I recently finished reading the excellent new book from fashion historian Alison Matthews Davis, Fashion Victims - The Dangers of Dress Past and Present, and my advice to the readership of this blog is, in short, get your hands on a copy. It's fantastic ( Read more... )

So, you may or may not have heard about OSHA's new labeling standards for products you stock in your workplace. This info is going to be of particular interest to those running a dye facility--especially if you stock dyes for synthetics and color-removal chemicals--and for anyone who runs a craft shop, paint shop, etc ( Read more... )

I've rhapsodized in the past about how thankful i am to work at a professional theatre in residence on the campus of a major university, particularly one that functions in part as a teaching lab for production graduate programs, because safety standards and training are so high. Despite having a CV approximately 10x longer than my arm, PlayMakers/ ( Read more... )

In the interest of it being the beginning of the academic year and the regular theatre season for many folks (me included), it's the time when ideally your company or department is going through the yearly training processes--reviewing proper use of shop machinery, renewing respirator training certifications, etc ( Read more... )

I promise I'll get back to original content soon, but this is another ACTS FACTS reprint because it's been discussed in every industry event i've been to all year, from cocktail parties to conferences. Reprinted in full with permission from ACTS FACTS, the Arts Crafts and Theatre Safety Newsletter, August 2011, Vol. 25, No. 08 ( Read more... )

A quick safety update, because i believe it is important to stay on top of news in this area. Reprinted in full with permission from ACTS FACTS, the Arts Crafts and Theatre Safety Newsletter, August 2011, Vol. 25, No. 08 ( Read more... )

On the USITT costumers' email list, one member recently asked some relevant questions about dye vats. She's got budget approval to buy one, and wondered whether anyone had strong feelings about wooden paddles (length, type of wood, etc), or had any experience with the Blodgett brand of steam-jacketed vats ( Read more... )

Do you have difficulty deciphering the arcane documentation on MSDS (material safety data sheets)? Things are changing soon in that respect, hopefully for the better!

I opened up this month's edition of ACTS Facts, the newsletter of the Arts Crafts and Theatre Safety watchdog organization, and read this great news. I'm reprinting the article in ( Read more... )

Today, i'm not the source, i'm just the conduit. Links on a variety of topics of potential interest to follow.

Topical Links for Decorative Arts Class

I'll have images of glove projects to share on Tuesday, but for now, OutsaPop.com illustrates for us in this post some answers to the question, "When is a glove more than a glove ( Read more... )

One of the most frequently-broken OSHA regulations in professional costume shops is that of required proper occupational footwear. The full standards are online at osha.gov, but essentially, if a workplaces has "a danger of foot injuries due to falling or rolling objects, or objects piercing the sole, and where such employee's feet are exposed to ( Read more... )