Pussy Whiskers

Pussy Whiskers, digital image by Pearl Red Moon, 2014

Two weeks until the opening of my Sydney exhibition and I'm working hard on preparing digital images for reproduction at large scale on photographic paper. The art will be on the walls along with the clothes that have made from the textiles printed with my art.

This image is called Pussy Whiskers and will be 50cm x 160cm when reproduced.

Lucy tunic

Lucy at Dawn, digital image, Pearl Red Moon 2011

I created this image "Lucy at Dawn" in 2011 and have applied it in numerous ways in my art. The latest incarnation is as this textile "Lucy Illuminata". Printed on polyester knit the image is 150cm wide and the repeat 130cm.

The textile repeat "Lucy Illuminata", 150cm wide x 130cm long

This is the tunic top I designed for the textile. The green and orange print on the facings, sleeves and sides is cotton voile and another of my designs

Lucy tunic, front

back of Lucy tunic, which features the larger version of the image

Exhibition previews

        

"Orange Shift" is another of the garments to show in my exhibition - "WEAR my ART" - opening July 28th, at Breathing Colours Gallery, 446 Darling St, Balmain, Sydney.

Cotton knit with appliques and hand stencilling. The mauve/orange cotton voile fabric used for the appliques, facing and hems is one of my original prints. The florescent pink patterns are hand printed by me.

Its a bit African inspired I think....

front of Orange shift

The Prayer

"The Prayer" digital manipulation by Pearl Red Moon, July 2014

new designs in my prints

I've been working away steadily for the last few months making new clothing designs and getting fabric printed with my art. Heres some of my recent creations

Green Woman tunic with my painting shown behind it

Sashi tunic. The beautiful image of an Algerian woman is an archival photo, late C19

Sunspot Daisy, with my original artwork on the wall behind, acrylic painting/collage

There are another 12 designs I haven't "revealed" yet.

My plan has been to publish and sell the patterns as pdf. But its been about 30 years since I did my trade certificate in patternmaking and though I've continually kept designing and making since then I haven't done much size grading. I keep prevaricating because I feel so daunted to take on that technical task.

I hope something will push me to "bite the bullet' soon!

Any comments on my designs are very welcome!

Red Moon, green eyes

playing with Photoshop again tonight

Tessuti Competition

Today I sent off pictures of two garments I designed for a sewing competition. The fabric shop Tessuti sponsors an annual competition where you can make anything you choose, but everybody has to use the same fabric. The  fabric offered was a knit in either a black/white or beige/white stripe. I decided to go with the beige because it would be more challenging for me to work with.

The Tessuti fabric shop has outlets in Melbourne and Sydney, according to their website, but I have only ever made purchases from their online shop. They have a wonderful range of fabrics and the service is very prompt.

http://tessuti.blogspot.com.au/   go to the Jaywalk competition to see the entries

I really hate being photographed, so this is likely the only time you'll ever see me modelling my own designs in a picture! It was a condition of entry that the garment had to be photographed on a person.

Trinity tunic, showing fullness and cut

back of Veronica tunic, the cut is the same at the front, just a lower neckline

Trinity tunic

Veronica tunic, sleeveless but shown worn over a top

Rhonda's Creative Life: Monday Morning Inspiration

Rhonda's Creative Life: Monday Morning Inspiration

Posting this link to a blog I follow. These are truly awesome creations by iconic designer Issey Miyake.

design by Issey Miyake, 2014

Wear my art is no empty slogan...

I read this a few days ago and it really resonated.

Its hard to make a living out of art and hard to make a living out of designing or manufacturing clothes. So being one who has more optimism than good sense I have combined these 3 really hard things into the one thing I'm striving to make some sort of  "living" out of.

Being 55 now I've seen the effects of globalisation on the fashion industry in Australia and New Zealand in the last 30 years. I trained as a pattern maker and sample machinist in 1984 and made an adequate living out of designing clothes, manufacturing, running a small retail outlet and wholesaling for a couple of years after that. After moving to Australia in 1986 I decided to stay home and do outwork sewing so I could be a better single parent to my 6 year old son. Initially I made good money doing patternmaking, sample making and short runs for small fashion companies in Sydney but by 1992 I was struggling to make an hourly rate of $10 because so much of the manufacturing had relocated to third world countries where the rates of pay were inconceivably low - the $10 an hour rate of pay which put me into (genteel first world version) poverty was more than most of those workers earned for a 50 hour week!!! Can you get your head around that...?!

By the turn of this century women workers in the clothing manufacturing industries in Australia/NZ were disenfranchised in droves and left the industry. Hundreds of years and knowledge and skill left with them....

In the next few decades things will gradually regain a better balance as overseas third world workers overcome in a struggle with those who exploit them to gain decent working conditions and wages....however, thats no great solace to me at this point as I'm intensely negotiating my own struggle to create some sort of sustainable "business model" which combines the things I love doing - art and clothing design. After years of inchoate longing to do this I finally started taking the risky steps late last year, when I cut back my working hours to only 10 a week. I've been really happy and satisfied these last few months going as often as I can to my design studio and making things for sale. The local Murrurundi women have been immensely supportive and buy items from my retail shop often enough that the business costs break even. THANKS!!! My wonderful husband is the one who enables all this to continue for a while longer because he is prepared to support me financially while I try to figure out and instigate a profit making business model....

That process of creating a more secure and consistent way of generating income is still unfolding. Its very tough trying to compete with a K-Mart or Millers style that sells for $20-50 when this is frequently more than the cost of the fabric for me!

The latest concept I'm working toward is to set up 3 tiers of product. I will market a range of my clothing patterns (1) offer kits that have my original textile designs sufficient to make up the design plus the pattern (2) and offer clothing made to order from either my textile design or other fabrics (3). Its taking a while to develop the patterns as they have to include detailed instructions with photos and diagrams so I think it will be about another 2-3 weeks before I'll revive my Etsy shop to market this newly conceived range of items.

These are 2 of the designs which will be the first I'll be offering...

Close up of "Domino" showing my textile prints

Domino tunic

Green Woman tunic

New textile designs

Some of the new fabrics I've been designing lately....

Golden Sashi

Sashi

Stripes and spots contrast for Sashi

I did well in the Murrurundi Art Show. I won the section "Fibres and Textiles" with my dress featuring the digital image "Petal". My acrylic/textile painting "Chrysalis Woman" achieved a Highly Commended (this artwork is featured in my textile "The Green Woman")