What's On the Table 2010

I have spent a few days working in an area I'm not always completely comfortable in. Home dec and upholstery. Now that it's all wrapped up, I'm pleased. Curtains are always a challenge working in the space that I have. Throw pillows are something I could do more of though, each are little pieces on their own. I'm not sure if there is a market around the area for this kind of work though. Making them is time consuming.

Revival "The Making Of"

Before Christmas I spent a bit of time helping out my friend Matt with his latest Creepy Puppet Project. He bases many of his zombies on a 1/4 scale molded skeleton. Conveniently, in school I learned to draft most of my flat patterns using 1/4 scale slopers and still have them. So, making zombie clothes is just like making real people clothes only using less yardage. Excuse the bad photos of these, they were meant more as a visual communication between Matt and I as we live 6 hours apart.







I'm sure Matt worked his butt off for weeks in the interim but when Jenn, Paul and I arrived at his place he got us to give him a hand doing some green screen dancing skeleton work. This is a screen grab of what we were up to. For three non puppeteers that's a lot of limbs to get moving in coordination.




Ultimately, this is what things ended up looking like.



Please, take a minute to go and subscribe to Matt's channel on Youtube. He's working hard to expand the CPP and those numbers help.

An Entire Week!

Wow, time flies. I have been working away on listing things on my Etsy shop, starting a couple of halloween costumes and generally being busy. Not sure why I don't have much to show for it?! Blame the short week I suppose.

What are you going to be for halloween? I think I'm resurecting a pirate costume from times gone by. I can't seem to find the tutorial I read on making pirate boot spats but it's here someplace I'm sure. That way I can wear my sensible shoes, actually stay out past 11 and not be horrible uncomfortable! Stay posted for pics.

Flowers, Flowers Everywhere

I'm not sure where this fuss pot streak is coming from. I've been making little fabric flowers all over the place. "Oh, look, cutting scraps, more flowers....." I guess it's keeping the garbage bag thinned out but what am I going to do with all of these? Some have homes, most do not.

Some Subtle Bling

This is a pretty little thing I made from a clients hem left overs! She now has a broach that matches 3 of her pairs of pants. I'm not sure it's entirely original, I've seen things like this around the blog-o-sphere but I think what it is a nice little touch to give back to a great client. What would you think if something like this is included in with your garments?

Chat Noir Hijinks

You should all go over to Chat Noir's blog, A Voice in the Wilderness. Check out their great blog posts on the fun window they put together for the Jane Austin take off books Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters as well as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. That's what the zombie hand was about last week.

In fact, they have also been featured on Raincoast Book's blog.

Well done guys. We really have to do stuff like this more often. Made my week.

5, 4, 3, 2 ...1

50 scarecrows
4 friends
3 trucks
2 dogs
1 beautiful day







caveat: there was a jeep, more friends and family showed up to play, not to mention two beautiful little girls... We all had a load of fun. All the scarecrows were hung in down town New Liskeard today so I'll be sure and try and get some photos tomorrow.

And In Other News....

I got to work on another fun project. Stay tuned for a completed project photo.

A Little Something

I've been wanting to play with some fabric flowers. This is one of the results. Now a dress is haunting me that needs these flowers. How does that happen, I make some flowers and end up making what's looking like a wedding dress?!

Old Can Be New Again

First, I feel I need to introduce this post with sharing my thoughts on fur. I know that horrible, horrible things are done to animals in the name of fashion. Things that anyone with a soul could never condone. The thing is, there is another side of that coin. Fur has a history and a heritage that is part of our culture. I come from a family of hunters who treat the animals we kill (and food we consume) with respect and as much humanity as possible. Fur and leather is part of that food web that cannot be ignored and should be treated with the same respect. I don't want my meat served to me on styrofoam or full of chemicals, I should consider that as well when I am clothing myself.

That said, my friend came to me with her Grandmother's fur coat recently. She and her mother had kept it for years and years, knowing that it would never fit them but not sure what to do with it. Her Grandmother had loved her coat so much and it was important to her, to discard that seemed disrespectful. So she asked if I could make it into pillows so that it could be out, used and enjoyed. I thought that was a great idea.

I've never really worked in fur before but why not. I stripped down the coat, wow, things just aren't made like that anymore. It's interesting to note as well that the hides were all stamped with union stamps. No offshore child labour was used here. While I was taking it apart the cuff gave up some long stored confetti, this coat had seen a good time! So the confetti was put it into one of the new pillows, no point in stopping that journey just yet. Now from that coat there are three new pillows that will be enjoyed way more than an old coat in a closet ever would be.

Halloween is on it's way!!

I'm sure any costumer out there can identify with my absolute love of Halloween. I've been up to my eyeballs with wonderful black fabric as I am costuming the entire staff for a Fifth Year Anniversary party on Halloween at Chat Noir Books in Temiskaming Shores.

It's going to be fabulous darling... ;o) If you are in the area come on by for a visit.

Beading Workshop

Last night I went to a Beading Class held by Connie Boyd of the Silver Moccasin. Our teacher was Hank Rodgers whose beadwork is just beautiful. Check out some of his stuff. It's going to be a long time and a whole lot of practise to even begin to live up to his work after one little three hour class. Thanks Hank and thanks to you Connie for putting this all together.



This is Hank and Connie hard at work.



These are some of Hanks moccasins. (Photo credit goes to Connie at the Silver Moccasin.)



and really.. what's a fun class without sharing it with friends. Thanks for getting me out of the house for this one Val!

Pretty.....

Etsy and Me

I have been working to get some more things up on my Etsy site. One of the definite challenges is photo editing. I'm not very good at it but I'd like to think I'm getting better. Currently I'm using GIMP which seems to be a really decent open source software. (Down with microsft!)

First step, what to shoot. I had this waspie I made a while back to test out a pattern and it's prototypes like that which I intend to clear out of here. So I found the closest, cheapest, most available model and got myself dressed and cleaned up a bit.

Second step, figure out the timer. HA! At the time I only seemed to be able to set a 10 second delay. So I spent a while screwing around, hitting the button on the tripod and leaping back and trying to get stationary before the flash. Yeah... sure. Much leaping about being a goof ball, laughing my butt off. But finally I figured there's got to be a shot in there I can edit down to something. I had no intention of this shot really being about me but rather edited down to show the waspie.

Third step, download and laugh. One shot, I looked so stunned I laughed and laughed out loud at. So, not being particularily proud I sent it on to my friend Matt so he could laugh as well. Now this is Matt Ficner of the Creepy Puppet Project, so he is swamped with the fabulous response he's getting from the latest, Dusty Zombie.

Fourth, open mouth in amazement. A couple of hours later I checked my email to find me, 'touched up' and looking rather fab if I do say so myself. Fierce. I may just use this photo for everything....

What else I've been up to

I've been carrying this scarf around as my distraction knitting, though it's starting to become a tad obsessive. I just want to sit and work on it to the detriment to everything else. Guess I'd better just get it finished so I can focus elsewhere huh?!

Hi Honey, I'm Home...

Coolio. I'm home after days and days of fun builds and lots of hard work, not to mention a bit of sushi. Apparently ol' Lappy enjoys fresh northern air as well cuz I convinced her to download some pictures for our viewing pleasure.

I teased you a bit with the horror wonder whom is Fat Boy. This is completely Matt's magic at work, I just get to play at the edges of it some days!

To give you an idea of the process, this is Fat Boy's bust, no colour at this point.


On from that, the next shot is him assembled. He has a foam body over a plastic core, wrapped in fabric and then painted and sculped in latex. Notice the swav new clothes he's sporting at this point. It has to look good, to look bad later.



Then, after Matt waves a magic wand over him and I work for a while on his clothing, he looks like this.



Is that cool or what?!? A close up for those of you not squeamish. Keep in mind that this is a 1/4 scale puppet.



This is the only completely finished puppet after my 10 days at the studio. Lots of starts happened on a LOT of puppets though. I'll keep everyone up to date.

Oops, a test maggot got in there....

Yep, it was zombie day. It's really too bad I can't post pics right now cuz... fat boy is the coolest. I did lots of clothes tailoring and distressing.

Be good, have fun, there will be pictures soon!

Is This Battle Fatigue?

Seriously, how can I possibly be this tired?! I don't feel I did that much today but I'm just wiped.

We did beat the weather, it was forcast clear for the morning and I used every last dry minute to finish things up. I think that is what is so tiring, finishing. This isn't the sexy part of building something. No big impact, more quality control. Make sure the edges are all solid, build finishing bits, glue seams. This all takes so much time but when you stand back, very little has changed visually but this work is what makes sure these trees will survive a very busy touring schedule.

Hopefully tomorrow things will be dry and there will be a grande finale shot of the tree(s). Then, clean up, a bit of down time and on to the next build - two birds to interact with Mr. Tree. Maybe look at a bit of zombie tailoring for fun while mechs are being built.

What a Difference a Day Makes

It really is amazing. What progress today! It was beautiful and warm and we worked in the garden all day. The trees are SO... close to being finished. The canopy is essentially done for one and not much left on the second one, there will be finishing work on the bases and a little bit of tweaking and then on to the birds.

Day II

I'm all for a snazzy title aren't I? It was a long day. The pics are a bit off, I started working before the first one, and I had to take the last one before it was completely dark, so there was more after that. Also, the bases are pretty much covered as well, sorry, no pic there.


Ummm.. so yeah, lots of work done equals a boring blog post I guess. I'm going to drag my tired self to watch some tv and have a glass of wine (whine?)