Process: Cardboard Room Divider

I thought that I'd share some process photos of a prop that I'm making for a photo shoot that I have planned later this week.  A lot of time goes into the props that I make for my shoots so I thought that I'd start sharing how I make them.

I made an oriental room divider from a cut up cardboard box.  I cut the box up into four pieces, then I primed them all with white paint.  Once it dried I went over the pieces again with a few layers of watered down acrylic.  Then I added the bamboo foliage using a blue ink.

Here are some photos as I was painting:

^My younger brother came to hang with me in the garage as I painted.  We were quite the sight together in our garage at 12pm at night. 

 

Instagram

 Once everything dried I went on the backside with package tape and connected the pieces together.  Above is an Instagram photo of the final piece.  I can't wait to share the final photos with you!

Also, thank you to everyone who suggested an artist to my previous post.  I did more research with the suggestions and they were all so good!

Inspiration: Painters

I've been home from school for the past few weeks now and it's been absolutely wonderful to be back in Indiana!  After being required to pour out so much creativity during the school year, I've used these first few weeks to catch up on time to research new inspiration.

My mom received her degree in painting so I've been looking through her old reference books.  Here are some paintings that caught my eye:

 George Hendrik Breitner

  

 Charles Webster Hawthorne

 

   Robert Lewis Reid

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Are there any artist that you would recommend for inspiration?  I'd love to look them up!  

Daniel's Piano Song

Two years ago on Memorial Day, May 28th, 2012 my brother Daniel died by suicide and went to live in heaven.

At age 16, Daniel was diagnosed with schizophrenia and went through his first psychotic episode. He loved to play the piano, and he was gifted in the ability to hear a song on the radio, find the tune easily, and play it without any sheet music. He also liked to create his own songs. He had one song in particular that he composed and would play almost every day for years to an annoying degree.

After he passed away, an e-mail was forwarded to my parents from one of his friends.  It included a cell phone recording of the song that he always played. In the e-mail, Daniel told his friend about a time that he was in the hospital and found an open piano in the patients’ common area. He sat down and started playing his song, when after a while he noticed that all of the patients had stopped talking. He wrote that the room fell silent and there was a sense of peace. From then on, whenever Daniel was anxious he would play this song.

Below is a surprise film that I made as a gift for my parents that is set to a re-recording of the song that Daniel used to play. After the film is the original cell phone recording of Daniel playing.

Daniel's Piano Song from Esther Boller on Vimeo.

I am so thankful for my friend Jonah Baker, who did a beautiful job of re-interpreting and recording the song for this film. You can check out his work here.

Thank you to everyone who has said such kind words of support to my family and me.  The amount of love that has been shown these past two years is really beautiful and has been so appreciated.   

Green Thumb

Wow, it has seriously been too long since I've last shared my work with you!  To play quick catch up - I'm now in the third quarter of my freshman year at SCAD.  I only have 8 more weeks to go till I'm back home to the lovely fields of Indiana.  Savannah is gorgeous, but I'm starting to miss open space, and the smell of dirt, and the sound of birds as they start to migrate back north.

During my week of spring break I started planting a small garden and fixing up my backyard.  I wanted to start a project that gave me a break from creating constantly.  I forgot how much I missed the smell of dirt as one works with it.  There's nothing better than a slightly rainy day in spring and working in the garden and feeling satisfied.  I still have a lot to fix up, but I'm hoping by the time I go back home the backyard will look brand new and there will be a few vegetables for my roommates!

 

Outfit:

Kaftan:  Handmade Esther from the Sticks

Maxi dress and necklace:  Red Clover Boutique

 

 

Photography:  Esther Boller

I made my Kaftan throw over just the other day.  It''s made from chiffon and I'm thinking of making another one in a jersey knit.  I'll be posting a tutorial on how to make one in my next post!  A Kaftan is such an easy garment to make and you don't even need a lot of sewing experience to make one.  If you can sew a few inches, then you can definitely make this garment!

As far as other projects, school tends to take up most of my work time, but I have made a couple dresses that I'm looking forward to sharing with you!  I also have some school projects from last quarter that I plan on sharing soon once I find the time to document it all.
I hope you're all having a fantastic spring so far!

Metal Beaded Necklace

I made a new variation a few weeks back of the Multi-Colored Beaded Necklace (the link goes to the tutorial).  I played around with some different beads, and I used a chain instead of ribbon as the neck tie.  I'm really enjoying making these necklaces, because they're something that I easily pick up at anytime.  Whenever I need a short creative break from drawing or painting for my classes, I'll work on a necklace. 

 

^Inspiration journal page. 

I'm currently working on sewing a new dress whenever I have a bit of free time between school and work.  I'm really excited to share the finished piece with you!  I'm making it for a photo shoot idea which is going to be carnival inspired.

Happy Valentines Day!

Catch a Sunday

The other weekend it was a beautiful day in Savannah and a perfect time for a photo shoot!  Lately trench coats have been a go to garment that I always pull from my wardrobe.  It always makes me feel put together even when it's just thrown over a t-shirt and pair of jeans - which is especially great for those mornings when there's not much time to get ready (like when one's alarm clock goes off at the wrong hour and there's only 10 minutes to get to class.  Cough, cough.  I need a better alarm clock).

Outfit

Trench Coat and backpack:  JollyChic.com

Leather shorts and blouse:  Thrifted + DIY work

Boots:  Red Clover Boutique 

Here's a page from my styling journal and inspiration photos for this shoot:

Catch A Tuesday from Oliver Peoples on Vimeo.

A very special thanks to my lovely friend Carly for taking a few behind the scene shots of this self portrait shoot for me!  Photographing in a city is very different than photographing in the country.  There are many more people walking around on streets than in the middle of country fields so there's more to be mindful of, but it's fun having this change of environment!

 I've been back in Savannah for over a month now and it's still so hard to believe that it's been that long. I feel like I was in Indiana with the cold weather just last week. (I'm sorry northerners I know it's freezing where you're at right now.)

I hope you're all having a great weekend so far!  What's your go to outfit when you don't have much time to get ready?

Custom Wedding Dress: Beaded Leaf Gown

This past summer I was contacted about making a custom-fitted wedding gown for a client in Australia.  She’d been following my blog for a while and remembered the Beaded Leaf Gown that I made way back in the 9th grade.  [If you follow the link  - you know that moment when you look back on an old diary page and think, "I can't believe I wrote like that!"?  Well I just had that moment.  Please don't judge my middle school writing style too harshly.  Haha I was only 14-years-old at the time.] 

She asked if I could remake the Beaded Leaf Gown into a wedding dress her size.  I'd already wanted to remake this dress, because there were a lot of kinks in the construction of the first design.   This time I was able to sew it without any of the technical problems that I ran into when I first made it.  Therefore, when she asked me to make it for her wedding dress I was excited with the idea of recreating it! 

 

As I can remember, my inspiration was layered leaves.  The bodice is in the shape of a maple leaf, as well as the leaves around the skirt waistline.  The skirt leaves are inspired by elongated leaves that are each cut separately and then sewn into the waistline of the skirt overlay.  There is beading along all of the skirt leaves and two of the waistline side leaves.  This is to give a subtle emphasis to the leaf shape. 

The invisible zipper was sewn into the back.  Because I had panels of leaves overlapping each other along the waistline, I added hooks and eyes in the back of the panel so they could overlap the zipper and flow like the rest of the dress.

All of the appliqué on the front bodice was hand sewn on top of tulle into the pattern of a maple leaf.  Each piece of appliqué is about 2 inches in diameter.  Once it was hand sewn I lined up the tulle darts with the bodice darts, and hand sewed the tulle down into the bodice fabric, because doing so gives a better fit without warping or sagging.   [This was an issue that I had with my first dress - I sewed the appliqué onto tulle without sewing darts first. ]

The applique in this gown is actually cut up pieces from this 1980s dress that I got at Goodwill on 50%off day way back in middle school.  I was really happy when I found a photo of the same dress online just to see the before and after!   

Overall, the construction of this dress took about 150 hours to make.  What I find funny is that if you look back at my post from 2010, I've really learned to enjoy hand sewing and fine detail work since then.  It's something that I look forward to in designing now.  It’s funny to look back on that post; considering the title is, "Never want to hand sew again!!"  Ha

 The gown was packed and shipped to Australia in the beginning of January.  This was my first wedding gown that I made for someone, and I feel like I learned so much about the process!