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August 29, 2007

august 29, 07

I started this dress last night and finished it this morning. It's much more the sort of thing I'd been envisioning for this project, plain, utilitarian, apronly, with pockets. One piece, so that I can wear prints from head to toe, and long so that I have lots of space to keep printing on it. I think that dresses and larger garments will be important to have when I'm figuring out how to exhibit this work later on, as they will carry more impact in a gallery space. I'm cutting out a few more of these tonight; it occurs to me that I'd better finish one or risk not having anything to wear tomorrow, as all of the skirts are at studio awaiting another printing before I wear them again.

Also for fun today I tried on this dress, the experiment that got me started on this project in the first place. It's a little bit big but not unbearably so, and very stiff (Rives BFK sewn onto muslin; if I do another dress of paper and fabric I'll use something much lighter). It's also not constructed all that well, and already falling apart in places. It's not something I'd ever exhibit, but I might wear it for a lark if I can be bothered to fix it up a bit first.

In a meeting with one of my committee members this morning, we discussed the everyday ritual aspects of this project, the rules and tasks, the documentation. I need to try to make writing here a part of my daily routine, even when I have nothing to say. Stream of consciousness gibberish, vague sentence fragments, even some technical wankery about sewing and knitting is better than pictures without words. So I'm going to try to find words, every day. Being organized, budgeting time and sticking with things are difficult for me, so setting myself some rules and forcing small daily rituals into my life and my work will help.

So. Daily tasks:

-wearing clothes (goes without saying, perhaps)

-time is spent every day either creating new pieces or making alterations to existing pieces. If I print, I should always throw an article of clothing on the press as well. Draw on the clothes I'm wearing. Stitch on the clothes. I'm going to start carrying embroidery floss and a needle with me so that I can stitch on my clothes during moments of down time.

-sketchbook drawings. I slacked a lot on the sketchbook drawing over the summer, taking more than a month to fill a book when in the beginning I was filling three pages a day. I'm resolving to draw at least one page every day.

-write something here.

-date stamp clothing. I have a little ritual setup: a little square of glass, a neatly folded red shop rag, a date stamper. Every day I carry these things from my studio to the print shop (other side of the building) and line them up on an inking slab along with a can of lithographic roll-up ink, a palette knife, a razor scraper and a phone book:

I scrape down a single thin layer of ink, test the stamper a few times on the glass and then stamp it on my clothes. I scrape off the palette knife and glass with the razor (wiping this onto the phone book) then wipe the tools clean with the rag (no solvents) and hang them back up on their hooks. I then wipe the glass clean, again without solvents, wipe the stamper, fold up the rag with the inky part to the inside, tear out the top page of the phone book and throw it away. Carry the glass, rag and stamper back to my studio. I think it's the only thing in my life that I'm meticulous about in this ritualistic way. I need to give this same sort of care to the rest of my project, be more precise about what sort of garments I'm making and why. Spend time crafting perfect darts, even, precise rows of delicate hand-tacked hem stitches, and allow that work to be buried under ink.

Weekly tasks:

-scan sketchbook drawings, upload to flickr, update book pages.

-photograph all garments, so as to be able to track deterioration as well as alteration.

Posted by jodi at August 29, 2007 07:33 PM | categories:  dress #01 : the rules

Comments

Posted by: Em at August 30, 2007 09:42 AM

Posted by: crumpet at September 2, 2007 07:45 AM