wing dress update...and a little bit of boo!

happy halloween to those of you who celebrate the day
getting, perhaps, crazed in maddenning outfits in dark tonight...

sounds great, i could have done that in my rural japanese setting
and get arrested most probably but instead,

i played it safe, look!!



that's the very first batch of cookies i've ever made in my life

(((preening and proud)))

peanut butter kind, m&m's embedded for the effect
that's as halloweeny as i could get

recipe is here


tho sweetened only with honey
could be less sweet if yu ask (i know you won't)
(i made the ones w/o m&m's as well)

other than that, chewy and devilish


now about the wing dress

below:
as of oct. 29th at 2pm-ish
switching to the smallish brush and

(((-sh-sh-sh)))

started to darken further in details



this brush allows me much more even application of dye
than the last one i used that was about 3 times wider



and keep referring to the paper version i've made previously



that's all for today

for those of you crazed folks
have fun

don't get caught

wing dress update: the beginning of the real deal

on my last post, i had completed the
placement of feather patterns on the
paper model of the dress

what's next is this

below:
tracing the patterns on to the dress (part)
referring to the forementioned paper model

started with the easiest-looking piece



traced
some of the lines probably should be finer but
i decided not to go too perfectionistic on this



before starting to fill in the shades
i prefer to extend the feathers wider
it's just easier that way

using a hair of the brush



started filling in from peripherals
keeping the brush very dry
applying very little pressure



below:
the very first stage, done

looking hopelessly messy in the beginning but
that seems to be the way it usually goes




this procedure is pretty much the same as
when i made dye swatches

but one major difference would be that
there are many places where the feathers are
half-way fading, in "high contrast" style
never done this before but
i've always wanted to

the challenge in it is that, dye particles,
even if it's barely visible when painted in,
come alive after steam-set so...

let's see how i pull this one off


thanks for viewing
more on their way

wing dress update: oh what a perfick day...

greetings from rural japanese town

in autumn the below rivermouth and other waterfronts
attract many fishing guys

photo taken just yesterday



now to the business

the last post on drawing on the paper model of the dress
was on 15th of september
mind boggling to realize i've been messing with this for
another one entire month but

let's not go there

below:
as of sept. 15th
circled are the area that didn't quite do



fast forward to 15th 0f 0ctober
no more drawing on the far-right piece (left sleeve front),
modified the previously circled area but
the newly-circled are the places that
still do not flow...



see,
it doesn't dooooo



below:
20th of october---yes, today
yuko the perfectionista said,
perfick!!



see how different it looks on the back



up close...
this look made me very happy



so
i'm gonna savor this feeling for a while
then move on to the next task
which is to
transfer (meaning, paint) all this
onto the fabric of my choice
using fabric dye

one day this piece shall be
completed

if i were a micro-mama

today, i found an article on national geographic site
that is so fascinating, i wanted to share with you all
it's the

(i may lose you wandering off to n-geo site but
here's the link, you won't regret it)


underground crystal cave in chihuahua, mexico


this reminds me of a tv program i used to watch
when i was a loner in grade school
which was in early 70's

it's called land of the giants (1968-70, abc/usa)

the idea that i'd have (giant) insects coming after me
made me dream of fascinating nightmares
since i could not find a soul then, to share my fascination with
i kept it inside until....now

(((!)))

as i googled i found another tube programme called

planet of giants (1964, uk)

now i'm comforted to know that
this type of "role reversal" has
an appeal to so many

i wasn't a loner after all


below, the ultimate role reversal:
me landing on a land of the giant dog

too strange to touch, 2008

lots of nature-related posts lately
you know why?

because where i live, a nice, sweet small town japan,
where just a little authenticity could turn things upside down
the wild has been the wild
the anything-goes wiggle room
and those wild things, they get away with it just fine
their unthinkable behaviors go unnoticed, undetected by most but

they cannot fool me ha ha


now, last year i spotted an unusual-looking fruit
bearing just one on one particular tree
i looked and looked and found several identical trees but
the fruit remained the only one

below:
photo taken just the other day
the same tree, another fruit
one and only, of course



the following pictures are from the last year

started out oddly fruity
(like a peach!)



even had fruit-flies for a brief period of time
(i was watching)



eventual fall and shrinkage
but the velveteen texture remained



i thought of picking it up and examining many times but
just could not bring myself to act on the idea
i never knew until then something could be
too strange to touch for me

wing dress update: can you see what i see...?

back in may '08 when i made a sewing pattern
(for a dress i have been working on called "wing dress"
just because it'll have a wing on it dyed/ painted)
i created 2 models just to see the shape of it

but now i went ahead and made another one
using the very fabric for the final piece
-fine, flimsy stretch silk satin
for this is the first time i use this material and, and...
i got a bit paranoid


below:
what you see on the left is the
"blank" version of the dress with
a dye swatch pinned upon it



kind of very....blank looking

originally, when i came up with the whole idea in may '07,
what i had in mind was kind of 60's shift dress look but...

below:
a rough sketch from may '07



as it progressed, i realized that
the image no longer fit the emerging design of the dress but then...
i had a flash

below:
roughly stitched red trim/ string as an experiment
steering towards a bit of bizzaro
just as it should be



finer string/ trim may work better but
either way i started to see it coming together

(rewarding moment for me)

can you?



thank you for viewing

one more post on two more bugs

i don't mean to turn this into a bug blog but
since the last post on the stylish moth
the other ones keep showing up at my doorsteps

all the flashy bugs in my neighborhood
i think they are whispering to each other about
the blogging lady down the street
and posthumous recognition that chic moth recieved

below:
a little overdone? who am i to say...
caterpillar the definite eye catcher

and

another chic moth who was about to expire
i had an honor to share her last moments...




by the way,
they stayed perfectly still while being photographed