Working on a New Project
October 15, 2009 at 6:56 pm
Working on a new project dealing with interaction between two garments. I love working on knitting machines.
Working on a new project dealing with interaction between two garments. I love working on knitting machines.
Hey everyone,
I’m going to have a booth at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition. I’m going to be in Blue South, booth 201 which is right on Queen St. Here is a link to the booth map.
The exhibition is located at Nathan Phillips Square and here are the hours:
Friday, July 10th: 10:30am-7:30pm
Saturday, July 11th: 10:30am-7:30pm
Sunday, July 12th: 10:30am-6:30pm
Over the past day or so, I’ve been making a few changes to the main portfolio section of the site. I’ve made it a bit less cluttered and removed most of lightbox. It’s now a bit easier to see the description for each piece as well. Individual pieces can now also be linked to, and they will expand automatically (ex. this link will take you to the Ribcage Bag.)
I’ve added the Hybridization project to the main site, and updated a few images for the Gloomy Skirt that I took a few months ago. I plan to update a few more images with better ones as well over the next few days or so. I’m also going to be taking and uploading videos for a few of the projects.
As for things to come, I’m going to be working on the shop section of the website over the next month or so. I want to change a few things and make it easier to use.
My work tends to be derived from my fascination with the inside. The inside of machines, the inside of the human body, the inside of our thoughts; these are all things that are generally hidden, intentionally or otherwise. The necessity or possibility of destruction frightens us away from ever really being able to see these things. Some deep sea creatures, such as jellyfish, break this convention by exposing their insides through a transparent body, inspiring me to do the same through my outfit.
This piece consists of imagery influenced by internal biological elements of deep sea life and human anatomy. The lights mimic bioluminescent (emission of light by a living organism) sea creatures and their natural defence system. The ropes on the dress represent a jellyfish’s tentacles. The dress’s texture depicts muscle tissue. The flexing on the upper body of the dress suggests breathing.
Many different textile processes were utilized to assemble this outfit. Through felting, knitting, crocheting, dying and machine stitching, I have created the appearance of internal imagery. These materials were dyed with a combination of powdered drink mix and acid dyes, giving the fabric its vibrant colors.
Interwoven into the outfit are many conductive threads and wires. These wires provide energy to the LEDs (light emitting diodes) and nitinol (shape memory alloy). The nitnol and LEDs are both powered by a Lilypad Arduino (microcontroller), which also controls the flexing of the nitinol. Another Arduino, as well as a motion sensor, tells the lights on the skirt when to turn on.
There are more photos available on my flickr page. This piece will be shown at the Lennox Contemporary Gallery from April 30th-May 10th 2009. More information available in this post.
This is my graduation show, where I will be showing a project that I have been working on since January. This is a pretty important show for me.
INmaterial
An Exhibition of Emerging CraftspeopleOn at the Lennox Contemporary Gallery April 30th – May 10th 2009
Opening Reception: April 30th 2009. 7-10pm.United by a love for all things Craft, INmaterial serves as the culminating exhibition of work made by the graduating students of the School of Crafts & Design at Sheridan College.
INmaterial combines the efforts of the textiles, ceramics, glass and furniture students, as they present an engaging look into the objects being made at the forefront of contemporary Canadian craft and design.
This grouping of work may provide a forum for which to expose a larger public to such practices, as the work challenges the application of traditionally learned skills to expand upon a greater definition of craft.
The grouping of objects presented here may act as a showcase in the ongoing dialogue that exists for the each of the makers, as they continue to create meaningful objects that celebrate a common love for the materials and processes respective to each of their practices.
The breadth of work offered up within the context of this show serves to chart the accomplishments of a group of emerging craftspeople whose work demonstrates the shared values and commitment to a specified craft expression, one which will carry each of these artist forward as they enter into their own professional careers.
We invite you to come and join us for the opening of INmaterial, Thursday, May 30th from 7 – 10 pm, as we explore a body of textile, ceramic, furniture, and glass work that is of-the-moment and vital, charting out a larger discourse into the ever evolving landscape of contemporary Canadian craft.
-Google Maps Link to the Gallery
Looks like I’m going to have a piece shown in the upcoming show at the Ontario Crafts Council gallery on Queen St. I’m showing the Ribcage Bag.
Here’s some information about the show:
Human Forum: Sheridan Furniture and Textiles
April 2 – May 2, 2009
The historical relationship between textiles and furniture has always been close, both being primary elements of domestic interiors for centuries. Clothing the body, and the interior, textiles are the original structure; crossed fibres support each other, stronger than the constituent parts and infinitely versatile. In its negative quotation of the human form, furniture evokes the user, just as textiles exhibit the imprint of the designer and the culture that contains them both.
This exhibition of selected works by graduating students from the Sheridan Craft and Design Textiles and Furniture studios demonstrates an inquiring spirit, an exceptional level of craft, and a desire on the part of the students to become part of the historical continuum relating the body to the interior, and the interior to the contemporary world around us.
I’m going to be in a craft show at Bennington Heights public school. Located at 76 Bennington Hts Dr. in Toronto. It’s on November 29th from 9am-3pm. I have at least one more craft show this year to participate in after this.
I just updated the Textiles section of the main site. The things added were the Ribcage Bag, the Crumple Shirt (which I couldn’t think of a name for, I’m so bad at this), and the Cyborg Scarf (new, better photos).
I’ve finally gotten access to a studio and a really nice DSLR camera. I still have about 2 more major things to shoot, but I’ll get around to that later, one of them requires a model.
The Brampton Art Fair is coming up really soon, I’m pretty much set, I just have to tag a few items and take a few photos. I’ve made a few less expensive items that will make good gifts, like tea towels, placemats and cards.
I’m in another craft show! I’m going to be at the Brampton Art Fair on November 22nd from 9am-4pm. The Brampton Art Fair is going to be held at the Rose Theatre in Brampton, Ontario. Here is a link to a map and directions. I’m going to be selling pretty much everything that’s in shop, but at a discounted price. I’ll probably end up giving out some coupons for the online store as well.
I’m going to be at table number 47a. I was moved 3 times! But now I finally have a spot that was made up just for me! I’m right by the entrance, beside table 47. There’s an image below with the layout of the theatre. Some other people to check out are table 43, which is my mother (Affinity for Glass), and table 19, which is someone who takes flameworking classes with me (Britta Meier).
-Brampton Art Fair Website
-Google Maps
-Add a Google Calendar event
-Drawing Conclusions Event Calendar (Google Calendar)
-Facebook Event
This is my first project of the school year, and it’s finally coming to an end. Just finished up with the photos for this last weekend. The aim was to make 6 different samples for a collection that could possibily be made into clothing.
This was the theme:
New Atlantide: Be inspired by the legend of Atlantis and it’s women, highlighting the charm of classical elegance where the art of draping and Greco-Roman jewels reign supreme. Raised and padded bas-relief embroideries, iridescent mother-of-pearl, delicate minerals, laminated silks and metal and bronze accessories ornate this modern-day goddess. Tones of grey, aluminium, silver, pistachio, jade and Parma violet.
The theme was definitely not something that I was too excited about to begin with. The overall theme was supposed to be Modern Goddess. I ended up taking this idea and went in a different direction, I tried to stay as close to it as possible though.
I decided to make the fabrics seems like they’ve been underwater for a while, with things growing off them. This is Atlantis after it’s already sunk to the bottom of the ocean.
This project was supposed to be mainly about embroidery, so there is a bit of embroidery on my samples. I used glow-in-the-dark embroidery thread and I also machine stitched some glow-in-the-dark sewing thread onto pieces. Some of the pieces also have glow-in-the-dark pigment added to them. Again, I wanted an underwater feeling. I was thinking of bioluminescent algae and sea creatures. The pieces take a completely different look once they’re placed in the dark.
All of the photography is done by Angel Rivera. I felt ridiculous posing for these photos, especially when I fell over into the water after stepping on a rock covered in algae. I love how they turned out though.
I’ve added these images to the main portfolio page as well. I was messing around with how the images on the portfolio pages are displayed, so if something looks off, it should be fixed by tomorrow afternoon.
