kept it in a container until I was sure nothing was buzzing around in there.  I peeled apart the nest and it separated in layers.  I gave one away, one crumbled, and one now hangs on our wall.  One lil'guy remained so he is permanently at home. 

I mounted the nest on linen and placed it in a deep frame.  I love it.  This past winter I described the exploding bus shelter glass as reminding me of this.  Now you can see what I mean....

A community of tiny, separate compartments.  Sometimes I find life like this - we are close yet separated by the walls we put up.

CREATIVITY

This is to be my summer of creativity.  I made my mum a bag for the summer.  She had been carrying around a bag I had made about 5 years ago.  It was lovely in its day.  Now it was only lovely in dim lighting. "What shall I do with it?" she asked.  "Burn it," I said "but not before cutting out the zipper."  I saw the zipper sitting on her table with frayed fabric and bits of thread still attached.  I think she took my advice. Bye bye old, hello new.

LUNCH

How could anyone possibly miss Toronto when you can have lunch in a spot like this......

SCHOOL'S OUT FOR SUMMER

School has been done for a month and I have been trying to update this blog since then.  For some reason I have had a real block on writing about myself.  Lots has happened and I think I may have been in a bit of a funk, but I feel like the old me today.  I think this is in part to a visit from a good friend from TO.  We drank a couple of bottles of wine, caught up on life, ate, and laughed. 

When school finished I was asked to teach a three-day costume workshop as part of DramaFest for Theatre Nova Scotia.  The goal was to get high school students interested in theatre. 

The costumes you see on the stands were made by past students of Dalhousie's Costume Studies Programme.  I made the corsets on the table and you can see a couple of programs from shows I have worked on.  The workshop was fun and the kids really got into it.  I took it as a compliment when they wanted to skip their morning workshops to come and create and hang out.  We did some screen printing on fabric and then manipulated that fabric on the stand to see how a piece of cloth can come to life by folding, pleating, and tuckng.  You can see an example of our draping on the stand to the far right.   They dressed up in costumes, tried on corsets, and wore wigs - all while laughing and getting to know each other. 

On another note, while writing this I have been listening to BioTech Nation on NPR.  The show was about buying green products and the how you must take into consideration the complete process of the manufacturing chain.  They discussed this website called GoodGuide - check it out - it is pretty interesting. 

Also, if you don't listen to  Wait Wait... Dont Tell,Me! you are missing out on a good laugh.  The podcast of that show got me through many long afternoons at work.  I highly recommend it.