Rachel E. Pollock's Blog: La Bricoleuse aggregate and more..., page 9

Book Review: Hand Painted Textiles

 

Hand-Painted Textiles: A Practical Guidel to the Art of Painting on Fabric by Sarah Campbell is an excellent new title on various ways to create patterns on textiles. Full of full-color photographs of various technique samples, the book is no only an excellent reference manual but also a beautiful compendium of vivid artwork.

The book is aimed at a general reader, someone interested in creating pattern on fabric for personal projects or home decor who may have some familiarity with painting or textiles, but it's not an art-class textbook or a textile-science reference. The language is accessible and clear, and she explains things in detail, such as when she covers all the different options beyond a traditional paintbrush that one might use to apply a colorant to a textile--sticks, feathers, sponges, etc.

Some chapters are framed such that the reader could explore a single technique on a project of their own devising, such as the section on potato printing (creating stamps with potatoes and stamping patterns on fabric)--she explains the technique and illustrates how it can be used in a range of different ways, to inspire the reader to create their own designs.

It can probably be chalked up to the fact that this book seems to be aimed at a novice reader and is written by a UK author, but there is very little information about the types of paints and inks she uses--no brand names, no explanations about the composition. She mentions a preference for heat-set products, but no explanation as to what the advantage of that is or why heat-setting is necessary.

The book includes a list of suppliers located in the UK, the US, and Canada, at which one might purchase many different tools and various products for painting on fabric. This is an excellent introductory text for someone who wants to explore painting on fabric and would benefit from the many full-color photos of many different applications/examples. A good book, perhaps too introductory for a college course but great for a home crafter with an interest in this topic.

I received an ARC of this title from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Creative Business Handbook by Ekaterina Popova and A...

 

The Creative Business Handbook by Ekaterina Popova and Alicia Puig is a useful guide for anyone with a creative hobby or side-hustle that is thinking about turning it into a business. What does that even entail? 

This book will help you formulate a concept for your creative business (beyond "I love to make [whatever] and maybe people will pay for it"), and then walk you through how to launch your business, how to think about it like an executive, marketing, generating sales, and how to scale up once you experience success.

Each section includes interviews with successful creative entrepreneurs full of valuable advice from their experience. It's almost like a "business success bootcamp" aimed at creatives--lots of excellent mentorship packed into one book. 

I admit that by the time I finished this book, I was certain that launching my own creative business was NOT something I wanted to do, so be aware that once you learn about all that it would entail and read all the interviews with people who've succeeded, you might come out the other side of it deciding that it's not for you. Which honestly, is also enormously valuable and good to know.

Highly recommend if you've ever thought about turning your art/craft into a business, income stream, etc.

I received an ARC of this title from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Book Review: The Costume Designer's Toolkit

 

Thank every MF star in the sky that Holly Poe Durbin has written this desperately needed book. 

Honestly, people have been teaching costume design using textbooks written before the internet and smartphones, because there wasn't any updated references since Covey & Ingham's Costume Designer's Handbook (1983);

That book is now an interesting peek into how designers did their work prior to the ubiquity of computers/software, instant digital communication, etc., but it's as helpful as a book on shoeing horses for a car mechanic now. (That's a hyperbolic comparison, but the point is that this new text of Durbin's was SO BADLY NEEDED.)

Durbin breaks down the job to the absolute basics, so this is potentially a good text for an Intro to Costume Design course, but she also dives deep in terms of how the design process scales up from the expectations of a theatre with a one-person costume department to a big- budget production where the designer has a dedicated team of production artists for draped/tailored made-to-measure costumes (or, how the designer overhires/contracts people for such things). So whether a professor is teaching students who don't know what a "costume crafts artisan" is/does at the beginning of the class, or students who don't know how to find/hire one at a theatre without a crafts artisan on staff, this is an excellent textbook choice.

I love that Durbin addresses what's required conceptually in terms of creative freedom and exploration at the beginning of the process, but also devotes a setion to "Feasibility," and how basically a designer can stay true to the aesthetic spirit of their design while remaining mindful of the parameters of budget and time. It's difficult--especially for young designers--to take a concept that would be incredible with an international opera company's budget behind it and figure out where to prioritize/compromise/reconceive for a small regional theatre with more limited resources.

Much like in the other related book in this series, The Costume Supervisor's Toolkit (which I also recently reviewed), it's fantastic to find coverage of post-opening roles of the designer in terms of costuming understudies/swings, which is invaluable in the age of COVID when those performers are much more likely to go on at all levels of production and will need costumes.

This book's appendix is helpful as well--sample resume structure. A costume designer's resume does not look like "traditional" resumes for corporate jobs. This will help students and young designers begin to compile their own resume according to a useful format, rather than trying to figure out how to shoehorn their work into a standard corporate template from a career development center.

In conclusion, this is a much-needed reference for the professional libraries of all contemporary costume studios/departments, and an excellent option for a new and high-relevant textbook in costume design courses at all levels--introductory to advanced.

 

Disclosures: This book is published by Routledge, which also published my book, A History of the Theater Costume Business: Creators of Character. I received a complimentary review copy but with no expectation of a public review of this sort, good or bad. Useful info tho: All their titles are 20% off right now!

I have also worked with the author--she designed a show at the theatre where I work some years ago. I have a generally positive professional impression of her but we are not currently coworkers, friends, or otherwise such that I would feel "obligated" to review the book positively if I read it and felt otherwise.

Book Review: The Costume Supervisor's Toolkit

 

The Costume Supervisor's Toolkit by Rebecca Pride fills a broad gap in the recorded knowledge in the field of theatre costuming. 

Much has been written about costume design, and there is a wealth of knowledge in textbooks and online sources about patternmaking, clothing construction and various costume crafts. And because every industry requires management staff, it's not difficult to find plenty of information about general personnel and project management. But this book is a must-have reference manual for costume studio libraries and a handy guidebook for any costumier who aspires to a supervisory role. 

Pride has written it drawing not only upon her own extensive experience but also a series of interviews conducted with several other experienced professionals in the field and related areas (such as wardrobe supervision). 

The book is not written for a complete novice--Pride presumes that the reader has a basic understanding of the costume design process and clothing construction procedures (meaning, that custom clothing starts as flat fabric that is sewn into garments, etc). This isn't a manual for how to do any of that stuff, but rather how to supervise the workflow of a team of specialists who do in order to turn a set of designs into a collection of costumes to be worn in performance.

Chapters are devoted to various aspects of the job--hiring a team, budgeting, support for rehearsals, etc. The technical rehearsal process and the costume team's responsibilities in that period is covered in-depth as well, which--as a professional in the field--is wonderful to read a detailed record on. I'm thrilled to find a section covering understudy fittings, something formerly frequently neglected but in the age of COVID, a requisite aspect of the process which must be prioritized.

It's worth noting that Pride and the professionals she consulted are all working in the British theatre. She addresses the differences and similarities between the UK professional theatre/performing arts industry and that of the US and other nations. The scope of this book is not global, but it is an excellent resource for those working in professional theatre in Europe/North America, and perhaps other areas as well, depending on the similarities/differences in the way costumes are produced at the professional level.

The book includes several helpful appendices--a glossary, a list of sources in the UK/US/Europe for costume studio supplies/rentals, and more.

In conclusion, I highly recommend this book for professional costume studios' reference libraries, educators, new-career costumers considering a focus in supervision, and also those who've been in the field for some time. It will be helpful to literally anyone already in the field or interested in learning more about it.

Disclosure: this book is published by Routledge; I am a fellow Routledge author (A History of the Theatre Costume Business). I did receive a review copy of this book but my thoughts on it in this reviw are impartial and unsolicited.

Book review: Cosplay Fabric FX 👍👍

 

I unreservedly recommend Jennifer Franchini's Cosplay Fabric FX: Painting, Dyeing, & Weathering Costumes Like a Pro. This book, lavishly illustrated with full-color photographs and illustrations, is fantastic, full of great information and technique documentation, advice on approaching the aging of costumes, and excellent safety precautions.

The author has a background in costume for film/theatre, and many of the references, media, and techniques she documents in the book are industry standard-practice and probably some that once were closely-guarded "trade secrets," prior to the advent of the internet.

Franchini structures the book in four parts: planning, dyeing, destruction (aka weathering, aging, or distressing), and painting. She's writing with a cosplay production paradigm in mind but the information is fantastic for theatrical/film costume makers (the perspective from which I'm writing this review) as well. It's great to have an applicable reference for costumers that's more recently published than the go-to text Fabric Painting & Dyeing for the Theatre by Deborah Dryden, which was first published in 1981 and now out of print.

I admit that safe work practice is often where my concerns lie with resources written primarily for the cosplay audience--because these books are often not brought out by textbook/reference publishers, it's often obvious that no industrial safety officer or health inspector has been consulted on the safe use of methods and media covered. And in adding those books to my professional library at the studio, I consult them with the same inquisitive perspective  that I do old trade manuals that predate OSHA and recommend practices like "rinse your felt hat in gasoline." Some of the techniques are great, but how can I adapt them to safety requirements of my employer.

Franchini opens the book with a section on safety and it's fantastic to see a reference aimed at the cosplay community that mentions the existence of Safety Data Sheets, how to read them and interpret them, and what kinds of PPE to consider. 

The inclusion of basic color theory explanations and charts are helpful for novices and a great refresher for those with prior experience in costume painting/dyeing. The chapter on dyeing contains good, accurate information about the dyeing process without an exhaustive amount of information on that extremely complex topic--those with an interest in textile dyeing can literally delve so deep in that subject as to pursue a PhD, but such depth is unnecessary for most costume applications. Franchini covers enough ground to make it clear that not all desired outcomes are possible on all textiles, and to at least give the reader a bit of insight into WHY you can't dye a polyester jumpsuit deep black with Rit in a washing machine.

The chapter on distressing documents many techniques that have previously largely been taught in apprenticeship situations--aging a costume in a way that survives the cleaning process and doesn't actually damage the piece to render it unwearable. I admit to a frustration with a costume/cosplay aging resources out there on YouTube/TikTok where people advocate methods like running over garments with vehicles or wearing them while rolling around in mud. Those methods forfeit control over the outcome and are not durable or repeatable. This book offers better options.

The section on costume painting is also excellent, from its introduction to the various products available on the market today, to the techniques one might use to create stains, toning, and emphasis of topography.

In conclusion, while I won't stop using the Dryden text as a reference (until the reputedly-forthcoming updated edition comes out), this new title by Franchini is an invaluable contemporary supplement, and an excellent reference for cosplayer and other costumers wanting to learn more about these processes.

How to Use a Gravity-Feed Iron || Höt-Steam SGB-900

How to Use an Industrial Hat Steamer || Jiffy Steamer

Theatre Transparency Initiative || #fairpay

Aging Angel’s dress (full length) || #weathering #distressing

Jobs Former Costumers Love || #cosy2022