Summertime clothes-making

 No time to post, must get back to my studio and then I'm headed to Turkey for 2 weeks! Thought I would share some photos and a quick word before I'm off.

Now that the art show has closed, I have no other art obligations for the rest of the year. I'm instead using the time to work on my pattern-making skills and submerging back into the world of fashion. Working with clients on custom clothing and fleshing out my own wardrobe with original designs, means I have plenty of work to do!

Above is a custom bridesmaid dress made out of holographic spandex. This was a real learning lesson since I've never worked with a 4-way stretch before. New goal is to figure out how to accurately measure stretch factor before I make a pattern. Underestimated this fabric's ability to  s  t  r  e  t  c  h !!

A quick Hemlock Tee for myself before leaving on vacation earlier this month. The pattern came from Grainline Studios with some customization on the sleeve. As much as I want to stick to my own original patterns, I thought it would be a good education to see what others in the field are doing, and reward myself with less thinking and more sewing!

A friend's wedding called for some flower girl dresses. These were pretty easy to make -- the tutus only required matching lengths of tulle, tied around ribbon. NOTE: tulle will snag and tear on anything small enough to catch within its holes! Still, great fun to make, and the girls loved wearing them.

A shot from my family reunion last weekend, where I brought a custom cheetah print dress for my grandmother (far right). What a full circle, to go from having my grandma measuring me for dresses as a child, to measuring her! It fit her perfectly on the first try (WOW). I even surprised myself on that.

I won't be posting anymore until this summer slows down. Until then, enjoy your summer! I will be getting back to spending time with my friends and family and making some room for sewing and knitting, of course!

XOXO Ann

A lil' needlepoint house popped up on my desk to live with all the other important things that have found themselves here. I never thought I would needlepoint but I found myself in a store where they had the coolest designs (and ladies). They got me set up with some canvas and needles and -- uh, oh -- it's way addictive! Just what I need, anooother hobby :)

LOVE SIGNS closes

Y'ALL, the Carrack show in Durham was a-mazzing! It exceeded my expectations and renewed my confidence in this whole crazy idea of making a career as an artist. We are so lucky to have a zero-commission art space in our town. That's right, we got to keep all the profit from sales -- that's virtually unheard of! And for a place like Durham that's great, because people aren't shelling out big bucks for art and we can price more affordably, knowing that we don't have to share :)

So I'm gonna do my best to provide a virtual tour of the space. It was not easy to photograph, and my long shots all turned out terrible -- due to the strong light coming from the windows.

 This was taken on the last day when we set up a fabulous bloody mary bar and chilled. Megan is stressing over her to-do list behind the desk and Mack is striking a pose. She is the third leg in our best friend trifecta, and we couldn't have put on the show without her help. It was so great to be in our hometown because it meant we had lots of friends and family around to lend a hand -- and we needed it!

There are two long walls that make up the majority of the gallery, one in brick and one in plaster. I loved the character of this wall as a backdrop to our pieces. It was especially crucial for the off-white lace banners. Otherwise, we would've had to paint a backdrop to enable them to show up.

The "Aloof"s intermingled with Megan's Bleach series -- a sequential set of digital prints taken of dioramas she made from some original watercolor paintings. Does that make sense? They're so cool because you read them as paintings but feel the perspective she created, so you're not totally sure what you're looking at..and that's always fun.

Some people expressed that they would've rather seen all my work together on one wall and all Megan's on another. I disagreed with them and told them to get bent!

I'm thrilled to say that all my toothbrushes sold! Coincidentally, all to people who live in LA, so they're cross-continental now. I'm happy that others will enjoy them as much as I have.

Here we reach the end of the brick wall, bookended by another crochet banner.

Ah, the geodesic dome. Full of unfulfilled ideas Megan and I had for a collaborative installation. Sometimes you are just ready to stop and be okay with where you're at, especially with the temptation of sleep. Turned out to be a fun place to socialize during the reception so I considered it a success! It was meant to play off my ideas of domesticity and the home and Megan's caves...

Melting Skull didn't totally fit with the theme of the show but had to put him in there somewhere. He got his own wall that was a bit indented out from the rest.

 Other side of the room.

 Love these two next to each other. Hammered/Enamored and Mind & Space.

 Mind & Space II and Full-On Meltdown

Hidden Places (blue) with a collage of some of my smaller pieces. I showed 4 Tiny Houses and they all sold. I think I hit on a good idea with those.

Hidden Places (pink) with Eons, Hand In Hand and the handshake rug. A lovely collage of purples.

That's a wrap! My only negative was that the Carrack cycles their shows out every 2 weeks. That means lots more people get a chance to show each year but lots of "dang! I missed it" from folks. It goes quick!