textileowl

Pictures of my latest two commissions are up at my Flicker site. Here for demonqueen666 's medieval madrigal gown, and here for the modernized corset.

There were challenges with both, though relatively minor. The woman who commissioned the corset is very straight through the torso and hip, so I played with seam placement and fabric choice to give an illusion of curve. It worked as well as it could, though I think adding a gathered skirt would increase the illusion around the hips.

I'm currently working on two projects for myself. One is a tailored jacket in striped blue wool with a shibori dyed silk lining. I need to do a bit of research first but hopefully it will be done in time to go with me to UNC for my interview and portfolio review at the end of March. The other is new faire garb which will be revealed in due course.

I wrote about getting a new job last week, right? Ok, so it was a one line post. I've been working for a week at the new place and it's going well so far. I'm the costume and shipping manager for a local character staffing and logisitics agency. I keep track of all the costumes in our fleet for our clients, process and schedule costume requests,  and make sure the costumes get to where they need to be when the customer wants them to get there.

So far I've dealt with mix-ups concerning dates of events,  requests that were verbal and therefore I had no record of the request - when the costume should have been there yesterday, and the inner workings of a company that only a few months ago had a fairly substantial turnover in its employees.

Right now I'm working about 30 hours a week, which is plenty of time to deal with paperwork, phone calls and things like laundry. But there is the good possibility that I'll get bumped up to full-time in a couple of months. Also, I get the opportunity to make even more money by helping out at events where our talent is needed! I'm doing one this Saturday at a local high school from 9 - 1, just enough time to make it worth it and still be able to work on other projects. 

<edit> OOh! It's apparently Pancake Day at the high school! Yum!

Pyr and I have been trying to be more social lately, a year off was plenty. So far we've been out and seen Coraline with a friend and to last night's Gaelic Storm concert at the Newport. Both were fabulous. Coraline was just on the edge of creepy kid's movie, the design was fabulous but the plot was on the level of an eight year old, very obvious and easy to follow. I'll need to read the book and see if it is as childish as the movie. I find it hard to believe it would be, having been written by Neil Gaiman. The Gaelic Storm concert was fantastic, they have such a great stage presence and I'm really glad they mix instrumentals in with the lyrical songs. They really show off the entire band's talent with the multitude of instruments they play. I wish they had opened up thebalcony so there was more seating, it would have made my back and legs less tired as well as being able to see a little better. For some reason, tall and stocky guys feel the need to stand in front of people who they could clearly see over.

Umm, let see what else is new? My application with SCAD is currently in review, I am working on my portfolio for UNC - it's harder because the format is completely different and I actually have to present it to a group so it needs to be very cohesive and easy for a bad presenter like me to show off. I'm also more nervous about UNC. From what I've seen of the program I think it will be a much better fit than Savannah, so I have to try that much harder to be accepted.

Things to do in next two couple of days

• Decide what twenty things go in my portfolio for Saturday
• Arrange portfolio
• Fill sweater and jacket flats with color
• Cut up duct tape corset and pattern
• Pattern demonqueen666 's medieval gowns
• Sketch up said gowns in possible color combos
• Re-download trial version of Painter - lots of fun, no practice
• Welt buttonholes for coat
• Re-cut collar for coat
• Belt for coat