Rachel E. Pollock's Blog: La Bricoleuse aggregate and more..., page 6

Top differences: industrial vs domestic sewing machines

Book Review: Straw Plaiting

Attention spiral braid hatmakers!

In a nutshell, this book is an invaluable reference on an area of millinery previously only minimally documented, as well as the crafts of woven and braided straw in the making of mats, bags, and other items.

Author Veronica Main has conducted an enormous amount of research globally to document the history of straw plaiting as a craft, art, and trade in various cultures around the world. Those chapters are interesting for the cultural and historical scope--I learned about the connection between plaiting straw for bonnetmaking and other fashion uses in the 18th century and the establishment of "plaiting schools" in which children were taught to read as well as the making of specialized plaits. The fraught relationship between the value of straw plaiting as a trade and the economic power it granted to the women who gained expertise in it is also important and interesting.

The second half of the book is a manual of clearly-illustrated instructions in how different styles of straw plaits are made, for readers who want to experimemt with this heritage craft. The documentation of these techniques--particularly the more elaborate multi-strand styles--is wonderful and may also be of interest for practitioners of related crafts, such as hair braiding and yarncrafts.

The full-color hardcover book, at over 300 pages, is almost more of a coffee-table art book in format, although it's an important reference volume and will go into the workroom library at my millinery studio.

Highly, highly recommend if you are interested in learning more about this niche topic

 

Book Review: Making Silk Flowers

 

Finally! A contemporary book on the art of making fabric flowers-- the full-color 200+-page hardback title Making Silk Flowers by Anne Tomlin (Crowood Press). I am entirely serious that my prior go-to reference on this topic has been the 1926 title by Georgina Kerr Kaye, Millinery for Every Woman, which positioned itself as a manual on the art and craft of millinery with an extensive section on fabric/ribbon flower-making.

This book is less of an instructional manual as it is almost an artist's manifesto--Tomlin details how she analyzes botanical specimens and replicates them in fabric, and the reader may use that information to inform their own practice. She discusses the tools and techniques she uses, delves into colors and dyes, and then dives into copying flowers arranged by the season in which they bloom.

In a similar structure to the Kaye text, Tomlin sequences her construction method information by flower type--lily of the valley, rose, pansy, etc., taking the reader through each step of her process with full-color detail photographs (unlike the hand-drawn monochrome illustrations of Kaye's book). 

For each flower covered, there's a stuning color photo of it in its final place adorning hats or in decorative vase arrangements or simply as a single flower stem. She separates out Leaves into a standalone chapter, which is useful in that not all faux flowers need leaves and vice versa.

Tomlin includes an appendix of her hand-drawn petal/leaf pattern templates, a helpful glossary and resource list, as well as an index.

Highly recommended reference volume for millinery studios and couturieres/decorators with an interest in such things.

Buckram Alternative: Phifertex

Millinery Buckram Alternative: French Canvas

Book Review: Slow Productivity

 

I listened to this audiobook because I'd read a couple of the author's prior books--Deep Work and Digital Minimalism--snd it seemed interesting enough. 

 Surprisingly, he has some interesting proposals for reimagining workflow, time management, and tasklists that I'd like to discuss with colleagues.

Newport's intended readership is what he refers to as "knowledge workers," basically white-collar office-drone types who spend their days on Slack/Teams and answering endless emails. This includes writers and perhaps also academics, and I'm curious how some of his strategies would translate to a paradigm like theatrical production, perhaps even on a level as granular as costume making.

Recommend if you feel like you can never catch up to your to-do list.

What’s happening to buckram? || #millinery

Midcentury Turban Project Vlog

...including how I made a substitute for no-longer-sold blocking net!

How I Gradient-Dye a Costume || #ombre

Book Review: Mask Making Techniques by Mary McClung

 

Ever since I read about this Mask Making Techniques title, back when it was just a "Forthcoming" listing on the publisher's website, I'd wondered how it compared to the author Mary McClung's other similar and fantastic book, Foam Patterning and Construction Techniques (published 2016, reviewed previously here). They have similar subtitles--Creating 3D Characters from 2D Designs for Theatre, Cosplay, Film, & TV vs. Turning 2D Designs into 3D Shapes.

I feared it might have considerable overlap, or be basically a retitled second edition of the first, but those fears were unfounded. It's a completely different book although with some crossover topics covered in both. Basically, Mask Making Techniques is a must-have for mascot/character costume artists who require more formal guidance on making full-head creature masks than YouTube videos by furries [1].

After a short section musing on masking and its various significances in cultural and theatrical contexts, McClung dives into a fantastic and comprehensive chapter on mask design, design principles in general. working collaboratively with a designer as a maker, and practical factors to consider (like the wearer's sight/hearing)

McClung is a talented illustrator as well, and includes hand-drawn sketches of many of the principles and topic examples. I particularly appreciate the diagrams of support structure for horns, ears, and antennae, and the illustration of variable scale of the costume head compared to the physique of the performer.

I'm always thrilled when a book dedicates a significant quantity of text to safety and protective/cautionary practice. This one has a whole chapter of tips and advice, from the media-specific (solid vs gaseous inhalants) to the general (how to store goggles and other eye protection PPE).

McClung surveys various media for making large scale masks, from foams to thermoplastics to fiberglass and even gourds. She also goes through options for foundation-skinning fabrics, from spandex to fleece to fake fur and more, and includes stitches to use when sewing plus techniques for painting/shading/toning the skinned heads.

There's also a whole section of mask projects documented start to finish. This is a fantastic resource because when you make these kinds of pieces, you're always figuring it out for the first one, which might be a prototype that becomes the real thing, but might be a prototype that illustrates how NOT to do it. Reading about how other artists made similar pieces only helps in the decisions you make along the way to creating your own.

You may also be wondering how this book compares to another recent mask-centric text, Meaden & Brown's Theatre Masks Out Side In (published 2023, reviewed previously here). The Meaden/Brown book is specific to theatre masks, dating back to the Greeks and masked theatrical traditions throughout the history of dramatic art, as well as the making of those masks in the continuing tradition of Commedia and other masked performance modalities. It's more steeped in the academic theatrical tradition and would be a great text for a masked performance class that might involve a component of making simple masks.

McClung's text is more specific to contemporary character costume and full-head masks of the sort we now see among costumed entertainers like sports mascots, branded characters, fursuiters, monsters in haunt attractions, and so forth. As a maker, McClung's is more relevant to the types of masks I create for contemporary production work, and definitely for clients outside the realm of traditional theatre.

[1] No disrespect to furry YouTubers! I'm grateful for their expertise and enthusiasm for sharing information! I work in academia and academic institutions want official textbooks for classes and reference books for libraries tho, and this fills that need.