Now that it's 100% actually for real happening, I can boast poast about the best thing to happen to me in over two years: (drum roll please).....
I got a job!
Yes, the employment gods decided to smile down on me finally, just when I'd almost given up! And the most exciting part is...(drum roll please).....
It's a job I really really wanted and am incredibly excited for!
I'll be assisting the designer at the The Rediscovery Centre in Ballymun. "The project seeks to raise the profile of recycled, reconstructed and repurposed clothing." They make clothing out of donated items and textiles, put on classes, have their own store, and I'm sure even more that that. I'll find out when I start on Monday!
The job is only 19.5 hours a week, which is absolutely perfect for me, so I can work on my novel and other writing projects in my off time. The position is through FAS's Community Employment scheme, so despite the part time hours, we are still receiving nearly the same amount as we were getting through social welfare (5% less). I also don't mind at all that it's all the way up in Ballymun (4 miles away) because it will be a nice healthy round trip cycle, and on the days that I can't cycle I can do some reading on the bus. I can't take the bus every day though because it would cost 6.50euro per day, round trip. I definitely need to get some good rain pants now though, that's for sure.
So it finally happened. I followed my father's advice to "keep hustlin'" and it paid off. I have a fantastic feeling about this new development in my life. It's what I hoped for when I decided, at age 32, to go back to school for fashion design. And furthermore, the fact that it's a non-profit that is all about reducing textile waste is the cherry on top!
Showing posts with label fashion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fashion. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Friday, October 1, 2010
I have been a blog neglecter. Well, it's been busy times for me lately! For the past couple of months, I was doing a little mini-internship twice a week for the very talented and very nice Dublin fashion designer, Sinead Doyle. It really got me thinking about fashion and what I'd like to work on next, and she also inspired me to do more hand work like beading and embroidery. So we'll see what I come up with! I still have some nice fabrics from my trip to Florida last year. I have been staring at them longingly for over a year, so I'd like to get through my stash.
It's also RAG season again! So we're making the final push to get the magazine out. Things aren't moving as swiftly as they should be, so I foresee a few sleepless nights ahead.
I think I may have written in February about going to Dublin Community Television to do a show called "Looking Left." We were featured as a comparison to the 1970s Dublin feminist magazine "Banshee." The show has finally been released. Admittedly, I don't say a whole lot. But Clare does an amazing job, and I excel at nodding and smiling.
The other day, I felt like making brunch. So I made a ton of food, and was lucky enough to have a few friends come over and help me eat it. It was one of those days where you feel content and loved and all those nice things. But did I take a photo of us eating the yummy food? No. I took a photo of the plate though! Now, it doesn't look very appetizing, but I assure you, it was. Here is home made corn bread, tofu scramble, corned bean hash, and home made soyrizo. Yum!
A friend of ours was in town between traveling, and he put on a little fundraiser in Seomra Spraoi for a social center in Malaysia. I was supposed to DJ, but there wasn't really enough people. So we just put my ipod playlist on the stereo and had a nice relaxed time. But then, someone asked to turn the music off because some musicians wanted to play. It was magical, and such a pleasant surprise. I took two videos. The second one is haunting and maybe even other worldly. Sometimes I get these reminders at how different Ireland is than America, in a good way. You know those moments where you think, "This would *never* happen back home!" And I feel so lucky to have these moments, particularly when I am missing friends and family back in New England.
September 24th was Culture Night, "a night of entertainment, discovery and adventure in Dublin and across 20 towns, cities and counties in Ireland. Arts and cultural organisations open their doors until late with hundreds of free events, tours, talks and performances." I cycled over to IMMA to meet some friends. I wanted to take photos, but my camera is fairly useless at night. Here's one of Clare and her friend, looking festive!
As we were not so excited by the happenings there, a group of us continued on to some other galleries on Franklin Street. And I had a celebrity sighting! Tommy O'Neill, aka Detective John Deegan from Fair City! I was pretty pleased, but I didn't go up to him or anything.
It's hard to convey just how many times you see horses in Dublin. I don't mean the kind of horses like you see in downtown Boston that have fancy carriages that will take you around the Common. I mean just kids on horses, guys in little mini-carriages going down the road by horse. It's no strange sight to see horses used as regular transportation, and they usually go down the roads like cars. But the other morning, I caught a horsedrawn hearse in traffic, and I just had to take a photo. The horses in front of the bus really creates a contrast!
Well hopefully it won't be so long before my next update!
It's also RAG season again! So we're making the final push to get the magazine out. Things aren't moving as swiftly as they should be, so I foresee a few sleepless nights ahead.
I think I may have written in February about going to Dublin Community Television to do a show called "Looking Left." We were featured as a comparison to the 1970s Dublin feminist magazine "Banshee." The show has finally been released. Admittedly, I don't say a whole lot. But Clare does an amazing job, and I excel at nodding and smiling.
Looking Left - Banshee Journal of Irish Women United from DCTV on Vimeo.
The other day, I felt like making brunch. So I made a ton of food, and was lucky enough to have a few friends come over and help me eat it. It was one of those days where you feel content and loved and all those nice things. But did I take a photo of us eating the yummy food? No. I took a photo of the plate though! Now, it doesn't look very appetizing, but I assure you, it was. Here is home made corn bread, tofu scramble, corned bean hash, and home made soyrizo. Yum!
A friend of ours was in town between traveling, and he put on a little fundraiser in Seomra Spraoi for a social center in Malaysia. I was supposed to DJ, but there wasn't really enough people. So we just put my ipod playlist on the stereo and had a nice relaxed time. But then, someone asked to turn the music off because some musicians wanted to play. It was magical, and such a pleasant surprise. I took two videos. The second one is haunting and maybe even other worldly. Sometimes I get these reminders at how different Ireland is than America, in a good way. You know those moments where you think, "This would *never* happen back home!" And I feel so lucky to have these moments, particularly when I am missing friends and family back in New England.
September 24th was Culture Night, "a night of entertainment, discovery and adventure in Dublin and across 20 towns, cities and counties in Ireland. Arts and cultural organisations open their doors until late with hundreds of free events, tours, talks and performances." I cycled over to IMMA to meet some friends. I wanted to take photos, but my camera is fairly useless at night. Here's one of Clare and her friend, looking festive!
As we were not so excited by the happenings there, a group of us continued on to some other galleries on Franklin Street. And I had a celebrity sighting! Tommy O'Neill, aka Detective John Deegan from Fair City! I was pretty pleased, but I didn't go up to him or anything.
It's hard to convey just how many times you see horses in Dublin. I don't mean the kind of horses like you see in downtown Boston that have fancy carriages that will take you around the Common. I mean just kids on horses, guys in little mini-carriages going down the road by horse. It's no strange sight to see horses used as regular transportation, and they usually go down the roads like cars. But the other morning, I caught a horsedrawn hearse in traffic, and I just had to take a photo. The horses in front of the bus really creates a contrast!
Well hopefully it won't be so long before my next update!
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
One nice thing about today was going to my preferred fabric store here in Dublin. There's a couple of fancy places in the city centre, but I like my fabric stores a little gritty. My friend Emily and I are working on a costume for her. The inspiration:
As you can see, that's a lot of fabric, no matter how you cut it. (see what I did there? fabric? cut it?)
So we visited TWI fabric in Mountjoy Square. It's this store that you wouldn't even know was a store. You walk in, climb the stairs, and it's balls to the wall fabric.
Of course my heart quickened its pace and even though some of the fabrics have been there so long, they are musty and discolored, some of them are so wonderfully vintage and classic, that my mind went in about fifty different directions thinking about all the things I would like to make with them.
Now if I could just finish the project that's been on my dress form for the past six months. I have vowed not to buy any more fabric until I've used up my current stash (not that I could afford to buy fabric of any kind right now), and so I guess it's a lucky poverty.
My Mondays and Tuesdays are now going to be spent helping a very talented (and nice!) local fashion designer at her studio. The work so far has been fun (for me), and I know I am going to learn a ton. And it's gotten me back thinking about fashion, which feels really good. So going back to school isn't going to happen for the moment, but maybe I can still "make it work."
I had one vague job lead a couple of weeks ago, and thought I might actually be going to work teaching English Composition at a local college. But as it turns out, they're not hiring at the moment. So I did get my hopes up, only to get my spirits down, but now I'm sort of glad it didn't work out. While I do miss teaching sometimes, I don't want to do it full time again. Hopefully a door will open for me sometime, somewhere. Until then, I just gotta keep on keepin' on.
As you can see, that's a lot of fabric, no matter how you cut it. (see what I did there? fabric? cut it?)
So we visited TWI fabric in Mountjoy Square. It's this store that you wouldn't even know was a store. You walk in, climb the stairs, and it's balls to the wall fabric.
Of course my heart quickened its pace and even though some of the fabrics have been there so long, they are musty and discolored, some of them are so wonderfully vintage and classic, that my mind went in about fifty different directions thinking about all the things I would like to make with them.
Now if I could just finish the project that's been on my dress form for the past six months. I have vowed not to buy any more fabric until I've used up my current stash (not that I could afford to buy fabric of any kind right now), and so I guess it's a lucky poverty.
My Mondays and Tuesdays are now going to be spent helping a very talented (and nice!) local fashion designer at her studio. The work so far has been fun (for me), and I know I am going to learn a ton. And it's gotten me back thinking about fashion, which feels really good. So going back to school isn't going to happen for the moment, but maybe I can still "make it work."
I had one vague job lead a couple of weeks ago, and thought I might actually be going to work teaching English Composition at a local college. But as it turns out, they're not hiring at the moment. So I did get my hopes up, only to get my spirits down, but now I'm sort of glad it didn't work out. While I do miss teaching sometimes, I don't want to do it full time again. Hopefully a door will open for me sometime, somewhere. Until then, I just gotta keep on keepin' on.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
I won't go into the gory details, but today has been a strange day. The kind of day where you say to yourself, ok self, what the heck are you doing, and can you not make a plan to do it? I did create our new-for-2010 budget -- a fancy excel spreadsheet that essentially allocates every cent we have coming into the house for the next 14 months. Not the cheeriest task, but actually not the worst either. After doing a fair amount of daydreaming (aka looking at design blogs), and a fair amount of more daydreaming, at about 8:30pm I decided to email Grafton Academy, a fashion design school, to get an answer from them to an email I'd written way back in December regarding whether they'd give me the EU tuition rate (just over 5k euro) rather than the non-EU rate (9k euro). Much to my surprise, the phone rang a half hour later. I didn't recognize the number but I answered anyway. It was the very nice "Principal" of Grafton Academy herself, responding to my email.
We chatted for several minutes, and while I would go to her school in a heartbeat if I could pay for it, the long and the short of it is that there's pretty much zero chance I can get the EU rate without an EU passport. Well, I'm about 5 years away from an EU passport, so...
I explained my already extensive debt from previous schooling (68k for those keeping count), but alas and alack, it didn't prompt any exceptions to policy. While the tuition isn't expensive by American standards (I wish all my schooling had been that cheap!), I just can't rationalize going another 30k into debt, even if it could mean the difference between someday having a career in fashion and giving up on my dream.
These are the happiest times of my life. I don't regret moving to Ireland, and I do many, many things that make me happy here. I have family and friends, and every day brings something new and cool. But sometimes...sometimes it does feel a little like purgatory. I wonder if I'd have better luck going back into academia. Should I keep fashion as a hobby and get that elusive PhD?
We chatted for several minutes, and while I would go to her school in a heartbeat if I could pay for it, the long and the short of it is that there's pretty much zero chance I can get the EU rate without an EU passport. Well, I'm about 5 years away from an EU passport, so...
I explained my already extensive debt from previous schooling (68k for those keeping count), but alas and alack, it didn't prompt any exceptions to policy. While the tuition isn't expensive by American standards (I wish all my schooling had been that cheap!), I just can't rationalize going another 30k into debt, even if it could mean the difference between someday having a career in fashion and giving up on my dream.
These are the happiest times of my life. I don't regret moving to Ireland, and I do many, many things that make me happy here. I have family and friends, and every day brings something new and cool. But sometimes...sometimes it does feel a little like purgatory. I wonder if I'd have better luck going back into academia. Should I keep fashion as a hobby and get that elusive PhD?
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Last night, for a little change of pace, we went to see a fashion show! I had to buy tickets to the show, which made me wince a little, but I guess considering that they served complimentary drinks, it was actually not a bad "value" at all. I got to see some really nice local fashion, see a new venue, and also we hung out with a new acquaintance, we'll call her A2, a very nice woman we met at Seomra Spraoi on Sunday who moved to Ireland a month ago from South Africa. So really, many good things all rolled into one event!
I am going to write a more extensive review on what I thought of the actual fashion in the show on my fashion-related blog, but there were some really beautiful pieces in the show, and you know what? Even the ones I wasn't so hot for were inspiring! I would love to get involved with some kind of show like this, but I first need to get a lot more practice in, and invest some dollars into some good fabric for a collection (as opposed to the yard sale fabric I am currently working with haha). I've started on the pattern for my next piece, and it's going ok, but I realized how long it's been since I have worked "on the flat," and how much I never really enjoyed it! I much prefer to drape on the dress form. However, this is really good for me! Because I will learn a LOT by having to do something I don't enjoy so much, and I will have to learn how to flat pattern something I would have previously slapped on the dress form and draped.
I did get a couple of shots in, though as you can see my camera is ancient and the models in motion came out blurry. Still, you get the feel for the space inside the show. I forgot to take a photo of the reception area, which was a large warehouse studio space -- very bright, and gigantic. I wondered how they use the space regularly when there aren't events there.
After we walked A2 to her bus, we grabbed a couple of pints at my favorite bar, the Welcome Inn. It was, as usual, completely dead inside and smelled like the vaults at Saint Michan's where they keep the mummies, but I just really love it in there because aside from the music, it's like walking into a time warp when you go in. Mark and I debated our usual topics of capitalism, ideology, and cultural identity, and then caught the bus home.
I am going to write a more extensive review on what I thought of the actual fashion in the show on my fashion-related blog, but there were some really beautiful pieces in the show, and you know what? Even the ones I wasn't so hot for were inspiring! I would love to get involved with some kind of show like this, but I first need to get a lot more practice in, and invest some dollars into some good fabric for a collection (as opposed to the yard sale fabric I am currently working with haha). I've started on the pattern for my next piece, and it's going ok, but I realized how long it's been since I have worked "on the flat," and how much I never really enjoyed it! I much prefer to drape on the dress form. However, this is really good for me! Because I will learn a LOT by having to do something I don't enjoy so much, and I will have to learn how to flat pattern something I would have previously slapped on the dress form and draped.
I did get a couple of shots in, though as you can see my camera is ancient and the models in motion came out blurry. Still, you get the feel for the space inside the show. I forgot to take a photo of the reception area, which was a large warehouse studio space -- very bright, and gigantic. I wondered how they use the space regularly when there aren't events there.
After we walked A2 to her bus, we grabbed a couple of pints at my favorite bar, the Welcome Inn. It was, as usual, completely dead inside and smelled like the vaults at Saint Michan's where they keep the mummies, but I just really love it in there because aside from the music, it's like walking into a time warp when you go in. Mark and I debated our usual topics of capitalism, ideology, and cultural identity, and then caught the bus home.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Well after MUCH futzing, I have some good news on the making stuff front! My Etsy shop is back up and running with one item up for sale (though I couldn't figure out how to make it run on Euros, I figure it doesn't actually matter since I still have two US bank accounts and a US Paypal account) and my fashion blog up and running too! Of *course* there are still minor changes I would like to make, but I need to leave it be for the moment.
So here it is! The unveiling of MY ETSY SHOP
and
THE SLICKFIXATION BLOG
Now I am really excited to design my next item!
So here it is! The unveiling of MY ETSY SHOP
and
THE SLICKFIXATION BLOG
Now I am really excited to design my next item!
Friday, April 17, 2009
No pretty pictures or links to post today, I'm afraid! This morning when I woke up, I felt really motivated! So I got online, and I ordered Gypsy a fresh supply of Swedish cat food. (Reindeer was one of the flavors, and I will feel like I'm serving up Rudolph every time I feed it to her.) Then I went and ordered myself a TABLE for my sewing machine! No more sewing at our round, glass kitchen table that I keep thinking is going to shatter every time I sew fast! And I think I got a pretty good deal: 66 euro, including VAT and delivery. I can't wait to have a separate work space again. I would have liked to wait until July, when the new IKEA is opening, but man, I just couldn't wait until then. Sewing is so miserable in this little nook. And this table should be for eating, not used as my desk! Next thing I need to do is get my dress form shipped to me, and I will have most of my former studio here in Ireland.
So then I decided to get some sewing supplies in town. But wouldn't you know it, not thirty seconds into my shower and I came down with a migraine. I waited until the visuals were mostly over, and then I headed out. I picked up some snaps and knitting needles at the Trimmings store, and then decided to venture into town to this store called Hickey's which is sort of like the equivalent to Joann's fabric, the US fabric store chain, I guess, but much smaller and a little more boutiquey. They have one floor that is mostly bridal, and one floor that is mostly curtains and upholstery. Then the apparel fabrics are...limited. But not only that, they are SO SO SO EXPENSIVE.
Let me give you some perspective on how expensive. At Joann's you can get cotton knit from about 1.99 to 6.99 US dollars per yard, which is about 1.53 to 5.36 Euro. But don't forget that it's yards, not meters, and keep in mind (for later) that a yard is .9144 meters.
At Hickey Fabrics, I found a knit fabric. It was a plain periwinkle color -- nothing to write home about (get it? irony!) -- just a plain cotton knit (it might have even been a cotton/poly blend). The price tag? 12.95 euro per meter! What the??? WHY? This fabric would cost me two US dollars per yard back home, why on earth would it be 12.95 euro, or 16.89 USD per meter, which comes out to $18.34 a yard. Can you believe that? I just could not pay that amount. You can buy a finished top for that much money! And then there's the expense of any notions, like buttons or zippers, or ribbons, etc. No one could possibly shop at these places for business. So I have to find another option. The cheapest fabric in there was this gaudy brown and gold knit for five euro a meter -- still too much, and not the look I am going for at all.
I miss Building 19!! So, for the moment I have some silk that I bought at a yard sale (it was 3 euro, and now I know what a fantastic deal that was!) and some striped cotton knit that I brought with me from home (bought at Building 19 for, yes, two USD per yard), and once that is used up, hopefully I'll have sourced out good, inexpensive fabric I can use to make garments to sell. I have some good ideas ready to go, and I don't want to be held up by not having material!
Speaking of which, I finally think I am finished with a dress I started literally three years ago. It was supposed to be a top for a school project at FIT, and I ran out of time to include it in my Term Garment project. But since the fabric was 55-dollars-a -yard silk (bought at the famous Mood Fabric - god that place is a rip-off) I hung onto it. I committed a big fabric no-no by making it into a dress by using what I had left of the fabric -- the big no-no was using the fabric cross-grain! I will never do that again, because it truly makes a huge difference -- the skirt and the bodice actually look like two different colors even though it's the same fabric. The dress is not my size, but would fit someone a little larger in the waist. I will take photos of it, as well as another great little dress I made a couple of weeks ago, and post them very soon!
So then I decided to get some sewing supplies in town. But wouldn't you know it, not thirty seconds into my shower and I came down with a migraine. I waited until the visuals were mostly over, and then I headed out. I picked up some snaps and knitting needles at the Trimmings store, and then decided to venture into town to this store called Hickey's which is sort of like the equivalent to Joann's fabric, the US fabric store chain, I guess, but much smaller and a little more boutiquey. They have one floor that is mostly bridal, and one floor that is mostly curtains and upholstery. Then the apparel fabrics are...limited. But not only that, they are SO SO SO EXPENSIVE.
Let me give you some perspective on how expensive. At Joann's you can get cotton knit from about 1.99 to 6.99 US dollars per yard, which is about 1.53 to 5.36 Euro. But don't forget that it's yards, not meters, and keep in mind (for later) that a yard is .9144 meters.
At Hickey Fabrics, I found a knit fabric. It was a plain periwinkle color -- nothing to write home about (get it? irony!) -- just a plain cotton knit (it might have even been a cotton/poly blend). The price tag? 12.95 euro per meter! What the??? WHY? This fabric would cost me two US dollars per yard back home, why on earth would it be 12.95 euro, or 16.89 USD per meter, which comes out to $18.34 a yard. Can you believe that? I just could not pay that amount. You can buy a finished top for that much money! And then there's the expense of any notions, like buttons or zippers, or ribbons, etc. No one could possibly shop at these places for business. So I have to find another option. The cheapest fabric in there was this gaudy brown and gold knit for five euro a meter -- still too much, and not the look I am going for at all.
I miss Building 19!! So, for the moment I have some silk that I bought at a yard sale (it was 3 euro, and now I know what a fantastic deal that was!) and some striped cotton knit that I brought with me from home (bought at Building 19 for, yes, two USD per yard), and once that is used up, hopefully I'll have sourced out good, inexpensive fabric I can use to make garments to sell. I have some good ideas ready to go, and I don't want to be held up by not having material!
Speaking of which, I finally think I am finished with a dress I started literally three years ago. It was supposed to be a top for a school project at FIT, and I ran out of time to include it in my Term Garment project. But since the fabric was 55-dollars-a -yard silk (bought at the famous Mood Fabric - god that place is a rip-off) I hung onto it. I committed a big fabric no-no by making it into a dress by using what I had left of the fabric -- the big no-no was using the fabric cross-grain! I will never do that again, because it truly makes a huge difference -- the skirt and the bodice actually look like two different colors even though it's the same fabric. The dress is not my size, but would fit someone a little larger in the waist. I will take photos of it, as well as another great little dress I made a couple of weeks ago, and post them very soon!
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