The Adventures of Zoë

Fashion show tonight...

It's the premiere of the Penland Couture collection. It's fabulous.

posted by Zoe @ 7:02 PM 1 comments

A little update...

I can't believe how quickly the time goes by when you're so immersed in your work. Here's a quick update on what I've been working on so far.


My indoor workspace - and it's far messier now! The duct tape form is what I used to give shape to the epoxied bodice during the construction process.









My outdoor workspace, and the bodice part way through construction. Notice all of the sticks and rocks helping to prop up the skirt so that it would harden in a cool shape.

The semi-finished bodice, and a closer look at some of the detail:

I have to cut down the bodice to fit me and put in new grommets on the sides; apparently the fabric stretched out during the epoxying process.

Now I just have to figure out the skirt. Maybe I'll get some of that done today... or maybe I'll just head outside and enjoy the day.

posted by Zoe @ 12:17 PM 1 comments

Welcome Back!

I'm back at Penland School of Crafts for two weeks this summer, this time as a studio assistant for E. Vincent Martinez' class, Fashion, Art, & Silhouette. It's so exciting to be back here, working on a crazy new project and surrounded by all of the amazing craftspeople. Last year I made a paper wedding dress; this year I'm also making something out of offbeat materials.

I got here late Friday night, and spent Saturday working, getting the studio ready for our class. Most of the tasks were pretty straightforward; sweeping, straightening up, going through supplies and so forth. All of the workstations have chairs on wheels, which seem to be a black hole of death for small pieces of thread and fabric.


This pile is thread I removed from ONE chair. Don't tell the studio coordinator, but this is the only chair from which I removed all most of the #$%&^@ threads. It took nearly an hour and gave me two blisters. If anyone else wants their wheelie chair to roll, they can pick all the threads out themselves.

One of the perks of being a studio assistant is getting a private or semi-private room, rather than having to stay in a dorm like I did last summer. My room is technically a single, but I have had a steady stream of roommates.











These are the more photogenic ones; I don't bother photographing the ones that bite, I just kill them.














Despite the plethora of bug life, and in spite of all of my mosquito bites, I'm having a great time! More about what I'm making tomorrow...

posted by Zoe @ 9:45 PM 0 comments

So much for summer vacation...

I can't believe that summer is almost over. I think that since I wasn't home at all, and didn't have any vacation time, it feels like summer never really happened. Well, it did, and I even got to enjoy some of it outside; this picture was taken at Edgewater Park in Cleveland, a mile or two from my apartment there. I loved being so close to the lake, and I wish that the weather had been nicer on more of my free weekends, but I enjoyed it while I could. I spend most of my (far too limited) beach time at Lake Michigan these days, and was really struck by how much warmer Lake Erie is than Lake Michigan! Kind of like a gigantic wading pool.

I can't believe that school starts up again on Tuesday. I'm actually not looking forward to it; all of my classes this semester are gen eds and/or boring in general; I'm not taking a single design or fashion-related class. Yay - a boring packed semester.

I've spent the entire week taking care of all the mundane crap that piles up when you are gone for 3 months; and to top it off, I had no internet until yesterday afternoon. I haven't even finished unpacking. Not to mention the gigantic final project and notebook for my summer internship that is due maybe tomorrow(?!?) that I haven't been able to get excited about. I did the actual project, it was on Shannon's online Knitgrrl Studio Store, but writing the paper and making the presentation board (what, are we in middle school now?) just haven't really...ahem...appealed to me. You know, the yard needed tons of work, I'm still sweeping up piles of dog hair, I thought it would be fun to make cheese...you know, the usual. So, what am I doing tonight, instead of homework? Making fudge. And, you know, writing a blog post. Right. Off I go.
P.S. I just realized that I had left my camera in the car and went to get it, and who should I see...

Gulli. Yup, my spider buddy survived the trip home with me. He really is a well-traveled spider. He's kind of cool-looking, too.

posted by Zoe @ 8:56 PM 1 comments

Meet the Stowaway

I've been on the road for three months now, but I haven't been alone. Meet Gulli, my stowaway. I'm not sure if I picked him up in North Carolina or before, but he's been traveling with me at least since early July. He tends to lay low during the day, but every morning when I get in my car the web is there; sometimes it gets ripped off by the wind as I drive, but it's always fixed by the next morning. The little guy is gutsy - He's only ever ventured out on the web once while I was on the road; I was on the highway, looked over, and there he was, hanging on for dear life. When I finally got off the highway, he hightailed it back behind the mirror, and hasn't tried that trick again. Sometimes I wish I could warn him that I'm going on a trip and he'd better hide (or find a new home) so that he doesn't get blown off at 65 mph. However, he did manage to survive the trip to my grandma's a few weekends back, so maybe he's smarter than I give him credit for.

Anyhow, Gulli and I are headed back to Michigan tomorrow. My summer adventure is pretty much done, and I am very much looking forward to being home and sleeping in my own bed. I hope Gulli is all packed.

posted by Zoe @ 11:47 PM 0 comments

If a picture is worth a thousand words...

The s*x shop is next to the child care center. And both are conveniently open late!

posted by Zoe @ 9:02 PM 0 comments

A Previous Friday Adventure

I actually started writing this post a while back (shortly after that particular Friday!) but never got around to finishing and posting it. So, here is another episode of Friday Adventures with Shannon!

We needed a break, both to get out of the studio and to get some fresh inspiration, so we spent some time driving around Cleveland. First we went to the Cleveland Museum of Art. It's currently undergoing some major renovations, so lots of it is closed, but they did have a really neat exhibit of Asian Art.

We drove by Franklin Castle, which is actually just an old fancy house, but is also supposedly quite haunted. Apparently any time anyone tries to fix up the building or use it for anything, things "mysteriously" keep going wrong, and every project and owner so far has failed.

Then we drove through the Lake View Cemetery, which is both huge and elaborate. There is a rather famous chapel there, Wade Chapel, which has possibly the most famous Tiffany stained glass window. In fact, the entire inside of the chapel was designed from Tiffany, and aside from the window, it features enormous biblical mosaics on both inside walls.

The entire cemetery was full of lots of really ornate monuments and mausoleums for some very famous and wealthy dead Clevelanders. The Garfield Monument is definitely the king of them all; it even looks like a castle, complete with turrets, gargoyles, and imposing iron doors. Random trivia - it is one of the first mausoleums (combination tomb and memorial) ever built.

We then finished the afternoon with a trip to the West Side Market, which has both a farmer's market of sorts as well as an inside hall full of year-round specialty vendors with amazing fresh pasta, meats, seafood, baked goods, and about a zillion other delicious things to eat.

posted by Zoe @ 10:01 PM 0 comments