In celebration of by post street’s launch of Collection 2, I made a paper dress, my third one.
COLLECTION 2 in celebration of Chaos to Couture at the Met
The paper dress is on its way to San Francisco to premiere at Booty Call Wednesday May 22!
Recall:
The by post street DRAWN TOGETHER launch event on April 14, 2013 featured two of my paper dresses:
Photo by Sairah Rodgers
Anna T Fabulous, Viranly, Josh Langston- The Social Life trio!
Glorious sock alien by Darcy Glip
Closet Outsider Artist. “Sock Aliens” Originator. Custom Paper Rose Artist.
I began making Sock Monkeys a few years ago through a friend of mine. She is an Artist, Art Therapist and Mentor. She was hosting a class of youths who were making sock monkeys and creating Art of all kinds. I was immediately drawn in, and welcomed by her and her group.
From there we formed a group of Adult Sock monkey makers to create a surplus of monkeys to donate to a fantastic cause Known as “Operation Sock Monkey”. You can learn more about them on their website http://www.operationsockmonkey.com/
Please help them continue their great work by donating or purchasing a sock monkey kit from them and learn the joy of Sock Monkeys!
“Sock Aliens” came to me during that period while surfing the internet and getting sucked into Alien stories, crop circles and sightings and bad scary movies of abductions etc., and came to the conclusion that Aliens have gotten quite a bad rap. I think they deserve a fair shot at friendship. If this universe is as big as they say it is. Then we need to be better more fearless representatives. I would like everyone to just hold one in your hands and look into those great big “see in the dark” eyes and just be there for them. And they will be there for you. There is no power greater in the universe than Love and these fellas may just need a home to learn that.
Love an Alienated being today!
Darcy made this adorable squirrel for my nephew, Henrik!
I just received a beautiful package from my niece in Pakistan, Emma Varley- medical anthropologist.
A handmade doll and Khaadi handicrafts:
Khaadi is an amazing treasure trove of textiles in Islamabad, and the handicrafts in Gilgit are wonderful… I think the dolls are all cute and quirky and funny and odd … their character is what I love so much. I asked each of the women making the dolls to come up with their own faces for each one, and the range is wonderful.
- Emma Varley, 2013
Emma began the memory doll project in 2011:
After several weeks of effort, we have finally had two doll protoypes made that represent what we hope will be the final product – or something very close to it! The dolls have been made so far by local women who are receiving skills and handicrafts training at a missionary run sewing school.
The master trainer who made these dolls – an Ismaili woman from a nearby village, Oshikandass – says that it takes her 2-3 hours to make one doll. We are supplying the women with all the necessary materials – fabric, filling, thread – and are negotiating to pay a commission for the work completed.
The faces of these dolls are definitely quirky, but I like the design as it represents how locals typically draw facial features. We have asked the women to be as imaginative as they can with each doll and to have fun with the designs.
Given the difficulties in ensuring standard doll sizes/construction and also quality control – particularly in poorer households where it would be difficult for women to keep material clean and in a good condition – we decided that we would sub-contract the construction of the dolls’ bodies (which will be based on a jointed rag doll design) to ‘Shining Light’ students. ['Shining Light' employs and trains poor Sunni, Shia and Ismaili women in Jutial Mohalla, which is one of Gilgit Town's largest neighbourhoods.] Supervision for the body construction will be the responsibility of the center’s master trainers, all of whom are local women who were once students and are now in-charge of various components of the program (e.g., embroidery, weaving, pattern design and cutting, etc).
- Emma Varley, 2011
The by post street DRAWN TOGETHER launch event on April 14, 2013 featured two of my paper dresses:
Photo by Sairah Rodgers
Anna T Fabulous, Viranly, Josh Langston- The Social Life trio!
Wear and tear at the end of the event!
This dress was displayed only and will be available for purchase soon!
THE INSPIRATION:
My nephew, Henrik, and friend, Darcy, unwrap the package!
STAY TUNED FOR MORE PAPER DRESSES!
CHECK OUT
I’m obsessed with the paper dress and very excited about this purchase! It’s a classic!!!
‘Paper clothing may have seemed like a space age idea at the time, after all, the 1960s weren’t about the past, they were about the future, and what else was the space generation going to wear in lunar cities? Disposable paper clothing of course! Disposable and easily alterable, paper dresses became canvasses of Op Art and Super-graphics or psychedelic paisley and flower power prints. And in the days before T-shirt art, the paper dress was the fashion billboard. Advertising products or political candidates, the paper dress was the perfect medium for the message. However, there had been an established use of paper for making fashions dating back centuries before the self-consciously modern 1960s came along. Ready to Tear is a fascinating foray into a fantastic fad. From its origins to its popular and revolutionary use and quick demise in the 1960s, the paper dress evoked so much media attention at the height of its popularity that few thought it would ever go away.’ 48 pages, sumptuously illustrated, By Jonathan Walford, Published by Kickshaw Productions, May 2007
Jonathan Walford works as a fashion historian – including authoring books on the history of fashion (Seductive Shoe, 2007; Ready to Tear 2007; Forties Fashion 2008; Shoes A-Z; Designers, Brands, Manufacturers and Retailers, 2010), as well as curating exhibitions on fashion history for various museums. He has founded the Fashion History Museum with his partner Kenn Norman and they are currently looking for a location for the museum collection of over 10,000 artifacts dating from the mid 17th century to the present. Jonathan has also dabbled in buying and selling vintage and antique clothing since the late 1970s.
Purchased from KICKSHAW ON ETSY
See also: [click on images to go to sources]
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My father pointing at a favorite journal page.
Take note of the spiral binding from the journal.
She transformed the spiral binding into a magical caterpillar filled using recycled materials. It’s GENIUS. Filled with empowering sayings, endless visual candy.
He even has a pair of glasses and his own little copy of Drawn Together!
She created beautiful cards out of the pages.
Kat Thorsen always brings tears to my eyes and a smile to my heart. I love her raw enthusiasm and character. I jumped with excitement when I found out that the journal pages that inspired drawn together were being shared to re-make. As an avid recycler and re-purposer I thought it was brilliant and courageous to let the pages that held her and her father go to be re-born through others creativity. Thank you for sharing Kat and ecstatic to keep re-making with the pages! For me the process of creating art from recycled materials is like a metaphor for my life. what was once old can now be new through the process of transformation, much like the caterpillar. – Jennifer
THANK YOU JENNIFER! Check her out:
CREATIVE LIFE EXPRESSION ON FACEBOOK
JENNIFER ON TWITTER: @sketchchange
JENNIFER is an INSPIRED AUTHOR at INFLUENCE PUBLISHING:
The Sketchpad that Changed the World
Making world peace your personal mission through the use of imagination in the change process.
If you have ever wanted to change the world be inspired to make your own difference. This story presents how a sketchpad changed the life of a people pleaser trapped in a box. It is an inspirational message that shares the tools Jennifer used to release her past and embrace her gifts while following the joy of her hearts desires.
Author Photo: Bopomo Pictures
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ADD TO THE JOURNAL PAGES AND BE PART OF OUR COMMUNITY JOURNAL PROJECT!
Join now on ETSY:
Sign up for $30!
YOUR PURCHASE INCLUDES TWO ORIGINAL HAND-MADE DOUBLE-SIDED THERAPEUTIC JOURNAL PAGES CREATED BY MY FATHER AND I FOR YOU TO ALTER AND ADD TO.
YOU ALSO RECEIVE OUR BOOK, “DRAWN TOGETHER: MAINTAINING CONNECTIONS AND NAVIGATING LIFE’S CHALLENGES WITH ART.”
Click on image to sign up:
My father suffered a massive stroke in 2005 that left him paralyzed on one side at the age of 75. Then on November 8, 2008, Roar’s beloved wife (my mother Karin) lost her battle to pancreatic cancer. Despite all these major life changes, my father’s tenacity, stubbornness, strength, creativity and most importantly his humor- allowed him to forge a life that was both fulfilling and rewarding.
Though he resided in a long term care facility and required assistance in the most basic life necessities like toiletry and dressing, Dad always said, “I love my life.” He would wake each day excited about his next drawing. Creativity has truly saved his mental health and gave him sense of purpose and empowerment.
My father passed away October 25, 2012. I am blessed because he died knowing we realized our dream of creating a book about his post-stroke art; we pressed send to the publisher on October 15, 2012.
The book, DRAWN TOGETHER: MAINTAINING CONNECTIONS AND NAVIGATING LIFE’S CHALLENGES WITH ART, is now in my hands and ready to be shared with the world!
READ MORE AT: DRAWN TOGETHER
But I want to share it with you in a unique way by adding YOU to the journey.
Dad’s art provided him with a much needed connection to the world. We made journals together for many years as we processed life’s challenges.
Dad’s dream was to include the community in these journals. So I am making available pages from our special journals we created around 2002-2005. They are your journal pages to keep, but my hope is that you add to these pages- IN ANY WAY YOU LIKE- and send them back to me to create a COMMUNITY JOURNAL PROJECT that will be exhibited at a DRAWN TOGETHER art event.
BE PART OF OUR COMMUNITY JOURNAL PROJECT!
AND CHECK OUT GRETCHEN MILLER‘s GLORIOUS PAGES:
!["[Added to] December 2002 Page from Kat & Roar’s Journal"](http://katthorsen.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/add-to-the-journal-pages-and-be-part-of-our-community-journal-project-drawntogether.jpeg?w=490)
“[Added to] December 2002 Page from Kat & Roar’s Journal”
!["[Added to detail] Another December 2002 Journal Page"](http://katthorsen.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/add-to-the-journal-pages-and-be-part-of-our-community-journal-project-drawntogether-1.jpeg?w=490)
“[Added to detail] Another December 2002 Journal Page”
GORGEOUS!!!
Freddie Robins
2002 Hand knitted wool, quilted lining fabric
Knitted by Jean Arkell
Commissioned by firstsite
These are the homes of female killers or the houses where they committed their crimes.
Christiana - 20 hours
16 Gloucester Place , Brighton, East Sussex – 1871
Mrs. Beard - 21 1/2 hours
64 Grand Parade, Brighton, East Sussex – 1871
Christiana Edmunds was a 43 year old spinster who lived with her widowed mother. She had become infatuated with a married man, Dr. Beard. In September 1870 she brought a box of chocolates to the Beard’s house and insisted that Mrs. Beard eat some over a pot of tea. Christiana had filled these chocolate creams with strychnine… READ MORE
Eleanor - 13 hours
2 Ivor Street (formerly Priory Street), Camden, London – 1890
Mary Eleanor Wheeler, aged 24, was living with a Charles Creighton under the assumed name of Eleanor Pearcey. She was having an affair with a married man, Frank Hogg. On 24 October 1890 she invited his wife Phoebe to tea. In her own kitchen she battered Mrs. Hogg over the head with a poker and then slit her throat… READ MORE
Ethel - 10 hours
2 Council Houses, Kirkby on Bain, Lincolnshire – 1934
Ethel Major, aged 43, lived with her husband Arthur. In 1934, after 16 years of marriage and a child of their own, Arthur discovered that Ethel already had an illegitimate daughter, Auriel. Their marriage started to deteriorate and Ethel began to imagine that he was now having an affair. As a result of her suspicions she started to poison him… READ MORE
Charlotte - 14 1/2 hours
Coombe Farm Cottages, Sherborne, Dorset – 1935
Charlotte Bryant, a 33-year-old illiterate mother of five, lived here with her husband Frederick. She enjoyed a drink and had a reputation as an amateur prostitute in the local pubs. READ MORE
Styllou - 22 1/2 hours
Ground Floor, 11 South Hill Park, Hampstead, London – 1954
Styllou Christofi, a 52-year-old cypriot woman, murdered her german daughter-in-law, Hella, at the family home on 28 July 1954. READ MORE
Check out:
Just visually, these GIANT KNITS are therapeutic. I want to lose myself in them.
http://www.nannavanblaaderen.com/
http://sebastianschoenheit.de/
http://www.claireanneobrien.com/
http://www.sandrabacklund.com/
http://www.etsy.com/shop/Yokoo
I was enamoured by some earrings my student, Sarah, was wearing the other day and she told me her aunt made them!
Check out her aunt’s incredible creations on ETSY:
Check out Magictheatre Gallery on FACEBOOK:
Our lives are like quilts bits and pieces, joy and sorrow, stitched with love. [source]
This old quilt I made contains so many thoughts, so many tears, so much joy and memories. The flannel is worn and soft and the embroidery texture is comforting.
Like many things created by women’s hands, patchwork quilts do not last forever. What happened to women’s lives and work? Women realized beauty by embroidering a dress, placing a flower on the table, or braiding a loaf of bread. All this has been worn out, wilted, or consumed. The quilts were made to be used and could not be expected to last forever.
Old Swedish Quilts, Asa Wettre
The inside lining is an duvet cover purchased from the original IKEA outside of Stockholm in 1977.
The Queen size quilt was created from my research into my heritage, Swedish quilts and my study of Hawaiian quilts. It is dedicated to my female ancestors.
Recommended reading:
