More Photos

I took a few more photos this weekend. I wanted to take more, but finals got in the way and made me unable to spend time at the studio.

Photography

As suggested at my evaluation I took a bunch of photos of my shoe piles. I think out of everything I've done this semester I like these photos the best. I still need to get some kind of better lighting and edit the ones that I have.

Shoe Drawings Part 2

I tried to do some more drawings with the shoe parts. I had to scan them in as text instead of black and white since the black and white drawings were very, very fine and I did not trust my extraction abilities:

I then took these drawings and made some piece with them. I think they're pretty interesting, but I'm not sure if this is the right direction.

Shoe Drawings

I started out drawing the parts of the shoes I had taken apart.

My original plan was to make patterns with the pieces, but then I decided to try something more abstract by overlaying them.

I don't really know where this is going, but it was just an experiment to try things out

disassembly: sandal stiletto w/ bow

YouTube isn't letting me just post the video I made so here is a link to it

Shoe Disassembly Part 2

This weekend I took apart another shoe and documented each step I took during the process

I also made a video of a third disassembly which I'm still editing.

A Collection of Women's Shoes and Their Meanings

 This weekend I interviewed some women about the shoes that they wore. I'm going to be talking to more on Monday and assembling a small book about them to have for my review

Shoe Collection

I decided to show my most "extreme" shoes.

1. Thigh High Black Boot - Bought for a costume and only worn for that costume. Possibly my most uncomfortable pair of shoes, but it takes several hours of being at a con with concrete floors and people stepping on my feet to get that far. 

2. Red Platform Heels with Gold Chains - My newest purchase. The woman who runs The Golden Hangar knows me pretty well and held onto them for me because she knew I would like them. She also bumped down the price a little bit for me.

3. Shark Platform Heels - I couldn't resist buying them when I saw them online. 

4. Bodyline Pink Lolita Shoes - These are so comfortable. They're really cute, but I haven't worn them in a long time because they have some scuff marks that I haven't been able to get out.

5. Rhinestone Encrusted Black Platform Heels - Once again bought for a costume. These are so much more comfortable than they look. I wish I could wear them everywhere, but I don't want them to get damaged or worn out when I need them for a costume.

Disassembly

Tonight I tacked disassembling this shoe's partner: 

After struggling with the shoe for a few hours I managed to get it into almost all of it's separate parts. Unfortunately I was not able to disassemble the heel, as it was solid acrylic that did not want to let go of the patent leather around it, or the heel. 

I didn't honestly realize there were so many pieces that went into a shoe like this.

Tragically a good friend nobly gave his life in this process. RIP Seam Ripper. You will be missed.

Contrasting Pain and Pleasure

Over the weekend I started creating a small index-card sized book which contrasted Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics (Book X in particular where he talks about pleasure) and images of punishment from the book "Curious Punishments of Bygone Days"

The book is still very much a work in progress and simply an experiment on where I might wind up going.

Functional Fashion Forward

A marriage of clothing and audino technology to improve daily life

My original plan was to incorporate transit maps into clothing. As I explored that idea, the concept of wearable technology was introduced to me. Something I found out about was Arduino technology. These are small chips which can be programmed and stitched onto fabric. They are washable and run off a battery. I would like to attempt to make clothing that incorporates Arduino chips.

My clothing may turn out practical or completely impracticable.

I am still interested in the idea of incorporating transit maps, direction, and journeys into my seminar work. I believe it could be possible to combine those concepts into my clothing and Arduino technology.

One of my main plans during seminar is to do multiple projects at once and explore multiple paths. I tend to get too focused on one idea and then charge straight ahead. Through seminar I am hoping to break this habit and become more explorative in my design work.

However, after thinking during this week my thesis has changed yet again. I think what I want to do is combine fashion and the concept of pain. What I want to keep in mind is the pain that women will go through to be considered 'beautiful.' Things I want to look at are torture devices and how i can combine that with clothing.