"To live in the world without becoming aware of the meaning of the world is like wandering about in a great library without touching the books.".....The Secret Teachings of All Ages

"Neither aesthetics nor money-spent make a good studio-it's what you make inside it that really counts"...Shanna Van Maurice, artist.



Thursday, August 14, 2014

Weather, Street Style & Curly Hair

Every now and then, mostly on FB, I get asked to show how I wear the boleros I make. I figured it would be easier to talk about that and show pictures here, then post a link to the blog on FB for those who were interested.

Yesterday, on a quick trip to town, and with the sky dark and threatening rain even with the temps still in the 80s,  I got Robert to take a couple of photos of me wearing the Wm Morris bolero.

Weather

Summer thunderstorms have been rolling over So. Oregon for the last week or more. Lots of lightening in some places, wind, ominous clouds, but very little rain. Just short bursts of fat drops that hit the ground like a slap in the face, and then are gone.







I took this photo from our deck, looking east, the evening before our trip into town. We left in bright sunlight, but the sky was like the photos by the time we got back.

Street Style

This is the combo. Bolero over a gray skinny tank top, with skinny jeans, and my favorite all-purpose, all-weather fedora, and flip-flops with green beads on the thong part. I am going to try and find a darker gray tank top (closer to the binding color on the bolero) to wear with this because I think it would look better. I tried black, and it was way too much contrast. Also, I am not a "matchy-matchy" person. I don't like something to look like an "outfit." So this color combo works okay for me...for now. Even with jewelry, I wear silver with gold, fake with real, because I like the contrast and it kills the "precious" look, or at least what I think of as precious.


Just a side note. Yes, I like skinny tanks, skinny T-shirts, and skinny jeans. After making two other beaded projects that were fuller and, yes, baggier, I realized after wearing them just once that...I don't like baggy. One of those looser projects I spent a lot of time beading, wore it the one time, put it away and haven't worn it since. I'm lucky in that I am naturally thin, but I also work to stay a size 4, and baggy clothes make me feel frumpy...always have. No offense to those into loose and free, but that's just not me. I like skinny. But not tight. Having to lay on the bed and attempt to wriggle into a pair of skintight jeans is not my thing either.

Here is the back view up close.



Curly Hair
 
And this is the bit about curly hair. I confess, the order of these photos is out of sync, which is kinda obvious by the weather...bright sunlight in the ones we took before we left, and dark and cloudy in the ones we took when we got back. The reason? Well, I usually always wear a hat, or some kind of hair ornament, but I had just washed my hair and it was still wet when we took the first photos. Want a near terminal case of hat hair, just wear a hat over wet hair for a few hours. So, when we got back, and my hair had dried...mostly...I had Robert take the photos of me wearing my hat, because that's the way I would have originally left the house if my hair had been dry.

The other thing I wanted to see is the difference between how long my hair looks when wet, and how much it shrinks up as it dries, because it is naturally curly. This was pure vanity on my part. LOL Mainly because I wish it would stay looking long.

Curly hair when wet, and a better back view of the bolero.



Curly hair when dry, losing about three inches in hair length as it curls up. Again, this was pure, silly vanity on my part.



Come winter, I will wear this bolero over a long-sleeved skinny T-shirt, and instead of flip-flops will wear boots or my Ariat riding shoes, which are super comfy. And with a hat. Almost always with a hat.




Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Wm Morris Bolero Finished...For Now? Plus a Goodwill Find

Since the weather has been close to, or up into, the 100s, working outside is not fun, and to be avoided if possible. The most I do is move a sprinkler from one part of the yard/garden to another and then head back indoors. So, with a decent excuse to stay inside, and while listening to a book on tape (The Copenhagen Connection by Elizabeth Peters), I managed to finish the Wm Morris Bolero.

It started like this, with me trying to determine what binding color to use. As it turned out, and with a hint from Zom, I didn't use either one of these, deciding they detracted too much from the pattern on the material.



I took one of the sleeves cut off from the patterned T-shirt back to the Goodwill, looking for a better color match and was lucky enough to find one. It was a dark grey man's T-shirt that had been washed so many times the grey had taken on a greenish cast. Just a hint, but it hooked into the teal perfectly. And since JoAnn's is right next door to the Goodwill, I strolled over there to look for embroidery thread, and also found some beads I thought were stunning, and which were on sale for 40% off. Sweet!



However, once I got the bolero sewn together I decided the beads wouldn't work. They were a little too big and too bright, again, something that detracted from the pattern of the material. As it turned out, I had some beads in my stash that matched much better and were smaller. They worked great.

Here is the finished bolero. I really like the way the colors in this one are subtle. My other three boleros are flashier, either in color or beading/applique. I may add beads to the leaf pattern, but have decided to think about that for a while before I commit, start beading, and then decide it detracts from rather than enhances the design.






And this is my latest Goodwill find. A couple of weeks ago a small group of women (and one man who tagged along) from the Rogue Mounted Archers went on a Goodwill/consignment shop crawl looking for clothes for which we could make Zombie Apocalypse costumes. We have an international competition coming up in our area in September, and one of the contests is a zombie shoot. Anyway, after a day of hitting the Goodwill and two other consignment shops—with a stop for Mexican food and margaritas — all I could find that I really wanted was this beautiful jacket, found at the Goodwill, and it had nothing to do with Apocalypse costumes.

It is supposed to feel and look like hammered silk, but is not made of silk. The label inside doesn't say what it is made of, but I suspect some kind of acetate, which I normally would avoid like the plague. But the colors, the lightness of the material, and the oriental look of it grabbed me. I carried it around the whole time I was looking at other stuff, thinking that if I hadn't put it back by the time everyone else was ready to leave, then it was meant to be mine. And for only $4.99 how could it not, right?

I like it "as is." So this piece is not a project waiting to get done.




This little jacket is so different from anything else I have, and will look awesome with jeans.

Well, that's my remedy for beating the heat. How are the rest of you doing?