Below are some recent in progress images of the topography piece in progress.
For the image of base of skirt below Colleen says "We have worked on 8 panels and 15 more panels to go."
Detail of front in progress.
Here is the paper pattern being crafted.
Colleen sent me these images today. It took two full days to construct this sleeve. The print drew inspiration from San Jose's City Hall, Spanish tile roofs and Eichler homes. Colleen's sleeve is a gestural reference to the City Hall rotunda.
Front view of Topography sleeve.
Colleen Quen:
"Of course my shape has a little distortion of the City Hall in San Jose. It's symbolically showing the gesture. This is looking inside the sleeve. The complexity and building of structure needed to create the shape as well as my engineered pattern cut of sleeve."
In the last few days Colleen has been sending me images of her process of creating a garment pattern. She studied French couture and was an engineer in a prior career so she has that special mix of left and right side of the brain working in her artistic creations! A lot of math goes into her pattern drafting (I saw math equations on her initial pattern pieces). This really the best part of the project for me....seeing the process of other artists who work in very different media.
Musiln of sleeves for topography garment.
Here Colleen maps off sections with tape. This is to determine pattern shapes for the topography garment.
back view of topography pattern markings.
More pattern work for topograpy garment.
Sleeve pattern pieces for topography garment.
Huge (I mean huge) patten for base of topography garment. This photo was taken from Colleen's second story balcony looking down onto her showroom.
Start of designing frame structure of emotion piece. This garment will be hanging.
64 of these forms will hang from the emotion piece to form a sort of lantern skirt.
At our meeting last week, Colleen Quen shared her initial pattern studies. I was awed by how much hand work will go into these garments and was struck by how inventive and intricate these creations will be.
Colleen Quen with dress form and pattern sketch.
Colleen's pattenr sketch of the diameter of the hanging garment cage frame from which the lantern like pieces will dangle.
Colleen explaining the haning lantern like shapes. She will be creating 60 or so of these!
Fabrics from Spoonflower and from Kent State University's School of Fashion's TechStyleLAB
Colleen Quen's Emotion Piece sketch
Colleen Quen's Emotion piece concept sketch
Colleen Quen's Topography piece concept sketch
Last week the Surface and Shape design team had a meeting at Rick Lee and Colleen Quen's studio. It was so inspiring to see the models and sketches. Rick Lee had refined his design to be a reflective structure reminiscent of cloud computing.
Wonderful scale model of environment installation. The metal will have perferations to enable it to bend easier. These stitch-like punctures will allude nicely to the hand stitchwork of Colleen's gowns.
Top View of Rick Lee's installation model. It reminds me of cloud computing. The different colors show different sections of model.
Original paper pattern sketch.
Digital pattern sketch.
Rick explaining materials.
Earlier model
aluminum material sample.
Hanging wire and attachements for suspension. Piece will weigh betwen 300-500 pounds.
I created this video below to show some of the initial process of my collaboration with Colleen Quen, Rick Lee and the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles.
I just ordered some yardage of secondary fabrics for the fusionwear sv project. I revisited a few of the designs to add texture and a bit more meaning. Below I added Japanese, Chinese and Mexican food wrappers to the motif to reference these cultures that contributed greatly to agriculture here in Santa Clara.
Below is a revised piece referencing demographics. I wanted to tone down the color palette to match the Japanese porcelain bowl textile better. I add a bit more subtly to it. Below this new design is the original pattern.
Today I drove the swatches I received from Spoonflower up to Colleen Quen. In reviewing the fabrics this is how Colleen wishes to order them. The two left images will be on cotton lawn from Spoonflower (I just put in the order for 10 yards of each). The other four designs will be ordered from TechStyleLAB at Kent State University.