THIRD INTERSTITIAL SALON!

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Elise Matthesen		#21	[-]
Posts: 6 (05/14/08 07:27:43) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	I confess that I'm one who loves the runway fashions, who loves the most extreme things, and who is inspired and delighted by stuff that "nobody would ever wear in public." It makes me want to make art. Somebody said once that fandom means never having to say "Now, where would I ever wear that?" I like that. That said, I am not a fan of impracticality, though I sometimes accidentally achieve it. But I generally feel that if a thing is made in a wearable genre, it should probably be wearable. Then again, some people find interstitial writing unreadable. Hmm! This is all sparking a whole bunch of interesting thoughts. And now I have to go to the workbench because of some of them.
WEllertson	fashion - jewelry = art	#22	[-]
Posts: 11 (05/14/08 08:24:19) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Kris - You've certainly brought up a huge subject...one which could probably be a whole salon discussion and more. ..Interplay of art and fashion...I agree Tempest...it's a rather weird relationship. Needless to say we humans long long ago moved past just protective garb - we all say something with what we wear or choose not to wear - sometimes whether we mean to or not. Last December I saw the "Identity by Design: tradition, change, and celebration in native women's dresses" at the National Museum of the American Indian in D.C. - pretty extraordinary exhibit...I love that they had contemporary designers' creations there as well as historic dresses. Quote to ponder from opening of book on the exhibit: by the Athabaskan/Alutiiqu artist, Rebecca Lyon , "Nothing is as personal as the clothes we wear. Clothing can be seen as a vessel that holds the human spirit." (There's a challenge, for you when you get dressed in the morning!) What were those women in Tudor times saying. Or for that matter what we are saying when we choose a piece of clothing or jewelry to put on? ....or to create for a runway? or for an auction? Are we connecting with a story, a tradition, our body, our finances, our inner life, our desires to let others know who we are - at all sorts of levels....etc. Are we trying to expand the imagination of the wearer, the viewer or shock them into a new way to look at things?....or just trying to eek out a living with what we make? .........all questions that I think can pretty much relate to clothing, jewelry,other arts..and writing. It's been fascinating for me to watch the world of wearable art evolve over the past 30 or so years in the craft show scene... I was in the fashion scene for about 10 years.(the 80's) ..but the focus with my pierced leather garments and accessories was trying to make folks feel good about their bodies and how they could move...(I remember in the 50's, my mom asking me if I didn't want a tailored camel's hair coat like everyone else . My response was something like: why would I want that? I had fallen in love with a bright plaid wool cape which you could swoosh in and felt great!..I got the cape!).. For me, clothing or jewelry has to feel good, or I'm not interested. That's one of the reasons I'm drawn to the materials I use...and to beading..it just feels wonderful to touch, manipulate, and play with beads. I wasn't drawn to (still am not much) to "wearable art" which definitely looks better on the wall than on a body...although sometimes think it good fun or challenging as art. Is it more important how something is made, or the look, or the price point? ..My brother who was a costume designer in London used to be horrified at how poorly "designer" dresses were often made. Perhaps question is does something have to be well made (or written) to convey something significant....or does that matter? The craft world used to be all about how it was made, less the look...that has shifted over the years... but there is still a lot of honoring skillful crafted items. Thoughts? Wendy
Elise Matthesen		#23	[-]
Posts: 7 (05/14/08 08:38:32) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Ooh! Excellent questions. Am going to ponder them, as I have to run out to pick up some fused dichroic goodies and see if they worked. Also, am partway through the major piece that got inspired by this discussion and by a big chunk of glowy green stuff I had lying around. (Photos later today when I get back.) First response though: a lot of my own work is not technically as good as I would like it to be. I'm self-taught, although I did go to school after I had an established business. (And not to an art school; I went to a technical college's jewelry manufacturing and repair course, and it was the first truly satisfying higher educational experience this working-class-roots person had ever had -- which is another really important aspect of craft/art to me, but that's a whole 'nother take on the topic.) Anyhow, my stuff is definitely... what do they call it? Art brut. If there's craft brut, that's me, maybe. I love love love that Rebecca Lyon quote. "Clothing can be seen as a vessel that holds the human spirit." Yes. That. Which leads to thoughts of art/spirit/wellness, and pain management, but I have to run. Back soon. I bet ten more people will have said ten more brilliant things by the time I get back. This is a fun discussion!
LeslieWhat		#24	[-]
Posts: 1 (05/14/08 09:18:53) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	What a great discussion. I'm an assemblage writer who collects and stores impressions, imagery, words, story and character inside the unzipped zip lock baggies of my head until that moment where something clicks and the bits come together and story happens. My bead collection is a lot like my brain: mostly loose beads and found objects and findings that may be grouped together in ways that make sense to me and nobody else. When Tempest told me about the auction I flashed on an image of the Stella bead I'd found some time ago and dug through the baggies and found it and remembered I had a mailbox charm somewhere and I pulled out everything and sat surrounded by beads for a while and then put them all together and took them apart and kept revising the necklace until it looked right. Leslie
copperwise.surlalunefairyt...		#25	[-]
Posts: 3 (05/14/08 11:27:15) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	This is amusing and serendipitous, this discussion of fashion and art. A couple of seasons ago the trashy but fun America's Next Top Model did a photoshoot with live giant cockroaches decorated with jewels. The models had to wear them. Clearly artsy but not real world. Last night a friend of mine called. She was at a natural history store and was buying bags of butterfly and beetle wings for me, because she thinks they would look cool as components of my pendants. Weird artsy "would never happen in real life" is going to happen, I guess, because now I am going to figure out how to incorporate insect bits into things. The other night I found a shed claw from one of my cats embedded in the couch, and saved it to put on a piece of jewelry. So even though my stuff has defined parameters -- it has to be big enough to put the words on, for example -- materials kind of ambush me and say "hey, use me."
WEllertson	speaking of using insects...	#26	[-]
Posts: 12 (05/14/08 12:40:58) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Speaking of using insect wings (which are incredibly cool, by the way) - check out Mike Libby's website: www.insectstudio.com ....Think we'd have to put him in our interstitial band...he creates sculptures using actual insects..but adds watch parts etc. etc.....weird that couldn't be....or maybe...... Wendy
krismcd59		#27	[-]
Posts: 37 (05/14/08 13:37:02) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Wendy, you should talk to Honorah about her dream of creating a Mythic Fashion Show -- did she show you her "wish book" at Mythic Journeys '06? The idea of wearable art is such an interesting cultural question and so tied up with class -- to those who know more about such things than I do, do you think it's generally true in most cultures -- or at least in Western culture -- that the upper classes tend to focus on costly and/or rare materials and outlandish, motion-restricting silhouettes, while the lower classes (in most cultures) are more likely to adorn their bodies with more natural materials (I think of all the pastoral poems about milkmaids in chaplets of flowers -- Perdita in Shakespeare's Winters Tale is a prime example), or even with body art? Which opens up a whole other discussion about tattoos and body modification as another -- and highly ritualized -- form of adornment and emblematic storytelling. I remember the extensive use Elizabeth Bear makes of tattoo art in her urban fantasies -- and of course, my first exposure to the whole idea of tattoos (sheltered 60s suburban child that I was) in Bradbury's Illustrated Man. Speaking of insect jewelry, I remember an unfortunate trend during my childhood of buying tiny chameleons and tying their legs to a safety pin on one's shoulder -- the poor things never lasted very long. I'd love to hear a story from the chameleon's point of view!
WEllertson	chameleons and more	#28	[-]
Posts: 13 (05/14/08 16:06:42) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Yes, Kris...sadly I remember those chameleons as well....yes, indeed, I'd like to see a story from their point of view...Glad they're not sold any more (nor the pink and blue chicks at Easter....bad times!!) Honora discussed her mythic fashion show dreams this Fall at one of our class sessions..(But I didn't see her "wish book") Fascinating to see how we pick and choose from various cultures to clothe ourselves...and what we hope/think/want to link to..or do we even realize exactly what we are doing? Class issue seems to me to have a lot to do with having to work...and not wanting to be encumbered by ridiculous clothing......sort of like women finally deciding pants are exceedingly practical. Tatoos...permanent wearable art...and stories of one's identity..indeed...
Tarotgrrl	from Rachel Pollack (test0	#29	[-]
Posts: 1 (05/14/08 16:22:21) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Hi, everyone. I've had a lot of trouble logging into this discussion, so I made up a silly name, and maybe that will work. If so, i will post a real contribution soon.
dichroicPB		#30	[-]
Posts: 2 (05/14/08 18:00:39) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	krismcd59 - I guess that makes it the bourgeois class who stick to adorning their bodies in only conventional ways, without things that are machine made and purchased at stores? For instance, today I'm wearing an Elise necklace crown (with a fitted dark teal T-shirt and black jeans, so a very basic outfit otherwise) and I will be surprised if I don't get comments on it. It's just not the sort of thing (most) people wear in office jobs in technical companies. Tattoo art and body piercings are becoming increasingly common (though of the three countries I've worked in, mostly only in the US - but I was talking to a Brit with a nose-piercing yesterday). But even so, most jewelry and hair ornaments are mass-produced and you only rarely see a tattoo that's not very minimal. (Of course, I've no idea what kind of body art my colleagues keep beneath their clothes!)
Elise Matthesen		#31	[-]
Posts: 8 (05/14/08 20:48:48) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Rachel's here! And Leslie! Yay! I got distracted for a bit, and was at the workbench with the necklace that got inspired by this discussion. It seems to want three clasps. The second one's on now, and the third will have to wait for morning and enough coordination and good daylight. I suspect the piece will wind up being called "Bordertown Runway Queen" but one never knows until it's done. Kris, in my neighborhood it's not so much chaplets of flowers as it is shiny neon plastic or precious metal chains (plated, solid, I dunno). A long time ago, at a Fourth Street Fantasy Convention, Delia Sherman said, "The city is the new forest." I think of that, and sometimes I think of strange flowers that are discarded bits of bright plastic or dulled metal, and garlands of spilled cassette-tape ribbon, which one still sees now and then in the gutters here. Broken CDs on the pavement are the helianthos of the day, reflecting the fire back up. I love distressed bits and rescued beads, saved treasures -- there's a bag of 1950s and 60s era Mardi Gras beads that a housemate gave me; she grew up in New Orleans, and they were from throws in parades -- and of course the charm of a good piece of metal that's been run over a few times is hard to resist. I guess I feel that way about, um, distressed fairy tales, you might call them, too. A Mythic Fashion Show would be outstanding. For that, I might have to finish the life-sized wearable sterling silver, freshwater pearl, and Swarovski crystal wings. Somebody puts one on, and I'll do it. (If I make them right, the movement of the wearer's shoulder blades will cause the wings to fan gently. The trick is going to be work-hardening the wire enough to bear the weight while still maintaining flexibility and the kind of sculptural tensegrity that makes large areas of wandering-wire lacework function.) But the best part of a Mythic Fashion Show would be seeing everybody else's stuff... and getting inspired. I love playing catch with the delight that way. Kind of like the pieces everybody made for these auctions: we're playing catch, and the writers threw the ball to us, and now it's our turn. I wonder if the people who get the jewelry will be inspired to make something -- a garden? An amazing dinner? A poem? A song?
jaeleslie		#32	[-]
Posts: 1 (05/14/08 22:51:30) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	For me too it is usually the stuff that tells me what it wants to be. That is true for a whole range of crafts that I seem to have picked up, since I started with scissors on a Sears catalog at age four. Sewing little clothes for the barbie doll, and then for myself. Beading, embroidery, etc., and now with collage and assemblage my studio is a bit of a magpie nest. When I became really aware of it was as a calligrapher, looking at pieces of paper, mostly pretty blank, and deciding from just a color or texture or bit of line which words the papers would suit. Hmm, I have recent example of the sort of work I am talking about posted today on my LiveJournal at http://maryread.livejournal.com/216930.html which shows a selection of handmade papers, and the ones that were agreeable to becoming part of a particular quotation. Calligraphers are what you could call "quote-happy" and I got into it in the first place as a way of working through a writers block, one letter at a time and quoting the works of others (the usual way calligraphers practice and learn). There are a whole lot of directions of working in calligraphy though, and I have calligrapher friends who work in a much more top-down fashion: words first, then design to amplify the text -- maybe even a sort of typographic "transparency" of design that is supposed to present the words without a lot of visual doo-dahs intruding on the reader. But the fact is that the form of the letters has something to say too, which adds a lot of richness of one kind or another to the reading experience. So "book arts" is where I am living lately. Oh, but I had to post on the fashion thing, cause I had this strapless long-line bra last year (bridesmaid thing) that I don't fit into anymore, that demanded to be painted up into a WonderWoman bustier. So I had great fun with acrylic paint, and put big stars on the boobs. I gave it to the Tiptree people, maybe they can figure out what to do with it. There's the whole shadow-box museum treatment but I thought that was too precious -- we could have some fun with it.
copperwise.surlalunefairyt...		#33	[-]
Posts: 4 (05/14/08 23:54:40) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Kris, wouldn't you say Mythic Fashion is very much what happens at Faerieworlds? People interpret "Faerie" as everything from diaphanous gowns with shimmering wings to black leather with horns to very little clothing but lots of tattoos...certainly I see a lot of Elise's pieces worn there... Last Edited By: copperwise 05/14/08 23:58:33. Edited 1 times.
krismcd59		#34	[-]
Posts: 38 (05/15/08 08:18:40) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Oh, jaeleslie, I'm so fascinated with the book-as-art movement -- I've seen a few gallery displays of book/art pieces. In medieval/Renaissance art, you'll see lots of people wearing little books -- usually prayer books -- on chains around their waists. Making books to give as gifts was an art especially prized by the elite -- Elizabeth I not only translated a prayer book for her stepmother, Katherine Parr, but also embroidered the cover in beautiful knotwork -- a gift that showed both her erudition and her artistic skill. I think I saw itty-bitty book pendants for tween girls in the various accessory stores a couple of years ago --- though I can't imagine what they might have written in them. And of course, there's the whole trend now for blinging up one's phone and iPod -- there's a whole shelf at the craft stores devoted to those kinds of kits now. Elise, I totally agree that nowadays the tables are turned -- it's the rustic, natural, and earthy that are associated with high-end accessories and the shiny and flashy that are associated with cheap, mass-produced arts and crafts. I love the idea that the "shiny bits" are the real foliage of the city, while the green spaces are considered the rare "jewels" of urban neighborhoods. copperwise, I agree that the kind of "fashion" you see at events like Faerieworlds and the kind of high fashion you see on the runway really do intersect in strange ways -- do people dress to impress others or do they dress to express something inside themselves? Do they think of dress as a costume or mask -- a "second skin" -- or do they dress to reveal themselves? I think people do any and all these things at different times, but the messages get really loud on the edges -- whether we're talking about the rarified, financially privileged world of high fashion, or the inclusive, DIY-kind of environment you get at Faerieworlds and cons.
WEllertson	books to wear	#35	[-]
Posts: 14 (05/15/08 09:06:19) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	..speaking of wearing books and books arts...Do you guys know Raelinda Woad's work...She is a storyteller/jeweller who makes metal pins, necklaces and mini sculptures...all books which open and contain printed "true stories that haven't quite happened yet".I'm partial to the ones where the story cascades out in folds..usually around 24" (Hers might have been the ones you saw Kris...as far as I know she's still out there!) World of book arts is alive and well....It's one of the fields I enjoy playing in ...with flying dragon, bird, and phoenix shaped books lately..My favorite comment at a book arts show is "are these books??".ah redefinition and possibilities. (Of course all my creatures journey with mini books.) Elise - I love the question about what creative impulses might spring from those who are lucky enough to end up with some pieces from the IAF auction! Just imagine the dinner!
ktempestbradford		#36	[-]
Posts: 4 (05/15/08 14:50:05) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Completely off topic, but I am amused by Wendy's avatar as I have a postcard of that image on the wall above my bed. I look at it all the time and think about how neat it is! Anyway, I do hope that the pieces in the auction inspire people to create things. It's such a lovely idea, the way art reaches out and spawns other art. I'm sure that some stories in Interfictions were inspired by art. It would be an interesting project to trace the ancestry of pieces of art to see where the root lies, if there is one. Didn't Jay Lake recently release an anthology called The Exquisite Corpustle based on this concept? I remember hearing about the project -- starting from some source material, authors and perhaps artists were invited to create/write something based on the original, then others came along and created something based on that second generation, and so on for, I think 3 or 4 generations. Maybe that should be another IAF project - art, music, stories, poems, plays, whatever based on the jewelry based on Interfictions.
Elise Matthesen		#37	[-]
Posts: 9 (05/15/08 15:40:34) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	The way writing can be sparked by tangible tokens like jewelry is definitely a thing of magic and interstitiality. For the last ten years, I've been keeping track of such things, in Haiku Earring Parties at WisCon and elsewhere, and in the Artists' Challenge program. (Next month I'll be putting out a chapbook, Glass Bead Games, with stories, poems and essays by Sarah Monette, Elizabeth Bear, Jane Yolen, Beth Meacham, Ariel Franklin-Hudson, and Betsy Lundsten, all inspired by pieces I've made. I'm really excited about it!) I've seen Erzebet Yellowboy doing some very interesting stuff with words and sculpture, and many others. There's a lot of it going on out there. I was delighted that this auction project came about, because it's a lovely way to more fully inhabit the concept of interstitiality, moving it beyond the realm of "words that cross over" and letting the words and the wire and the beads and the songs all dance together. I love the IAF anthology, and one of the things I personally like so much about it is that each story really feels to me like a little work of sculpture. I don't know how to say it better than that, and that's not sufficient, but... these stories, in Interfictions, are little wonders that catch the imagination, catch my imagination, in the same way that a wonderful bit of driftwood does, or a bead broken in exactly the right place. The book immediately took its place among my favorite anthologies ever, for that.
Elise Matthesen		#38	[-]
Posts: 10 (05/15/08 16:11:05) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	A question: when you make art of some kind, whether it's writing a story or making some shiny thing or other, do you feel the impetus in your mind, or as a sort of pull in parts of your body, or something else? Is it different for different arts, for you? I've been thinking about that ever since we got into how we design, back a ways.
jonsinger	St Ives Pottery --	#39	[-]
Posts: 1 (05/15/08 19:39:40) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	(In response to #3, which was posted by krismcd59; I note this because I'm new here, and have not yet had time to figure out how this all works.) I don't know about the earlier history of pottery at St Ives, but I can tell you that Bernard Leach, who was one of the most famous figures in 20th century pottery and who had immense influence on several generations of potters (and who was tightly connected with the Mingei movement in Japan through his long-term friendship with Hamada Shoji) started his pottery there in 1920. It is now a studio and museum -- http://www.leachpottery.com/ (For any of you who are in that area, I will note that their upcoming exhibit on teaware will include work by Ruthanne Tudball, who is an outstanding potter and is also brilliantly articulate.) I'm in complete awe of folks like you and Jon who can take a fragment like that and spin an entirely new story (or stories) from it. You probably shouldn't be in awe of me -- my story in Interfictions was, as far as I can recall, my first published fiction; I can't plot worth crap (I have fairly serious ADD; my neurology doesn't appear to support the creation of linear timelines or realistic characterizations of human beings), and I'm probably just about incapable of writing a more-or-less-standard story. Best -- jon
jaeleslie		#40	[-]
Posts: 2 (05/15/08 21:42:00) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Regarding how art happens. Writing is the most cerebral in motivation. (Writing as composition.) It's a voice in my head. Then the hand-eye coordination thing talks back, I read what I wrote, which usually needs explaining, and back and forth like that. I'm calling to an imaginary audience and then playing both parts. My other art skills are more fiddly, more whole-body involvement. I often start with looking and sorting, and that leads into the timeless space. Making a time to start, making a routine that leads there is most difficult for me but most rewarding; otherwise I am deadline-driven and that is not so much fun. I think I have one of those books on a chain. Actually I have quite a number of different examples of how you can make books into pins or earrings or necklaces. Don't get me started -- there will be paper dresses, there will be writing on the body.

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THIRD INTERSTITIAL SALON!

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