where i've been and why i haven't posted
two things of significance have happened to me in the past few days.
long story long.
first, I am finally done with the longest, toughest semester of school i have ever had. about a month in i had my senior fashion show, which was fun once it happened but took an insane amount of work. I thought that after that, I would be home free, but my classes started taking up a ridiculous amount of time.
I was taking clothing studio 6, which included learning two new computer programs specifically for clothing design. in about 3 hours of group instruction time per week. it was not good. i eventually gave up on one of them and just did everything in illustrator and photoshop, because i feel like they're better and a lot more intuitive. we had several large projects over the semester - i think the biggest was designing a line for Target, which was for two classes. from research through to finished product to be turned in, I probably spent about 75-100 hours. I also had to put my senior line into the computer, design an extra line (dubbed "the smart kitten" - it's super cute), do a group project where one person designed, one person patterned, and one person sewed - but each person performed a different duty for three different groups. finally, I had to put together my portfolio - resume, plus all the work i've done in the recent past. the best part is that my portfolio is red :) and it was really cheap - yay for u of m bookstore. final conclusion: tough class, proud of my work.
I also took dha 4340, which teaches weaving, knitting, crochet, beading, embroidery, quilting, etc. by hand. it was my favorite class this semester, because i love all that hand work. however, it was very time-consuming, and had i been thinking, i may not have taken it concurrently with studio 6. i did about 35 different 4" samples, one of each technique/sub-technique that we learned. fyi, crochet is simpler and faster than knitting. I also did five projects - the last one will probably be of greatest interest, because it was inspired by a japanese quilting technique called sashiko. it's shrug that's cut to look like a cropped kimono, and beaded and embroidered in a traditional sashiko pattern. i'll put up pics when i get it back. conclusion: lots of time, lots of fun.
product development was rough because the whole class was based on one large group project, and since I was the designer I ended up getting stuck doing a lot of the work. I felt like. As I said earlier, I spent 75-100 hours desigining the line, but for this class I also had to split the work for the large report with my group and make our booklet, which I didn't do very well on because nobody would talk about what they wanted on it until the week before it was due, when I had a bazillion other things to do. most of my groupmates were nice; I just wish that I had been with some people who wanted a little more involvement. Conclusion: useful things to learn, don't be the designer.
i also took bio 1001, which I was at first terrified of. I'd put it off until the last possible second. however, i took it pass/fail, and managed to get a good lecturer and a great ta (andrea simpson). i stopped going to lecture after spring break, i'm not taking the final, and i'm still going to pass the class. this is because i never missed a lab, and I did 2 standard deviations better than the mean on the two tests I took. taking it pass/fail i only need the equivalent of a c- to pass, and that's about what I am at. studying hard at the beginning of the semester really paid off.
Second, I finally had my remaining 3 wisdom teeth removed yesterday. I put it off for several years, but I had to do it eventually, and time was running out. my oral surgeon was great - i was awake and he talked me through it the whole way. he even called me last night around 7 to see how i was doing. very nice guy. so, i'm on heavy duty painkillers, and i'm only just a little sore. i rented a pile of movies and got some books at the library and i'm pretty much set. the only rough part was when i woke up this morning i had rather bad nausea because I had taken several doses of medicine over the night without anything in my tummy. I dry-heaved a couple of times, but then I felt better, ate some food, took some more pills, and I've had only mild nausea off and on all day. this could have been a much worse experience.
anyway, I now have nothing to do but work and hang out with people. yay!
long story long.
first, I am finally done with the longest, toughest semester of school i have ever had. about a month in i had my senior fashion show, which was fun once it happened but took an insane amount of work. I thought that after that, I would be home free, but my classes started taking up a ridiculous amount of time.
I was taking clothing studio 6, which included learning two new computer programs specifically for clothing design. in about 3 hours of group instruction time per week. it was not good. i eventually gave up on one of them and just did everything in illustrator and photoshop, because i feel like they're better and a lot more intuitive. we had several large projects over the semester - i think the biggest was designing a line for Target, which was for two classes. from research through to finished product to be turned in, I probably spent about 75-100 hours. I also had to put my senior line into the computer, design an extra line (dubbed "the smart kitten" - it's super cute), do a group project where one person designed, one person patterned, and one person sewed - but each person performed a different duty for three different groups. finally, I had to put together my portfolio - resume, plus all the work i've done in the recent past. the best part is that my portfolio is red :) and it was really cheap - yay for u of m bookstore. final conclusion: tough class, proud of my work.
I also took dha 4340, which teaches weaving, knitting, crochet, beading, embroidery, quilting, etc. by hand. it was my favorite class this semester, because i love all that hand work. however, it was very time-consuming, and had i been thinking, i may not have taken it concurrently with studio 6. i did about 35 different 4" samples, one of each technique/sub-technique that we learned. fyi, crochet is simpler and faster than knitting. I also did five projects - the last one will probably be of greatest interest, because it was inspired by a japanese quilting technique called sashiko. it's shrug that's cut to look like a cropped kimono, and beaded and embroidered in a traditional sashiko pattern. i'll put up pics when i get it back. conclusion: lots of time, lots of fun.
product development was rough because the whole class was based on one large group project, and since I was the designer I ended up getting stuck doing a lot of the work. I felt like. As I said earlier, I spent 75-100 hours desigining the line, but for this class I also had to split the work for the large report with my group and make our booklet, which I didn't do very well on because nobody would talk about what they wanted on it until the week before it was due, when I had a bazillion other things to do. most of my groupmates were nice; I just wish that I had been with some people who wanted a little more involvement. Conclusion: useful things to learn, don't be the designer.
i also took bio 1001, which I was at first terrified of. I'd put it off until the last possible second. however, i took it pass/fail, and managed to get a good lecturer and a great ta (andrea simpson). i stopped going to lecture after spring break, i'm not taking the final, and i'm still going to pass the class. this is because i never missed a lab, and I did 2 standard deviations better than the mean on the two tests I took. taking it pass/fail i only need the equivalent of a c- to pass, and that's about what I am at. studying hard at the beginning of the semester really paid off.
Second, I finally had my remaining 3 wisdom teeth removed yesterday. I put it off for several years, but I had to do it eventually, and time was running out. my oral surgeon was great - i was awake and he talked me through it the whole way. he even called me last night around 7 to see how i was doing. very nice guy. so, i'm on heavy duty painkillers, and i'm only just a little sore. i rented a pile of movies and got some books at the library and i'm pretty much set. the only rough part was when i woke up this morning i had rather bad nausea because I had taken several doses of medicine over the night without anything in my tummy. I dry-heaved a couple of times, but then I felt better, ate some food, took some more pills, and I've had only mild nausea off and on all day. this could have been a much worse experience.
anyway, I now have nothing to do but work and hang out with people. yay!