Tien Chiu

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You are here: Home / Archives for autumn splendor

May 19, 2012 by Tien Chiu

Most Original

Got back from the CNCH Fashion Show last night, with Autumn Splendor’s first ribbon in tow: “Most Original”!  I like that a lot, as that’s exactly how I want to live my life.  Not necessarily different for different’s sake (I think that’s kind of silly), but having lots of adventures, trying new things, and regularly stepping out of the rut of everyday life.  There is such a thing as magical, and touching that magic, especially in original work, is what I strive for.

At any rate, here is a photo of Autumn Splendor with its spanking-new ribbon:

Autumn Splendor at CNCH
Autumn Splendor at CNCH

(And yes, that’s Kodachrome in the background.)

I’m pleased to say that The Fuzz is eating well and appears to be in great spirits.  He’s still a bit more wobbly on his feet, but it doesn’t seem to be slowing him down much, at least compared to previously.  (He is a twenty-year-old cat, after all, and spends most of his time sleeping.)  He has discovered the heating pad we set out for him (under Mike’s desk, his favorite hiding spot) and is spending much of his time there in comfy bliss.  So I think he’s going to be fine.  How wonderful!!

I spent some time volunteering, some time wandering through the vendor halls, and quite a bit of time backstage prepping for the Fashion Show.  In the vendor hall, they had set Giovanna Imperia, John Marshall, and Habu Textiles together in a clump – the “Bermuda Triangle” for my wallet!  However, I managed to restrain myself, and only bought some skeins of superfine silk tram to use as weft for Phoenix Rising.  It will be a pain in the butt to wind from skeins onto bobbins, but I’d have to do that anyway since I have to dye the yarn.  At least I can spare myself the skeinwinding!

John Marshall was also kind enough to give me a cone of monofilament silk to play with.  This is an incredibly fine silk – even finer than the organzine I was looking at earlier – meant as a sacrificial weft for screen printing warps.  You weave the fabric very loosely (one pick every inch or so) and then print on the resulting “fabric” without removing the warp from the loom.  Bonnie Inouye also recommended this method to me, and I think I will try it.  The monofilament is very fine and breaks easily when you want it to,  but is strong enough to hold the “fabric” together for printing.  I’m looking forward to playing with it.

In house-land, I’ve sprayed down the weeds in the front yard, and (if they are sufficiently dead) will spread compost on the yard today.  I still haven’t decided whether to spade in the compost – I’ll probably go over, try it to see just how difficult it is, and decide from there.  If I don’t spade it in, I’ll plant the grass and clover seed directly in the compost, which should be fairly quick.  And after that – who knows?

Filed Under: All blog posts, textiles, weaving Tagged With: autumn splendor

March 21, 2012 by Tien Chiu

Convergence and devore experiments

Just got notice that Autumn Splendor was not accepted into the Convergence Fashion Show.  I’m mildly disappointed, but also relieved, since this neatly solves two of my problems: (1) I had no entry ready for Glamour, Glitter, Glitz, the Complex Weavers juried show coming up this summer, and (2) I am no longer “obliged” to go to Convergence, meaning I can skip it and use the money to spend six days studying katazome with John Marshall instead.  This strikes me as a much more useful tradeoff, since I was registered for one class on Wednesday and another on Saturday morning, with two days wasted in between.  I’ll be a little sad to miss John Marshall’s class on weaving with exotic Japanese threads, but if I’m taking a six-day katazome class with him I imagine I can pick his brains on that while I’m there.

Of course, the entry deadline for Glamour, Glitter, Glitz is this Friday (the 23rd), meaning I had better get my house in order fast.  I’ll finish my application tonight.  No idea if it will be accepted since Complex Weavers is all about structure and there is nothing deeply complex about the weave structures involved, but if it isn’t, the Blue Ridge Fiber Show is always a possibility, in September.

Meanwhile, I have been busy constructing experiments in devore.  Here are some pix so far:

concentric dots in chenille and silk
concentric dots in chenille and silk

The liftplan for this looks like this:

liftplan for concentric dots
liftplan for concentric dots

The fuchsia represents the chenille wefts, the black the silk.  The idea was that the chenille would fluff up and cover the silk, except in areas where the chenille got burned out during the devore process (yet to be done).  Obviously it doesn’t completely cover the silk, but it hasn’t been wet-finished yet, and I expect it will fluff up substantially in wet-finishing.  There is one pick of 3000 ypp chenille for every two picks of 60/2 silk.

This evening I will weave more samples, cut off, and wet-finish; tomorrow morning I plan to do the devore.  It will be interesting to see what happens!

Filed Under: All blog posts, textiles, surface design, weaving Tagged With: autumn splendor, devore

February 13, 2012 by Tien Chiu

Presenting Autumn Splendor

From yesterday’s photo shoot:

Autumn Splendor- front - on dress form
Autumn Splendor- front
Autumn Splendor - back
Autumn Splendor - back
Autumn Splendor - closeup of leaves
Autumn Splendor - closeup of leaves
Autumn Splendor, close-up of front
Autumn Splendor, close-up of front

Photo credit goes to the very talented Joe Decker of Rockslide Photography.  (If you haven’t visited his website, you should – his nature photography is absolutely stunning.)

Please also click in for the larger version of the leaves – Joe caught the color and delicacy of the embroidery perfectly, but it doesn’t show well in the small version.

Autumn Splendor is now complete except for the sewing-in of the label.  Unfortunately, that will likely have to wait until I get back – I’m leaving the Bay Area in about half an hour on a business trip, and still need to pack! so the label will need to wait for my return.  (Unless I can fit Autumn Splendor into my carryon, that is!)

Filed Under: All blog posts, textiles, dyeing, sewing, surface design, weaving Tagged With: autumn splendor

February 10, 2012 by Tien Chiu

Finished the leaves!

And I’m almost sorry I did, because they were such fun to make! Here is a pic of the coat, with the leaves pinned into place:

Autumn Splendor, with five finished leaves!
Autumn Splendor, with five finished leaves!

I tried taking a closeup photo of the leaves, but it didn’t come out well – the iridescence got flattened out and the camera flash washed out the embroidered veins.  So I’ll just have to tell you: the leaves look exquisite!  Delicately detailed, neatly edged, and with colors shifting as the iridescence catches the light.  Well worth the two hours I spent on each one.

Now I will sew the leaves down – just in the centers, letting the edges float free.  And that will finish the outside of the coat!  (I had considered embroidery or some light beading, but I think it looks great just as it stands.)

Tonight and Saturday I will work on the sleeve linings and the lining hem.  I’m pretty confident I’ll finish the entire garment in time for the photo shoot.  (Not that it matters that much: only the outside needs to be complete for the photo shoot, and I’ve finished that already!)  Soon it will be time for the ritual sewing-in of the label, marking the completion of Autumn Splendor!

Filed Under: All blog posts, textiles, sewing, surface design Tagged With: autumn splendor

February 7, 2012 by Tien Chiu

The making of a leaf

I completed the orange and the brick red leaves today.  I thought I’d walk you through the steps in creating a leaf, to explain why a single little leaf takes nearly two hours to complete.

I didn’t think of taking photos until I was halfway done, but here is a photo at the halfway point:

second leaf, halfway through
second leaf, halfway through

You’ll need to click in for the large version to see everything.

Step 1: Baste the layers of fabric together.  There are three layers: a brick-red silk organza over a deep orange peau de soie, with a  backing of bright orange dupioni organza.  The top two layers give the leaf wonderful depth of color, as the semi-transparent red organza shifts over the dark orange fabric underneath.  The dupioni organza, which has thicker threads running at sporadic intervals in both warp and weft, is there to stiffen the leaf and give it some extra crispness, without adding bulk.  It will also give an interesting visual contrast when the leaf is shaped into a slight curl.

I basted the layers together with matching rayon thread. (Traditionally it should be white silk, but orange rayon was what I had on hand).I basted it in a grid about 1″ square, three rows horizontally and three vertically.

Step 2: Transfer the design.  I used a stiletto tracing wheel and white dressmakers carbon paper to transfer the pattern.  The markings gradually come off as the piece is handled – if you look at the larger photo, you can see that the markings are quite faint even at this point – and most of them will be covered up with stitching in any case.

Step 3: Embroider the big veins.  I used stem stitch for this, hand stitching with two strands of rayon machine embroidery thread.  Using a doubled thread gives me a nice thick line with which to define the major veins.

Step 4: Embroider the smaller veins.  I used a single strand of rayon machine embroidery thread, doubling up the stitches near the major veins to add weight to the lines.  Towards the outsides and tips of the leaves I used only one strand, to give a sense that the lines were tapering to nothing.

I embroidered the veins first because doing so joins the three layers firmly together across most of the leaf, making the later hand-work easier.

Now we’re up to the point in the photo.

Step 5: Carefully cut out the leaf along the traced lines.  Do NOT mess with it, or it will unravel.

Step 6: Using the point of a pin, apply Fray Check in a very very thin application to the edge of all three layers.  Let dry.

Step 7: Hand overcast the edges of the leaf in a matching color rayon machine embroidery thread.

Whew!!  No wonder it took me two hours to do each leaf.

Here is a photo of the most recently completed leaf.  The photo totally doesn’t do it justice, though – it doesn’t capture the iridescence, depth of color, or the glow of the embroidery thread.

close-up of second leaf
close-up of second leaf

And here is what it looks like in situ:

leaves on the coat!
leaves on the coat!

You’ll note that the purple leaf now looks out of place, and the burgundy veins clash badly with the other two leaves.  That’s OK; I’m planning to redo that leaf, probably with deep orange or tan veins to match the other two leaves.

Fortunately there are only three leaves left to do, and I have four days left!  If I can get two done per day, I’ll finish the leaves on Thursday, leaving me Friday and all day Saturday to work on the lining hem and the sleeve lining/hem.  I think I might just get it done in time!

Regarding Proposition 8, the appeals court has constructed the ruling so narrowly that the Supreme Court is unlikely to make any broad, sweeping conclusions about gay marriage even if it takes the case.  California’s situation is unique to the state: in California, gay couples may enter into domestic partnerships which have exactly the same rights and responsibilities of marriage for heterosexual couples.  This doesn’t construct a right to gay marriage in itself – the appeals court explicitly did not rule on whether gay people have a right to marriage.  However, given that Prop 8 was put into place after gays and lesbians had a legal right to marry in California, and its stated goal (the voter pamphlet title was “Eliminates Rights of Same-Sex Couples to Marry”) was to prohibit gays and lesbians from marrying, it came under scrutiny under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.  The court concluded that Prop 8 did nothing to change the legal landscape of marriage/domestic partnerships in California, and its sole purpose was to eliminate the title of “marriage” for same-sex couples.  It then concluded that the proposition served no purpose other than to “lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians”, and struck it down.

The point here is that the ruling is very specific to California’s legal situation, and because of that, and the Supreme Court’s general preference for ruling as narrowly as possible, I think it’s quite likely that the Supreme Court will either decline to hear the case or else rule narrowly on the legal bits, not issue a broad sweeping decision about gay marriage in general.  So I am cautiously optimistic that the ruling will stand, and Californian same-sex couples, at least, will have the right to marry.

And I believe in dancing in the streets.  Celebrate everything!  Life is short, and if we wait to the very end to celebrate, we’ll live a grim life indeed.  So, even though we aren’t guaranteed victory in the end, I’m going to dance today.  🙂

Filed Under: All blog posts, musings, textiles, sewing, surface design Tagged With: autumn splendor

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