official piper ewan
official piper ewan posts about new designs, shows, commissions and anything else made under the piper ewan label
-
I WANT TO STOP WANTING part two
i just spent several hours last night with tracy draping her dress on her body. this is my preferred method of working in some cases. the elements of the design get to be tried out on the body, and we are guaranteed a perfect fit. i started out with some of the pieces cut out, some put together: the sleeves, the skirt. we spent the better part of the evening pulling and pinning, her trying out some movements very carefully (so she isn’t stabbed with pins) and chatting while i stitched the pieces together after we had them worked out. all that is left to do is make a couple…
-
My Hierarchy of Procrastination
on monday the sun was shining, so i wandered the opposite direction to the mountain to sit under a tree. on tuesday i knitted, because i didn’t feel like making hairpins. on wednesday morning, i made hairpins to put off going to my studio to inventory garters and hem pants. on wednesday afternoon, i made garters to avoid hemming pants. then i hemmed pants to avoid making dance costumes. on thursday morning, i typed on the computer to avoid making flowers. then, i made flowers to avoid going to my studio and drafting patterns. on thursday afternoon, i made garters to avoid drafting patterns. today i MUST draft patterns; that…
-
I WANT TO STOP WANTING part one
photo of tracy broyles and meshi chavez in COCOON BIRD by jon springer in the spring of 2007 i met with tracy broyles of theory1:dance to discuss the possibility of costumes for her production of COCOON BIRD. she arrived with a couple of pages torn from a magazine, a bag full of paper leaves with little phrases written on them, and a list of words. we used this as the basis of the costumes for this performance. and this spring i have the privelege to work with tracy and meshi again in their upcoming performance of I WANT TO STOP WANTING that will be held at disjecta in portland at…
-
the process of a custom wedding from start to finish
at the dawn of my eleventh wedding season i have been puzzling over the internal conflict i have been having about doing weddings. my dilemma i had best spelled out to my painter friend after someone asked me how i made my wedding work sustainable. in fact weddings feel like the least sustainable thing i do. i asked him, “what if you were commissioned to make a large several thousand dollar painting that took you six months or more to complete, and the couple put it behind them at their wedding ceremony, hung it over their table at their reception, took all of their wedding party photos in front of…
-
wedding randomness part three
this is the wedding of the longstockings who got married on leap day. i went to high school with the bride. we spent years together in french class. her dress is a modified version of my a-line dress (see photo below) with a higher neckline, lower hemline and is decorated with roses.
-
wedding randomness part two
this is a reconstruction project i did this past spring/summer. i got a call from a lady who had seen one of my skirts on someone at the grocery store. she brought me her mother’s wedding dress to restyle: it was covered in rust stains, and wasn’t the most flattering fit on her. we decided to take the sleeves off, change the neckline, lower the hem, add triangle gussets to the sides for a slightly fuller skirt and add surface decorations to cover the rust stains. i used a piece of the sleeve cuff for the headpiece (not pictured). we chose some tulle, vintage net, organza and hanah silk ribbon…
-
wedding randomness part one
now that it is almost the end of the year, i am going to post all the random custom projects that i have been meaning to put up. there will be a few more in the coming days. this is a wedding project that i did with my friend nancy davis. she did most of the work, but employed me to make the felt appliques that are studded with swarovski crystals. i did the tux jacket and the birds on the skirt of the dress, she made the bride’s dress. this was for a december wedding at a roadside attraction in joshua tree. a little outside of the realm of…
-
flying iron
earlier this fall, i received a request to make a costume for a performance my friend lisa degrace was working on. i met lisa while making the costumes from last year’s production of cocoon bird. she told me it would involve a giant skirt to be fitted over a metal frame. sounded intriguing. we met up a few days later to talk about it in person. the performance involved her crawling into and buckling herself into this skirt that she was to be trapped in until she had to fall out and get back in. she had been looking into ordering a 30′ parachute to be somehow fitted to this…
-
the big O
more publicity! i have been talking a lot lately about trying to market my stuff overseas while the dollar is weak. http://www.oregonlive.com/business/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/business/1203731749171220.xml&coll=7
-
barometers and crisis panties
because my brain cannot be counted on to be a very good judge of my own situation, i tend to rely on barometers to tell me what sort of state of crisis i may or may not be in. lately it has been my body. severe sugar cravings are a sure sign of depression, and puking my guts out is severe duress. i am not sure where my wit’s end is. i may be at it, or have passed it up a long time ago. true a part of me is dying, but i have been wanting to kill her off for a long time. she is a bad ally.…