{TREES/FOREST} transums, migrating geese, paper cutouts

In preparations for the TRUE/FALSE FILM FESTIVAL where I will be a resident artist preparing the windows of three theaters where the action happens. Here are the preparations via sketches and mock ups that I have put together for the show!

Transums: migrating geese paper cutouts with fishingline and magnets
Doors: printed cloud animals with blue glass film for shadows, raindrops painted on them in navy blue
Side: black paper painted balloons with nylon and magnets, random clouds, cardboard city and mountains


wax paper on the window is cool, but also pretty translucent depending on the light.


I used rubber cement which i'm not sure is the easiest clean up. maybe as much as paint. not a prefered option.


printed black on clear, animal footprints will scamper through the lower portion of the frames of the swarmway


painted cut outs of animal silhouettes leaping from one direction to the other, leading to the cinema


there is a nylon string across the segway with magnets holding these objects: a fabric leaf, and a 8x10 cardstock cutout leaping hound. They did not feel too heavy on the strand


paper forests will expand the floor to ceiling on side panels and enclose the central area. green paper chains with leaves and tendrils will drape through. possible grass border with painted cardboard


i pinned the butcher paper down to the carpet. it cut easily as i removed the negative space with an exacto blade


finished cut out with enclosed shapes and closed configuration for easy placement on the window frame. top and bottom edges can be taped for support, wrapped around a dowel like a scroll for transport and retaped on the window frame over the taped edge. mini peninsulas are kept short and dont flop down.


leaf links are applied directly to the branches, but can be applied to a paperchain and strung through the window. Another technique includes spirals for tendrils.


Ill be back with more pictures of the preparations!

xx,
vanessa
madam chino
penny spencer

{SNOW DAY!} mke wi 2011

at the fortress we have free parking! luckily, if you can get your car up the hill to park there before the storm, you are safe from the usual mess of street parking or even extracting your car from an alley. That also means walking a mile to and from the office. also, luckily, we had a snow day from school. Tyler and I walked to the fort and made things all day!

the bluster was creating snow drifts taller than people in some places

even the snowman was buried

but to build a new snowman you didn't even have to roll a ball, you could just grab out chunks of snow

we didn't see any bikers

to cross the street was a special challenge

but we made it up to the studio for hot ovaltine and some photoshoots and tyler is even using the serger to make pouches.
we had a great day!
xx,
madamchino

{PEEPHOLE PEOPLE}

I am going to go ahead and celebrate some of these peephole people who visited the look nook and took their handsome photos in the booth. Enjoy the entire set of PEEPHOLE PEOPLE on flickr!







see you soon!
shops open every saturday noon to 6! swing thru after brunchies!
Madam Chino's LOOK NOOK
100a east Pleasant Street
3rd Floor!

All the Best,
essa

{UNLTD} Look Nook in the media!

This is the writing i did earlier today as an exploration of the discussion that Bob and i had for this INTERVIEW at onmilwaukee.
This interview was like a therapy session for my conflictions. Thanks Bobby!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
My main point of contention is with "branding" certain aspects of my life and work, vs making one-offs. Its like "art vs craft" in the theoretical sense it implies. The repetition involved in marketing and production can be satisfying but also boring. Unfortunately the streamlining involved to reach broader audiences draws away from a part of the one-of-a-kind quality that built the handmade industry in the first place.


The process of creating unique articles is hard to streamline

I struggle with where I should be biding time in the sense of having templates while preferring to work on the next puzzle peice. One-of-a-kind listings are a bounty of work because you have to list a lot more items. Its good to have a few key peices that you can remake and relist, but that doesn't always support the culture of entropy in using recycled/found/vintage fabric in production. And a culture of planetary virtue.


hand made crochetti necklaces from recycled t-shirts available in all colors.

Books in print are the closest thing to maximized production that I've gotten as an artist, even where I am folding, punching, coiling and packaging books myself. My goal is to get each of my second printings of my books done completely on recycled paper, a cost that doesn't cover itself at its initial market value.

Certain objects are easily reproduced without the struggles of inconsistancy in the availability of your raw materials

Selling vintage is, compared to hand making one-offs and marketing them individually: hilarious, awesome and easy. Vintage listings are usually one-of-a-kind, however you are getting market value for something you didn't have to make. I see a vintage take over of the handmade arena both in suppliers and demanders. I endorse it because I am a collector of beautiful second-hand inspiration, and because people should actually be buying second hand too. However, it is not the end all for an artist.

vintage finds are one-of-a-kind listings but you are getting a market value with out having to actually produce anything

I like online, but for my work I prefer the integrative personality of the show room, doing the markets and having people handle things and try them on. My show room is stocked with both quality handmade and vintage clothing and supplies, books and zines. There is an Amigurumi (small crocheted animals) gallery show scheduled for may and june!

Click on the rss feed symbol on any web pages you like and follow them in your own homepage daily!

LINKS:
{MADAM CHINO} clothing
MADAM CHINO BLOG
MADAM CHINO SHOP

{PENNY SPENCER} publishing
PENNY SPENCER BLOG
PENNY SPENCER SHOP

{RIGATTIERE} vintage
RIGATTIERE VINTAGE SHOP

[My FLICKR} a little bit of everything
FLICKR

xx,
Vanessa Devaki Andrew

{SLEEPING IN} a winter photo essay

xo,
vanessa
milwaukee WI
all photos from my FLICKR

{PHOTOGRAM} screen prints

I have been working on this for a little while, however am waiting until i settle back into doing studio work after a winter hiatus back in the drawing office.

Photograms are very basic ways to create images on light sensitive surfaces by using shadows of objects! I decided to try this using a beautiful lace table covering:





Alas, the result is a burned screen!



Some problems can arise with having a lot of stencil space. Too much ink can flood the other spaces, causing the image to smudge and smush. One way to solve this is to create a 3rd layer stencil, and tape off areas of the screen to use as a launch pad for the ink. I plan on using plastic sheeting to cut out various shapes, including a sweetheart top, to screen onto standard tanks.

I'll be back!

XX,
madam chino

PS. i had to change my rss feed, so if you are "following" this blog but are not receiving any reading list updates, please un-follow and re-follow!

{WAUKESHA COMMUNITY ART PROJECT} a great place to sponsor

I'm the lucky teacher of "Fashion Construction" at WCAP every Monday and Wednesday in the adorable downtown Waukesha. Waukesha Community Arts Project was founded in 2007 by a college friend named Page, who knows the importance of art in the community, and founded the non-profit as an afterschool program to be FREE for kids.

Keeping it free means:
-All kids, including low-income kids, have cool options of things to do afterschool to stay out of trouble.
-She has to do a lot of volunteer work to write grants and fundraise for the program so she can pay for the space, materials, instructors, and afterschool snacks.
-You can donate! Make your year end charitable donations by contacting Page here.
-Also, she is looking for an intern, possibly paid on commission, to help her write grants and organize funds for the program. If you are interested or know anyone who is, please send them her way by contacting her through her website or on FB.

LIKE WCAP on FACEBOOK!


Check out all the photos to see what's been happening!

Live in Waukesha or know people who do?! Send them over this weekend SATURDAY to our event JINGLE BELL CRAFTS! The youth participants set up the center into a one-day shop, and are selling the accessories and gift items we produced during our first 2 months to earn money for both the program and themselves!

xx,
Vanessa

{getting STRANDED!}

{OBJECTIVE!} cut out a long strand from any shaped 2-d peice of fabric!
{MATERIALS!} any medium-large peice of scrap fabric, self-healing mat, rotary cutter

{1} {GATHER} materials

{2} {MAZES} Start cut at one end and cut lengthwise careful not to cut through the other end. Stop at the distance equal to the width of your cut. Start again on that side beginning a new lengthwise cut and stop again at the alternating end. Zig zag like drawing a maze back and forth.

my fabric was nice and big for a change, but this is great for scraplings, and can be used for looming, crochet, knitting, exsets.

{3} {GATHER} a skein by tugging the set in the center and wrapping with a scrap! Beginning a loop for your crochettis right away will help you find the end when you are going to work!

{4} {MAKE CLOTH-THINGS!} to see what I made, click HERE!


These necklaces are available at LOOK NOOK and as CUSTOM

xx,
vivi

{Mother Nature Network!} look nook in the media

This summer I spoke to student workers at the Milwaukee Business Investment Bureau about how you can be an earth friendly entrepreneur with out having to pull weeds and plant trees. I set up a powerpoint lecture, spoke for an hour two times in a lecture hall, and then the kids got to come to the LOOK NOOK in groups to see my shop and production area, learn to make buttons, crochet, and screenprint! It was awesome. I just googled the LOOK NOOK and found an article that was written by Allie Taylor, a local correspondant for the Mother Nature Network regarding my work! I feel so happy to be a part of a group of people working for a brighter future! Here are the parts of the article about it, which you can read in it's entirety HERE

"Repurposing clothing
Moving away from fertilizer-type recycling, the third count of Milwaukee's alternative recycling is found at Madam Chino's Look Nook. The Look Nook's founder, Vanessa Andrew, recently spoke to a group of high school students interested in environmental conservation. While explaining her business of buying used T-shirts and reconfiguring them into stylish dresses, she gracefully stitched together ideas of
consumer culture, economics, recycling, art, and entrepreneurialism. Reusing old fabrics for new clothes or completely new objects like patches or wall art, Andrew is pushing commonly held notions of fashion while engaging in a low-impact model of society. One reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said:

"One of Andrew's fortes is repurposing old things in creative, even conceptual, ways. Who would have thought that an old pair of women's tights could be transformed into a stretchy top, a bundle of '80s sweaters into a hoodie or a pair of old keys into earrings?"

Vanessa Andrew thought of making a new shirt out of old nylons. Will Allen, founder of Growing Power, probably thought of transporting local food waste to make richer soil. O.J. Noer studied the properties and benefits of Milorganite in the 1920s. It is thanks to these three creative thinkers, among many more, I'm sure, that we are all inspired to reinvent the idea of recycling and push us to become greener and greener."

xx,
vv

{PRO-FOLD}

Hittin the books this month!
COMING SOON!:

Alphabet Eyes: a zine of alphabet sonances
MYtinerary: 3rd Ed!
Charactionary: an interactive character activity book!

{PANTALOONS} in flight

Step 1: Take off your trousers.
Step 2: Replace them with Madam Chino Pantaloons!
Step 3: Step it up a notch with out ever moving a step.








See the rest of the HEsHERs SET: these are new Madam Chino Original forms created by upcycling t-shirts!

Available now at Look Nook and soon on Etsy.

Special thanks to Model Stephanie Alderson!


xx,
vv