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Summary: The beginning of a series of posts about my Sherlock Holmes thesis project showing preliminary sketches.

via Studio Bowes Art Blog at http://ift.tt/1YKWlld

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By Justyna Zajac and Michelle Rafferty

This week we went to the Berg Fashion Library launch event at the New York Public Library where the talented Ada Calhoun spoke about using Berg for her own fashion research. She co-authored Gunn’s Golden Rules: Life’s Little Lessons for Making it Work and is now working on another book with Tim Gunn, the forthcoming Tim Gunn’s Fashion Bible.

We had the chance to speak with Ada after the event about 90s fashion (her blog 90swoman is sweet) and shopping for costumes with her son:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Fun Facts We Learned about Fashion from Ada & Berg:

-Sometimes the past is better left in the past – that means you ill-fitting flannel shirt.

-The most common designer Project Runway applicants list as their inspiration is Chanel – spelled Channel.

-Ballet inspired fashion is coming soon – thank you Black Swan!

-The “f-word” also refers to fashion – courtesy Valerie Steele.

-When discussing your fashion thesis with academics, make sure they know you’re not talking about a fascism thesis (again courtesy Valerie Steele).

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Somewhere between July and August I think I went from venal to mortal sins regarding the regularity with which I have been posting. I have my excuses...but don't all sinners?

So I was kinda surprised when they still let me into paradise. The Hawaiian version. 

I frantically wrote for two weeks straight, literally day and night, to get that d*@# Master's Thesis rough draft finished so that I could take the long-planned family vacation with my family and not face a mutiny when they found me up in the middle of the night working on the d*@# thesis. It was self-preservation. Really.

So it was with a clean writing slate that I boarded American Airlines Flight 7 for the tropical paradise on earth known as Maui. For two weeks, I did not have to think about scene, setting, objective correlative, plotting (except maybe what I was plotting to do that very day with my kids and husband in that particularly gorgeous setting and the emotions it would evoke). It was glorious. Heaven on earth. Granted, there were times when the blackened coals of the underneath emerged to char my toes, but that's why man invented shoes, right?

I did not want to leave. Ever. Which is probably why I keep setting books in Hawaii. I can't help it. I am drawn to the climate and atmosphere of the South Pacific like a homing pigeon. It is just so...other. So...relaxing. My youngest made the wise point that if I moved there, though, it wouldn't be special anymore. Good point. Routine would set in.

Still, I'd be willing risk it to see if I could ever reach a saturation point living full time in paradise. It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it.

Now if I could just write that sinfully successful novel that will get me there!

Until then, here's to dreaming about sand, sun, and the next big wave. 

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Well, after the longest Masters degree in history, I finally graduated today! I began my MA in children's literature at Macquarie University, where I also did my undergraduate degree, back in about 1989 or 1990. After the course work, I began my thesis on Diana Wynne Jones's Chrestomanci novels (and time in her books generally—too many eggs in that basket which is why the thing never came together), which I abandoned when life got in the way (aka divorce).

It took me more than ten years to feel settled enough in my life and work to re-enrol in the Masters, by which time the rules had changed and I had to do a few more courses, which I'm very grateful for, because it was such a long time since I'd been involved with academic writing (plus I just really ejoyed them, girly swat that I am). 

When I first re-enrolled, I planned to write my thesis about Cynthia Voigt's "Bad Girls" books, then I toyed with the idea of representations of masculinity in Australian YA (before realising, what am I thinking? I'm not that interested in representations of masculinity in Australian YA), before settling on a great love and interest—fairy tale retellings.

I ended up writing a thesis about second wave feminist criticisms of the fairy tale, and how (mostly female) writers of fairy tale retellings of fairy tales have found feminist possibilities within the narrative framework of the tales. I wrote about two novels by Donna Jo Napoli: Bound (pretty successfully, I think—oh, and follow that link: fantastic teen review of the book) and Beast (not so successfully—maybe it was that masculine perspective that got me undone!). I ended up with a Distinction for the thesis, which I was ridiculously disappointed by, because I'd got HDs for all my course work, but I guess I can live with that now. I actually handed it in more than 12 months ago, but a succession of admin stuffups meant I didn't graduate until today.

Mum and Dad came along with me, as well as my best friend Cathy, who I met on enrollment day in 1982 in the very place I graduated (for the second time) today. The uni has changed so much since we were undergraduates—Cathy hasn't been back since 1986, and she said she found the experience quite an emotional one. I feel very at home there, having been on and off campus (including a stint tutoring undergrad children's lit students a few years ago), and hope that my association will continue, maybe with some more teaching—who knows, maybe with a return trip to get me one of those squishy black velvet hats and purple robes... (OK, that's not going to happen in a hurry!)

My supervisor, John Stephens, was part of the official party at today's graduation. I was seated in the front seat on the aisle, dead in front of the stage, and John saw me when he was walking down the stairs behind the stage with the official procession, and gave me a cheery wave, which was a touch undignified but very, very welcomed by me! John was a wonderful and most fore-bearing supervisor, and it was a great privilege to have the opportunity to work with him. Plus he's someone I am very fond of. He encouraged and pushed me in every way possible, and it was with his help and support that I had the chance to present a paper at the ACLAR conference a few years ago. So thanks, John, if you're reading this. Oh, and I've found a few more of your books I need to return...

And the day turned out to have a nice surprise. One of the young people graduating with a bachelor degree was, how do I put this? My ex niece? Can you have an ex niece? Anyway, she's the niece of the person I used to be married to, and I saw her name in the program, and recognised her on stage (even though I haven't seen her in at least 14 years), and then found her and her parents after the ceremony. It was lovely to see them—no hard feelings there!—and nice to know that the girls (I had four extra nieces back in the day) are growing up and doing so well.

So here's me and John, and me and Mum and Dad. It's a good feeling to be able to officially claim those letters as my own—although here's a question for you. Now I have the MA, do I drop the BA? And what do I do with the Dip Ed? Any thoughts? (Not that I use my degrees in my signature, but you never know when it might be useful...) (Oh, and I'll put the rest of the pics up on my flickr account.)

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I have in the past few moments finally finished, completely and in its entirety, the first draft of my thesis. There are no more holes, areas of dropped logic, or gaps -- at least not that I know of. I may find some when I go to revise tomorrow and my advisor will certainly find them, but for now I feel triumphant in that the lion's share of the work is now done.

And my thesis is doubly exciting to me because it is also the first novel I have ever created. Weighing in at a lofty 34000 words, it's a little shorter than most YA novels on the market these days, but really there was nothing more in that story to tell. And like all good first novels, after this one serves its purpose as thesis, it will go live on a shelf never again to see the light of day. However, the important thing is that I can finish a novel. I can really do it.

And trust me, if someone with as little writing discipline as me (I spent 4.5 hours today getting those last 3000 words done. I hadn't worked on it for months up until this point.) can do it, than you can write a novel too.

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The last few days have mostly been spent proofreading -- first the CORALINE graphic novel...
(lovely art by P. Craig Russell. Here's a page with some rats on it)

...and then the second volume of Absolute Sandman. (I've done about 250 pages so far.) I fixed the Joshua Norton announcement declaring himself emperor, which was right in the script but had somehow been changed when it was lettered, and I also changed a word that I realised a few years ago did not mean what I thought it meant when I originally wrote that issue (no, I'm not telling you which word).

Author copies of Interworld and M is for Magic arrived today.

I've reeived my Mysterious Device From the Big Company, and am still in the stage of playing with things and making my mind up. I know it's brilliant in theory, not so sure about it in practice, yet.

I learned from a Variety article that Beowulf would be at the Venice film festival, but I asked and was told it probably wasn't going to happen. The New York Times correctly says that Beowulf will be in 3D where available.

Hi Neil, I have a recoloring question regarding Death in the (absolutely gorgeous) Absolute Sandman volume(s). In the original comics, Death had a vaguely "flesh tone" skin color (albeit very pale) in "The Sound of Her Wings," but appeared to have totally white skin for the rest of the series. In the Absolute volume, she now has a more clearly defined pinkish skin color (contrasting with Dream's white) not only in TSOHW but also in "Men of Good Fortune." So my (long-winded) question is: will this change be made to Death in her later appearances in subsequent volumes? And if so, why the change? Thank you! Jon Van Hoose

Death was meant to have pale skin, but not white, and that was how she was coloured in Sandmans 8 and 13. On her third appearance (in "Facade", Sandman 20, reprinted in Absolute Sandman Volume 1) Steve Oliff coloured her white, and it stuck that way for the rest of the series. I'm not really sure why the change. I used to get to approve things up to the point of colouring, but the production process back then meant I never got to see the coloured art until it was printed. (I was thrilled working on 1602 and Eternals to find that I could see -- and make little corrections -- on the actual colour.) And no, we won't recolour her.

Glad to see you doing the beekeeping thing. I've beenconsidering getting a hive for some time now and actually have theequipment (i.e. hat, veil, smoker, etc.). The only thing that worries me a bit is the stinging. I know that's a silly thing to worry about if one is going to keep bees, but still. Have you been stung yet at all, or does it worry you much while you work on the hives?

Currently we (me, the birdchick and her husband Bill, Lorraine and anyone else who helps out with bees) have a pool, and the first one of us to get stung gets $10 from each of the others. Over a month into beekeeping no-one's yet collected anything. I'm not sure that it worries me too much, actually -- bee stings are, I am informed, good for preventing arthritis, something I like the idea of not getting.

Neil -I don't know if anyone has pointed this out to you yet, but a friend of mine recently posted this e-bay auction:http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230133612433

It's a tea set based around the Endless, complete with fish-covered Delirium teapot, bag of sand sugar bowl, Despair mirror coasters, heart/broken heart Desire creamer, and of course, tea cups in the shapes of two members of Death's floppy hat collection.Most importantly, of course, 100% of the sale is going directly to the CBLDF through MissionFish.

Just thought you'd like to know.-joe-

Good to know.

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