s13konel

I've never planted anything before but I've been tending to my new buddies every day for the last 2 weeks. Oddly, I quite enjoy it. Even if I don't yield any four-leaf clovers, I'm gonna keep them going. Maybe my family isn't insane about their love of gardening....




I'm also re-listening to Rod Stewart's It Had To Be You... and As Time Goes By... which are a bunch of OLD songs he remade. I know every song from both CDs. I think I'm the only person below the age of 60 who likes this kind of music because I don't know anybody anymore who's into the classics. Anybody out there?

Why am I listening to this? I was at the A&P Starbucks this morning and Rod's These Foolish Things started playing. I began singing along to myself just as this sweet, tiny, old lady next to me got so excited that I knew the song. "I love this song myself. Etta James, of course," she said. "It's so wonderful that a young man still knows good blues music." She smiled as she pinched my cheek.

It really is great music.

found @ popurls.com

The most frequent question I got asked on Tuesday was whether I did original drawings.

The answer is yes and here are a few.

I finally created a Twitter account: muzbymm

I absolutely cannot promise anything of merit, interest or real-time accuracy (until I figure out how to tweet from my cell phone) but I do promise that I will not post minutiae like how I just got a haircut or decided to wear the black jacket over the wool one.

(°_°)

As I wait for my baking chicken, I drew some more giveaways. The stamp came in today so I've been stamping everything like a kid.





I think she's my favorite of all of them so far. I thought it was gonna be a headache drawing all those curls but it flowed really well. I'm finally getting the hang of drawing the difference between closed eyes and looking-down eyes :)

Check your mail :) If you want me to send you one, just email me at muz@markmunoz.com.

I finally confirmed the date for muz Happy Hour at Camaje. This is the postcard I'm getting printed up and if you want to see the details, just click the image. Anyone is free to come and if you do, please say hi.



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I got only 3 hours sleep last night and I'm dead tired when I walked into my apartment but I've been thinking about ~mahal ALL DAY. I plopped myself at my desk and added these minor changes in a few minutes. Since I finally found my theme a few days ago, the elements have been jumping around in my head. Stinks that my eyes are really heavy and hands are shaking but I had to get this one out. I wish I had that kind of drive to do my laundry.

I'm REALLY starting to feel this one now.





Good night and sweet dreams, my dears.

If any of you are in the NYC area, my event planner is scheduling a muz Happy Hour Meet & Greet at Camaje the second week of November. Even if you can't drink, stop by if you can and say hi. I don't bite.

Details soon.

The next muz girl I'm working on is called ~mahal and I was looking for a central piece that's not literally a heart but something that is suggestive of one. The search has been going on since June.

I buy a ton of reference books and among them, I ran across one of these:



It's a Chinese Lantern. It gets like this when an insect, in the process of eating the outer skin, leaves the golden filigree intact, keeping the fruit unspoiled and protected within. Very poetic and lyrical.

I'll be handrawing each fiber so I'm really looking forward to how it's going to look in the end. The subject matter is something that's pretty close to my heart so I hope it translates that way into the final piece.

Another bag...

The last day has been pretty hectic and tiring but again, very much worth the effort.



( muz Showing here... )

Camaje
85 MacDougal Street btwn. Bleeker and Houston
New York, NY

With Typhoons Ondoy & Pepeng (Ketsana & Parma to the rest of the world) hitting the Philippines in the same week, I'm doing a muz art sale of satin prints to raise money for disaster relief. I'm still developing the logistics and preparing the art but I'm asking that you spread the word once I post the details. I'm hoping to raise and send at least $20000 for food, clean water, temporary housing and building materials through selling these first wave of prints. It kind of hit me hard when I was informed that they are still looking for the little girl I sponsor in Quezon City.

CNN and Fox News coverage is nothing compared to what they show on Filipino TV. If anyone here in the US is wondering about the severity, it's like getting hit by Hurricane Katrina twice in the same week. Even if you don't have money to contribute, it's just as important to me that you spread the word.


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That said, I need an opinion. I am producing variant prints just for this fundraiser. One I'm settled on is the sakura winter variant.



I'm doing a variant of JADE but am unsure about which one to do, violet or teal:







I have others I'm working on that I will finish tomorrow. Each one is going to be limited to about 200 prints that will be used just for this purpose. I appreciate you guys reading this and will appreciate it more when I go live starting next week. Thank you to noiretro and rosalui for planting the ideas in my head.

By lots of pictures I mentioned in my last post, I meant ONE. (I'm a little tired.)

I'll post the process (hopefully) tomorrow. I hope you all like.

I don't know what they're called but since I was against putting a design into the white, I added these fitted ridges/paneling to the front that flows with the direction of the sash. I kept it fitted to form and made sure it doesn't puff out.

Also, I attempted to attach the sash and damn, it's a little heavy. It's 4 feet by 8 feet. Depending on what part of the dress I hinge it on, it creates a sag in the front and loses that fitted look. I think I might have to modify my design, which sucks since I had my heart set on this. Either way, it looks like I might have to get creative really quick since I have to ship this out for judging on Tuesday.

I'm redesigning the bust panel piece into something that's a little more visually appealing. What I intended looks nice but I want it to have a little more ehhhhh to it. That band needs more.



Thanks to naughtya for telling me what a petticoat was :) I'll be working on it all Monday.

Lastly, Krista from Stony Brook, NY saw my tags and wondered what a Schellenberg was. That's the design competition for fabrics where I create something for my company. I've won it three times with the last two being the JADE hoodie and the medusa umbrella-bag-scarf set. I never went in thinking I'm gonna win but it'd be cool to three-peat to retire to.

Long but productive day. I created the sash (is that what it's called?) that is going to drape across the front of the dress then swing back and hang off to the side. It's heavy. And also, I hope that it's bold enough to get attention.



Here's a close up:




Yesterday I considered introducing a pattern to break up that white top. Good friend Allie said that there's something striking about the stark white, fitted bodice surrounded by all those design elements. She's a woman + has an art degree so two good reasons to listen.

I created a pattern across the top of the dress anyway. Good thing I made the sash(?) beforehand because it would have looked insanely too busy. It was one of those times where putting something there just to put something there would've backfired on me.

I might put a texture within that bottom gradient but again, I dig the simple flow of wine to red to white so most likely I'm keeping it that way.



Tomorrow, we begin the final production piece which will feature the lengthening of the dress to give it that sweeping look as well as trying to figure out how to attach that sash(?). Right now, it's got clips holding it together.


I feel my eyes now. Time for bed.

The day started out well when my production manager and I built a stand for the mannequin in about 12 minutes out of makeshift parts.

Here's the progress throughout the day, 24-style:


12:55 pm



She starts out essentially as a sheet with some pattern on it. If I wanted her to be a Spartan, I'd be done.



2:49 pm



I fitted the zipper in the back and tightened it across the top so it wouldn't slide down to the ground. I wouldn't want that to happen to my girl :P I also brought in the waist and did the singular diagonal dart across the front to go with the flow of what I have in mind.



3:25 pm



I brought in the waist even more and began the fitting across the hips. It was still loose across the boobs as well as the mid back. The red band across the top will be fitted and most likely be angled down to follow the rest of the lines in the submission piece.


4:33 pm



Across the chest, stomach, waist and hips are form fitted. I think I went a little too far cuz that zipper is being held together by faith. For the production model, I have to minimize the billowing across the stitch lines.


4:34 pm & 5:06 pm



My plan is to accent the fitted-ness of the dress with a HUGE flowing sash and a tail, mainly because this is for a design competition and I want it to pop when it's seen. I intend for it to be one of my red patterns with some organic white and black design to break up the solid red.

I like how it fits across the top but I believe I have to add something to the top to break up the white. Maybe a subtle disappearing pattern or a bold design element but either way, the dress seems like it's missing something. It looks hot but it's a tad boring up top. I'm considering pushing up the red gradient higher into the white too.

Another detail is to have multiple layers under the dress to add volume as it flows down to the ground. Since I'm not sure how to do it, I'll have the seamstress put in her expertise as to how I can add length to the bottom of the dress.

Pardon my rudimentary dress vocabulary. I had to ask a coworker what a dart line was. And I'm typing this now instead of cooking dinner because I forgot to defrost a frozen block of meat before I left for work this morning. Crap.