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October 31, 2007
dress #5, state 6 (printed october 19, 07)
I wore this dress on October 25 and travelled to Asheville, NC to attend the Southeastern Animal Fibre Fair. In all the excitement, I forgot to take my daily photo; it had to happen eventually. As I was travelling to an event densely populated with bloggers and ravelry members, photo evidence of my having worn the dress does exist here and here, but they're not the same awkwardly pretentious shots that I always take.
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Posted by jodi at 10:48 AM | Comments (1) | categories: dress #05
october 24, 07
Posted by jodi at 10:06 AM | Comments (0) | categories: dress #09
observations: october 31, 07
I have been really terrible at writing things down here, instead saving them all up in my head until inevitably some fall so far back into the dusty places that they're irretrievable. Combatting this was one of the main reasons I began keeping this record in the first place. It's much easier just to put up a few photos each day and leave it at that. So, then, here are some of my thoughts on this past month of my project:
In the midterm critique with the print grads the subject of my apron came up; specifically the relationship between the dresses and work, the reason I chose to use a style of dress that appears utilitarian and references aprons with the bib bodice, shoulder straps and large pockets. My colleague Jessica said, "you're still wearing an apron?" and I realized that I hadn't really considered the fact that I was wearing a dress that stands in for an apron (working clothes) and then still putting an apron on over it when actually working (printing, and also teaching since I'm often giving printing demos in class). Wearing the apron is a part of my working ritual that hadn't entered my mind. Since then I haven't been wearing my apron, instead letting the evidence of my working life show itself on the dresses as I splash solvents, accidentally lean against the inking slab or brush my hand on my skirt. It makes much more sense this way.
I've begun to notice differences in the effects certain inks and additives have on the way the print holds up on the dresses; the studio provides Graphic Chemical etching inks, which seem to fade more quickly in the wash. I've begun to use Faust inks (which I prefer) for some colours, and those colours (and the colours in which I've mixed Faust and Graphic Chemical inks together) seem to hold up a little better. But on October 19th I printed a number of dresses with a layer of a pale gray (which looks white in the photographs) using Faust Mixing White and a tiny amount of Graphic Chemical Graphite. This ink didn't hold up to washing at all and disappeared almost entirely from one dress (#4), even though the Graphic Chemical Graphite colour usually holds up better than any other GC inks. I have yet to print using just Graphic Chemical white to see if it holds up better than the Faust.
I'm trying to only wash the dresses once every two weeks now, which means I will print them twice and wear them twice between washings. This is in part due to our current water shortage, which has become somewhat of an emergency situation due to drought in the region that's the worst on record (this is where necessity comes into the mix again). I'm hoping that as a result the ink will get crustier on the dresses, since I'm now building up two layers before it gets softened by washing. So far there's no real difference, which leads me to wonder if this fabric is just going to keep accepting ink forever without ever getting stiff. Perhaps I should try not washing them at all, but that's not really practical as I still have to maintain a professional life and still have to teach class twice a week, and the smell of fresh ink on the dresses is bad enough without adding in the smell of unwashed clothing. What seems to be happening instead is that each subsequent layer is adhering less permanently to the fabric. Now that I think of it, this may have more to do with the white Faust ink sloughing off of dress #4 in the wash, as this dress is one of the ones most thickly encrusted with ink. I'll be able to tell for sure after a few more weeks and will try to keep more careful track of what's going on with dresses #3 and #4, which are the oldest. Dress #3 is cotton and dress #4 is a cotton/polyester blend, which probably affects how the ink feels; dress #3 is definitely much softer.
Last week I travelled to Gainsville State College to give a visiting artist lecture about my work to two art appreciation classes (taught by a friend and former fellow grad student). The students are not fine art majors and are required to take the class as one of their arts electives. I found that while talking about the wardrobe project in conceptual terms I was met with a lot of blank stares, and the students seemed most engaged when they had a chance to look through my little sketchbooks. This worries me a little, because I've been operating under the assumption that this current work is pretty accessible to people outside the artworld. Am I wrong? Most of the feedback I've had from non-artworld people has been from fibre people, people who are interested in clothing and people who knit, so there's a chance my perception of how an audience perceives this work is a bit skewed. Oddly enough, one student approached me and the instructor at the end of my talk and said that his wife is an artist too, then showed us a series of photos on his cell phone of her work, beautiful tiered cakes with amazingly complex and ornate embellishments and little sculptures made of cake and sugar. So it's not a narrow perception of what "art" is that held the students back, at least not all of them. Perhaps I'm just not as engaging a speaker as I think I am.
Posted by jodi at 09:21 AM | Comments (3) | categories: the rules
dress #9, state 3 (printed october 19, 07)
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Posted by jodi at 09:10 AM | Comments (0) | categories: dress #09
October 27, 2007
october 23, 07
Posted by jodi at 07:19 PM | Comments (1) | categories: dress #04
dress #4, state 6 (printed october 19, 07)
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Posted by jodi at 07:16 PM | Comments (1) | categories: dress #04
October 22, 2007
october 22, 07
Posted by jodi at 11:01 PM | Comments (0) | categories: dress #10
dress #10, state 3 (printed october 19. 07)
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Posted by jodi at 10:56 PM | Comments (0) | categories: dress #10
October 21, 2007
october 21, 07
Posted by jodi at 02:25 PM | Comments (3) | categories: dress #03
new prints: october 11, 07
I think it might be impossible for me to get good images of these. I'm going to try one more set-up and if that doesn't work I'll give up and hire the slide guy to do it.
a detail of the print above, in which you can see the grain of the wood and also the dents made in the wood by running it through the press with dresses:
This one is really lovely but all of the photos make it seem dull and fuzzy:
Posted by jodi at 11:23 AM | Comments (0) | categories: prints
dress #3, state 7 (printed october 19, 07)
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Posted by jodi at 10:22 AM | Comments (1) | categories: dress #03
october 20, 07
I accidentally wore the same dress I just wore two days ago; it's changed enough that I didn't recognize it, just grabbed the first newly printed dress from the top of the drying rack at studio in the morning and threw it on.
Posted by jodi at 10:20 AM | Comments (0) | categories: dress #11
dress#11, state 3 (printed october 19, 07)
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Posted by jodi at 09:49 AM | Comments (0) | categories: dress #11
October 20, 2007
october 19, 07
Posted by jodi at 05:01 PM | Comments (1) | categories: dress #08
dress #8, state 2 (printed october 11, 07)
I broke down and replaced the bodice on this one before wearing it a second time because it was too large and sloppy. I didn't have enough of the original fabrics left so I used a black pillowcase.
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Posted by jodi at 04:57 PM | Comments (0) | categories: dress #08
october 18, 07
Posted by jodi at 04:06 PM | Comments (0) | categories: dress #11
dress #11, state 2 (printed october 11, 07)
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Posted by jodi at 04:05 PM | Comments (0) | categories: dress #11
october 17, 07
Posted by jodi at 03:11 PM | Comments (0) | categories: dress #04
dress #4, state 5 (printed october 11, 07)
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Posted by jodi at 03:08 PM | Comments (0) | categories: dress #04
October 18, 2007
october 16, 07
Posted by jodi at 02:36 PM | Comments (0) | categories: dress #10
dress #10, state 2 (printed october 11, 07)
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Posted by jodi at 02:34 PM | Comments (0) | categories: dress #10
october 15, 07
Posted by jodi at 09:18 AM | Comments (0) | categories: dress #05
dress #5, state 5 (printed october 11, 07)
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Posted by jodi at 09:15 AM | Comments (0) | categories: dress #05
october 14, 07
Posted by jodi at 08:38 AM | Comments (0) | categories: dress #03
dress #3, state 6 (printed october 11, 07)
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I love how the impressions of the front neckline and pockets are building up on the backs of the dresses; it's like the back of the dress contains a drawing of the front of the dress.
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Posted by jodi at 08:23 AM | Comments (0) | categories: dress #03
October 15, 2007
october 13, 07
Posted by jodi at 08:32 PM | Comments (0) | categories: dress #09
dress #9, state 2 (printed october 11, 07)
I'm still trying to decide whether I want to fix the crooked pocket on this one; it bothers me to look at it in the photos but I don't really notice it while wearing the dress, and I sort of like that it's flawed, like the body beneath it. I'm sure my thighs aren't the same size, so why not leave it crooked?
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some details of the surface:
Posted by jodi at 07:44 PM | Comments (0) | categories: dress #09
october 12, 07
Posted by jodi at 07:43 PM | Comments (0) | categories: dress #07
dress #7, state 2 (printed october 11, 07)
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Posted by jodi at 07:42 PM | Comments (0) | categories: dress #07
dress #7, state 1
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Posted by jodi at 07:05 PM | Comments (0) | categories: dress #07
October 12, 2007
october 11, 07
New dress, pieced together from skirt #5 and some of the leftover fabric from which that skirt and dress #2 were originally made.
Posted by jodi at 07:09 PM | Comments (0) | categories: dress #12 : skirt #5
october 10, 07
I'm retiring this dress at this stage: it's the third to retire, after dresses #1 and #2.
Posted by jodi at 07:07 PM | Comments (0) | categories: dress #06
dress # 6, state 4 (printed october 1 07)
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Posted by jodi at 07:05 PM | Comments (0) | categories: dress #06
october 9, 07
Posted by jodi at 07:04 PM | Comments (0) | categories: dress #05
october 8, 07
Posted by jodi at 06:58 PM | Comments (0) | categories: dress #03
October 08, 2007
october 7, 07
Posted by jodi at 08:42 PM | Comments (0) | categories: dress #02
october 6, 07
Posted by jodi at 08:36 PM | Comments (0) | categories: dress #11 : top #2
dress #11, state 1
The bodice and pockets of this dress are made from the remnants of top #2.
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Posted by jodi at 08:34 PM | Comments (0) | categories: dress #11
October 05, 2007
conversations
There are some good discussions going on in the comments here, and I've been getting lots of feedback and questions to ponder; whenever I respond to your comments I'm also placing my response in the comments stream so that the conversations can remain public and others can join in if they like. Peter set me up with a feed for the comments on this weblog so that anyone interested in following along may now do so more easily:
jodigreen.ca/mfa/comments.xml
In case three to five posts a day just isn't enough.
Posted by jodi at 11:21 AM | Comments (0) | categories: conversations
october 5, 07
Posted by jodi at 11:10 AM | Comments (0) | categories: dress #10
dress #10, state 1
I'm breaking my own rule already, and have more than eight dresses on the go right now (there's one more new one to come tomorrow for a total of eleven, minus dress #1 which has already been retired). This was necessary in part because I'm spending a week visiting home for Thanksgiving and needed to have enough to wear, and because when I return to school I will need to put several dresses in the mail to be photographed for a magazine, and I wasn't going to have enough dresses removed from the project by then. So I've got ten now, and next week I'll retire two or three of them and send those off with dress #1, bringing myself back on track with a week's worth of garments. I agonized a bit about breaking the rules, but really I'm making them up as I go along and can't afford to give up good press for the project in order to stick to rules that right now are still a bit arbitrary. Once I'm settled back at studio next week I'll stick to the eight dresses a week plan, and figure out the easiest way for me to print dresses at home during the midwinter break (about three weeks) so that I don't have to break the rules again.
Another new dress today. The front:
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Posted by jodi at 10:20 AM | Comments (1) | categories: dress #10 : the rules
october 4, 07
Posted by jodi at 09:56 AM | Comments (0) | categories: dress #04
dress #4, state 4 (printed october 1, 07)
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Posted by jodi at 09:31 AM | Comments (0) | categories: dress #04
October 04, 2007
dress #9, state 1
Here is the dress I wore yesterday; the colours completely washed out in all that bright sunlight of the modelled photo.
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Posted by jodi at 02:12 PM | Comments (0) | categories: dress #09
dress #5, state 4 (printed september 30, 07)
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Posted by jodi at 02:05 PM | Comments (0) | categories: dress #05
print progress
I'm working on getting some slides of work in progress ready for an exhibition proposal (that I have to finish today if I'm going to get it submitted at all). Over the weekend I worked on getting some of these prints "done" enough to photograph. They're impossible for me to photograph well.
All of these prints are on Tokuatsu, a pure kozo fibre paper, and are 36" high and 78" long.
This one I really like in this state, and am going to leave it alone for a while until I decide whether it's finished or not:
This one I hate. I think the dresses are too obvious, and overpower the other marks throughout the print, those subtle marks where the dresses created dents and damage on the wood blocks. Also, I really thought the red was going to be perfect but when I printed it, it was just far too strong, and I should have used transparent base in it like I normally do with all of my colours. When I get back to studio I'm going to cover the dresses up a bit, push them back in time beneath more layers:
If that doesn't work then this might end up being the first print that gets cut up and sewn into a dress.
This one's a nice example of those damage marks created on the block, and of the quilt-like quality the paper gets from repeated foldings:
Posted by jodi at 01:02 PM | Comments (1) | categories: prints
dress #2, state 5 (printed september 30, 07)
I keep thinking I'm going to retire this dress next because the high bodice is a little uncomfortable, so close to my throat. But every layer of ink I put on here makes me want to see it with more, more, more.
I think this is the dress I'm going to wear to my Gramma's for Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday. I've been waffling nervously on which dress to wear because my Gramma was (still is) a top-notch professional seamstress, and I don't want her to see any of my shabbier sewing attempts. But I think as long as I iron it first (something I haven't always been doing, even when the dresses come off the press hopelessly rumpled), this one will be perfect.
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and a couple of details of the ink layering:
Posted by jodi at 11:22 AM | Comments (1) | categories: dress #02
October 03, 2007
october 3, 07
This is the second dress whose bodice and pockets came from the recycled fabric from skirt #7.
Posted by jodi at 09:13 PM | Comments (7) | categories: dress #09 : skirt #7
dress #3, state 5 (printed september 30, 07)
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Posted by jodi at 01:03 PM | Comments (0) | categories: dress #03
october 2, 07
I made five new dresses in two days (as well as doing a good deal of printing), and because I rushed it this one is a little sloppy: the bodice is a bit too big, and the tab holding down the gathers at the front is crooked. I don't think I'll fix it, as it won't matter once it gets covered in ink, but I need to take more care.
Skirt #6 was cut up and recycled into the bodice and pockets for this dress; the rest is newly printed fabric.
For most of the day I wore it like this:
Posted by jodi at 11:30 AM | Comments (0) | categories: dress #08 : skirt #6
October 01, 2007
october 1, 07
New dress! Many of today's new batch of dresses (5 in total that I finished sewing this morning) looked very similar, all using the same fabric or the same print, so I printed on three of them today before wearing. This one I put on as soon as it was sewn, though, and I like how it has the big white area on the front that didn't get printed, down at the end of the fabric.
This dress (and one of the others that got printed today) contains the recycled remains of skirt #7 in its bodice and pockets. That skirt is the one I'll miss the least out of all of them.
Posted by jodi at 07:41 PM | Comments (2) | categories: dress #07 : skirt #7