I completely forgot to share the first round of dye class projects this semester!
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Today we conclude the batik project i began covering in yesterday's post. (Though admittedly the observant reader will have spotted a bit of the finished product already in my #TonyCanYouHearMe post...)

I'd worked out the wax layers and the colors and gotten several hues onto the fabric, as well as waxing in substantial areas. Here are a few more ( Read more... )

So, in addition to this high-profile day job i have as a professional costumer (ha), i am also a writer--not only of labricoleuse, but of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. (That's right, i even have a Goodreads Author Page to prove it!) This project i'll be writing up in two parts is kind of a crossover of sorts; bear with me ( Read more... )

Lately I've been considering all the implications of 3D printing technology for costume craftwork, and have begun working with the Makerspace here on the UNC campus which is attached to our library system ( Read more... )

Hooray, another alumni interview! Recently I e-spoke with Adrienne Corral, MFA '14, about her gig working as a crafts artisan for Feld Entertainment. Feld produces costumes, props, and scenic elements for a whole range of different touring shows, from Disney on Ice and the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

Q. First up, what is your ( Read more... )

For the second of the Witch's costumes in our production of Into the Woods at Playmakers Repertory Company, designer Bill Brewer had a truly fantastic vision for a sort of wizardy robe made of ornately-dyed and embossed velvet.

Draper Denise Chukhina came up with the process for how this fabric would be created, from which she would then make the ( Read more... )

There's a second part to the surface design adventures of Jen Caprio's costume design for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat: hand-painted appliques! (The first part of the process, the digital textile design of the collection of twelve background fabrics, was described in this prior post hereRecall if you will Jen's design for the coat, ( Read more... )

Recall if you will the super-exciting project we have in the works, the creation of custom silk crepe for our upcoming production of Private Lives at Playmakers Repertory Company.

I wrote the first post a while back, about the sample-creation process in which we determined techniques and media to use to get the results our designer, Jennifer ( Read more... )

In Part One of this series on some hand-painted silk we are making, i got as far as the sample process, in which my assistant and i created a whole range of surface design swatches to show our designer, Jennifer Caprio, how we might create the fabric. Once Jen chose the sample, our next task was to get the image onto the fabric, a rich 4-ply silk ( Read more... )

We've begun a really exciting surface design project for our next show at Playmakers, Noel Coward's Private Lives, in which we are making some fabric yardage inspired by this 1935 Schiaparelli dress in the collection of the Museum at FIT.

For the character of Amanda, costume designer Jennifer Caprio dreamed up a glamorous dress clearly influenced ( Read more... )