Friday, June 24, 2011

apron imitating life

Reflecting on my sisters/bro in laws vintage red riding hood apron.  Things that happen in the apron imitate things that happen in the garden.

Tree on the apron...




Tree outside.

Wolf on the apron...




"Wolf" (dog) outside.



















Only that there is no red riding hood being chased by the "wolves".  Unless you count the rats the possums!

Friday, June 17, 2011

hug a laptop

A while ago I posted about my laptop screen saga and I have since bought a nice new macbook air.  Of course I want to protect this one, so I used some of my surrounding bits n pieces to keep it safe.
I used a jumper that I had hanging about in the studio which I had never worn much.  I experimented with how the laptop might interact with parts of the jumper.  I was intending to cut the jumper into parts to make a layered cover, but ended up folding and wrapping to completely encase the laptop with layers of the jumper.  It is held in place by strategic and minimal stitching which could easily be removed to give the jumper back its life as a human garment.  The performativity of the jumper is played out as the sleeves wrap around and our human centered interpretation of the garment gives the perception of holding, hugging, nurturing.










Thursday, June 9, 2011

surprise pumpkin




Back at the start of February a pumpkin sprouted beneath my poor struggling lime tree from some compost which I put there to try to help the tree.  In time the pumpkin went quite crazy, growing in all directions, covering over our patio, and threatening to block our back door.  The wet, coolish summer wasn't conducive to pumpkin set, but by the end of the season, some fruit was appearing underneath the leaves here and there.  It was strange as I didn't notice a couple of them till they were quite big, and I would look one day and there they were.  This is an example of something I speak about in my seed theory for design, that you have to notice the unexpected things that happen and nurture them to allow them to grow into something of value.  I used the first pumpkin this week and made some soup :o)









Wednesday, June 8, 2011

shirty apron

I've been inspired by a skirt made from business shirts in the Japanese pattern/sewing book, "Cool Couture Remake"























I replicated the technique, with some adaptations so that I could make a stand alone apron, from the particular style and proportion of the shirt I had.  It's one of hubby's exhausted business shirts - the collars are just starting to fray on the corners of a few that he has worn day in day out for about 6 years.  As well as the proportion changing the way the shirt is cut, the design details (i.e. the back pleats into the yoke) are in different places, so need to be worked around.  Response through make, and response to material expression is required for this.