Fresh Off The Runway - Milan Spring 2010 Ready-to-Wear

This week I'm following Milan's fashion week for Spring 2010, and for me there are a few highlights. I liked the graphic prints presented by both Versace and by Prada. Donatella's swirling geometric circles mixed with stylized feather and flower patterns were bold, while Miuccia Prada combined photographic prints of clouds and beach scenes to a serene yet borderline ghostly effect.
For myself, I'm more tuned in to accessories, jewelry & handbags, and it's always inspirational to see what's swinging around the models' necks and from their hands, since often it is each major label's handbags that are the long term bread and butter items. The standout handbag collection for me accessorized the Fendi collection, which offered customers lucite boxes to needlepoint (yes!) satchels to smaller carryalls with changeable outer layers of lace.





Because I often lean towards funky, edgy & offbeat designs, I particularly enjoyed seeing a great mix of denim as part of the Trussardi collection. there was also a lot of black painted denim, leather and suede fringed pieces that had just a little bit of retro without letting you forget about what's going on today.

Learning Leathercraft Techniques

I truly believe that I am ready to own a set of leather craft tools! I already work quite a bit with leather, creating floral corsage pins out of leather remnants and various other fabrics. I also have made an array of handbags, many of which I try to incorporate leather elements wherever possible. It will be a great benefit to learn additional techniques of working with leather such as riveting and tooling. Below is a short video from Leather Craft Studio which beautifully illustrates how to use various tools (swivel knife, beveler, shader & veiner) that, when combined with a steady hand, produce wonderful results.





Then I happened to stumble on Tiger Torre, who created the wonderful Monarch butterfly mask below and even posted a tutorial on how to make one just like it. What I will follow from Tiger are techniques on shaping cased (wet) leather, techniques she successfully interprets for us when custom fitting one of her creations to the face.

Gorgeous & Goth - Jewelry Collection for Vera Wang Spring 2010 RTW Runway

The Spring collection that Vera Wang showed in her Mercer Street store in NYC was beautiful, and for me I especially appreciated the somber and austere feeling of the clothes. This was contrasted by the amazing high drama of the jewelry pieces paired with the dresses. Gorgeous crystal spiderwebs hanging from satin ribbons, large black satin ribbon roses encrusted with rhinestones as a bracelet or brooch combined with strands and strands of more crystals. Now I want to make all of the exact same things! But different, of course...

19th c. Shell Frame

The Houston Museum of Natural Science is celebrating its 100th year in 2009. To commemorate this, the museum's curators have chosen 100 pieces from its collections, which serve to highlight the different areas of the Museum.

As a huge fan of vintage shellwork pieces, I love to study the tedious placement of smaller shells as shown in this beautiful frame. Made in the second half of the 1800s at the same time that sailors to the West Indies were bringing back shellwork souvenirs for their loved ones, what impresses me most about this piece is its dramatic effect achieved by a miniature photo in the center of a much larger shield frame, allowing a proportionately large amount of open space to create a beautifully intricate design with so many tiny shells.

Thanks to Steven, who blogs for the Museum, for his ongoing coverage of each selection throughout the rest of the year.

Grace Jones, the Hurricane Tour & Eiko Ishioka

Talk about the most brilliant and creative collaboration one could ever imagine: Grace Jones and Eiko Ishioka. Grace caused a huge uproar for her brilliant performance at the Hollywood Bowl on July 26, 2009. We were there to witness and worship all that is Grace: her stage presence, her voice, her close relationship to her fans, her longevity, and to celebrate the great new album "Hurricane."







When the reviews came out in the paper, I discovered that Grace has had a very close relationship with the brilliant Eiko Ishioka, and it suddenly all made sense. Academy Award winner Ishioka is the genius costume designer and artist behind the costumes for such films as "The Cell," "Bram Stoker's Dracula" and "The Fall," as well as costumes for operas and even Cirque du Soleil's "Varekai."

Sparkle Studio Cone Incense Burner

Another item that will be available in very limited quantities on the upcoming DavidandKeith.com site will be these cone incense burners as part of the Sparkle Studio brand of products. Each has been handmade entirely of shells, incorporating scallops, umboniums, clams and cockles, and embellished with glittered sand, gilding, ceramic tile and vintage rhinestones. Each burner stands between 5 and 6 inches, and holds one 1" incense cone which sits on the tile square. The first series will include: The Virgin of Guadalupe, The Red Buddha, Jesus, and Botticelli's Venus, and will come with a mix/match selection of 12 cones, which are just as easy to find as the incense sticks.

Sparkle Studio Hair Sticks

I have made a small collection of hairsticks for the upcoming Sparkle Studio site. In Hawai'i, the use of hairsticks is very popular, a veritable staple for anyone with hair long enough to wrap in a bun. The heat and high humidity necessitates getting one's hair off the neck.






Both Chinese and Japanese cultures incorporated the use of hairsticks as ceremonial and costume decoration, and their use of dangling embellishments influenced me as i strung beads, rhinestones and sequins from the ends of mine to create fun and colorful combinations for any time of the day or night. I combined various Japanese lacquered chopsticks with glass pearls and beads, handcut leather flowers, interlocking elements strung on wires and secured them so that they can be used as just a single or crisscrossed to secure a bun to the back of the head and adding a bit of sparkle!