Grimm Fabrications- Photo Credit- Of' Storms Creative Studios

Sunday 30 March 2014

Sunday Fun Day... Happy Days 18-25

I'm carrying this over from my previous blog 12 Months of Alice. A couple of weeks ago, I started a photography project called '100 Happy Days'. The object is to capture a moment in the day, or something in that day, that made you happy. Even just a little bit happy. In doing this project, I actually have been finding myself feeling more happy, a little less stressed, and just embracing life's little pleasures. Any ways, I've decided to post a week's worth of photos every Sunday. This will be a glimpse into my day to day life, and all the good things. Though I don't think I'll describe the photographs. However, the photos will be in order of the days. Now, without further ado, here are happy days 18 to 25.

 

 

 

 

Monday 24 March 2014

Product Shoot

It took me a while to actually do this, but I am finally motivating myself to blog again. Over the next few days, I'll be posting photos from each of the shoots that I did on the 15th. All of the photos were taken by my talented friend David Anderson. Now, without further ado... Here is a taste of the photos. 




  

All of the white tank tops are hand-sewn and hand-printed by yours truly. They are made out of a soft, sheer, poly-cotton knit jersey. The individual designs are all hand-drawn using India ink (for detail and description, go to this past blog post. The patch on the back of the jacket is printed in the same way, but printed on canvas. All of the jewelry included in the shoot will be photographed and shown in detail very soon. 

I'm quite pleased with all of these photos. Recently I've been really influenced by 90s grunge and revival fashion, 1970s horror, and witchiness in general. A whole lot of grunginess. For the photos, I wanted something dark and edgy, and I couldn't be more pleased by the photos that ended up looking like damaged film photographs (just look at that beautiful haziness and photo grain!). This is definitely how I want all of my shoots to look. I'm thinking that I'll try to re-photograph everything when it's a bit warmer. It'll be nice to photograph this stuff when it's warmer than -3. The weekend of the 15th was nice... but in the foothills and in the shade, it tends to get a bit chilly. Even so... I'm delighted with these photos.

All items will be available in my Etsy shop very soon.

Saturday 22 March 2014

An epiphany, and subsequent motivation.

I was browsing on Tumblr, looking for inspiration. During this time, I had an epiphany.


This could mean lots of things. Whatever the case, I now feel motivated to draw and be creative. Time to draw. Lots and lots of drawing.

Calgary Gideon Keys

Weird stuff alert! Weird stuff alert!

So. I live in Calgary. Home of the Calgary Stampede. A fairly benign, boring, city. Not that different from other cities. Based on this, what could possibly be this 'weird stuff' that I'm alerting you of?


The 'weird stuff' is what I am currently researching for future projects. The collection of notes referred to as The Calgary Gideon Keys. This notebook is also referred to as Calgary's 200 Phenomena. The story goes that this mysterious notebook was discovered at the University of Calgary. Upon reading it, the person who found them discovered that the book was full of.... strange secrets. A while ago, someone transcribed the notes and placed them online. 

I will tell you. The stories are beyond strange. I'm going going to go into great detail here, but if you're interested, you can read the transcribed notes HERE

My husband told me about the Gideon Keys a year or so ago. At first, the stories genuinely creeped me out. That's just what they are. Creepy. Creepy because of the immense subtlety and detail... Creepy because they just could be true. 

I've been researching and reading the Gideon Keys. I'm planning to base some projects on them. However, to really do this... I feel like I should investigate some of them. See if I can discover any truth to the secrets. This terrifies me. Now, as far as anything supernatural, or paranormal, I'm hugely skeptical. Deep down, I feel like I've had paranormal experiences, but my brain brushes it away, assuring logical explanation. Still, that doesn't remove my immense curiosity. Thus my desire to investigate all things paranormal. Even then... do I really want to find out hidden truths? What might I stumble upon? 

Ha. Craziness. But seriously. Some of the stories are well worth having projects based on them.

Combo deal

I am going to fulfill my responsibility to myself. That is, I am officially combining all three of my blogs into one blog. From this day forward, I will only be using this blog. That means everything. I mean, that's honesty, right? Not hiding or separating out aspects of my life? I'm not dividing up topics for me. I'm doing it for other people... and I doubt that other people care. So, without further ado...

Here is my blog. The Grimm Fabrications blog.

Friday 14 March 2014

Photo shoot preparation


How to properly prepare for a photo shoot.

1. Make a list.
2. Re-write list, ensuring that you're not forgetting anything.
3. Review and re-write list (again) after someone reminds you about something.
4. Make cupcakes as a thank you to people who are being kind and helping you out.
5. Follow your list and pack everything neatly into a suitcase.
6. Hastily finish up details for things to make sure that your shoot won't be lacking.
7. Double check.
8. Go to bed far too late because you were watching a very riveting season finale.
9. Almost forget to pack your makeup kit and hairstyling stuff, and stuff that in your bag.
10. Go to bed, to ensure a well-rested artist and model.

Photo shoot tomorrow! I'm so excited! Photos are going to start coming soon!

Monday 10 March 2014

Shirts (part 2)

Ready to hear more about the shirts? I'm quite pleased about these shirts, and I will go through each one in detail. 

I'll start with one stand-alone t-shirt. It is part of the Bone Orchard collection. I say 'stand alone' because it's the only shirt in this collection as of now. [Side note: The collections are more or less on going, so more stuff will be added. It's mostly just a way of me grouping like themes and ideas. That's why I say 'as of now'.] 

 

This shirt is inspired by (and heavily based on) a group that was formed in 1896. It was called 'The Society for the Prevention of Being Buried Alive'. The society was formed because of how regularly people seemed to be buried alive. Such a fate was surprisingly common, and... well, that's not very nice. I learned about the society when I was researching people who were buried alive in the 19th century. As medicine and embalming became more advanced and more common, the risk of burying someone alive became less common. Thankfully. If you're interested in learning more about people who were buried alive, I recommend reading this Listverse list about it. It's concise and very informative. Why did I make a shirt about this? Well, the collection 'Bone Orchard' is based on Victorian ghost stories and graveyards. Unfortunately, premature burial is a big part of that. I'm quite pleased with this shirt, because the printing ended up looking like a worn down and weathered epitaph. 

Next, shirts for the 'Chiromancy' collection.


I'm quite pleased with these. They are both inspired by aspects of the history of witchcraft. If you've been following this blog for a while, you might know that it's a topic that interests me quite a bit. In general, most of the work that I create for this collection are inspired by the more arcane aspects of the history. I read a lot, and then I draw inspiration from it. The name for the collection on a whole ('Chiromancy') is another word for fortune telling, specifically palm reading. It's a fascinating word, and fit the overall feel that I wanted to instill through the  Any ways... the descriptions of the shirts.

The shirt on the left is the Haxan shirt. It is based off of the 1922 silent film that documents the history of witchcraft. I was inspired by a combination of the film itself and runes. I decided to create a design that was runic, and it ended up making me think of pyres and stakes. Ultimately, I just had the intention of creating a neat design. Ultimately, it's almost like a Rorschach pattern in that you can see whatever you want. The shirt on  the right is an untitled shirt that I designed a few months ago. The pattern is made up of a mirrored image with two crescent moons and fauns.  All of the symbolism involved are symbols of the feminine and purity. I was inspired by the women of Salem who were blamed for witchcraft. 

As of now, there are only three of each shirt (except for the Haxan design. I'll get to that later). Each shirt is hand printed on soft jersey knit fabric. They're fairly sheer, really light, and... yes, really soft. They are wrinkled, worn down a bit, and each printing is different (because that's what happens when you print). 

Where do I go from here? Well, I will be starting my summer project (and hopefully beginnings of like projects for the indeterminable future). It will be a project that involves a lot of research, a lot of writing, maybe some artist journals, hopefully a great deal of traveling, and the result will be a run of printed, painted, and/or embroidered shirts. My plan is to make a series of shirts based on weird things in different cities. Occult history, famous oddities, strange places and people, so on. I'm planning to start with Calgary and Banff. After that, I would like to stem into Salem, Massachusetts, and Savannah, Georgia. I'm excited about this idea.

P.S. There's a bonus in these photographs. The fur collars. They are more examples of the collars that I have been working on. I'm really pleased with them.

Sunday 9 March 2014

Shirts


First run of shirts are done! This first set of shirts are just a limited edition, because I want to see how they'll do, and so on. I'm going to post mock-up photos of the shirts being worn tomorrow. The top two designs are part of the Chiromancy collection, and the last one (Society for the Prevention of Being Buried Alive) is part of the Bone Orchard collection. I'm quite pleased with all of them. The fabric is a really soft and fairly sheer jersey. It's lovely. If I keep one of these shirts for myself, I am going to wear it for the rest of my life. 

More information about the individual designs tomorrow!

Thursday 6 March 2014

Fur Collars

Designing new things, and it feels good. School constantly makes me feel discouraged from doing art. Then, I do something different, something desired, and I feel better. Today, I made some fur collars. I've been really interested in the idea of detachable fur collars. In general, I'm really inspired by Gothic Lolita and Dolly fashions. Here are a couple of images that capture what I've been inspired by. Fur collar wise.



I'm particularly enjoying the idea of the fawn fur collars. Not real fawn, of course. But it's so adorable, and absolutely lovely. I'd like to make some with fawn faux fur once I can get my hands on some, but for now I'm making some with solid colour. It's another way to use up left over faux fur that I have from making hoods. I'm planning to make between four and six for the Comic Expo. For some reason, I'm really loving the idea of fur collars plus a long tank top and leggings for summer. Does that sound like a summer look? Maybe it's just something that I would wear because I'm weird and I live in Calgary. I'll be incorporating the collars into the photo shoot that's coming up.

Any ways... Behold! One of the collars that I made! 


It is black faux fur, lined with black satin, and topped off with a nice wide black satin ribbon. They're fairly large, and I find them to be quite cozy. Kind of like a really, really, small cape thing. Today I made two. You can see the other one on my Tumblr page. I'm looking forward to making more. 

And yes, I'm really digging black lipstick when I photograph my wearable pieces. It's kind of becoming a trademark in a way. I feel really confident when I wear black lipstick in my photographs. It's somehow secretive. And of course, it's witchy. Any ways. Enough about me and my embellished face.

Sunday 2 March 2014

Silkscreen Sunday

This morning I got some printing done. For my first run of shirts, I'm not making that many, because I want to see how they'll do before diving in and printing too many. I'd rather have too few than end up having dozens and dozens sitting around. I ended up printing some patches as well as shirts. That way if someone likes the design but doesn't want to "commit" to a t-shirt can buy a patch for less. 

 


I like printing. I like the process, and how the finished product looks. 


Now we're counting down to the Grimm Fabrications March 2014 photo shoot! Then there will be amazing photographs of all of the new shirts and everything fantastic that's coming up. I'm so excited for so many things! 

Saturday 1 March 2014

Zines!


Zines! I'm making zines! I'm making two versions for the upcoming Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo. I might do a few other editions throughout the year, if there is interest, but for now I am just doing it for the expo. And yes. Two versions. Why? Because I like different versions of things, and I think that one version should always be an activity book version. It's kind of a sad excuse for an activity book, but I'm rather pleased with it. At the moment, only the activity book version is complete. All that's left is to make more copies, and bind them. I'm opting to bind them by hand, because I can just use a simply saddle stitch. I like how it looks, and it's just a nice touch I think. 

I'm going to finish the "relevant" version very soon. It's taking a bit more work, because I actually want to convey information and stir up interest with it. I'm still deciding how much I should charge for the zines. I just have to weigh out the prices of materials and see if I should charge for them. More to come...