Hoodie Scarves

Burning Man Edition with Audio Reactive LEDs and City Chic Edition in Tweed

Wool, Faux Fur, Faux Leather, (BM edition – Batting, Sequin, Arduino Nano, NeoPixel Strip) – Summer 2019

I grew up in a household where, for years, my mom would sew my Halloween costumes using a sewing machine her mother gave her. For year after year, from her care, creativity and craft, I became all sorts of things from a pumpkin, to a triceratops, to a ninja. So when I told her of my idea she was more than happy to indulge my curiosity and teach me to sew. And I now use the same sewing machine that her mother taught her to sew on.

For years I had been obsessed and inspired with sleeveless clothing with hoods. I had seen other types of hoody scarves, though none of them resonated with me. While Spirit Hoods existed, I was never particularly drawn to the animal side of it. I wanted something that I could wear through a variety of occasions that was city chic. Not all of my winter coats had hoods and I wanted something that provided versatility for the Boston winters. I was determined to find a solution.

It began with hand made gifts for family and friends which quickly evolved into making customized hoodie scarves for the people in my life. Experimenting with different shapes for the hood and and different finishing techniques, the pages in my sketchbook got filled as I tweaked the design of patterns as I received feedback. After years of talking with my family and friends about what they liked and didn’t like and having iterated on several patterns, I had turned this craft into muscle memory and perfected my pattern.

With my first trip to Burning Man approaching, I was determined to make my own hoody scarf truly unique. I not only wanted to be seen in the darkness of the desert, but I also wanted my hood to interact with noisy world it was about to be placed into. The brim is of the scarf is lined with a sequin fabric adding reflectiveness to be seen even if my lights are not on. Behind the sequin fabric is a strip of programmable addressable NeoPixels connected to an Arduino Nano programmed to respond to the sound around it.

Pictured above are two of my favorites concepts that came as a result of lots of late nights of drawing concepts and cutting patterns and hours of sewing only to seam rip it back out because it wasn’t quite right.

Square Peg

Colorado Alabaster – Fall 2018

Square Peg is the first piece to emerge after my Body Positivity exploration where I had begun to explore a form that was captivating me. I had started to add little crater-like forms to my pieces that alluded to appendages and aortic structures . I was drawn to this organic protrusion and wanted to keep exploring it, making it focus of this piece. With Square Peg my goal was to be process driven, and precision oriented. Melding the precision of a square with the organic yet mechanical presence of a circle, the two shapes that contrast each other so starkly become one.

Belly Love

Colorado Alabaster – Summer 2018

As the last piece in my iterative exploration of the celebration of the inclusivity of the natural human body I place my focus and my frame on the belly. Here we see the shape taking on a more human form in many ways. The belly, which many of us are ashamed of or embarrassed about, is brought into focus and is framed by the idea of an exaggerated ‘muffin top’ which we are all so self conscious about. But rather than being ashamed of it, The Belly celebrates it with a triumphant a playful pose that saying here I am.

Healthy Heart

Colorado Alabaster – Spring 2017

Healthy Heart iterates on Rolls’ exploration of the voluptuousness of the human body. This piece brings body positivity to heart by both literally and figuratively. Here we see a heart as the foundation being punctuated and accented by soft curves reminiscent of a belly and sumptuous rolls and folds that celebrate the natural human form.

Rolls

Colorado Alabaster – Spring 2016

In this piece I start exploring new tools and techniques including diamond needle files in order to be able to create more voluptuous curves and folds. With rolls I begin looking at parts of the human form and finding ways to abstract out less desirable traits, like body fat rolls, and intersperse them into the natural shape of the stone. Rolls celebrates the idea of body positivity through its motif of voluptuous rolls.

Intersections

Colorado Alabaster and Red Oak – Fall 2010

Intersections explores the juxtaposition of a traditionally hard, jagged material like stone being softened and rounded out to be given human like curvatures and suppleness while wood, a raw material traditionally organic in shape is is given a very machined and sharp feel.
The play between the materials is then heightened by having the oak perfectly and seamlessly pierce through stone.

Spinal Fossil

Colorado Alabaster – Fall 2010

Spinal Fossil seeks to play with the contrast between the refined and polished parts of the stone with those parts which have been left raw. The general shape loosely resembles that of a vertebra with the raw stone sections acting like encroaching osteoporosis speaks to the raw fragility of even the most durable natural materials.

Koosh

Cast Iron and Spray Paint – Fall 2009

Part of a college assignment through the University of Oklahoma’s sculpture department, here we were introduced to the process of metal casting and mold making. Here we used found objects, in my case a kids Koosh ball, and then proceeded to make silica and resin based molds for our objects keeping in mind the drafting lines. We then learned about the basic of casting iron using a cupola furnace.

Handsome

Plaster and Spray Paint – Fall 2009

Part of a college assignment through the University of Oklahoma’s sculpture department, where students were given a random word to sculpt using plaster as a reductive medium. When researching the word “Handsome” many images and shapes came to mind. But there was a preponderance of men’s portraits whose strong jawline also made them seem fragile in my mind. Their handsomeness, while sturdy required constant attention and grooming. This made me think of birds, how you can seem them grooming themselves to keep up their appearance and whose soft bodies have the very strong lines from their wings to their beaks. “Handsome” explores the architecture of a birds skull, full of contrasting soft and strong lines intermixing.

Jealousy

Plaster and Spray Paint – Spring 2009

Part of a college assignment through the University of Oklahoma’s sculpture department, where students were given a random word to sculpt using plaster as a reductive medium. They say that “jealousy is in the eyes of the beholder”, with that in mind I strove to create a shape of wanting and reaching , with the two arms pulling for each other. With jealousy we tend to want what we can’t have or maybe even are not supposed to have. I wanted to play with this idea by having the pupil of the play the role of a treasure that Indiana Jones would be seen taking and running away with. Something in the middle to want to covet at all cost.

Mid Century Entertainment Console

Ply Wood, Steel Hairpin Legs, Paint

What can I say other than I LOVE wood working and I love making the products that I want to have. I love the process of defining my needs and creating the constraints for what I am about to build, and wood working and furniture design perfectly encapsulates this. I have so much fun iterating on a myriad of ideas from the whimsically complicated to the pragmatically minimal and everything in between.