K’s Book

For months I’ve been planning and formulating a fabric memory book highlighting just a bit of K’s time in Chicago.  I’ve titled it Opening.

I wanted to include a tag book with her story so turned to Phil.  In the last several years, his writing has come to bloom and I thought this would be another avenue for him.

I asked him to write a short something as a review of K’s time in Chicago.

About a week later, I asked how the story was coming.  He hadn’t done it yet.

Another week passed and I asked again.  (thankfully he doesn’t get upset at this nagging)

So after lunch that day, he grabbed his spiral notebook and click pen and wrote.  Thirty minutes later he came to read to me.

We laughed.

We cried.

I said it was perfect!

I copied his story on tags I had coffee stained

it works better with instant coffee... must buy some

and stamped his title, “Life So Far”, added her name, the date, and had Phil sign it.  I covered the back side of the tags with fabric paper.

my big sheet of fabric paper

Fabric paper is muslin covered with paper scraps, layered with pattern tissue and then painted with a wash of fluid acrylics.  The tag book is tied together with an assortment of yarn & rick-rack.

back of tag book

As Keturah grew up on a farm

Animals were something she could charm

Her curly hair would bounce all day

And down by the creek she loved to play

—

Her school was decided to be at home

There were hidden talents later to be known

In 2004, when school was done

She decided to work and have some fun

—

But to our surprise

To the city she would arise

She became a student at SAIC

And soon a great artist to be

—

Mom & Dad are so proud

She says it’s like floating on a cloud

You grew up around Ag

Now go get them and make a new bag!

Just lately, I went to the work of assembling a few pictures, some fabric, some photos of her fabrics printed on fabric, and a few bits of embellishment.

later I added words from a book inside the keyhole: she can

The pages of the book are canvas boards covered with fabric.   The ribbon runs through the pages to hold them as one.

The book can be folded up like a book or stood up accordian style for display.  Both sides are decorated.

If you have followed K’s work, most of this will ring a bell with you.

description of all the elements

Here is the 2nd page with the pocket to hold the story on the tag book –

Each side:

K got this in the mail yesterday with her lotion refills I made last week.  🙂  Now I can tell you about what I’ve been doing!

This idea is from Lesley Riley‘s book: Fabric Memory Books.   She is one of my favorites!!

Read Full Post »

K’s Celebration Day!

Today we celebrate K’s graduation from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago!   She is receiving her Bachelor’s of Fine Arts degree.  

Preparing for her BFA show.

We couldn’t be more proud of her accomplishments.  And mostly for completing her 4 year degree in 3 1/2 years and working at the same time!  🙂 

Summer 08 with some more old doors to add to her collection

She will stay in Chicago and be an RA this summer and finish up 6 credit hours. 

What a young start for a fashion designer!

But she is coming home for tonight and tomorrow before heading back for more RA training.  🙂

She was the model for the ad (not her hat) and came off winning the award! More on this later.

We love you!!  

Read Full Post »

Our Hatmaker

K has just loved her hat making classes and she has a wonderful teacher!  This semester with Headwear Design II, the students had a place to display their hats for sale in a local gallery.  

K submitted 11 hats but I can’t point them out to you in these pictures.   We have heard about most of them.  

We were thrilled she sold 2 hats from the gallery!!  Yeah!!

After a week at the gallery, there was a big closing reception.  A reporter was there for a local fashion (online) magazine at K’s invitation and 2 of K’s friends came in support of her.   Very sweet!!

I love how they suspended the hats.  A great display plus ease of fittings!

I think this must be the class.  I love that many of them had hats on for the evening event!  🙂

 

@~~>~~>~~

Another part of that week for K was the school’s Fashion Show.   She was asked by another senior student (Arushi) to design and make a hat for one of Arushia’s outfits in the show.  A HUGE DEAL!!!

This is K modeling the hat while everything is still in process, so the student could see it: 

Both hat pieces are from wool felt.  

Here you can see the back of the coat/dress has a profile which was the inspiration for the hat having the black profile of a face.

 

K got to see the dress rehearsal of the fashion show (tickets to attend the Fashion Show are quite pricey) and snapped a few pictures of the model with the whole outfit.  

K says the model has the black part back too far but she hoped they corrected that for the actual shows.  

Next week is K’s final critique week so this week has had her busy finishing more purses, more hats, and more accessories.   🙂

Read Full Post »

Other BFA Gallery shots

When we first got to K’s BFA gallery opening… well of course we went to see her spot first.  🙂  

Then we decided to walk around a bit and find some of her friend’s gallery spots.  I’m glad we did it then as it wasn’t so crowded in the 5 – 7 p.m. slot.    Also during the 5 – 7 p.m. period, they had a variety of appetizers (hot & cold) and desserts along with drinks so we enjoyed a bit of that as we walked. 

This is a shot down an aisle when it wasn’t so crowded.

Beth & Kyle are 2 of the RAs K works with and they did their gallery together since they are both in cartooning.  (I’m not sure of the technical name of their major focus.)

This is the library they made up.  The shelves were full of comic style books.  They had other students make books for the library and they both did a good assortment themselves.  The books were free.  🙂  (The gallery was like any other gallery, you could ask for prices but nothing had a hanging price tag.)  Kyle built the shelves and the end tables between the reading chairs.  

I got a book by Emma. First because she is K’s friend but second because the cover was an old map and I like old maps.   I then chose a tiny tri-fold book because it had a drawing of scissors on the front.  

Later after we left the show and while we waited for our pizza, we looked at our books.  K had the main book about the library so I got to read that.  Then I read my 2 books at the hotel later that night.   

I was so impressed!!  The drawings, the things they shared, the ideas.  Amazing!  I just don’t know how to convey it all yet.  But I suppose part of my high interest is because I like altered books and making books.  I just don’t do that as often as I’d love to do it!  

This is K’s friend, Emma’s area.  

She draws these freehand (not enlarging somehow) using pencil and charcoal.  It is beautiful!!  The long one is a self-portrait and looks exactly like Emma.  I loved her choice of the charcoal on cardboard.  🙂

I didn’t stop long at this one but really liked the layout and display the student chose.  K says it is watercolor!  Beautiful!

 

This made the mixed media-fiber art part of me happy.  🙂

 

I saw this from afar and came for a closer look (then forgot to back up and get a full picture!) and loved what I found!  This self-portrait was depicted with… sprinkles!!  🙂  I love sprinkles. 

 

 

This is one of many I didn’t totally understand.  (And Phil learned early on in the evening, not to ask “Why?”. )  The story here is that the jars hold the salt collected from one’s tears.

 

I just had to have a picture of this! 

The title of the piece is “Soap Bathroom”!!  There was a toilet, sink, and towel bar, all carved out of soap!!  An empty soap dish made out of soap.  haha!

 

Here is an up-close shot of Steffany’s wallpaper – 

 

This ceramic display was quite interesting.

The aisles were more crowded as the evening progressed:

Me & my hubby:

K had an email on Monday saying that over 4,000 people attended the Friday night opening!!!  

I hope you enjoyed this small peek at the BFA exhibition.  It is open through next weekend if you are near.  I know a great tour guide.  😉

Read Full Post »

Tuesday Trip

Over last weekend, K was feeling the pressure of her BFA show looming heavy on her shoulders.  I said to Phil that maybe I needed to go help.   K suggested I come on Tuesday so I rearranged the schedule here for that to work.  She had until Wednesday to finish any painting or construction on her space.  She needed painting help.

Early Tuesday I drove the 1 1/2 hrs to the train station.  I took the train another 1 1/2 hrs to downtown.  Then I got on a bus!  All.by.my.self!  :))  

I texted Keturah when I was waiting for a bus and she left her classroom and waited at the stop for me.  I knew where I was ending up but it was noon for her anyway.  We went about a block to subway for quick lunch.  

We walked to her room about 2 blocks and of course by now it was raining.  😦 It was only a light rain but still noontime crowded streets with umbrellas and my load was not so fun.  

Have you ever wondered how someone in Fashion Design with a focus on Accessories decorates her room?  

There we packed a cart to move the rack Phil had made for her show.  

We went the 2 1/2 blocks to the building in the rain pushing the cart.  😦  Upstairs we got her supplies out of her locker nearby and got to work.   I was able to get a sticky nametag pass and that meant that K didn’t have to be with me all the time.  Such freedom!  haha!  

The gallery space is on the 7th floor and K’s spot is along the outer window wall.    Here, I’ll show you the view!

I’m scared of heights so this is with me standing back three feet but stretching out the camera so see what I could get!  LOL!

This is in a newly aquired SAIC building.  I have been in the part with the classrooms once before.  It is just beautiful!  The lobby had very nice hardwood floors.  Her locker was NEW and HUGE!  😉  

She had painted the wall a gray with a touch of violet.  Then she printed out her wording the size she wanted and had cut out all the letters.  But she kept them attached and had a line running through them for leveling and spacing.  🙂    

We had about 5 sections I think.  That took awhile to get them level.  Then we traced all letters with pencil.  I did most of that while  she used a tiny brush to touch up the corner where her wall meets the neighbor’s white (so far) wall.  

 

Then time to paint.  We had little (maybe less than 1/2″) art brushes to fill in the letters.  TIME!   At 3:30, we gasped as this was taking a long time.  I called JP and decided to delay my departure to an hour later than the latest I had planned.  We finished one coat of paint.  

Then we assembled her rack and worked a bit on a second coat.  She said that after I left she worked about an hour more and finished the letters.  🙂 

We hurried back to her room having to go out the freight elevator this time.  😦    This put us out on another side of the building so that was a full 3 1/2 blocks back.   The cart was nearly empty but the sidewalks were full with those heading home.   Why do they think those carts come with steering mechanisms???  

I had taken stew so we heated that in her micro and ate fast.  Then repacked my backpack (on wheels) and left.  She has a great produce store so had gotten many lovelies for us.  I had a huge bunch of brocolli, 2 boxes of strawberries, cherry tomatoes, and many zucchini!  

She got me on the bus and I headed back for the train.  However, the bus was FULL and going slow with lots getting on each time.  😦   I got to the stop w/ 9 mins until my train left.  And they leave on.the.dot!   

I ran up the street, in the building, across to the escalator, and carried the heavy backpack up some of the steps.  My heart was going to explode at this point.  Ran to the doors to the trains, the train was not as the schedule said on track #2 but on track #4.  Not far, but nerve-wracking for this novice!!  I got a seat which was grand.  🙂  

By 45 mins until my stop, the car was empty.  So I thought.  Later, I learned there was a girl on the top level sleeping.  🙂  I tried to sleep but only got a numb hip.  😦

The wind heading home was intense!!  The weatherman said the winds were up to 45 mph.  I got home at 9:40 p.m.  

All this and the next day started with a dash as Nina & I headed to Puppy Preschool.   Amazing that I just keep going.  🙂  

Some of this is vague on purpose so as not to ruin the moment of the gallery opening.   🙂   Some of it may be vague because I now have the flu and my whole head is vague.   😦

Read Full Post »

Shape & Theory Final

 

K’s Shape & Theory class ended last Thursday but I think you’ll like seeing her final project.  I don’t know what the assignment included but she had thrift shop bags that she ‘unsewed’ and rearranged. 

She & her friend in class, T from the Ukraine, wanted to go outside and shoot pictures of each other with their projects.  Conrad, the instructor, got wind of this plan so had them wait a minute.  He went to another classroom and came back with models for them!  This allowed K to arrange her piece on the model and take pictures while T was her assistant. T also videoed K’s model which is super!  Then they switched places with T working with her model. 

Conrad encouraged the class to document their work so did near-professional level pictures of their projects.  Then had the photos for the students to keep. 

K arranged some of the shots from the outside photo shoot into this collage.   She had it printed at the school print shop in a big size for part of her final.  I thought you’d like seeing this.  

K said T spoke good English and had a strong accent but was thankful for K’s tutoring and help with finding the thrift stores.  (K’s specialty!! 😉 )  I found it interesting that T then struggled to understand the English spoken by a native Asian.  She knew American English but struggled to decipher English with an Asian accent.   🙂

You’ll have to email K if you need an explanation on the project.  For me… just a proud momma.  🙂

Read Full Post »

Fall Art Sale

On Saturday, the 22nd, I picked up Phil’s mom and we headed to downtown Chicago to see K.  It was K’s second time to be in the SAIC art sale and it is probably her last time.   

She had purses and scarves for sale.   There was a paid admittance preview night on Thursday and then it was open to the public on Friday and Saturday.   Sales were up a bit from her spring show.  She was quite pleased to share a table with her friend.    

It is held in the Michigan building in the very nicely renovated ballroom!

After we visited with K for a bit, MIL & I headed around the corner for lunch.  We walked a few blocks around the area but the Saturday before Thanksgiving is NOT the time I want to linger and shop!  Crowded!!  

MIL always enjoys seeing the ice skaters at Millennium Park so we watched there for awhile.   That was our coldest place with the lake wind blowing on our heads.  

We stopped back at K’s table for a bit more visiting and then hugs good-bye.   Thankfully, she’d be home in a few more days for more time together!

 

Read Full Post »

Overview of the Weekend

So besides Fabric Dyeing, what else did we do?

 

K had homework.  Some reading got done on the way to church and on the way back downtown.   She had her hat block (layers of that pink styrofoam hot glued together).   She had done the carving at school.  

Saturday she sanded it smooth. Then added paper mache’ layers. Thankfully it was dry for the return to Chicago on Sunday afternoon.   (Sunday night she had to apply layers of polyurethane to the paper mache’.   Tuesday was Hatmaking class and she put on her wool felt.)   

I drove in partway and K drove the rest of the way.   Phil got to drive home since he had the nap on the way in.  😉

So while I had Phil in the car and remembered his MIL question… I asked.   I guess the nap had made him sappy…. So his favorite MIL asked about getting 1/2 a hog when they are out.   He replied, “What will she do with the other half?”  Which made the car erupt with laughter.  :-p  (We’ll take care of the other half, Mom.)  

Which then led K to remember the conversation at the last staff meeting…. Someone said, “Did you know you can buy half of a cow?”  “Oh gross!”  

None of this sounds odd to she who grew up with such talk, however she is one among many.  😉  She seeks to educate them in a better way.  🙂

After we arrived at her building, I found myself again… hanging out in the alley.   I had a quilt catalog to occupy me.   They only took an armload each up to her room. Of course, there she found a note from a resident seeking her help.  

We drove to the street of her previous building for a parking place and walked around a bit.   The streets were cool and breezy but quiet.  

The Daley Plaza was set up with that fall “holiday” type tents and such.   I was glad the vendors were closed by then.   However, a large screen was set up, benches facing it and speakers facing the crowd.   About 75 were huddled with heavy coats and hoods over their heads watching a free showing of ET.  Movies are scheduled for the next few weekends.  It would be a bit too cool for me.  

K thought she should return to assist the resident-in-need so we drove her back to her home.   Not such a problem upon further investigation but it was time for us to head home as well.  

We arrived home at 10:10 p.m.  T I R E D.  I love having her home but the visits sure are short.

Read Full Post »