Body Politic: My First Solo Show at Delta College

For those of you who don't know, I teach art classes at my local community college. It's my day job, but it is also my passion. I feel like I learn as much from my students as they learn form me. I have been lucky enough to have this position for a few years now, and even though I am not full-time, I am able to (just) pay the bills with this job.

This year I was invited to have my own solo show in our Galleria. We don't have a "proper" art gallery, but we do have an open atrium on the main floor of the humanities building with glassed-in cases called the Galleria. This is where we house our art displays - unfortunately, the glassed cases on the wall only allow 12" of depth, so they stink for 3-d pieces. I spent a lot of time in the year before my show measuring the cases and going through my inventory of costumes to decide what to display. You see, I am also lucky enough to be the costume director at the Michigan Renaissance Festival. On top of that, I have played a character out at our festival for almost 9 years. Before that I was what we call a "playtron" - that is, I came as a customer to the festival dressed up in Elizabethan costuming. All of this combined means I have a large backlog of costumes in my basement. For my show I decided to do a mix of costumes made for myself and made for others. After many months of sketching ideas and nail-biting, I finally decided to display some of the work in the large stand-up cases the school has (we dug out 2 of the 4 available. The other 2 are buried in the storage room under a layer of detrius). The rest of the the pieces I hung from industrial hooks on the wall (thank you Ben Clore for all of your help! See his brilliant work here.) I have to admit, I was surprised I had so much work to display - it is amazing how it adds up over time!

My character is Mary Jayne Fitzhugh - the village seamstress. I PROMISE I was thinking of the shoes when I came up with her first name...and Fitzhugh sounds like "fits you"...yeah, we love puns.

The "opening" of my show culminated in a performance - a few of my fellow performers were kind enough to add their talents to the list - we had belly dancing, court dancing, bag pipes, jokes, and basic nonsense. It was a TON of fun!

 My show came down this week, but if you missed it here are some pictures (as always, click on them to enlarge):

An overview of the galleria - photo by Lindsey Franzel of the Delta College Marketing Department  

From a different angle

Ball Gown for the 2013 season.

The actress who played my assistant for three seasons decided she wanted to join a singing group, and needed a court gown to be a part. This was the commission I did for her.

The hat I made for her - Photo by Lindsey Franzel

Left: Seamstress 2012 dress (with handwoven fabric) Right: My first apprentice, Alice (skirt made by Alex Spittle who played Alice)

Closeup of Mary Jayne's  famous hat

As I was photographing my hat, I realized why I get so many pictures taken of me during the run of the show - this thing really is like a walking still-life when it is on my head!  It's very sculptural, and there is something different to see from every angle.

A selection of works on the wall behind the main cases - photo by Lindsey Franzel

A pink Florentine-style dress I made a long time ago. I haven't been able to find the sleeves for it in ages.

This is a silk duipioni gown I made ages ago, and then remade it 3 or 4 years ago for the royal ball the festival puts on. I don't wear this one anymore, though - as I made a new ballgown last year (see above pics)

2010

The top 2 doublets are women's, the bottom is a man's. The cut is virtually the same - the biggest difference is the woman's is shorter to accommodate a shorter torso. The top doublet is from my first year playing the seamstress in the 2006 season

2011

2009

Florentine gown loosely based on styles worn by Eleanora of Toledo. Worn by me as a parton, so this must date to 2004-5.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the room....

Originally we had 5 princesses, but we sadly lost one to illness before the run of the show began. The girls are all named after various gemstones - here you see Amethyst and the back of Opal. Not in the show - Garnet and Emerald (I just ran out of room!). The dresses are shot silk dupioni, and they just shimmer in the light. I didn't take a picture of Opal's dress as they are all the same style. In this pic you can see the shoulder swag. 

Closeup of the princess jewelry - they also all have matching necklaces and bodice jewelry - both worn by the mannequin in the previous picture

The guard uniforms overlooking the safety of the princesses 

And finally I leave you with this....are YOU brave enough to put your underwear on the wall????

Kinda getting into the spirit....

So, I must be just narcissistic enough to be enjoying this whole blog thing. I was never any good at diaries - so I will be depending on you (as soon as there is a "you") to interact with me in some way.

Otherwise, I am like a goldfish, and will quickly get distracted by something shiny.

Mmmmmmm......vintage jewelry!!!!

Ooooh - pretty vintage shinys. Like brooches, or Bakelite buttons, or sewing machine decals, or vintage stand mixers....

(sound of record player abruptly stopping) wait, did I say vintage stand mixers??  Yes, yes I did, friends. It is definitely one of my more.....erm...."quirky" collections.

But... isn't that why you love me??? Because I'm fun, outspoken, creative, and quirky???

(crickets chirping)

Well.... okay, okay - we just met. Maybe love IS a strong word - don't get weird on me like every boy in high school did just because I have low boundaries, daddy issues, and a constant need for attention.

Wait...what were we talking about? Oh, right - stand mixers.

It all started when I bought my house. I live in a cute arts n crafts house built around the turn of the last century.  The previous homeowners had updated at some point in the mid-1960's - blonde wood cabinetry, plastic wall tiles, funky cabinet hardware...and terrible wall-to-wall carpeting over hardwood floors (???????)  My ex (I've been married twice before - I call this one "The Sequel") and I were broke - we had just bought a house, after all, and couldn't afford to remodel. Instead we decided to embrace the funkyness of our new house (sans carpeting), and go with mid-century modern decor.

This brings me to the kitchen - with lovely turquoisey-green plastic wall tiles for a backsplash, blonde wood cabinetry, and a gold sparkle countertop I knew not just any mixer would do.  It would have to be vintage, and it would have to be cool.  My first purchase was a Sunbeam Mixmaster model 12 in white......and then I found out it came in colors...

Like this turquoise one that now lives in my kitchen.....

...and then I learned to fix them.....

and the collection grew.....

...and grew...

....and grew....

Are you getting the idea?

next thing you know....

You are the proud owner of 36 (or so) mixers.

 Just so you know I'm not COMPLETELY off my rocker, I do give them away from time-to-time, and occasionally I do sell one or two.  My friend Ian says my booth at the antique mall is an "exit strategy" so I don't become a full-fledged hoarder.

(Shows what he knows - he hasn't seen my basement)


This is the one collection I get asked the most about. The pictures here are by far not the entirety of the collection - heck, most of the really cool ones aren't even represented. If you're interested, say so in the comments! I'll be happy to show off more of my mixers.

If you think I'm absolutely daft, let me distract you with a picture of a very cute (but evil) kitty:

Zephyr (also known as Kitten, Fatty Arbuckle, and Pure Evil)

My Newest machine

As an experiment in blogging, I'm going to pretend I have readers and talk about my "new" (to me) sewing machine.

Here she is:

A Singer 66 "Redeye" Treadle!!!!

 Oooooo!

 (With flash)

 (Without flash)

Ahhhhhhhh!

 Ohhhhhhhh!

Some decal damage on the back - not done by me. I damaged the "Singer Manufacturing Co." decal on the top (notice there are no pictures of it *whistles innocently) When I first brought her home the "eye" next to the "r" in "Singer" was absolutely covered in black schmutz - I couldn't even see if the decal was still there at all!  I knew there was supposed to be one, because I had scrutinized pictures of other people's machines on the internet. So, I took a leap of faith and started scrubbing (carefully) with Murphy's Oil Soap. Eventually I started to see the shape of the decals emerge from underneath the crud. Slowly, slowly the colors started to come out. The large decal near the belt on the pillar was also almost completely obliterated with inky black yuk. I don't know what the substance was, but it was gross - and stubborn to clean!   Oddly enough the aforementioned decal that I did damage did not happen in the cleaning process - it happened when I tried to polish the machine with car wax. One gentle swipe and the words smeared together. I stopped polishing that area immediately.  The words are still legible, they are just a bit "squishy" around the edges now.  I finished up my polishing with a layer of sewing machine oil. I think she looks pretty snazzy overall! I don't really mind all of her bumps and scrapes. Actually, I sort of like them - they are a visual record of the years of labor this old gal has been put through.

Oh - she also came with a perfectly good leather belt!

 There's still some weird schmutz on this bed decal. I haven't decided if I care enough to work on it. If you look closely, you can see the left edge of the decal partially disappear under a layer of.....old oil? A bad paint touch-up job? Fireplace soot? Sin and hate?

BONUS!  Drawers with GOODIES!! (I don't know what all of the feet do yet - and some won't fit this machine....I will keep you updated)

...and the tiniest thimble I have ever seen! What small, dainty hands the previous owner must have had. What big, weird, pink, meathooks I have!  (ignore the dirty nails - I never said I was a hand model...)

Did you know you can date these by looking up the serial number?  Come to find out, this baby was made in June of 1920. Pretty amazing!  Check out these terrible photos of the beautiful, balanced stitches she makes:

Front:

 And back:

 I was worried treadling would be complicated (I'm not exactly known for my grace and coordination), but it it actually much easier than I thought!  Sewing with it was slow - very start-and-stop as I haven't gotten a rhythm down yet. That being said, I was able to make a swell pair of curtains for my bathroom "refresh" (it's not really a full-blown remodel - that's another story for another day)

Here is a picture of the curtains in question. The fabric was fifty cents from the local St. Vincent du Paul, the lining was an old curtain that cost me $1.50 at goodwill. Not bad for two bucks, eh?  I admit I did run the fabric through my serger first.  The curtain fabric is vintage, silky, slubby, and frays like crazy! The treadle is a straight stitch, and I don't like taking chances with my seams. Sewing costumes for the festival has instilled in me a need to engineer everything I make within an inch of its life! This is because costumes at festival take a beating and need to be able to withstand a hurricane (literally and figuratively).

I haven't named her yet - Bettie, Jayne, Marilyn, Liz, Doris, and Audrey are all taken by various bits of technology (Chromecast, laptop, tablet, etc.) and my dressmaker form (that's Doris).  Actually, I haven't named any of my machines yet - seems strange since I still have the machine I learned to machine-sew on (a Singer Scholastic - coincidentally built the same year I was).

Well, thanks for sitting through another post! If you happen to read this, feel free to write me a message in the "comments" section.

Ahem....(tap tap)...uh - is this thing on?

Greetings and Salutations......

Wait, no!  That's not the first thing I want to say. After all, this is going out onto the interwebs - to be stored in some server somewhere for all of eternity!

I need to put some thoughts into this - what should I say? My first words going out should be pithy, profound and powerful; I should say something meaningful, memorable, momentous  - something with apparent alliteration....

Something that will generate TONS of traffic....

Soooo....hi. (insert awkward microphone squawk)

<sigh> - I really think that's really the best I can do at 3:44 in the morning

Welcome to my blog!  I'm sure it is just my family reading this. After all, in the ever-increasing din of blogs, is there room for my voice? Well, we are going to find out - you and I together....

All ten of you.

So - since there are only a few of us (and we're all friends anyway) lets make some art, sew some vintagey clothes, look at pictures of cool vintage stuff, and basically just have some fun!

My plans for this blog? To document my creative endeavors (both successful and not so), discuss feminism and what it means as a fiber artist, show you how to make cool stuff, discuss the world of being a professional artist (and how to make money at it), and occasionally post pics of some of my favorite vintage items.

What do I mean by the term vintage? In this context I am referring to just after the turn of the last century (think Titanic era) up to about the 1970s (some day I will accept the 1980s - some day).  Specifically I'm interested in the fashions and styles of the mid-20th century (post WWII to mid 1960's), but I do stretch out from there.

I also make Elizabethan clothes. Didn't see that coming, did you?

Do you like to sew? Are you interested in cool vintage eye candy?  Want to be an artist, but don't know how?  Well, then - it looks like you are in the right place. Pop some popcorn, grab a soda, and let's talk....