Fashion 08.26.10

Who still believes in looking nice to fly? I do - no airport sweatsuits for me.

The DIY Spirit Continues

The fabric from work is finally becoming handy. After pouring through more bags of samples, I have embellished a craft purse as well as made progress on my jacket panels. To update you guys, here's some shots and info.

The other day at Michael's while buying jewelry supplies, I came across a small white purse in the clearance section. Thinking I'd draw sharpie designs on it, I bought it. But I ended up instead hand sewing fabric samples on the flap, as well as a small rose. I am still looking for a nicer ribbon strap since the shoulder strap is a little too intense and ugly for my taste, but I like to think it came out quite cute.

As for the other two projects, I have shoddily pinned the fabric onto the jacket for some idea of how I want it to appear. Since I don't own a sewing machine yet, I might put in the money to have a tailor quickly sew my panels for me, even though I've wanted to do it myself. I'd like to have them for fall in school, so we'll see. My parents are saying a sewing machine might be an option for a Christmas present!

The grey jacket below is a new one I bought to put pannels on, and I'm in love with the colors, check it out!

So for now that is all, more updates later upon finishing some things. Cheers!

A Room with a View

A Room with a View was a book I read in high school that I did not like very much.

However, it also happens to be a photography collection I just discovered that I do like very much. I took a visit to a photography website I haven't checked in a good few months that I used to browse called 1000 Words Photography. Upon going today, I was checking out the current issue and the first bit that struck my eye was Nuno Cera's work.

Ever since I was young, I was interested in reflections. As a child, I would often sit in hotel windows and stare out at the endless city lights. In high school, plenty of my portfolio and personal work revolved around reflections. From the checkered floor of my bathroom reflected on my doorknob to the skyline of Chicago in "the bean", I had shots I adored and still look upon nostalgically.

Cera's work focuses on a combination of my two favorite things, reflections in city windows.Taken from different hotel views, Nuno Cera seems to put together the juxtaposition of something so calm like sleeping figures on top of a busy lit city. He describes so clearly what a window is artistically as opposed to just literally - it's not just some glass in a building to protect you from the elements outside, but instead it's an item that acts as a viewfinder for Cera's ideas, as reflected (haha) in his photographs.

There is always something you look at first when entering a hotel room. For a long time, I always looked at how big the bathtub was. For Cera, it was the view outside his room. To share some of my favorites;

The intro that hooked me went something like this:

To read more, do check out the amazing article. Cheers!

Into the Wild

Summer always brings me the most shoots of the year, and I only have one more to report on! This past weekend I've been spending more time with my lovely friend Rachel, and while busying ourselves out on the water, we also had time enough for a photoshoot. Going to a few locations along River Road as well as some wildflower patches behind my house, I edited several photos in which I love. So here are my favorites to share:

More Film Scans and Text Play

More old film shots and text play. I think the first one is my favorite for so many reasons I can and can't describe. The last one is a favorite line of mine from Keane's "Atlantic."

New Flickr - More than Goofs!

Though I do have a flickr for all my silly goofs from shoots and random adventures, I decided to make one for all my favorites from 2008 until now, including underwater photography, plastic camera film, internship work, and more. Please enjoy!

Daft Punk

When work is slow, I often find myself in the depths of the internet reading up on the most random things. Today's little bout of fun happened to be me discovering a man who made his own daft punk helmet over a span of several months, and then posted the process on youtube. Too speechless for words, I spent ages reading on forums, blogs, and other places only to find the man's own blog later on today.

Apparently, he made one helmet for himself and one for a client, and sculpted them to perfection. He doesn't plan on selling more, but a girl can dream - I'd love to commission another Guy helmet from him.

To share some photos from a final shoot of his, here were my favorites:

Photos taken by Jennifer Barclay.

I was happy to see there was an eBay auction for a helmet that was due to end in two days, but I discovered within hours of coming home that the auctioneer was probably a fake. Not many photos were provided, and the price was surely too low (which just made me too excited to notice at the time), and in the end I had to admit things seemed fishy.

The original company who crafted Daft Punk's own helmets is offering to custom make them for anyone willing, but they cost a large sum of 65,000 and require permission from the two DJs themselves (and another full year to craft). I'm pretty sure most people would rather buy a Jaguar.

I am hoping in some near future the artist who made the DIY helmet will take commissions again, or some other company will be smart enough to start manufacturing them for something a little more affordable than 65 grand.

To see the video on how it was made, check it out:

Fashion 08.02.10

Went up Whiteface last week (the easy way, driving then hiking the last quarter mile). Wore this. It was fun! I miss hiking. I think I'll start getting back into it now that I'm definitely acclimated, I've been up here all summer, and I have been DDRing and walking more. Cheers!

Behind the Lens

This past weekend I drove down for a few days to Saratoga to visit a few friends that had stayed for the summer, working and taking classes. My good friend Ariel was originally there to be employed by a local photographer, but was out of work within weeks in after May due to the woman's drop in funds. Left on campus unfairly with no pay and little to do, second semester she signed up to take the familiar and fantastic class I had last semester - Kyle Ford's beginning photography class.

With the session coming to a close this past week, my friend has been working on her last two assignments. With me there and all, I agreed to be her model for one of them since I enjoy being behind the lens and feel comfortable.

Taking the route out past the apple picking farm, we wandered some fields and trudged through the grass to get a few fantastic pictures. We both considered the day a success. I took her photos to play with myself on photoshop, and though I don't know what final edits of her own she will use, here are her shots I edited for myself just to have.

There were so many more shots I loved, but sharing them all would probably murder most people's internet with the horrible death of slow loading. So for now, those were my few favorites to share.