You can also stream CBC Radio 1 from their website: http://www.cbc.ca/metromorning/

Update as of January 11th: The talk has been moved to room 7514, on the 5th floor.

Some information about the Toronto Wearables meetup:

The Toronto Wearables Meetup is a gathering of people interested in wearable technology, fashion, wearable electronics, soft circuits, electronic textiles, emerging materials, and other creative and innovative approaches to things that live on the body.  This Meetup is a gathering artists, fashion designers, industrial designers, textile enthusiasts, engineers, researchers, students, and anyone interested in these emerging and intersecting fields.

You can register for the talk on EventBrite.

Here is a link to the blog post on the official Toronto Wearables website.

I’ve added a project that I finished a few months ago and finally got around to taking photos of:

The Glowworm is an object that can be worn in many ways. It is commonly worn around the neck, similar to a scarf or a tie. It can also be worn around the waist, arm, or in your hair.

When the two silver parts of the Glowworm are touching, it will emit a soft glow. The battery is small and easily replaceable, and is held in by a magnet located at one end of the Glowworm.

I will be producing these in small batches, and I plan to begin selling them shortly after I relaunch my shop. It will be available in dark, earthy colors. I’m aiming to have the shop completed by July 2011. More pictures are available under the Textiles section, here is a link.

I’ve added photos and videos from my show to a website that I made specifically for the show, siphonophorae.com. The show went pretty well, although making the mannequins and setting up the hanging system was a lot more work than I had expected. Thanks to everyone who helped me set up in the gallery!

I’ve also added a new piece to the Textiles section called Mimicry. It was one of the pieces that was in my show. Here is a short description:

Some sea creatures, such as flounders and octopi, are able to camouflage themselves, mimicking their surroundings. This defense mechanism makes them invisible to their predators, allowing them to stay safe. Using this concept, I have created a dress that changes to match the color of its surroundings.

I’ve added video for Hybridization, Under the Surface and Mimicry, showing the interactiveness of each piece. I’m so glad to finally be able to share these videos for these pieces. My favorite video is definitely the one for Under the Surface.

Many different types of creatures have innate defense mechanisms to help them to survive. My inspiration is drawn from sea creatures – most specifically, jellyfish, sea urchins, and puffer fish. Puffer fish are known for being able to fill themselves up with water or air to produce sharp spines that cover their bodies.

I have incorporated wool covered nitinol wire into this outfit to show how a person with a similar defense mechanism might involuntarily react if their personal space was invaded. When someone touches the spine or shoulders of the outfit, the ‘spines’ on the front of the outfit recoil.

This piece consists of two layered dresses. The dress underneath has been hand painted with dyes, mimicking patterns and colors found underwater. The dress overtop is translucent, but weighted at the bottom to cause the fabric to flow like a moving jellyfish.

The textile processes used to create this piece are dyeing, knitting, felting, and sewing. The dress underneath was sewn together and then hand painted by using a process called polychromatic printing. Parts of the dress overtop were knitted and then attached to the silk. The dress was then dyed and felted. The ‘spines’ are nitinol wire covered in wool. An Arduino powers the nitinol wire. The electronic components are powered by a rechargeable battery.

You can view more images and more information about this on the main site. I’ve also posted some extra pictures from the shoot, and process photos that didn’t make the cut on Flickr.

Photos were taken by me. My sister is modeling the dress, and helped quite a bit with figuring out a name for this outfit. My favorite part of the dress is definitely the layer underneath, it was hand painted using a polychromatic printing method.

This piece (as well as a few other of my pieces) will be shown at my solo show called ‘Siphonophorae’ at the Anna Leonowens Gallery (Halifax, NS)  from December 7th-11th, 2010. I will be making a post in a few weeks with more information about it.

I’ve made a few changes and added some new things. The Illustration section has been merged into the Design section. I’ve added an entirely new Web section to show my web development and design work. The shop has been removed temporarily. I added a new project to the Textiles section, which I will be making a blog post about shortly.

The shop is currently under construction as I work to create a better shopping cart system, one that will match the new layout of the site. Some older products will be removed to make room for newer ones.

Other than that, I have a lot going on currently. I’m graduating in December, and I have a solo show at the Anna Leonowens Gallery (Halifax, NS) coming up as well. Hopefully that means that this blog will be updated a bit more in the next few months.

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.

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.

Link to the Exhibition Page

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.

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.