I spent yesterday evening draping a new muslin, this time based on the directions in Helen Joseph-Armstrong’s Draping for Apparel Design. It looks a lot better:
I’m still not entirely sure what to do about the nubby shoulders, though; the book assumes you’re draping on a commercial dress form, which doesn’t have the extended shoulder. I’m going to ask Sharon about that when I see her on Sunday.
Next up is to drape the back of the muslin, and then the basic skirt (front and back). It doesn’t look like it should be too hard, and I should complete it easily by the next time I see Sharon. If I have time, I may try something a little more complicated, like moving the darts around. A little bit at a time!
I have also scanned and processed another six issues of Complex Weavers Journal. It takes about forty-five minutes per issue to photograph all the pages and process the resulting photos, but I only have to do about fifteen minutes of hands-on work; the rest is just waiting for the computer to finish processing. The only complication is that I need to photograph at night (to avoid glare from the window), and since we are still near the summer solstice, there isn’t that much night in which to take the photos! So I have been staying up a bit later than usual, so I can do the photography/scanning.
Finally, I have been working on the creativity workshop lesson plan. It’s going to be interesting – rather than teaching a specific technique, my goal is to get the students experimenting with a new technique or material, then coming up with a design idea, sampling, and, finally, planning a finished piece. Rather jam-packed for only two days, but I’m hoping to get them at least through the design phase. The objective is to teach the creative process, including all the bumps and mistakes along the way – so I don’t expect to do much hand-holding or troubleshooting for the students. Instead, I hope to teach them how to troubleshoot, and how not to get discouraged by the inevitable “bumps”. It will be interesting to see how it pans out.
