Victoria Secret Fashion Show 2012

Every year I love watching the Victoria Secret Fashion Show because it's a great inspiration on wing design, and the occasional costume design as well.  Unfortunately I was a little disappointing this year, didn't think the art direction was as great as previous years.  Either way, I think I'll highlight a few pieces that stood out to me.

Let's start off with some wings.  I love how the stars for the American flag aren't just painted on but float out.  And the stripped skirt flows well in the wind like a flag.

This was really fun to me.  The Clovers pop out of the body like wings, but it accents this Irish look.

No wings on this girl, but I love her Bustle.  It gives great body, and the trim really draws to the the shape that you otherwise couldn't admire on film without.

Another unconventional wing.  This for me was impressive because the flowers have such realistic details.  If you didn't know she was on a runway, you would think she was a tiny fairy.

I dont know why, but I love this look.  It's the new years baby with the sash, and celebration style of a sparkle top hat.  And something about the Golden Wings.  I just can't describe why I feel this looks so well put together.

I like the bottom half of her wings,  I'm not sure if they are wings or a bustle made from feathers.  They draped across the ground behind her as she walked.  

This one kinda took me surprise.  For you Anime fans, does it not remind you a bit of Rei from Evangelion?

Inspiriation: Scrappy Chevron Strip Pillows

Wouldn't this be a fun sewing project? What an excellent way to use old swatches and fabric scraps!

Inspiration:

Anthropologie Pillow $78	West Elm Kantha Chevron Pillow Cover $29

Construction Observation:

The West Elm pillow is created by stitching strips of colored fabric onto textured white fabric with one or two lines of stitching down the center of the fabric strip. This is quick and easy (thus the cheaper price) but could lead to frayed edges, gives the pillow a chenille texture.

On the Anthropologie pillow, each strip of fabric is stitched closer to the edges, on both edges. This is twice the work, but should reduce fraying. Also, there is more space in the "gutters" between the rows of angled strips. This calls more attention to the fact that the strips are appliqued on instead of patchwork, whereas the West Elm pillow could just as easily been constructed with four rectangles pieced together. I also like the sharper angle of the chevron effect, and I like how the addition of darker colors adds more contrast against the white.

Materials:

• Two squares of medium or heavy-weight white textured fabric, 18-inch square plus seam allowance (19-20 inches square)
• Ruler
• Protractor
• Pencil
• Blue chalk
• Cutting board and rotary cutter
• Piece of scrap tagboard (for a template) or thin cardboard or card stock
• scissors (for the tagboard)
• one 18" pillow form
• zipper (optional)
• iron & ironing board
• sewing machine & thread
• Fabric scraps, 7 or more different fabrics (15 is a good target). 
• TIP: Make sure to include a yellow/gold, a red, and a turquoise/aqua fabric. This will help the overall random combination look cohesive.
• Include neutral, tan or beige fabrics to coordinate with home decor.

How to Make One:

1. Decide if you want 4 or 6 vertical stripes. 
2. Determine the width of each "gutter". Write this down.
3. Determine the width of each "stripe". To do this, multiply the number of "gutters" by the gutter width (from step 2), then subtract that length from 18 inches. Divide that total by the number of stripes and you have your exact width for each stripe. Write this down.
4. Create a template for your fabric strips. It's a parallelogram! On a piece of tagboard, draw two parallel lines (the width between the two lines is your choice, try a half inch?). Use the protractor to determine the degree of the angle you want, then draw an angle across one end of the parallel lines. Turn the tagboard piece so that the angle line you just drew is now a vertical line. Measure from that line with a rule the width of your stripe (from step 3) and draw another line bisecting both parallel lines. Now you have your parallelogram for your strip template. Cut it out of the tagboard. Trace it onto a scrap paper several times in the chevron pattern to see if it looks right to you. If it looks wrong, change your measurements or angles and make a new template. Get your template correct before you start cutting fabric!
5. Iron/press your fabrics to get out the wrinkles
6. Using the rotary cutter and cutting board, cut out strips of fabric, perhaps 3 to 7 strips per fabric. Calculate how many pieces you need - perhaps 84 to100 strips.
7. This is the fun part! Put all of the strips in a bag, then randomly take them out one at a time and arrange them in the chevron pattern (on the floor, table, or on an 18"x18" mat). When you are done laying them out, adjust a few pieces so your reds, yellows, and aquas are evenly distributed and make sure you don't have two of the same pattern next to each other.
8. Mark placement lines on the white fabric using blue chalk.
9. Stitch the strips onto the white fabric. (Easy method is to just sew one line down the center of the strip. Better method is to sew down both sides of the fabric strip, close to the edge.)
10. Trim edges of fabric strips
11. Sew the front and back together, add zipper on one edge.
12. Insert pillow form and zip it up!

Architecture Inspiration from NY

It was a wind-swept sort of day!

Architecture is not just about pretty shapes and dimensions. It tells a story! 

The Statue of Liberty has its own story. The pedestal was built on a pre-existing base from a fort so the architecture is from two different time periods. Plus, the statue was built in France while the pedestal was built in America.

The audio tour told us all about the story while we toured the island. Next stop was Ellis Island.

I hear Roosevelt used to hang out here. Beautiful weathered copper patina dome.

Ellis Island - this is one of the first places immigrants congregated after reaching the New World. They had to go through all sorts of tests before they were allowed to continue on to New York. Some were sent home back across the Atlantic.

Central Park! Remember this place from The Angels Take Manhattan?

This beautiful old church and graveyard survived 9/11.

The 9/11 Memorial site.

Disappearing into the clouds...

Wrought iron fences! I think this was in Greenwich Village.

Classic NY... fire escapes!

A cute and simple harvest window box idea.

19 1/2! In the Village

Love this blue door. Pin-worthy!

Inspriation Photo - Grocery Store

I happened to be on the second level looking down into a grocery store and I was just mesmerized.

Inspiration - Repainting Old Furniture

This transformation has given me the confidence to tackle my own furniture-repainting project!

This painter started with a lovely old French white-and-gold style desk:

The before picture (Source: http://nattybydesign.blogspot.com/2011/04/going-green.html)

Last year I bought a French-style three-drawer nightstand on Craiglist that was white with gold details just like the picture above. After completing my Dresser Facelift project I did not refinish the night stand and instead just moved it into a spare bedroom as-is, but the white paint on the night stand looks old and yellowed, which seems out-of-place in a new, modern bedroom.

But check out what Natty-By-Design did to that old desk! 

The after picture (Source: http://nattybydesign.blogspot.com/2011/04/going-green.html)

See the whole post here: http://nattybydesign.blogspot.com/2011/04/going-green.html

Check out her shop: http://nattybydesign.blogspot.com/p/my-shop.html

Wow. Hey, that carpet looks like the same carpet in my house.

Look, she even had the guts to repaint the hardware white.

This is a gorgeous jade green color that would really work well with Chinese decor.

I think any good, rich color could work! for this technique. What about purple, red, or a rich yellow?

Natty also painted a couple of matching nightstands pink with white hardware instead of continuing with the bold green color. Again, this pink would also work well with Chinese decor, but I love how it's paired here with the blue and white in this photo.

On futher search, I found more painted French-style furniture!

http://curbly.com/modhomeecteacher/posts/9412-how-to-repaint-the-painted-dresser
Check out this link for a How-To on repainting dressers! Excellent.

This adorable Tiffany-blue dresser comes with a really great How-To on repainting painted furniture. I think the black hardware looks great with the light blue; white hardware wouldn't contrast as much.

 

dresser by Poppyseed Living
Photo by buoy bird ~ http://buoybird.com/2010/09/25/born-free/

I'm sure I'll have a follow-up post in the future to share how I transform my own French-style night stand. What color will I choose? Hmmm... I'm up to suggestions!

Inspiration - Characterized Gaming Consoles Part II

So previously we had posted Xbox Consoles that have been done up to be characterized as popular video games
Inspiration - Characterized Gaming Consoles

This is round two.  Not as 3D glamours but still a fun way to doll up your consoles.  These have all been inspired by Japanese Icons


DomoKun - A Television station mascot in Japan

Hello Kitty, if you don't know who she is you must live in a hole.

Keroro - A popular anime character

Inspiration - Movie Posters

I came across an artist on DeviantArt, Mr-Bluebird. 

He recreated several series of movie posters.

Alfred Hitchcock Series

The way he uses just two colours and simple designs yet it says soo much.

Whimsical Journeys Series

I love his use of extreme colours to push the wildness of these magical lands

 Paul Thomas Anderson Series

I love how he can incorporate text as part of the image.  Also how the picture has movement to it.

Pixar Series

Using well known but not main characters makes gives this a mild, yet recognizable unqiue posters. 

And then THE BLOB

Giving the classic comic book look with the polka dot gradients really helps date this movie. 

This artist has many more Movie poster and other print pieces that are amazing. Approaching these classics from his own perspective just makes my creative juices flow (oh he's a MUSE)  Should check him out on either his DeviantArt account or his personal site. 

http://mr-bluebird.deviantart.com/

http://www.combustibleart.com/Home.html

Urban Craft Uprising 2010 Report

"Seattle's largest indie craft show. Our mission is to build, foster and support a fun, indie DIY crafting community." according to their website.  http://www.urbancraftuprising.com/

This place isn't your grandma's little craft show (trust me I've been to many and have much ranting to come out of those about how some of the work could be done by a young grade school student).  These are real artists who make the mose creative pieces from all sorts of materials and tools including high tech machinery.

Over 100 booths of work ~almost~ all made my hand.  I shall continue now to display some of the different artists I saw.  This isn't the average work that anyone can pick up without intense love, persistance, and creativity.

Vinyl Toys - Apparently this guy was playing with resin making a cupcake, when his friend suggested to him to expand on it and it EXPLODED and these were recently released at New York's Comic-Con
http://rampage-toys.blogspot.com/

This artist had these slightly creepy plates and cups of human figures popping out to touch you.  It's got such emotion, but I'm not sure everyone wants that face starring at them all the time.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/SusanKniffinDavidson

I loved this jewerly making pair.  One partner does the glass work, while the other does the metal work.  Harmony to make masterpieces.  http://www.hammerandtorch.com/

Clear stamps are becoming so popular lately, countless magazines on card making require the use of stamps for all their submissions now.  If you look closely at the picture there's a sign that says "HANDMADE".  I asked her about her process. Something about negative printing and UV lights.  Oh whatever more importantly I asked if she takes custom orders.  ~giggles~ 
http://www.bluediamondstamps.com/

Ok this booth was geeky in such an awesome way.  They had Periodic Table Elements turned into Cuff Links.  Spirographs necklaces, as in you can take it off and play with it with pen and paper.  And these special gloves with electric conductors (or something techy like that) which allows you to use your Ipod or other touch screen devices even with gloves on.  And what was even more clever about the sellers is that they sold kits that you can use to mod your own gloves in case you didn't want to use their generic gloves.  http://www.polymathdesignlab.com/

And last we come to the stand in which a forked over my dollars to.  Die cut Metal and Plastic jewelry pieces.  Gothic style of course, one of my favs.
http://www.fableandfury.com/


So last year I noticed that felting had started to become popular, so what's up this year?  It looks like Yarn might be the new thing.  I saw two booths just selling yarn.  Hmm

Inspiration - Characterized Gaming Consoles

So earlier in the year me and Ava went to PAX (Penny Arcade Expo) in Seattle.  I went in cosplay ~tee hee hee~ and found gaming consoles also in cosplay!

Where we have PC pretending to be an Elyos from Aion.

Xbox 360 turned cyber robot, if it wasn't one already

Another Xbox ready for battle

And the PS3 showing off its love for Soul Calibur II