Current Musings | Bucket List for break

( 1 )  Knit/Felt myself a fox mask/hat inspired by these adorable creations by Everlasting Sprout. Ahaha I'll probably leave eye holes in mine though.

( 2 ) Reverse engineer how these mindblowingly fragile + beautiful creations of Frances Geesin were created and try something of a similar vein myself. From what I can gather, they seem like they are electroplated polypropylene fibres that she completely covered a mold with, and either let dissolve into the electroplating bath or carefully sculpted to begin with. My head is spinning with the possibilities.

(3) 3D print/electroplate some chain mail. Now that I've discovered electroplating (oh ho how I'm a sucker for SCIENCE) I can think of all sorts of interesting applications for it. I've always wanted to try 3D printing chain mail (the fact that you can print the links already intersecting is pretty damn cool) but its hard to actually use it afterwards since 3D printed objects still read painfully plastic. However, if you can electroplate your finished product, you'll have a lightweight, flexible, beautiful chain mail.

 (4) Build myself one of these beautifully designed electric spinning wheels by Glacial Wanderer over at Dreaming Robots. This really is an amazing project. Mr. Wanderer designed the thing himself based off of more traditional spinning wheel setups and then released the dFab files and careful instructions on how to recreate the electronics involved over on his site. So the entire thing is completely open source and aimed at knitters/fiber nerds ( like myself ) who usually are completely overcharged for such things due to it being such a niche market.

(images via here, here and here)

(5) Learn how to spin on said spinning machine. There's something about the texture, color, and the really calm and simple process of suggesting order on some completely wild and unruly thing that really hooks me. Knitting is a little bit like doing crack, except it calms you down and you usually end up with something cozy afterwards rather than the shattered remnants of your former life. 

(oh PS, that first image is from the Etsy site of this really wonderful girl who makes completely covetable hand dyed roving. So you know, if any of my family (aka all of the readers of this blog) is wants to champion this noble cause ( huh huh? ), any one of her braids would cause me to promptly expire from happiness)

Inspirations | Jordan Askill

Mr. Askill, Sydney native and former assistant at Dior Homme, is a ridiculously cool sculptor/jeweler, incorporating 3D scanning and rapid prototyping into his design process. The complexity of his finished forms, often delicately assembled collages of animals, is astounding.


In an interview with Fader magazine Askill speaks a little about his design process, and how it incorporates modelling technology (which from my experience, often pushes one into using more polygonal geometries) into his extremely organic designs.


"How do you go from a computer design to a finished piece?

I take a 3-D scan of a found object that I want to use, or I’ll create a base shape in the computer and sculpt them from there. Then I make a 3-D print out, so the design comes out as a little wax object. Afterward, I have crystal carved using the wax prototype, or I make a mold of the prototype to cast the final product. If it hasn’t come out exactly correct, I’ll embellish it by hand. So things have two processes, which is important to me, because I don’t want people to entirely forget about the old artisan techniques.

What does technology add to your work? 
I just love the fact that with digital technology you can create one complete piece that has direct symmetry and organization. So, in a way, it’s all completely organic and uniform because there’s no glue or pieces joined together. Keep it as clean and as pure as possible. You don’t find glue in a rock or in a wave, it’s just one pure form."

(read more: at thefader.com)



I was particularly excited to stumble upon his work, since I've been pretty much keeping this generative flocking jewelry project of mine on the back burner since last year. Especially with lunar gala coming up, I really wanted to dust them off a bit and incorporate them into my collection, but couldn't think of a way to appealingly translate the odd geometries into wearable pieces. Clearly, if its awesome enough, you just tell the model to keep her arm a little farther away from her body, and to be a darling and try not to snag it on anything. 

(images from here and here)

Inspiration :: James Jean for Prada

OK I know this is going waaay back, and typically I talk about my inspirations on my tumblr, but I'm going to make an exception to take a moment to remember James Jean for Prada.

Growing up with literally no exposure to fashion, my parents loathed the "girly" magazines, claiming there was nothing worth reading in them (which may or may not have been true). My father especially would take great pains to condemn them, and I think quite enjoyed making up elaborate stories to instruct us on the horrors of superficiality. In fact, I spent a good 5 years of my childhood believing that lipstick was actually created from bat poop, painstakingly gathered from the bottoms of caves by villages in far away lands, only to be shipped to us idiot americans to wear on our mouths.

I forget how I first stumbled across it, undoubtedly holed away in my high school studio at some ungodly hour of the night, but the first video of a runway show I'd ever seen, I immediately fell in love with.  It was Ann Demeulemeester Spring 2009. But what really got me hooked on fashion as an art form, and was the seed for my passion for it to this day was James Jean for Prada.

An illustrator of epic, heartbreakingly awesome talent, paired with Miuccia who is insightful, wry and so fully and strongly nothing but herself, moreso than any other designer. It was a divine match, and created beautiful beautiful pieces.

(Click to see the whole mural, it's enormous!)

up and at'em

So with only 2 more super stressful all-nighters left, full of incredibly exciting computer cache simulations and database managing, before spring break (which I'm determined not to spend just sleeping) here's what I'm hoping to actually get done

1.) The awesome girls at HonestlyWTF have some of the coolest/most beautifully documented DIY projects I've seen in a while (check out this one for recreating some Proenza Schouler chunky rock-climbing bling) which I am itching to try.


2.) Work on my line for lunar gala, the student run fashion show here at Carnegie Mellon. Since my sewing have been used for nothing except to gather dust, I'm focusing on the idea of simple clean forms delineated by beautiful juxtaposed patterns, like an Utamaro woodblock print. Since this is going to be a one off thing (never meant to be sold or worn really ), I'm definitely approaching the whole experience as designing a meticulous performance art piece. I'm very excited to experiment with handpainting/dying fabrics and combining various digital fabrication techniques, like laser cutting illustrations into leather and 3d printing elements(furthering my work with Pauldron and what is still the favorite ring I own). I'm tentatively envisioning indigo shibori and the leather being unifying elements,  but I'll play with it over break and post some pictures of the results.

what i'm thinking of for texture palate images via here

3.) And lastly develop a new project for studio of which I have yet to decide! But I ultimately hope can be incorporated into the line :) The overarching concept for the class is "generative form/simulations". Since I've already done particle work for the last two projects, I really want to work with generative form/physical output.

I really like the idea of “art” that you can wear, since they then they live this whole other life past the actual “generative” making, developing their own wear, tear, and personality with the owner which is sort of another generative process in its own right.

After seeing some amazing pieces by Sandra Backlund

 I was thinking about generative knitwear (wouldn't it be awesome to algorithmically create forms like these??) but to my immense disappointment the machines that I've found seem to either only be able to handle plain flat knits or circular tubes. Within the deadline I could maybe create half of finished work by hand through an intense bought of masochism.

Other ideas include generative rings, using Toxi's brilliant mesh libraries for processing, or maybe algorithmic embroidery? (computer controlled embroidery machines are significantly cheaper)

Any thoughts/suggestions?

BEAT

Addicted to this podcast from White Heat. Hopefully its the first of many. British boys have the best music.

I apologize for the lack of absolutely anything. I've been finishing up a program that can play chess(much better than me actually), Robot soccer, and this weekend is going to be a last ditch public art all nighter ampMonsterRockStarDEATH extravaganza.

Meanwhile I'm going to zone out, listen to this, and let the caffeine haze wash over.

White Heat Podcast 001 by White Heat

Spring 2011 Favorite Looks :: Sea of Shoes Art Contest

So I've been meaning to create a drawing for the Sea of Shoes S'11 Art contest...pretty much since the contest was announced. The challenge was to create a sketch of your favorite look from the season. Sketch still pending.... but here are some of my absolute favorite designs!

Lanvin + Rodarte

oh and who else is super excited form the Lanvin + H&M collab? Too bad it probably won't come to Pittsburgh : (  

McQueen + Jill Saunders

Jonathan Saunders + Mary Katrantzou
(The Mary Katrantzou show used the images from Architectural Digest as prints! So beautiful! Gotta support those gorgeous interdisciplinary mash-ups )

images via style.com