Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Portfolio starting to go up!

Hi everyone! 

I'm very excited to say that I've started uploading my photography work into an online portfolio (finally).  Check out the Fine Art Photography and the Sewing Projects tabs at the top of the page for the first few galleries.  Let me know what you think!  The formatting options are somewhat limited in blogger, but I was SUPER EXCITED to be able to include additional pages right into my blog.  It's very friendly for those web page developmentally impaired. :)

Part and parcel of this was digging up the dvds that had a lot of my old photos.  Lesson learned? MULTIPLE, back up storage in different formats.  Eventually CDs and DVDs don't read and hard drives will just fail (they all WILL, just a matter of time.)  One of my projects existed only in print form anymore...but thankfully now digitized and uploaded to multiple online storage options.  

Having a few web galleries up also encourages the creation of more!  So true about nothing being created in a vacuum (creativity, anyhow, not sure about big bang cosmos physics-wise); it's all about seeing what other people are doing and putting what you do out there for people to comment and critique on.  


Friday, March 18, 2011

Men’s Shirt Refashion 1: Summertime Dress (Part Two – Photo Shoot)

Concept: Frolicking Among the Flowers
Photographer: Wayne Vanderkuil
Location: Sunnyvale,CA
Model and Styling: Doris Cheung


It’s been far too long since I’ve made a concerted effort to put together any kind of photo shoot.  To think I used to do this all the time for school!  Back then I often used myself as a model  because I far too shy to ask anyone else to be my unpaid model for a school project. 

Modeling is quite hard!  I am not much for being a fashion model – there’s definitely a way to stand and pose that looks really weird in real life (and probably feels very awkward), but ends up looking great in photos.  Before we went out I reviewed the sketch notes that Wei-ling drew from her modeling session.  The sketches are fantastic, but I unfortunately wasn’t able to put much into practice – practicing in front of a mirror would have been very helpful.  There’s definitely fashion posing, and then there’s me.  Usually I end up liking things that look more natural.




This particular shoot I knew I wanted to be in among fields of mustard.  I can see the bright yellow flowers all along the freeway on my drive home, and thought they would be a perfect match with the yellow on the dress.  I had originally selected Heritage Orchard Park in Sunnyvale as the location for the shoot based off photos I’d found – only to discover on the day of that the fields have been plowed!  Well.  The potentially disastrous lack of research was averted when a field down the street turned out to be a perfect substitute.  

For outdoor shoots I highly recommend overcast days.  The lighting is much more even (no harsh shadows) and flattering for people and the colors will tend to be a little more saturated.  I tried the fashion thing, but these photos here I was just walking and moving around aside from the more posed “is it going to rain” one.  I wanted to focus on the dress and not myself as a model, so I like the ones with less of my face showing.  Incidentally, I’m wearing makeup practically applied with a trowel because I’m currently suffering through a very bad spell of allergies/eczema around my eyes, and much more eyeliner  than I would wear, say, to work.  However, it doesn’t actually show up that much in the photos so I am really pleased with the more natural look.  
Photo post processing didn't include a super amount of retouching (hm, due to my laziness?)  I popped out the saturation and contrast, and brightened up the whites with a slight glow.

Lastly, I guess I went a little nuts and made a parasol to go with the shoot.  I had stumbled across this wonderful tutorial - crafts from the dollar store!  Lo and behold written by the same blogger I've been following for tutorials recently. (Yup, my blog is not going to be about crafts I've invented, but lots of links to tutorials I've found!)  This parasol probably wouldn't hold up to an real rain...or sun...but the intention was to use it as a diffuser in case of harsh sunlight.  A very fashionable diffuser.


I think I can call this project done - except, I'm still waiting for warm weather to wear it!  I'm looking forward to spring and summer. :)

Lastly - a HUGE thank you to my friend and co-worker Wayne (check out his Flickr site here), who shot all these photos for me.  Not everyone would go along with "hey. You wanna shoot some pictures of me in a field of flowers?" with such an immediate "Sure!"  Many, many thanks. 

Monday, March 14, 2011

Men’s Shirt Refashon 1: Summertime Dress (Part One – The Dress)

raw materials #2
the inspiration
I was digging through a bag of clothes my mom wanted to take out to donate a couple of months ago and came across a silk dress shirt of an unflattering size and style for me.  The fabric was so gorgeous I shoved it straight into my “do something with later” pile and started Googling for ideas.  

I came across this super cute refashioning that I instantly wanted to try.  (Visit her etsy shop here.) I couldn’t just try it straightaway on the silk shirt, so I had to stop off at Goodwill and pick up a few men’s shirts to practice on.  The idea had been to just make a simple, practice neckline.  From there it turned into a dress, with a photo shoot, and a matching parasol.  Well…I guess I don’t do simple very well!

I started with an XL men’s dress shirt and combined it with this dress I never wear.  It’s super cute, but the material is thin.  A slip might have solved the problem, but I cut it up so that also solved that problem.  It took me a few weeks to make this since I had to figure out what I was going to do as I went along.  I didn’t really have a plan aside from working on that neckline, so there was a lot of cutting apart of what I had sewn to rework it. 

I don’t feel comfortable offering a tutorial on how I did end up putting together the top as the original idea belongs to someone else who sells it.  However, I will say that it wasn’t too bad to reverse engineer it for anyone else who thought that it was a great way to re-imagine a shirt! 



Here’s what I ended up with, front and back view.  The checked pattern of the cloth really suggested an innocent sundress, it’s very Dorothy inspired as well.  I later on added on the yellow underlayer because just the shirt alone as a dress still looked like…I’m wearing a men’s shirt and nothing else.  I ended up shirring (and here is a great tutorial on how to do that!) a large section of the back as a cheater method of making it fit.  I’d sewn darts along the back but I suck at making it super tailored.  The shirring ended up being so cute as a panel (and it REALLY did the trick on making it more form-fitting) that I will have to make another dress with it on purpose. 
I can't wait for the weather to be actually WARM so I can wear this dress.  Stay tuned for taking the dress out of this yucky looking field and into a pretty one for the photo shoot segment!




Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Welcome to the Girl Corner, home of crafting

kitty is essential
The other day I was out at a friend's and the subject of man-caves came up.  The importance of, joys of, man-cave envy - although there was no discussion of what actually goes on in one in my hearing.  I wonder, what's the lady equivalent?  Have we really come so far in society that we ladies no longer have a sewing room? 

The funny thing is, I would LOVE a sewing room.  So would a number of other girls I know, since the making of crafts really takes a lot of space!  Truly, if I ever had the space I would need the I Make Stuff and Paint Stuff Room.  For now, I've taken over a Girl Corner of my brother's old room temporarily for my crafting projects and it's got the basic necessities; table, Hello Kitty 3/4 size sewing machine + cat.  I have to give this corner back in a few weeks, but for now, I've been busily using it.  When I have a permanent corner, rest assured it will be much more girly.  The post to reveal just WHAT I've been making will have to wait until the rain lets up for a bit and it stops being so cold! 




I desperately had to cheer myself up a little bit last night though, I've been feeling very very blah from a lot of different things.  I made a quickie headband decoration to wear today, I just tacked on one of the chiffon flowers from a previous project to a thrift store headband (Daiso for the win!!!)  I'm wearing it with that same cardigan today AND with my hair curled in an attempt to seduce the universe into thinking it should hurry up and be spring.  If sunshine started pouring down on me and flowers bloomed beneath my feet and maybe the world started serenading me in joy, that would be ok too.

Friday, March 4, 2011

Combating Mental Drool

I find a most disturbing trend where my brain, being very very full these days, has decided to deal with overstuffed-ness by grinding to a squishy near-halt.  I commented yesterday that it's the equivalent to your mouth hanging open slightly and drool coming out, except mentally; not sleepy, but mentally tired from a lot of things just on my mind.  I think it's not uncommon a reaction of the human mind; too much ot think about it? Fine, I just won't think about anything at all!

It's a nasty mental drool spiral; the less able I am to deal with things, the less brain i have to think about them as they pile up!  I was trying (squish squish, goes the brain) to think of a way to get out of the slump when my friend Astrid came up with what I think will be a great solution.

"Doris...you need to come up with a reward system."

SELF-BRIBERY!!  Is this the key?  (Also, brilliant.  It works for kids.  Will it work for a big kid?)  So that very evening I ran out to Daiso to get a little whiteboard so I could combine a reward system with one of my favorite things, lists!  Different prizes of various denominations matched with tasks that seem daunting right now.  I don't get prizes for normal work things, just for things that weigh upon my mind that I really should get that done, you know.  It's hanging right by my work desk as a visual reminder.  I'll let you know if it works!