Tien Chiu

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You are here: Home / Archives for kodachrome jacket

August 22, 2014 by Tien Chiu

Best in Show!

I got notice yesterday that my Kodachrome Jacket won “Best In Show” at the Midwest Fiber and Folk Art Fair! That is super exciting, especially since I hadn’t thought I’d won any prize at all.

(If you missed Kodachrome the first time around, here’s a pic.)

Kodachrome, photographed by Joe Decker
Kodachrome, photographed by Joe Decker

So that was serious cause for happiness.

I have also been reworking my studio floor plan. Thanks to a suggestion from Vibeke Vestby, I have a new studio layout that I like even better than the previous two:

jacquard floor plan #3
jacquard floor plan #3

This preserves the amount of shelf space in version #2, and keeps a 2′ space around the looms on every side. It also leaves enough space for yoga and a small photography studio. This works very nicely, so I think I will stick with this layout.I’m continuing to thread the loom, about 150-200 threads per day. It’s slow going because the threads are so fine they’re hard to see/handle, but I’m 37% done with the 2800 thread total. That means I probably won’t finish this weekend. But I still hope to be weaving by the end of August!

The book proposal is almost done – waiting for the final version from the copy editor, and updated photos. The photo shoot for those is scheduled for Sunday, so I should have the final proposal ready Sunday night. And not a moment too soon – my top-choice publisher is interested in seeing it, so it needs to go out soon.

On to employment news. Wednesday was my first official day as a Google employee, so I spent all day at new employee orientation. I now have a new laptop, a “Noogler” propeller beanie, and (of course) the inevitable Google T-shirt. (I believe there’s a legal requirement in Silicon Valley that every new job must come with a company T-shirt.) Here I am, flying both Skybox and Google colors:

Tien flying both Skybox and Google colors
Tien looking very silly

The cats are looking pretty silly, too. I’ve decided to start a new series, titled “Cats in Compromising Positions”. Here’s the first installment:

Fritz looking very silly
Fritz sleeping in a very silly position

Lest you think Fritz is the only one without feline dignity, the pawparazzi caught Tigress looking silly, too. But you’ll have to wait until the next blog post to see that!

Filed Under: All blog posts, textiles, weaving Tagged With: kodachrome jacket

August 17, 2011 by Tien Chiu

Cover girl

At LONG last, my copy of Handwoven arrived…and I am totally thrilled!  My Kodachrome Coat is on the front cover, and there’s a two-page spread on it further towards the center, plus of course the pages with instructions on how to make it.

Here’s the cover:

Kodachrome on the cover of Handwoven!
Kodachrome on the cover of Handwoven!

I’m very, very pleased.  🙂

Quite a contrast to my other stint as a cover girl:

Me on the front cover of Farang magazine
Me on the front cover of Farang magazine

(Yes, that’s body paint.  No, I’m not wearing anything else (except a shell necklace)!  It was also ten years and quite a few pounds ago…but I digress.)

Anyway, I’m ecstatic about the Handwoven cover, and feeling quite honored.  Especially since Interweave has been featuring Kodachrome quite prominently in its email newsletters of late.  I hadn’t dreamed of being on the front cover!  I’m totally thrilled.

And, another thrilling sight (though perhaps more so for me than for you):

The Infinite Warp, fully threaded and partially sleyed!
The Infinite Warp, fully threaded and partially sleyed!

I think I’ll be weaving by the weekend!

Filed Under: All blog posts, textiles, weaving Tagged With: articles, kodachrome jacket

May 6, 2011 by Tien Chiu

Winner!

Just a quick note to say that the Handwoven Garment Challenge winners have been announced…and Kodachrome is one of them!!!

🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

Filed Under: All blog posts, textiles, weaving Tagged With: kodachrome jacket

May 6, 2011 by Tien Chiu

Kodachrome Jacket

Kodachrome, on the cover of Handwoven

Kodachrome was my response to the Handwoven Garment Challenge in 2011.  Ten garments, five loom-shaped and five tailored, would be selected to appear in the Vav Fashion show in Sweden, and would be published in Handwoven. I decided it would be fun to enter, and Kodachrome was born.

Kodachrome, photographed by Joe Decker
Kodachrome, photographed by Joe Decker

I considered my design carefully.  At Convergence 2010, I had noticed that the best runway garments were the dramatic ones, with lots of color ““ delicate, beautiful, subtle patterns simply vanished from forty feet away.  I wanted Kodachrome to play well on the runway, but I also wanted it to reward the close-up viewer.  So I knew I wanted a colorful project, with bold colors, but also with an interesting woven pattern to reward the up-close viewer.

There were other design considerations.  Because (if it won) it would be published in Handwoven, I had to make it suitable for a Handwoven article.  This meant weaving something on eight shafts or less (as opposed to my customary 24), using commercially available yarn, a commercial pattern, and using techniques simple enough to explain in three magazine pages or less.  It also had to be designed, woven, and sewn in just two and a half months, since the contest began in mid-January and finished up on April 1.

Given the timeframe, I didn’t have a lot of time to experiment or design.  I decided to use a painted warp, as this could be done quickly with yarns I had in my stash, and to use 30/2 silk, because I had gobs of it on hand.  But I didn’t want to do a warp painted in a single bout ““ the scarves I’d seen that were wound in just one bout looked boring and predictable, and I wanted this piece to be jazzy and exciting.  So I decided to use stripes, each warp-painted in the same colors, but offset from each other so the colors wouldn’t “pool”.

Now I needed a pattern to go with the stripes of color.  I didn’t have much experience with 8-shaft designs, so I flipped through Carol Strickler’s A Weaver’s Book of Eight-Shaft Patterns until I found design #173, an advancing point twill.  I liked the overall look, but it didn’t quite suit my needs, so I made significant alterations to it, changing the look and the size of the pattern to suit the width of my stripes.

Since painted warps were unfamiliar ground, I decided to sample.  I painted six bouts for a 12″³ wide sample, testing different color spacings as well as different amounts of dye.  Here are the samples:

Two samples woven for Kodachrome
Two samples woven for Kodachrome

The left-hand sample had less dye, the right-hand sample had more dye.  In the left sample, I experimented with having the colors semirandomly arranged in the piece; in the right sample, I tried to line the colors up more precisely.

I finally decided that I liked the more intense colors and the semirandom arrangement of colors in the stripes, and wove up 13 yards of this delightful fabric:

Fabric for Kodachrome
Fabric for Kodachrome

Meanwhile, I had been working with Sharon Bell (the seamstress who helped me with my wedding dress) to develop the pattern for the coat.  We selected a simple pattern, Butterick 5259:

Butterick 5259, the pattern I used for Kodachrome

Then we sewed several muslins, perfecting the fit.  On the final few muslins, I drew lines on both the fabric and the pattern, practicing matching the stripes, until I was pleased with the results.  We added heavy black piping to the edges to help define them, and lined the jacket in black silk charmeuse.
As I was nearing completion on the jacket, Sharon said, “Do you have any fabric left?  We could make a hat to go with the jacket.”  I had a little over a yard of fabric left ““ plenty to make a hat! ““ so I went hunting for hat patterns.  I found a Vogue beret pattern, which could be (severely) adapted to work, and made a little rainbow beret:
A hat! A most magnificent hat!
A hat! A most magnificent hat!
And here are the “official” photos of Kodachrome, taken by Joe Decker of Rock Slide Photography:
Kodachrome jacket and hat, full view
Kodachrome jacket and hat, full view
Kodachrome closeup, jacket and hat
Kodachrome closeup, jacket and hat
Detail of Kodachrome
Detail of Kodachrome

The complete story of Kodachrome can be found at https://tienchiu.com/tag/kodachrome-jacket/ .

Filed Under: Creative works, Fiber Arts, finished, Weaving Tagged With: kodachrome jacket

April 7, 2011 by Tien Chiu

Finalist!

Just got notification that Kodachrome has been selected as one of the finalists in the Handwoven garment contest.  I guess this means I’d better finish it!!

(Actually the leftover work is pretty trivial – I need to tack the lining to the seams, sew in the label and give it a final pressing.  Then I can pack it in tissue paper and ship it off!)

Hmm, maybe I had better put up the “official” page for Kodachrome, too…

Filed Under: All blog posts, textiles, weaving Tagged With: kodachrome jacket

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