March fashion and art/business events

Two great March events: An inspiring student-run fashion show and the business side of selling art

Originally published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel March 10, 2012

SLVHS Fashion Show—Wear the Wild Things Are, March 22-25

“What you wear says a lot about who you are.”—Taylor Friend

One designer’s collection from the 2008 SLVHS fashion show.

A posted flyer inviting student designers to participate in the very first San Lorenzo Valley High School Fashion Show, actually pre-dated by one year, the premier of Project Runway on December 1, 2004—the TV show which initially turned the fashion spotlight from the runway to the workroom. “If you are interested in fashion design, we want you,” the flyer said. “Your designs could be modeled in a runway show! All designers will be sewing and creating their own visions to be revealed to fashionable eyes.”

Of course fashion has always been about trend-setting. But what began as a testing-the-waters call for designers, has become a full-blown, expertly produced runway show, with lighting, sound, sets, refreshments, advertising, models and clothing designs, all provided or created by SLV high school students. The ninth installment of this ambitious annual project, “Wear the Wild Things Are,” will feature eight designers and six collections.

Taylor Friend’s sketchbook shows one of her
 designs for the show: a two-piece bathing suit
 and cover-up, the halter top of which
 has already been completed.

Twin sisters Mary and Christina LoFranco are collaborating for a collection inspired by prep schools and country clubs. “It’s really fun working with a partner,” said Mary LoFranco when I visited her and two other designers one Sunday morning in February as they cut, draped, ironed and sewed at the Felton home of one of the designers. “It’s like twice the creativity,” said LoFranco while working on a lavender corduroy romper.  “And you feed off of each other,” added designer and club president Taylor Friend.

Since sewing is no longer taught in school, LoFranco and Friend said they were both taught to sew by their mothers. “It all started with doll clothes,” said Friend. But they’ve taken a big creative leap forward that their mothers may never have considered by designing their own patterns. “I like the creative process of making a pattern,” said Friend. “So if I use a [purchased] pattern, I change it drastically.”

Friend says her collection was inspired by the power of the San Andreas Fault. She has a sketch and idea book with photos of red rock formations and jagged rips through the earth. But she says that the Santa Cruz “street vibe” is even more influential in her designs. “The fashion mix of Santa Cruz is indie, beachy. Everyone is trying to do something different.”  Mary LoFranco added, “I think we’d all agree that our habitat is influential above all.”

(from left to right) Designers Taylor Friend, Nicole Bullock
 and Mary LoFranco convene at Friend’s home one
 Sunday morning in February to work on their designs.

Another designer, Nicole Bullock, has embraced an earth-friend repurposing theme in her collection. “I do a lot of shopping at thrift stores,” she said while draping and pinning a dress form with black crocheted fabric for a beach cover-up. “My line is really economical. For instance, I’m using a runner from around my mom’s vanity. I don’t like spending a lot of money and I don’t like consuming too much and my line reflects that.”

The Fashion Club—about 12 students—started meeting and planning at the beginning of the school year, but had trouble finding adult advisors—a school requirement. Finally, they found Debbie Wambaugh, the parent of a SLVHS senior and fiber artist, who has helped with the fashion show for several years. “In mid-October I heard there wasn’t going to a fashion show, so I stepped up,” said Wambaugh. In January, Valerie Friend, a parent and teacher, also volunteered.

Wambaugh said her role as parent advisor is to guide and inspire them. “I’ve been trying to give them a guideline and a calendar. But when they say ‘student run’ they mean student run. Even the house manager is a student for the first time.”

The audience applauds a colorfully lined jacket
 at the 2008 SLVHS fashion show.

Even though most of this year’s designers are seniors, none aspire to become professional fashion designers after graduation. Taylor Friend, who plans to major in fine art at San Francisco State, explained, “I don’t like the fashion industry—the consumerism, the attitude. I like the art part. And that what you wear says a lot about who you are.”

Wear the Wild Things Are

Student Fashion Show 2012

Thurs-Sat, March 22, 23, 24 at 7 p.m.

Sunday, March 25 at 2 p.m.

San Lorenzo Valley High School

Performing Arts Center

7105 Highway 9, Felton

(831) 335-4425

Tickets: $5, $7, and $10

For advance tickets and information:

billefriend@hotmail.com

The Business of Art…from Passion to Profitability

“If you’re not making money you’ve got a hobby”—Keith Holtaway

If you’re a struggling-to-make-ends-meet artist pouring your passion and precious resources into your art without receiving much in return, it may be time for some serious (and inexpensive) soul searching. For just $25 per seminar you can attend the “The Business of Art Seminar Series” offered over the next three months through Cabrillo College Extension, and find out what it takes to establish a true business selling your art.

The lead-off seminar in the series, held last month, “The Business of Art 101,” was led by SBDC Certified Business Advisor, artist and co-founder of Pizza My Heart, Keith Holtaway. “Nothing enhances creativity more than not having to worry about money,” he told the sold-out crowd. Holtaway is a proponent of the one-page business plan, which can clarify a business concept in a short, concise way, by answering five questions:  What are you building? Why does this business exist? What results will you measure? How will you build this company? What is the work to be done?

Holtaway said there is a commonly held stereotype about the artist mindset, which is, “I’m an artist and I don’t need to know about business.” He coached the audience to get rid of unprofessional tags and treat their art like a business by adopting successful business practices such as monitoring and planning. He emphasized that hiring a professional bookkeeper is a key element to any profitable business, as well as setting-up a separate business account and keeping a clear paper trail. “The whole process is about measurement and having good data,” he said. “You can’t make good choices based on bad information.”

Some inexpensive resources Holtaway recommended were:

• A free weekly business newsletter available at www.artistswhothrive.com
• Jim Horan’s book, “The One Page Business Plan”
• Squareup.com—a way to accept credit cards on your mobile phone
• Creativesandbusiness.com—a step by step approach to starting a creative business

The next seminar in the series, “Pricing Your Art,” will be a panel discussion led by the very successful local muralist and artist, James Aschbacher. This is an invaluable opportunity to not only learn from the vast experience of four local artists who are actively making and selling their work, but to get your specific questions answered by experts. “There’s nothing like real life experience to learn from, so you don’t make the mistakes we all made starting out on our careers,” James wrote to me about the seminar. “And the real fun begins starts when we open up the floor to questions. That’s where the students learn the most.”

For more information:

Business of Art Seminar Services

From Passion to Profitability

Cabrillo College, VAPA Lection Hall, room 101

6500 Soquel Drive, Aptos

Registration: www.cabrillo.edu/services/extension/bus_arts.html

Cost per seminar: $25

Seminar #2: Pricing Your Art—led by James Aschbacher, local muralist and artist

Saturday, March 31, 2012, 10 a.m. to noon

Seminar #3: Get Your Art Out There! Solid Marketing Principles—led by Aletta de Wal, artist, educator and entrepreneur

Saturday, April 28, 2012, 10 a.m. to noon

Seminar #4: Leveraging Social Media for your Art—led by Susan Tenby, Online Community Manager for TechSoup

Saturday, May 19, 2012, 10 a.m. to noon

From passion to profession

Louise Coombes’ studio room accommodates
 her bulky longarm quilting machine—an
 expensive investment that enables her to quilt
 all the layers together in a variety of patterns.
 She uses EQ7 software to help design quilts
 and to show her clients what the final piece
 will look like before she begins sewing.

Working from home, doing what you love, and getting paid for it

Originally published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, Feb. 4, 2012

Although I tend to be more of a speed dater when it comes to crafts, lately I just want to move in and try living with Mr. Right—who, for the moment seems to be quilting. For me, quilting has all the attributes of the ideal partner: it’s challenging and complex, not afraid of bold patterns and colors, and warm and cozy at night. Although I’ve dabbled with quilting in the past, I decided it was time to get more serious and make a commitment.

To that end, I decided my quilting skills needed some work. So I took a beginning quilting class at Judy’s Sewing Center in Capitola; I learned to use the longarm quilting machine at the TechShop in San Jose (as a member you have access to all their specialized sewing machines); I read books on quilting history and studied images of quilts in big picture books; and I got some helpful advice from one of the best quilters I know, Louise Coombes, whom I met through Aromas Hills Artisans.

Not only is Coombes a highly inventive and accomplished quilter, she actually makes a living at quilting through commissioned work—a testament to the high quality of her quilts and her willingness to tackle challenging assignments. She works two days a week at a local quilt shop, and the rest of the time quilts for her clients. It can be tough for anyone to turn a hobby into a living, and although Coombes attributes the creation and growth of her business more to happenstance than any great effort on her part, there’s really much more to it than that.

Quilting for Fun

"Carp-e Diem" features fish throughout.

In 2005 Louise Coombes’ life was radically altered in just about every way possible. That was the year she gave up her chiropractic practice in England, said goodbye to her friends and family, and moved to America to get married. She also made her first completed quilt in 2005—a birthday gift for her new husband, David.

Coombes had already been an avid seamstress, making a lot of her own clothes as a teenager. When she left her sewing machine behind in England, she said, “I felt like my right arm was missing without it.” As a wedding present, David bought her a top of the line embroidery machine. “I was blown away,” she said. “I didn’t have a clue how this machine worked.” But she figured it out quickly since she had five bridesmaid dresses to alter.

Coombes uses a flannel quilt design wall to preview of the finished
 quilt top. On the right is her nearly completed “Ribbon Quilt” which
 features 180 fair ribbons earned by an avid 4Her who showed
  rabbits, pigs, sheep and horses at county fairs while growing up.

She was introduced to quilting when she and David attended a quilt show in Morgan Hill, where they first lived. “That was my first wee spin around a quilt show and I was just like agog,” she said. She bought a how-to book on quilting and read it cover to cover. “I went down to the quilt shop finally and bought some little fat quarters not knowing any better at the time and just started cutting them up and making my own thing.” Coombes took classes at the shop, Quilts and Things in Morgan Hill, where she would later be hired as a clerk and instructor by the owner, Laurie Perez. “They couldn’t believe how prolific I was.  Laurie couldn’t believe I was designing stuff before I even knew what I was doing,” she said.

Quilting for Clients

Perez gave Coombes one of her first referrals when a woman came to the shop looking for someone to make a quilt from tee shirts. “I seem to be the kind of person that is not afraid to take on a challenge,” said Coombes. “I’ll look at something and go ‘Oh okay, I can do that’ and most people seem shocked and say ‘You will?’ I take what a lot of other people are too cautious about,” she said.

Coombes’ willingness to take on demanding projects and her ability to magically transform just about anything made from fabric into a gorgeous family heirloom, make her unique among quilters. “The average age of a quilter is 59,” said Coombes.  “They don’t want the hassle of making quilts for other people, while I’m young enough and stupid enough to take it on I suppose.” The tee shirt quilt was a success and the commissions kept on coming. She is now referred by five or six local quilt shops, and has a steady stream of commission work.

David describes his wife as a ‘perennial over-achiever.’ “You’d win the gold medal in over-achieving,” he said. Amazingly, she completed seven commissioned quilts in the two months prior to Christmas, including three made from cut up pieces of one woman’s clothing, intended as memorial gifts for her children. “I’ve got more work than I know what to do with,” she said.

A client brought Coombes a large box of her
 father’s clothing—everything from casual
 Hawaiian shirts to silk ties to flannel bathrobes
 to suit pants—to use in making a memorial quilt.
  The challenge was to work this wide variety of
  fabrics, colors and patterns into one cohesive design.

Coombes describes herself as fastidious. “I am very much detail orientated,” she said. “I’m always emailing the client keeping them in touch with what I’m doing and to ask them different questions, ‘Do you want it this way or that way?’ you know.” 

Clients become Friends

In the process, Coombes has developed a personal relationship with many of her clients, often keeping in touch with them long after their quilts are finished. “’Memories of Grandpa’ was one of my earliest commissions, and it’s one of my fondest memories,” she said. A woman came to Coombes with her deceased father’s clothing in a big box. “Well I looked through all this stuff, and there was just this random array of clothing—there’s handkerchiefs, neckties, work shirts, work pants, Hawaiian shirts, all sorts of different colors of shirts from the wild and whacky to the tame and boring, you know. And she said ‘can you do anything with this?’  She spent some time with me talking about her dad. She was obviously very, very close because she was almost in tears talking about him.”

Fair Ribbon Quilt

In 2012 Coombes plans to continue her commission work—including a quilt made from a huge collection of ties—but also hopes to have time to do some personal projects and teach. “I want to teach what I’m creating, my own thing, a new slant,” she said. She’d also like to introduce a new gadget or pattern, “something that will revolutionize the industry.”

For photos of all Louise Coombes quilts, items for sale, helpful tips for quilters, and contact information go to her website, Joyousquilter.com.

Apply Creativity to Marketing

Sussy Flanigan, Fins Coffee, Recycling and Local Charities All Join Hands in Selling Imaginative Crafts

Originally published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, January 7, 2012

Santa Cruz County finished 2011 with dispiriting job news: a 10.6 percent unemployment rate persisted in November—2 percent higher than the national average—which means there are about 11,000 people looking for work.

Amazingly though, 2011 was also the year that Santa Cruz/Watsonville was ranked 5^th on a Most Artistic Cities in America list by The Atlantic Magazine. Our small metro area was rated comparable to major metropolitan areas such as New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles because The Atlantic rating took the number of artists relative to population into account. The only small population that ranked higher was Santa Fe.

So what does this say about the resilience and creativity of our artists, who continue to survive in remarkable numbers despite a depressed economy? Equally significant, what does our ranking say about the loyalty of a community who supports the arts, even in tough times?

Flanigan shows some of her embellished aprons for sale at Fins Coffee. 

What follows is the of story of one such resilient Santa Cruz artist, struggling to do what she truly loves in a creative and resourceful new way. Her idea has the potential to benefit many others besides herself in the 5^th most artistic city in America.

Sew Sweet-N-Simple, Santa Cruz, CA


Sussy Flanigan has always kept her hand in crafts, even when job and family seemed to be leading her in many other directions. While raising her three children in San Jose and operating a medical records retrieval and management service in Almaden Valley, she set up a retail vintage clothing boutique—selling her own designs—on the street side of her office space. When she sold the medical business to renovate and run a bed and breakfast, the Dutch Flat Hotel, in Placer County, she opened a gift shop at the B&B to sell her handmade items and also hosted art retreats.

Flanigan moved to Santa Cruz in 2005 so her daughter and husband could be closer to the ocean and surfing, and loves it here. “Every time I walk to the Marina it never ceases to fill me with a sense of joy just to be able to live here,” she says. “I grew up in Indiana, and I’d always see California and the ocean on television. After college I bought a one-way ticket to California.”

For almost nine years, Flanigan has divided her time between Santa Cruz and her B&B in the Gold Country. She now intends to turn her attentions away from weekend innkeeping and occasional professional opera singing, to fulltime crafting.

“I make a lot of cards and I love glitter,”
 says vintage crafter Sussy Flanigan.
 She also sells “Emergency Glitter”
 at craft fairs “in case of sudden onset
 of melancholy,” she says.

“My bed and breakfast is on the market and I’m no longer going to be running it,” she says. “The economy just killed me so I decided to go back to what I truly love and I always end up going back to, which is sewing and crafting and try to make actual money. I’ll probably make more money than I did at the bed and breakfast,” she says laughing.

Flanigan describes herself as an “ADD crafter.” “I’m all over the place,” she says. “In fact, my girlfriend told me the other day, ‘Girl, you need to focus on one thing.’ And I thought, if I focus on one thing, I’m going to miss so much stuff.”

Her crafting style and product line also attest to her “all over the place” approach. She designs and repurposes vintage clothing; sews and decorates cuffs, shirts, hats and aprons; sells banners, cards, scrapbook supplies, glitter and antique photographs; and creates mixed media collage. And everything she makes is embellished with lace, buttons, rick rack, and embroidery—large quantities of which she stores on shelves, racks, bins and tables in her small, upstairs studio space in the Old Sash Mill. “This pretty much is my life’s collection in here,” she explains. “I’m an organized hoarder.”

Flanigan sells her creations at craft fairs but says she does better in large wholesale venues such as the California Gift Show. “A lot of time when you go to these art and wine festivals, they’re there to drink or just walk around and look,” she says. “I do well at a big gift show like in Los Angeles because there are a lot of people [wholesalers] and they’re there to buy stuff. They feature a vintage section and I now have stores that actually look for me.”

Nearly everything Flanigan makes is embellished with lace, buttons, rick rack, and embroidery—large quantities
 of which she stores on shelves, racks, bins and tables in her small, upstairs studio space in the Old Sash Mill. 
“This pretty much is my life’s collection in here,” she explains. “I’m an organized hoarder.”

To start selling more products locally she’s just developed a project called “The Shirt Off Your Back,” with Fins Coffee on Ocean Street in Santa Cruz as her first venue. Flanigan has placed a box and posted a sign inside the restaurant entrance, asking customers to donate used shirts. She then cuts up the shirts to make beautiful embellished aprons, which Fins sells for $25 each. From the proceeds both she and Fins each donate a dollar to a local charity, such as Ride AWave–which  hosts beach camps for kids with special needs. Starting the project just ten days before Christmas, they’ve sold 13 aprons.

Flanigan also makes and sells coffee “cuffs”
with Fins’ logo at the register, for keeping
 coffee cups warm.

Flanigan envisions her business providing jobs to many others in the future. “My goal is to create several jobs with this project because it’s a process, you know,” she says. “You make the apron, they buy it, then I have to hire people to help me because I’m so busy.” Her seamstress friend Melanie Vizzusi, owner of Free Form Fashions in Santa Cruz, is helping Flanigan produce the aprons and her other clothing designs. “Like this tunic. I give her a design, she makes me a pattern and then sews it for me. Then I bring out all my beautiful adornments and I tack everything on.” says Flanigan.

She says if the apron project is successful at Fins, she’d like to get in to other local venues like Santa Cruz Diner or Seabright Café. “And, I am trying to get Gavin Newsom and Jerry Brown to donate shirts to help jumpstart the project,” she emails to me after our interview. But she’s very grateful to Fins Coffee owner Brian Neuschwander for giving her a start. “He’s one of those people that have the compassionate mentality that says ‘I’m going to give someone a chance,’ which is very rare these days. Because if there are people out there creating their own jobs, which a lot of people are trying to do, they can’t do that without someone giving them a chance.”  

Finding inspiration where you least expect it

Seeking inspiration: Take the “Work of Art” challenge

Originally published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, December 3, 2011

“La Fille aux Yeux Verts” by Henri Matisse

There are things about Bravo’s “Work of Art: The Next Great Artist” that really annoy me—like mentor Simon de Pury’s forced enthusiasm (Be bold! Be amazing! Go for it!), host China Chow’s icy goodbye send-offs (“It’s time for you to go.”), and petty clashes between the contestants. But, on the whole, I’m fascinated by the weekly challenge to create museum-quality pieces in a relatively limited amount of time and space.

Typically the hosts take the remaining group of young artists somewhere in New York City, to a location or experience that will generate inspiration for their work of art. This season, their inspiration has come from some pretty diverse sources: kitsch, creative movement called Parkour, children’s art, pop art, newspaper headlines, a brick wall in Brooklyn, and a disassembled Fiat 500.

Although the source of artistic inspiration can be just about anything, I’m intrigued by the notion of an imposed source of inspiration. A group of etsy.com artists are actually playing along each week with “Work of Art,” taking the same challenges and posting their results at etsymetal.blogspot.com. (What will these metal artists do with a brick wall in Brooklyn?)

In the same spirit, I decided to seek my own artistic inspiration from some unlikely sources. I chose three new books as my point of departure, and created three crafty projects. Here are the books—all of which I highly recommend—and the results:

"The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider's web."—Pablo Picasso

Book #1: PARIS PORTRAITS by Harriet Lane Levy

When she died in 1950, Levy left the San Francisco Museum
 of Modern Art a trove of art, including La Fille aux Yeux
 Verts (The Girl with Green Eyes) which she bought from
 Matisse in 1908. I used Web images of this painting and several
 others to create Matisse-inspired pendants on Scrabble tiles
or in small frames.

My favorite movie of 2011 is Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris” in which Owen Wilson’s character is magically transported back 100 years to a romanticized Paris where he meets and hangs out with the likes of Picasso, Matisse, Degas, Dali and many other artistic giants of the era. San Francisco native Harriet Lane Levy had her own real-life close encounters with Matisse, Picasso and other legendary artists when she and Alice B. Toklas, joined their friend Sarah Stein in Paris in the summer of 1908. Levy recalls her 2-year Paris adventure in, “Paris Portraits: Stories of Picasso, Matisse, Gertrude Stein, and Their Circle,” a beautiful little memoir that has not been published in its entirety until now. In it, she recalls the eccentricities of her Paris friends, her regret at not buying a $50 Picasso from Sarah Stein, and learning to love modern art—Henri Matisse’s paintings in particular. Like Woody Allen’s movie, “Paris Portraits” is an enchanted portal to a time of unequaled charm and luminosity

Project #1: An audacious pendant

When Harriet Lane Levy died in 1950, she left the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art a trove of art, including “La Fille aux Yeux Verts” (The Girl with Green Eyes) which, when her friends declined it, she bought from Matisse in 1908 while in Paris. Like Harriet Levy, I didn’t initially take to Matisse’s modernist style; but the joyous, audacious color in his portraits of women gradually won me over. So, I made pendants using printed images from Matisse and Matisse-inspired paintings, reduced to a size tiny enough to fit on the back of a Scrabble tile. There are several websites and YouTube tutorials that show you how. Just Google “Scrabble tile pendant” or “resin jewelry” for instructions.

"The torpid artist seeks inspiration at any cost, by virtue or by vice, by friend or by fiend, by prayer or by wine."--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Book #2: JUST MY TYPE: A BOOK ABOUT FONTS by Simon Garfield

Simon Garfield likes to tackle topics that make people wrinkle up their nose and ask, “How could that be a good book?” Among other historical topics, he’s written about postage stamp collecting and the color mauve. Reading his latest book “Just My Type: A Book About Fonts,” I found myself unexpectedly absorbed in the history and evolution of the ampersand, the controversial switch by Ikea from Futura to Verdana, and a typeface called Gotham, that has been embraced by both President Obama and Sarah Palin. Fonts carry a wide range of subliminal messages that go way beyond mere words, and Garfield has wisely included lots of visual examples to demonstrate the subtle powers of type.

“Retrofonts” by Gregory Stawinski is a good follow-up that allows you to simply bask in the lovely inventiveness of over 400 classic 19^th and 20^th century fonts. It includes a CD with 222 featured fonts, although many of these can be downloaded for free from the internet.

I used “Retrofonts” to find the distinctive font “Renold Art Deco”
 which had great Fs, Is, Es and Ss, and downloaded it onto my
 computer using www.azfonts.net. I then created stencils so I could
 spray-paint the letters for my address along the driveway fence.

Project #2: A distinctive address

To make your address more distinctive, spell out your numbers with letters in a distinctive font. Flip through “Retrofonts” to find fonts with good capitalized letters occurring in your address. Use www.azfonts.net to downloaded your font, then enlarge and print to the desired size, taping pieces of paper together if necessary.

Create a stencil by taping each large letter to poster board and cutting through paper and board using a craft knife. (If you have an “O” or “R” or any other letter with an island in the middle, leave narrow connecting bridges to hold the center of the “O” or “R” in place.) Tape or tack the letters to your fence or wall and add newsprint extensions to catch any overspray. Apply three layers of spray paint for good coverage.

"Without inspiration the best powers of the mind remain dormant, there is a fuel in us which needs to be ignited with sparks."—Johann Gottfried Von Herder

After an afternoon of cutting and folding two
 2011 calendars, I had created three sets of
 origami earrings and several origami gift boxes. 

Book #3: TRASH ORIGAMI: 25 PAPER FOLDING PROJECTS REUSING EVERYDAY MATERIALS by Michael G. LaFosse and Richard Alexander

Origami can be complex and intimidating at times, but the projects in this book are refreshingly simple and practical. The authors show you how to make useful objects such as boxes, checkers sets, photo cubes, bowls and envelopes out of found papers. At a time of year when calendars, catalogs, gift wrap and greeting cards are quickly filling up your recycling bin, Trash Origami offers these paper products—and just about any other kind of waste paper—a great second life.

Project #3: The gift is origami

Use the instructions in “Trash Origami” or search origami-instructions.com to make gift boxes with lids from 2011 calendars, used gift wrap, or other colorful, not-too-thick source of paper. Take “Trash Origami” one step further by also folding a gift to go inside the box. Search the Web for instructions on making an origami pendant or earrings. Use shredded paper as fluff inside the box and fold an origami decoration for the top and you’ll have a completely upcycled, handmade gift.

"When you do not know what you are doing and what you are doing is the best -- that is inspiration."—Robert Bresson 

4 Ways to Feel Good About Sewing Again

Originally published November 5, 2011 in the Santa Cruz Sentinel

My completed duct tape dress form.

This column is for those of you who, like me, used to sew clothes. But somewhere along the way you became disenchanted with the process due to one or more of the following:

1) lack of style in commercial patterns

2) low quality of readily available fabrics

3) bad fit of clothes you made, which always looked like you had made them

4) high cost of patterns and fabrics.

Mrs. Woods taught me to sew in her home economics class in junior high and I made lots of my own clothes throughout my teens and 20s. In college, I distinctly remember the dank basement sewing room in the girls’ dorm, where I spent Saturday nights sewing and listening to Elton John sing about a much crazier kind of Saturday Night. When I graduated from college, my parents bought me a really nice, indestructible Necchi sewing machine—which I still use to hem pants and occasionally make quilts.

My husband applies the 3 layers of duct tape.

But gradually my enthusiasm faded as I realized that I could buy clothes for less than I could make them, in fabrics and styles that were trendy. And I didn’t have to buy anything that didn’t fit right—or at least could be easily altered when I got home. So, this summer when I got a fabric store coupon for five patterns for $5, and I needed a cocktail dress for a wedding reception, and I didn’t want to spend a lot for a potential one-use dress, I decided to flip through the pattern books and roam through the fabric aisles, like I used to.

I did end up buying five Simplicity patterns for $1 each (I saved $80?!), but no fabric. When I got home, I put the patterns away for another day, and borrowed an appropriate dress from a friend for the wedding. Sewing still seemed like it had too much potential for disappointment.

But I am reminded of how much I used to love sewing every time I watch Project Runway. As a devoted fan and fantasy-league fashion designer, wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a bulging envelope of money to spend at a high-rise New York City fabric emporium? (How challenging it must be to spend $500 just to make one dress!) Wouldn’t it be dreamy to drape fabric on a dress form, to lay-out and cut fabric on a huge table in a spacious workroom, and sew on a powerful machine like an 8-spool serger? The spin-off show I would love to see--“Project Sewing Secrets”—would, unfortunately, lack the interpersonal drama demanded for prime time.

Perhaps due to the popularity of Project Runway, there has been a renewed interest in sewing and clothing design. In September, the annual runway event, Santa Cruz FashionArt, thrilled a sold-out crowd at the Civic Auditorium, debuting avant-garde fashions for both men and women. Nationally, applications for fashion design colleges have increased steadily over the last ten years. And, as further proof, a burst of books on repurposing, fitting, and sewing techniques have displaced some of the abundant knitting and quilting books on the shelves of libraries and bookshops.

This renewed interest in clothing design has prompted remarkable improvements in the home sewing realm as well. For example, commercial patterns have become more customizable, each one including four or more sizes. And even if Butterick or McCalls don’t have the style you’d like, many patterns now include tips on fitting which make it much easier to modify a pattern and make improvements. In addition, books on sewing techniques are now available on very specific topics, such as fit, adapting patterns, and couture design. And the internet—which didn’t exist when I first learned to sew—is full of free sewing tips and products, including printable patterns and YouTube sewing tutorials. The Web also provides unlimited sources for finding the fabric you want at a price that’s affordable. (You can even bid on fabric on eBay.)

Here are a few more reasons to feel good about sewing again:

1. A new line of dress patterns created by Simplicity called “Amazing Fit,” actually walks you through the process of altering a pattern to make it fit your own unique body, step by step. The process involves taking accurate measurements of your body and using those to select individual pattern pieces before cutting fabric. Seam allowances are larger and machine basted until there is enough dress to try on and check for fit. Once adjustments are made, seams are permanently sewn and trimmed to 5/8-inch. It’s a longer process, but by the end you will know your body dimensions and exactly how future patterns need to be adjusted before cutting and sewing.

2. There are lots of books about making clothes that fit and flatter. One that I found easy to follow is, “How to Use, Adapt, and Design Sewing Patterns” by Lee Hollahan, which walks you through altering commercial patterns and designing your own patterns. I learned useful techniques such as how to line up the grain correctly, how to download patterns and print them on 8 ½ x 11 inch paper, and how to measure a body accurately. This book also names and discusses body shapes and what styles complement a “top-heavy triangle, a circle, an oval, a narrow rectangle, an hourglass, or a bottom-heavy triangle” body type.

3. Websites can also offer sewing tips and free patterns. Check out:

http://diyfashion.about.com – for free printable patterns for classic styles http://www.threadsmagazine.com – for instructions on making a duct tape dress-form (also papier-mâché or paper tape)

http://www.thunderlily.com  - for styling practice by dragging and dropping a variety of separates and fabrics to a model to see how they look together. The monthly blog also contains fashion design tools for making or selecting clothes that flatter different body types.

4. “Little Green Dresses” by Tina Sparkles, offers a new take on fashion repurposing. Instead of being another book on how to turn jeans into skirts or tee-shirts into shrugs, this one is about actually drafting new patterns and creating very polished finished pieces of clothing. It encourages the use of thrift store and garage sale clothes and linens that will have the yardage necessary to completely remake them into something very wearable. After roaming the aisles of Jo-Ann Fabrics and seeing lots of Prop 65 signs warning about the formaldehyde content in an unspecified number of their fabrics, I’m more sold than ever on reusing thrift shop apparel that may have already been washed a number of times. (You’ll be relieved to know that I haven’t seen these warnings signs at any of the fabric stores in Santa Cruz County.) There’s also a good chance you’ll find higher quality fabrics at a very reasonable price at the thrift shop. I recently purchased nine long dresses with enough fabric to sew nine tops, for about $30 at Salvation Army.

 So dust off the ol’ Singer and give sewing another try.  Dank basement and Elton John are optional.

Concrete as the main attraction

Concrete: It's not just for sidewalks any more

Originally published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, October 1, 2011

SKYBALLS: Concrete balls come in many sizes. “Skyballs” at Anna Jean Cummings Park on Old San Jose Road in
 Soquel, features four HUGE sky-blue balls which appear to be rolling down a hill, about to crush cars in the
 parking lot. “Skyballs” was designed in 2001 by Oakland artists Steve Gillman and Katherine Keefer.

Up against all the Smithsonians, monuments and memorials, the United States Botanic Garden is one of the lesser draws on the National Mall, tucked away on Independence Avenue, just a stone’s throw from the Capitol. Like most of the DC attractions, it’s free, informative and fascinating. But—unlike the rest of Washington—it’s a surprisingly crowd-free oasis.

US BOTANIC GARDEN: Here’s the ball in the United

 States Botanic Garden that got me rolling.

Strolling along its pathways this summer, I was inspired by the decorative elements: upright plastic tubing that held gravel paths in place; colorful pyramidal plant supports; and multi-level arbors covered in plants from top to bottom. But what stirred me the most was a ball of concrete. Nesting at the base of a plant, this bowling ball-sized, cobalt blue sphere was a distinctive feature among the greens, pinks and reds of the surrounding regional plant-life.

ROCK ON BRAH: Terri Ryan recently took

 first place at the Santa Cruz County Fair

 for one of her signature concrete bras.

Concrete typically plays a utility role in most gardens—to invisibly anchor fences and decks, or just as subtly, provide low-cost but highly functional patios, sidewalks, curbs and retaining walls. Concrete is not there to be noticed, much less admired. It’s the stemware holding the fine wine: the clearer the glass the more its contents can be appreciated.

When concrete is used in a decorative way, it’s often encrusted with grouted mosaic pieces or textured plaster. But the blue sphere showed me that relatively unadorned concrete can also be attractive.

To find out more about concrete, I contacted Terri Ryan, who recently took first place in the Capitola Soroptimists’ annual “Bras for a Cause” competition which benefits two local women’s support groups. Her imaginative entry, “Rock on Brah,” was constructed of molded concrete and rocks—a wonderful tribute to the possibilities of concrete.

COURTYARD ART: Terri Ryan’s courtyard is a concrete art showplace

 featuring planters, pots, wall hangings, XXs and OOs, and pedestals,

 all made from concrete.

A hair stylist with a degree in design, Terri said she started working with concrete about 6 or 7 years ago. “I needed to be around the house for my teenagers. These art projects are a great way of being home and being there for them,” she said. She learned much of her technique from Coleen Sands, whose mosaic work she had admired on her house numbers when passing by her home. The two have since become good friends and have regular “concrete play days” to get together and make things from concrete. (To see Colleen’s amazing mosaic work go to www.flickr.com/photos/colleensands/)

Terri’s Live Oak home and especially her yard is a showplace for her stepping stones, planters, pedestals, wall hangings and more—all made from concrete. Her courtyard workspace has shelves, bins and buckets full of objects and materials perfect for forming and shaping concrete. Inside her home she even has a bathroom backsplash make from concrete and river rocks.

SLURRY: One of the pleasures of working with concrete

 is the lovely texture and feel of slurry—a melted-chocolate-

like mixture of cement, polymer admix and water.

 Hollow concrete spheres can be made by covering a

 ball with self-adhesive fiberglass mesh tape, slurry,

 and then a thin layer of concrete. To work safely with concrete,

 always wear a face mask and gloves, especially when mixing.

On a recent Friday, she showed me how to make two concrete spheres and two stepping stones, while she continued work on a gigantic round planter formed around an inflated exercise ball. My much smaller spheres were shaped around a soccer ball and a school-yard rubber ball. We made stepping stones without a mold by adding a thin layer of concrete to the top of purchased concrete stepping stones, and stamping a circle into the concrete while still wet.

From working with Terri and from Sherri Warner Hunter’s book “Making Concrete Garden Ornaments” I got a better understanding of concrete’s properties.

• Concrete is a mixture of cement, water and aggregate.
• Aggregate is used to inexpensively bulk up the mixture. Common aggregates are sand and gravel, but lightweight material such as vermiculite, or more colorful material such as crushed shells or glass, can also be used. Rough, flat aggregates create a stronger bond than round, smooth ones, and smaller aggregates create a smoother textured concrete than larger ones.
• Water added to cement creates a paste that coats each piece of aggregate and hardens the mixture into a solid mass
• Chemical admixtures such as acrylic fortifier can also be added to the mix to increase moisture resistance, workability and durability.
• Curing is the process necessary for concrete to gain maximum strength. Concrete cures gradually in a moist, controlled environment. So, at the end of each work session, the concrete must be covered in plastic and kept moist for a minimum of three to five days, and out of direct sunlight and strong wind.  Most of the strength is achieved in the first week, though strengthening may continue for decades.

STEPPING STONES: Terri Ryan’s colorful stepping

 stones, along with her dog Daisy, brighten a corner

 of her yard. Terri creates a circle in her stepping stones

 by pressing the rim of a bowl or pot into the wet concrete.

 She paints the dry stones bright colors using

 Smith’s Color Floor stain, available at Central Home

 Supply in Santa Cruz.

What amazes me most about concrete is its versatility. Concrete is often shaped by being poured into a mold (casting). But it can also be pressed into or on top of a mold; or sculpted with the help of armature, which acts like a skeleton to support the form; or carved while wet or dry. By controlling the amount of water added, concrete can even be mixed to a consistency similar to clay for relief modeling. Surface treatments for concrete include incising, stamping, polishing, painting, staining, embedding and mosaicing.

Here are some suggestions for get started with concrete:

1.  Seek out Sherri Warner Hunter’s books at the library—she will help you see concrete in a whole new way. Her 2005 book “Creative Concrete Ornaments for the Garden” will be available in paperback in March 2012.

2.  Consider these new books: “Concrete Crafts” by author Alan Wycheck will show you how to make tiles, tabletops, stepping stones, bowls and planters cast from molds with lots of great step-by-step photos. “The Revolutionary Yardscape” by Matthew Levesque will give you radically new ideas for repurposing materials, such as garden walls made from wine bottle corks and pathways made with tumbled dishes. Levesque makes concrete bowls incorporating decorative materials such as tumbled glass, marbles, and even old keys.

3.  Learn several different techniques for making concrete spheres by Googling “How to make a concrete sphere.”

Fall, a great time for outdoor projects

This beautiful rose arbor at Sierra Azul Nursery in Watsonville, is actually
 a pergola because it shades a long walkway. Note the pointed roof shape.

7 Secrets to the 2 hottest, dreamiest backyard projects yet

Originally published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, September 10, 2011

Throughout the spring and summer,
Sunset uses fashion/beauty lingo to sell
 magazines: 

March: Makeovers for small backyards

April: 7 secrets to beautiful backyards

May: Get your backyard ready for summer

June: Create a dreamy backyard retreat

August: Hottest backyard looks

Obviously, Sunset has to compete in supermarket check-out lines with the glamorous covers of Marie Claire, Seventeen and In Style.  The difference is, as the weather starts to cool in September, so does the intensity of Sunset’s backyard teases.

September: Easy-grow gourmet lettuce

But September and October are actually perfect months to start new backyard projects. The warm days start with sunshine instead of fog and still last well into the evening. The two “hot” projects I propose also make practical sense as fall projects. The first, an arbor, will add a beautiful focal point to a yard that may not be as verdant and colorful as it was in the spring and summer. And the second, a compost bin filled with spent annuals, fall leaves and kitchen scraps, will save you money and time because you won’t need to shop for garden soil and amendments in the spring.

All About Arbors

Painted red, black and turquoise, this arbor serves as a
gateway to the Japanese Garden at the Sesnon House at
Cabrillo College in Aptos

Although arbors generally play supporting roles (for plants and vines), they can also be the mood-setting stars of the show. An arbor—especially a colorful one—can provide a splendid vertical highlight in an otherwise placid garden. Or, when fitted with a bench or swing, can draw you in to a relaxing getaway. A gated arbor can offer a warm friendly welcome in front of a home, or add a sense of wonder as you enter a private garden retreat.

Although arbors are typically made from pressure-treated lumber, eye-catching arbors can also be made from a variety of unexpected or cast-off materials such as curving willow branches, rough hewn logs, or even iron rebar.

The graceful arc of this arbor complements
the round shape in the gate to this
apartment complex entrance in Gilroy

Larger than a trellis but smaller than a pergola, an arbor usually consists of two or four upright posts connected overhead by a horizontal lattice which offers shade below and a climbing structure for plants. The overhead connection is typically flat, but can also be rounded like an arch or peaked like a roof.

Arbors are often designed to complement the style of the surrounding home and garden. A traditional design will feature crisp, symmetrical lines. A cottage design will typically have curving lines and liberal embellishment. A simple, contemporary design will make use of sleek industrial materials like metal and concrete.  A rustic design will be more freewheeling and one-of-a kind, sometimes making use of found, rusted or improvised materials.

The Garden Company Nursery on Mission Avenue in Santa
Cruz is a great place to see lots of different arbor designs.
This one supports hanging plants and provides shade
 to seedlings below.

You can find lots of free plans and instructions for arbor-building online or at your local library. The ideal money-saving arbor would be made from recycled materials. But a simple, yet sturdy arbor can be made from new lumber for about $100. Start your Website search with “how to build an arbor” or flip through the pages of “Making Arbors & Trellises” by Marcianne Miller and Olivier Rollin for lots of ideas, plans and instructions.

Surf City Coffee Co. in Aptos has a thick, asymmetrical arbor
to support a beautiful, mature wisteria.

Compost Bins

My favorite DIY Website, Instructables, has plans for several compost bins made from recycled products like garbage cans and pallets. I've used a black plastic orb for composting for years, but it gets too heavy to roll around as it fills up with moist material. I wanted to make a sturdy bin that was easier to use, would not compost itself, and could accommodate more waste, without spending too much on materials.

Wooden compost bin plans often call for pressure-treated lumber, but I don't like the idea of pesticides in the lumber leaching into my compost and soil. So I decided to use recycled redwood, which I had in abundance from a play structure we built for our kids when they were young. Redwood or cedar are the best choices since they are rot-resistant, and will keep the garden organic and safe.

Although the triple bin I built uses lumber, the sides are made from wire hardware cloth, so this cuts down on the expense of using all wood. You'll need a 3x9 foot space in your yard to accommodate this bin. The large size will allow you to compost everything you've got—from garden trimmings to kitchen waste. Ours is place in the vegetable garden but not too many paces from the kitchen door, to make composting as convenient as possible.

The triple bin will also allow you to compost in stages, moving the contents from one bin to the next as the material breaks-down. With removable wooden slats in the front, the compost is very accessible and easy to turn, stir or shovel to the next bin or the garden.

For my step-by-step instructions with photographs, see www.instructables.com/id/The-Best-Triple-Compost-Bin/. There is also a lively discussion in the comments section on the best methods for effective composting. Incorporating recycled lumber will cut down on the cost, but with purchased hardware and Con-Common grade redwood the total cost would be about $220. If you don’t have space for such a large bin, you can cut down on the materials (and cost) by building just one or two bins with the same basic principles of construction.