Second Chances... Non-fabric Fashions and more

Recently, on a visit to the San Francisco bay area, I had the pleasure of seeing an exhibit in the United terminal called Second Chances. This exhibit was comprised of articles from the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Since I am currently a curator of an upcoming gallery show called Non-fabric Fashion, my senses are tuned into creative materials used in creating non-fabric clothing.

So, here we have several shots from the exhibit at the airport.

Candy-Wrapper Dresses
Washington artist Shelley Hedges used discarded candy wrappers to make her dresses. She stitches them together and then constructs a dress.



Mary Jane and Tootsie Pop wrapper... some close-ups




Rubber car tires are used to fashion shoes in various countries of the world; from Africa to Central America to Asia.



Jewelry made from buttons, zippers and safety pins.




a little off-topic for fashion, but fun, snake and chairs made from bottle caps.

Zandra Rhodes: Fashion Designer

Recently, I attended a lecture at the Mingei Museum here in San Diego. The topic? A retrospective of Zandra Rhodes work, and Zandra was the speaker. The Mingei currently has an exhibit of Zandra's work which is utterly fantastic.

Zandra spoke of her career and shared images of her work, her inspiration and the various fabrics she has designed and used in her clothing.





Mingei International Museum
1439 El Prado
San Diego, CA 92101
(619) 239-0003
Mingei Museum, and the exhibit, "A Lifelong Affair with Textiles"

After her talk, Zandra took questions from the audience. The best question was "What do you wear to the grocery store, and what would you wear if you were to go to the Oscars?" Zandra answered, that she wears comfort clothes such as jeans, etc., to the grocery store, and that, actually, she was going to the Oscars, and she would be wearing most likely, the same wonderful full flare-legged pants she was wearing with a top and yellow hat.

Below are some shots taken during and after Zandra's lecture.




My student Tina, with Zandra.

and.. here I am with her.

Valentines Day Haiku Poetry

Of course, after we wove the hearts (prior post), we had to have a creative writing session (in the Textiles class, no less). I introduced Haiku to the students. This is Japanese poetry, consisting of three phrases, with 5, 7 and then 5 syllables per phrase.

The rule was (since it was Textiles class), that they had to use textile terms to 'interweave' into their poetry.

Here are a few examples of what we got..

The first two are mine... followed by the students.

Threads of history
Interlace our lives as one.
Building Golden cloth.

You are my fabric.
We have interlaced our minds
To create a life.

Preeti
Dye for you my love
Our love is 98% cotton 2% spandex
Dye my love with red.

Mashid
We wove together
When your naturual color knots
With my thread of time.

Janette
Heart to heart we weave
Comfort and strength we share
Together we are whole.

Jason
Your silky linen
Drapes my soul on the knotty side
With breathable comfort.

Dante
Us, tying the knot
Will forever dye our lives
The color of love.

Annie
Your eyes like brocade
Burned out my bleeding heart
Felting our luster.

Valentines Day in the Textiles Classroom

Today is Valentine's day, so, the softie I am for such things, we had to make paper woven hearts. Afterall, it is "plain weave"

You can find the instructions for the heart basket at http://www.weavespindye.org/html/heart2.html

Below you can see the process of cutting the pattern, and weaving it.

Thanks to my Textiles students for sharing.

Art Meets Fashion in San Diego

One of the events going on in my life, is involvement with "Art Meets Fashion" here in San Diego. This is the brainchild and project of the San Diego Visual Arts Network
http://www.ArtMeetsFashion.org.

Teams consisting of an artist, a fashion designer, a documenter and an educator have been formed, and are in the process of creating wearable art that will be displayed in a fashion show as well as a gallery exhibit in various venues of San Diego.

I am the documentation person, and have been taking photos and videos of our team.

The team consists of
Osbaldo Ahumada, Fashion Designer
Duke Windsor, Artist
Andrea Marx, Educator
and my self, Susan (as the person who documents the process)

Here is a you-tube video where you can learn more about our project

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zjs8R4WJnTE

Buttons and Trims in Verona: Mercerie Dian

Another great find in Verona! (thank you Anna for showing it to me)
This is a button and trim store. Here you can see a view of the shop and one of the patrons. You can also see some wonderfult trims.




Mercerie Dian (di Dian Antonio & Galliano)
Via A. Diaz, 1-B
37121 Verona
Tel 045-594726

Yarn in Verona! Jenny Klaer, Filati & Ricami

I have been to Verona many times, and have looked for yarn stores with no luck. You have to know who to ask, and so, you must ask a knitter. I was pleased to find out that my Italian friend Anna is a knitter, and so, she took me on tour of a few wonderful stores in Verona and area. We will begin with Jenny Klaier, Filati & Ricami. To the right here, you can see Jenny (left) and Lina (right).







First of all, meet Anna.. a fellow fiber enthusiast.


Jenny Klaer is the name of the store and of the owner. It is a lovely shop full of color, samples and of course, interesting yarns. Here are a couple shots of the interior of the store.



Jenny Klaer, Filati & Ricami
Via S. Egidio, 11, 37121 Verona (this is near Piazza Erbe)
Tel: 045 596761
Jennyklaer@yahoo.it

This is a great yarn, and you can see the project I am going to do. Jenny was very gracious and sketched the design and instructions for me. This is a simple shawl that begins with 151 stitches and involves decreases every other row. The first portion is knit with the edge of the yarn as your stitch. This creates a fringe of sorts. The latter body-portion is knit with the entire yarn forming the stitch.




Here is another yarn





Another yarn and scarf.