Dreams By Machine
Repurposed and Functional Art
Dreams By Machine
Re-purposed and Functional Art
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Steamwalker/ Le Flaneur
Posted on September 3rd, 2010 No commentsThe Slum Circus is up and down, the Supperclub Los Angeles scaffold draping went well, Diavolo Dance Theatre’s going into dress rehearsals for Fearful Symmetries and I’ve just got the Steamwalker almost ready to submit in the Steampunk Form and Function Design Competition.
Yes, that’s right. I’m doing more than I write about. But there are some pictures!
Here’s images of the walker in progress- I’ll do up pretty pinups of the walker along with proper descriptions soon soon soon….
Le Flaneur
The Steamwalker's directions
Have no fear. There’s a great deal more in the way of decor.
This will be entered in the Steampuffin Steampunk design competition- Bruce Rosenbaum has been keeping me on track with the deadlines. Thank you so much! You can find him at http://www.steampuffin.com/ along with the Modern Victorians.
More coming. I swear.
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sustainable…
Posted on June 27th, 2010 No commentsSO I look in my inbox and I find this…
“YOU JUST WON THE CPSA AWARD AT THE FRINGE!!!!” (Translated: the sustainable practices award, for draping with re-used and re-purposed materials.)
After a lovely time doing a live-draping demo for the LA Visionaries and a meeting with a potential (and really great) photographer AND…not long after I’ve smacked my tailbone (trying to figure out a sliding door rail) in the new studio I’m going to be sharing with designer Michael Schmidt.
Cement floors, IKEA chairs and flip-flops. A flawed combination.
Thank you all…I am humbled, honored and seriously sore.
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Dreams of re-make, re-use, re-purpose
Posted on May 9th, 2010 No commentsThis was a catch phrase of the 1940’s, when wartime rationing made re-using a virtue. But it truly became necessary at the end of the 1920’s, when the stock crash forced many into austerity measures.
We now have that necessity again. Hell, Greece is being forced into austerity measures. And when it’s forced, no one likes it.
So many of the eco-friendly and pseudo-sustainable products available now have the “green” touch of approval by using a portion of recycled product- but not all. Or by recycling, but processing the material so heavily it actually damages the environment more than creating more landfill. Or by using only one product that regrows itself easily (say, bamboo) but tints or dyes or varnishes it in massively toxic chemicals.
Now, I am not saying that I live the utterly green lifestyle. I could always do better. But I really honestly do re-use, re-make and recycle. (Or is that upcycle? Who made up this phrase? It’s really condescending.)
The jewelry and accessories I make are at least 90% remnant, scrap, restored and savaged thrift, come from salvage, gift and etc… I wish there was a re-used thread to use. I’d like it if there was an eco-friendly alternative to WD-40. I sadly break machine needles too quickly, but I do re-sharpen the ones with burrs. My display units, even, are mostly repurposed.
And I get a lot of my clothing from thrift stores. I make pieces out of old sheets and spare fabric, I re-use items for tables and work stations, I figure out and re-purpose and make do.
Some of this is economy. A lot of this is the firm belief that I just don’t need it to be new.
So yes, I would love it if you bought my pieces. I would love it if you’d enjoy my entirely re-purposed electric wheelchair. I would adore it if you’d commission one from me. I’d adore it for you to give me your old wheelchair, crutches, walker and prosthetics and have me make them stunning again for you.
I would love it even more if you’d make something for yourself. If you show me what you’re re-making, re-using and re-purposing today. I will show you how to tear apart your old and unwanted and have you make yourself your own form of beauty. So that you can’t walk past a thrift store or junkyard or yardsale without seeing the art waiting to be born.
So that we might never need malls and child slavery labor and most fashion advertising ever again.
Laura
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The Whisperer in Darkness
Posted on May 5th, 2010 No commentsOh yes. We are finally all shot!
The Whisperer in Darkness is in the can and now in the process of editing. The trailer is available on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pd5gWGfnK5M&feature=player_embedded
And it really looks beautiful. While the last HPLHS black and white film (The Call of Cthulhu) had that silent film style, this one was shot with a classic film noir flair. It’s going to be stunning, odd and ideal.
For one of the last scenes we shot (up in the Griffith Park area), it turned out that the guy assigned to watch over us on behalf of the park and LA County was a huge H. P. Lovecraft fan but had never heard of the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society. He was thrilled and the film probably has a brand new fan before it even comes out.
It was a weird love affair shot in the dark, with rain machines and alien insect creatures, in the hills of LA, schools of MA and the wilds of Vermont….
And soon it can be your love affair too!
Walter Brown and Noyes plot evil
Gallery
