OK, so my weekly art class posts didn't take.  I guess I was super excited about the class at the start of the semester, but being in class with 19-year-olds has gotten reeeeal old.  As in, not a challenge.  But after last week's class I will say that a MUST for any of you visiting New York is the Frick Collection.  I absolutely love this museum, and this week I was reminded of what a treasure it is.  The collection is astonishing.

But in a historical textile matter, take a look at this portrait of Thomas Cromwell by Holbein.  Zoom in to the lower left corner.  What is that?  I don't recognize the pattern.  Do you think it's a rug or a blanket strewn over something?  I'm stumped!

 I have 8 yards of dark chocolate brown silk taffeta from the fabric.com sale.

What should I do with it?  make with it?  (Caught that!  Don't say "mail it to me."  ;)

In lieu of any significant content, I am posting a commercial for the benefit of the non-New Yorkers on my list.  This shit is so freaking sweet, get ready for adult onset diabetes.

I might have a phenomenal opportunity headed my way that would involve mounting costumes for public display. It's something I would very much like to do, but I'm rather lost as to how I would actually mount the pieces for display. This is, unfortunately, neither a museum setting with mounting resources readily available nor a project with a large budget.

The way the costumes would be mounted would be entirely up to me. I could make it realistic looking, a la displays at Kyoto or the Met, or I can make it abstract, like having the costumes hang from a plain old hanger with little to no "body" visible, provided I somehow give the costumes the proper shape. Human models are out of the question.

I've looked into buying and/or renting mannequins for the display, but unless I can butcher customize them, I doubt I'll achieve the proper fit using an "off-the-rack" form. I'm also considering trying a duct tape form, but that would be a pretty fugly decolletage.

Has anyone out there had experience with mounting costumes for display? Or does anyone have a good idea they could pass along? I'm hopping with excitement about this opportunity, but superstition is getting the best of me and I don't want to jinx anything by saying anything too soon! I appreciate your input!

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Does anybody know of someone who wants to get rid of their ticket to Sunday's Tea?

I was reading my friends pages, and koshka_the_cat posted that she had THREE gala dresses to wear this year.

Did this really happen?

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I feel horrible for saying this, but I really, really want to go to Costume College. I want to forget that my best friend is dying. I want to finish up some costume pieces and have a stress-free vacation with my costuming friends. There is so much I want to discuss with you guys that I can't do online. I want to ooh and aah over your accomplishments and get the inspiration I've been lacking for mine.

I have no way of knowing how Ma'am is really doing aside from what the vet's lab results are telling me. She is the same old soul she's always been, except now I see she's slower, weaker, and not eating as much. The end stage diagnosis was a complete shock because there has been no change in her demeanor. Part of me wants to forego her kidney diet food and daily sub-q injections, just to give her a stress-free ending. But I will never forgive myself if I look back and feel like I killed her.

There is one more treatment option that the vet gave me, but I opted not to do it. See, your kidneys produce a hormone that tells your bone marrow to make red blood cells. Ma'am's kidneys aren't functioning, so her red blood cell count is practically nonexistent, hence her feeling weak. This last-resort treatment involves injecting her 1-3 times per week with this hormone she's not producing so she can make red blood cells. This also involves weekly monitoring of her red blood cell count. Even if I did the injections at home she would still have to go to the vet at least once a week for a blood sample to send to the lab. Plus, the cost on top of it all... Bottom line, I can't put her through that. But I can't help but feel like I'm quitting on her, either.

I don't know how much time we have left together. In some ways it would be easier for her to go soon. Both of our suffering would end. But I think of yesterday, when I napped on the sofa and she napped on my stomach...I'm tearing up at work thinking about it. I'm not ready to say goodbye. And if I'm gone for five days at CC, maybe she'll think I left her. Remember, it's just the two of us here. I'm her world.

I don't know where this is going. I guess I feel guilty for wanting to forget that she is leaving me. I missed Costume Con 2008 at the last minute and was horribly disappointed. It seems selfish, crass and gauche, though, to choose a stupid convention over the creature I vowed to care for. I'm so in denial. Fuck me.

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I'm not a particularly religious person, but I do find comfort in believing that this is the best of all possible worlds, that somehow there is a reason for everything that happens and that the chaotic randomness of our universe is the result of a design that is far greater than we can ever begin to imagine.

I had been immensely peeved when I wasn't selected to teach at Costume College.  I had proposed some top-notch lectures (IMHO) and I am aching to add something more sophisticated to my costuming CV in anticipation of applying to grad school at the end of this year.  Further, after the burnout of Costume Con, and a thorough self-search about why I costume, I had concluded that a break from Costume College was necessary, and that I wouldn't return next year.

I suppose life happens when you're making plans.

Some of you know that my beloved kitty, Ma'am, suffers from kidney problems.  I give her fluids on a nightly basis and she is on a regulated kidney food diet.  Today I spoke with her vet about her latest test results.  Her disease has progressed to Stage IV renal failure.  Terminal.  It's a matter of weeks now, if that.  Tomorrow we have an appointment to discuss remaining options to make the rest of her life easier.

I'm afraid this means I have to scrap Costume College.  I regret not being able to see those of you who weren't able to come to Costume Con, and those of you whom I haven't seen in many years.  I want to spend as much time with my little friend before she isn't with me anymore.  She is, after all, the love of my life.

Would such a thing as a 1530s-1540s ivory colored Tudor gown have existed? Internet portrait research only yields the ubiquitous red and black color schemes. Did the introduction of white into English fashion come only after the Spanish influence of Elizabethan times? I'm at work and away from my textbooks and would like to know before I get too deep into the plan I'm hatching...

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