photos by ROD HASSE of Promotion House

www.promotionhouse.com

my photos (i told you there were BAD)

VOLTAGE...the setting

i have now completed 2 fashion shows in my career. in some ways i feel like a fish out of water and when i feel even the slightest bit uncertain of myself, i tend to over-do things... particularly when it comes to preparations. (this is something that i get from my mother) this is the box that i dropped off at first ave before the show last friday. as i mentioned before, i simply had to hand off my work and the stylist would do the rest. of course i needed to make sure they knew my intentions, so i included an image of the outfit & jewelry on each box ... control-freak? maybe a little...

it was fun to see the pre-show preparations and the empty venue. i had never been to a voltage show before, so i didn't know exactly what to expect. i particularly enjoyed seeing glimpses of the way the operation was organized. hair and make-up stations were busy preparing model after model. each clothing designer was given a specific hair style and all 10 models were styled the same way. arwyn's models had their hair down, with a braided band of hair right at their hair-line and then a hat. ivan idland's models had these black ribbons that wrapped their heads, emily weich's models had netting for headbands, amanda christine's models' hair was ratted and adorned with colorful flowers ... on and on and very cool!

the show started at 9pm and it (essentially) ran in 30 minute segments. one band would play an average of 4 songs: the models for one designer would start walking at the start of the second song. there would be a brief dimming of the lights between the first and second designers and then the second designer's models would walk. by the time the band was on their last song, all of the models would make their final walk followed by the designer. then the band would come out and walk the runway with the designer who outfitted them. there would be a short intermission (with house music playing to keep the energy up) and then the next band would start and the system would start all over again. this process was repeated at total of 5 times that night. pretty cool concept and very fun ... the place was PACKED!
when each person entered, they received their very own look book for/from the 2009 show that featured each band & band designer and each clothing designer first in a "group" photo on the first page and then again on their individual pages. at the back of the book, there were photos of all of the voltage committee, the stylists, the design panel and web design & development team as well as a list of local shops where items & music could be purchased. it is meant to be a resource for local fashion & music and something that you save...

this is arwyn's page and an example of the spread that each designer was given: huge name, a photo, bio, website and a professional fashion photo that was taken months ago (which was fun to be a part of.) my name & website is listed on the page under jewelry. i love the way my jewelry reads in the photo!

right when the doors opened, my friends and i parked ourselves at the end of the runway - and were able to sit on a half wall next to the ramp that leads to the main floor. the perfect place, right? above the main floor just enough to see over the sea of heads, a place to sit so our feet don't ache and an aisle next to us to keep us from getting crowded-in..... it was a great place to be - until this tall, broad-shouldered guy - with a hat on his big head came and stood right in front of us! no kidding. i have Z.E.R.O good pictures from the show ... thank goodness i met a photographer nearby who did take some good shots - so that i can share them with you in my next posts!

back in the sPRing of things...

i will be the first to admit that i've been in a rut since the new year. teaching threw my schedule (and my perfectionist-brain) into a tizzy, our housemates' newborn baby has my mind thinking about my own family, and quite frankly the economy has had me questioning what i'm doing. silvercocoon was founded in the spring of 2001 as a venue for me to sell the things that i make (i've always made things) but after september 11th, i went out and got a job and chalked the two 10-artist-sales that i organized as a hobby. i'll admit i have recently considered looking for more stable work, but i figure i should instead look for the lesson in having taken that route once before....i gained valuable retail & design experience and product knowledge during my years at redlurered and IKEA. taking that route then was the right decision at that time in my life. but i feel now that i am in a different place in my life as well as in my "making of things" i recognize that what i am doing now is essentially what i have been working towards my whole life and i owe it to myself to try to get it right. ..... perhaps i shouldn't always be so hard on myself. it is normal to be cyclical, like the seasons, like the grass that has transformed our yard to green again. rest is as important as action - if only so that we can recognize the difference....

these are the things that have been racing through my brain lately (you understand why i have been holding my blogging-tongue)

so, the VOLTAGE fashion show is tomorrow night. i'm excited that is has finally arrived...am thrilled that i'll be able to watch the show this time, and i cannot wait to finally be able to post images of the pieces that i've been developing for the past months. i see now that the creative process saved me yet again, pulling me out of my fears of failure and back into the joy of discovery: sketching new ideas, testing new techniques and materials, pushing and pulling to transform old into new, like the grass. i'm excited to share and will begin posting next week about them, so tay tuned....

"green" grass for easter

my son's easter basket

acrylic brooches

i'm now able to make {colorful} acrylic brooches to compliment the wood versions i've been making since last fall. i've been sporting this one on my black "puffy vest" .... an attempt to coax warmer (spring) weather back into our region. i am so thankful for the SUN the last two days -- it's a good start.....

creating a meal

it is telling of the excitement in our house these days - that it has taken one week for me to get around to blogging about this little dinner that i hosted for the "IKEA girls" {a small group of us, who worked together at IKEA have continued to keep in touch via a monthly dinner that we take turns hosting} i haven't hosted since our house-mates arrived from finland last august, and given the fact that one of my house-mates was 9 months pregnant on the night i was to host, i took the opportunity to host the dinner in the airstream this time. it turned out to be a cold day, despite glimpses of spring weather prior, so i cranked-up the space heater, cleaned the place up (from a previous "boys night") and did about 15 minutes worth of decorating. wish i would have had time to get some FRESH flowers.....

i kept the menu simple - considering the fact that the food needed to be transported (through the cold air) from the house to the camper, and since i really wanted to host the party exclusively in the airstream, i focused on food that could be made relatively in advance. i whipped-up (no recipe) a SPRING ROLL salad: made with vermicilli-rice noodles, sliced romain lettuce, bean sprouts and julianed carrots, cucumbers and red peppers. i made a simple dressing with vinegar, oil, soy sauce & sugar and topped with freshly roasted/crushed peanuts. and FRIED RICE: i started with fresh garlic and onions in some grapeseed oil, then added some diced sausage and let it cook-up before adding already-cooked jasmine rice to the pan. i then drizzled/squirted a good amount of soy sauce (not enough to make the rice brown, though!) and a bit of fish sauce and stirred to mix throughly, before making a hole in the middle of the rice so that i could see the bottom of the pan. i then cracked 2 eggs into that hole, added salt to the egg, and began mixing it all up so the egg started to coat the rice. once the egg wass evening mixed, i stirred periodically until i could hear the rice start to "fry" ... this is when i added the vegetables, adding a bit of salt with them so they take on some flavor. i added fresh snap peas, broccoli and red pepper this time, but my fried rice is different every time.

for desert i decided to try a new cookie recipe that my dear friend, meg, forwarded to me from parenting.com -- the SUMO SWEETS won the top prize in their recent cookie bake-off bonaza. they are very different from the types of cookies that i would normally make, but they sure are tasty! (so tasty in fact, i made a second batch the following day for a shower i was going to!) things i learned: i prefer cutting the white sugar down - either by half (1/2 cup), or by adjusting both sugars and doing half white half brown sugar (3/4 cup each). i also didn't use nearly as much of the honey as they say you need and feel that could be cut in half (while maintaining the same amount of wasabi powder). perhaps the most important part is with the bake time - follow their instructions - they look a bit under-cooked at the 8-10 minute mark, but they taste better than if you let them cook until they look more "done" -- if they start to get golden-brown, you've cooked them too long. if you put the honey on immediately, it kind of gets absorbed into the cookie, which is really lovely, but be sure you sprinkle the sesame seeds right away so that they stick to the honey before it gets absorbed. i honey&sprinkled them in batches of 3 instead of doing the whole sheet and going back to sprinkle. i must admit, it felt pretty good to see that mine looked just like the picture they provided. YUM> i highly recommend them!