Halloween Costume 2013

 

I have been thinking about Halloween since June at least, but it often takes me until pretty last minute to decide and make my outfit.
This year's "ah ha" moment was when I happened upon some Gustav Klimt paintings. It took me back to when Zack and I were at the Textile Museum in DC a number of years ago. The exhibition was of the fabrics that adorned Gustav Klimt's homes.

The painting that I modeled my costume after is called "Expectation."  It was quite the process deciding how to drape this dress and whether to print the design or sew the design on.  Since I draped the dress first, I decided to sew. The gold fabric I found on my shopping trips in Florida, the collar and white base I picked up at Joann's, but the rest of the fabric is from my stash and old clothes that I cut apart.
 

 

I used a gold metallic thread for the top thread so it would be a little shiny and whites/yellows/whatever I had for the bottom.  If you can't see the underside, I usually don't get too picky about it.  I had some issues with the hat/wig combo, so I stitched and pinned the hat to the wig.  There's also a black ribbon to tie at the base of my neck to help anchor the whole thing. 

 

I did already post about the jewelry, Klimt 1 and Klimt 2 bangles and the earrings.  I do plan on putting more details into this piece. I want more of the "evil eyes" in it to be beaded and I have some areas that are to be filled in with red seed beads.  But for now, it's wearable and I'm not going to beat myself up about finishing it proper until after the holidays.

 

So HAPPY HALLOWEEN! I'm a pirate for the day (all of which are "regular" clothes for me, worn in a certain fashion) and back to this costume for evening festivities.

 

Danielle also says "Happy Halloween"....kinda.  She's a piggy this year, but it looks a little more like she's being eaten by a pig....

 



 

Halloween Bangle Klimt 1 and Gold Swirl Earrings

I finished off the other bangle bracelet for my Halloween costume Sunday night.  This is called "Klimt 1" since it's the first one I drafted, but the second to be finished.  I posted "Klimt 2" last week.

The colors of these two bangles are drastically different, but that's what it looked like in the inspiration piece.  I was also trying to focus on using beads that I already had on hand.  I have not seen this painting in person, and the various images I have found seem to all be slightly different in color.  I'm focused on just using a lot of golds and yellows since Gustav Klimt was known for using gold leaf.

I also managed to knock out the rather large pair of beaded earrings.  I imagine in on Klimt's model these were probably metal, but beads are so much lighter weight.  Due to lack of detail in viewing the painting, I made up my own little swirl in the earrings.

Now to finish my headpieces, dress and make my husband's costume!  Wish me luck!

Halloween Bangle: Klimt 2

 

I have a few different pieces that I have been working on for my Halloween costume this year.  This is a little teaser because I finished this bangle last night. 

 

It's called "Klimt 2" because the inspiration is from a Gustav Klimt painting.  It's been fun following the color and design of another artist. It's the second of 2 bangles that I designed for this costume. The first one is close to done also.  I finished the second design first because I was stocking up on a bead order from Fire Mountain Gems and finally ordered it this week.  "Klimt 2" was already set up so it's done!!!

 

This piece is my "standard" size bangle and the width comes to 2.25 inches.  The green in this piece I picked up at a Florida bead shop and I'll be adding it to my regular color palette, it's a great bright opaque green.  The brown color in this is actually a matte plum.  Next to the champagne color base it looks too brown for me.  If I was to re-do this bangle I would make it a brighter purple.

 

Back to sewing mine and my husband's costumes.  I made a ton of headway yesterday.  This was me all day yesterday:

 



What happened to my old loom?

This is a follow-up post to the excitement of having a "new" loom, which I give the background of how I got my first loom, but not where it's gone for a new life.

When I had purchased Delilah from Sue, I started thinking about what to do with my old loom.  I didn't want to keep her because I don't want two looms with basically the same function, and I don't have the room in the "loom room."

I got this loom for free, should I put it up on Craigslist for free? Should I give it to someone? Should I sell it? and for how much?

I decided that I wanted it to go to someone who would weave on it and not just take it with the idea that they would eventually get around to it/learn to weave.  This meant either selling it to a stranger, or finding someone I knew who was looking for a loom. Then I remembered my friend Amy and the brief visit to her place in Cincinnati, OH on my solo road trip last year.  She was chatting excitedly that she had claimed a room in the house she shares with Rhys to get back to her artwork.  She was in the fiber program at Eastern Michigan University back in the day, but before that we grew up together (I think we've been friends since high school, but I wonder if it's been longer?).  She had a connection to someone who was going to sell her a loom.  So I texted her and asked if she ever got that loom, and she said no, it fell though.  Then it went something like this...I think...(in my head anyway)....

Do you want mine?

What? Really? How much?

Free. You just have to promise you'll use it.

Well I'm not sure how to get it down here, but yes.

I can bring it down, it fits in my car. I've never really visited Cincinnati before anyway.

Can I pay you for gas?

No, just let us crash at your place for the weekend and we'll go out in the city.  I'll help you set up the loom and get you going.  It'll be fun.

And it was.  As large as this loom is, it fit into the back of Zack's Chevy Cruze when it's in all it's pieces.  We drove down for the weekend and got the loom set up and had a fun night out in Cincinnati, I'm looking forward to another visit already.

Photos are compliments of Amy, she's already got it warped and going.  Yay!  Pass on the weaving-karma. 

My latest Jewelry at Grove Gallery

Leaf Lariat Necklace  $260.00

 

I did pull some new work together to put into Grove Gallery recently.  I sent my fall red/purple mix over to Angelwood Gallery and I have been dying to stitch up these sparkly green seed beads, so here's a fresh green and blue set with some gold accents.

 

Netting with Swarovski Pearls Bracelet  $75.00

 

Cluster Earrings  $75.00

 

Leaf Earrings with pearls $55.00

 

 

I also brought in a different earring display (which I have used in my tent set-ups in the past), which looks very nice in the gallery, as long as I can keep it full.

 

 

 

 

Happy Plaidurday!

It's Plaidurday!  Which also falls 4 days before Spinning and Weaving Week (#SandWW), October 7-13, 2013 this year.  So get out your favorite plaid-related wearable out (or all of them) and get out there to celebrate your threads.  The Celebrate Plaid write-up this year does a good run-down on all the plaid, so I had to jump in. 

Then I was thinking about "what do I have that's plaid?"  One button-up shirt. A long Scottish skirt that was my mom's (real plaid, wool, and I don't think fits any longer), a few items in my old "short skirt collection" (which definitely do not fit anymore) and then I remember I had created bangles that were plaid-inspired.  Alas, I have none on hand and no time to make one, maybe I'll have it more together next year.

I know that the fuchsia/black bangle is at Angelwood Gallery. 

"Everybody Loves Plaid" my largest plaid-themed bangle (top) is owned by Jill Ault's daughter (who's name escapes me at the moment, I'm sorry!) I made 2 other smaller plaid bangles along the way which have also been purchased.  I suppose I should make more eh?  So off I go today in my plaid!

 

 

 

 

Meet Delilah, my "new" Macomber Loom

Thanks to various opportunities in my lifetime, I have gotten to weave on many different types of looms.  I started learning to weave by helping Joetta (a member of my guild at the time, the Black Sheep Weavers) warp looms in the summer at the school she taught at.  I have no idea what I was weaving on back then, I was just happy to be on a floor loom.

In college, I ended up weaving on many smaller floor looms to start off, but as my weaving projects got larger, I graduated to using the larger looms in the class and for the most part taking it over for a good two years. The loom I favored was a 12 harness Macomber Loom.

As I was finishing up my art degree, my professor offered a loom up for grabs that had been donated to the fiber program.  Sherri would always tell people that the Art School was happy to take looms and then she would send them off with a student that wanted one.  I was one of these students. To this day, I'm still not sure what my old loom brand was, but despite it's large size, it could break down far enough for me to move it in a station wagon and put it back together without help (although help was always nice).

My post-college loom moved from Michigan to Colorado to Wisconsin and back to Michigan with me. It was functional for my purposes since it was a four harness which meant I could still do double weave and Theo Mooreman inlay weave on it. I was weaving a significant amount while in Colorado, but then was beading a lot more as I moved around and weaving projects sat for longer on my loom so I didn't think much about upgrading.  Then I got my dye lab fully up and running, meaning I can now dye my own yarn, and the amount I started to weave increased as did my frustration with the old loom.  So, I started keeping my eyes peeled for a Macomber that was more than four harnesses.

I look at Craigslist a lot to see what kind of looms people are trying to move.  I found a post for a Macomber that has 6 harnesses but can take up to 10 harnesses.  After assessing the post, I realized that it was probably my friend Sue selling it because she was amidst a move and one only puts a loom up for sale with no reed if you're still weaving.  So I asked her about it and Sue said I should take a look because she had cannibalized some of the parts on this loom to put on to her other Macomber.  After taking a look, I wrote her a check and we celebrated with wine.  I didn't have to move it right away and I needed my husband and another strong guy (Pat) to carry it out of Sue's basement and lift it in and out of the trailer that Sue luckily was willing to help move her to my house.  And so, I finished my last weaving on the old loom, took her apart and moved the Macomber to her new home in my loom room.  I decided on the name Delilah for her and put on a sample weaving of leftover warp from "In Progress."  I wanted to use all of the harnesses to make sure I didn't need to get parts right away.  I finished a piece of fabric to use at my 3-Day workshop with Mary Sue Fenner at Michigan League of Handweaver's Conference and it is now part of a jacket.

I really enjoyed weaving fabric for the sake of weaving fabric again.  It's the closest to the feeling of meditating that I've had in a long time.  So I wound off a warp with a ton of leftover rayon that I dyed in college and am ready for some more-meditative work between the insanity of making my Halloween Costume (potentially a larger undertaking than last year's jellyfish costume) and the onslaught of Holiday shows.