More Neckties

I've been getting a lot of traffic from two sites who've linked to my Necktie Ballgown. The site pages from Craft Test Dummies and Hobby Schneiderin (in German), have links to other people doing things with neckties as well.

Not too long ago, Erin from Dress a Day also pictured a necktie dress in progress from Cynthia, another of her readers.

Below is a purse I made a few years ago from 70's era ties similar to the ones I used in the Ballgown:




Again, there's something very compelling to me about transforming this masculine trope into femininized forms.

Also, I quite enjoy the sculptural process that I tend to use while working with ties. Maybe because the ties already have finished edges, I feel freed up to treat them as distinct elements that I then can drape and/or weave together over a form (such as a dressform for the Ballgown or a fabric form for the purses). The construction becomes much more intuitive if I allow it to evolve through the materials rather than lock myself into a plan with fussy seams and corners.

February First Friday and attachments to place

This weekend was First Friday and though we didn't have much in the way of new exhibits, I did get a chance to talk to Amanda Sparks, one of the artists in the Crave exhibit, which opened last month at UT's Downtown Gallery. I wrote about Amanda's exquisite pop-up book in the January First Friday post in which I lamented not being able to meet and talk to her about the work. But as the calendar fell, we were fortunate enough to have the show run through two First Fridays and I spoke with her about the piece, which is unlike anything I've ever seen. Here's an image from one of the pages.

Amanda told me that she learned "on the job" how to build each page by studying children's pop-up books and adapting those construction methods to her more complex and multi-faceted designs. Many of her pages included composites of (I'm guessing here) 50 or more images montaged together. It was quite the thing of beauty and delight and eloquently articulated a version of childhood in which place and possessive attachment took precedent.

And by intuitive association I'd like to add (for personal reasons which have to do with detachment from place) a link to Roni Horn's Library of Water in which the artist thoughtfully considers the geography, climate and culture of Iceland.