Hearts and crafts

Hermes has produced a documentary on its artisans called Hearts and Crafts.  It's beautifully done.  You can watch it here.

My foray into still-life styling

I've been exploring getting into still-life styling. George shot and retouched the clothing, which I pinned to a thick piece of foam board, and then I arranged them in Photoshop to look like magazine spreads.  It was a bit challenging because we did the shooting on my roof, and the wind would blow and the light would change so I'd have to move stuff around, but I think it looks pretty good for a first try.  It definitely was a good learning experience.

I have a friend who has an agency that represents stylists, and she told me that with the current economy, magazines and retailers are favoring still-life shoots as opposed to using models, where you'd need to pay models and hair and makeup artists.  Just in case you're reading the captions, the labels and prices in my layouts are mostly fake.

I made this shirt...

...for a client, an artist.

She gave me a shirt that she liked that she'd bought in a thrift store, and gave me fabric to make it in.  She wanted it in a cotton since the original shirt was in a polyester that didn't breathe well.  I made the shirt from scratch, first creating a pattern from the original shirt.

I pinned the shirt down and traced it, making adjustments where she'd pinned it to take it in here and there.  Then I put it all together.  It was a little tricky cutting the fabric because the print was so large and in big blocks, so I had to make sure to line up the center front in the middle of the diamond, and that the sleeves were cut so that they matched.  It also took me some time to get the collar to look right, but I think I did a pretty good job.  She picked out the bright red buttons, which give it a nice touch.

ponies will bite you! do a cover of Come Pick Me Up by Ryan Adams

Sometimes you want to listen to a sad breakup song... here is a good one.  The violin intro is a little out of tune but it gets better, I promise.

ponies will bite you! sing about a Magic Mirror

This is one of my songs.  This song has evolved over the past couple of years... some of my songs are more angsty, inspired by my frustrations...