Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Animal Print


Back in January I sent my daughter a copy of Simple Modern Sewing by Shufu To Seikatsu Sha. On her own blog my daughter wrote about it here, explaining the present fad that exists (and that she shares in) for these style-and-pattern books translated from Japanese.

We decided to try one of the designs, a kind of slouchy summer jacket. At Britex (that gorgeous & traditional downtown San Francisco fabric store) we found a contemporary Japanese print depicting big bunches of blossoms inhabited by miniature African animals (but only animals with a history of modeling for animal prints). Heavy cotton/linen blend. Echino Collection by Etsuko Furuya for Kokka Fabrics.


1/4 second, f/9


1/8 second, f/7.1


1/2 second, f/13

I finished it tonight, but daylight was disappearing and I only had time for a few hasty pictures (more long exposures, all at ISO 1000). Of which these are the only tolerable specimens. They show the overall shape of the back plus a few pictorial details.

It is set to be delivered tomorrow. And what a singular blessing that my daughter has the sort of career (editing art and design books for a successful independent publisher) that allows and even encourages her actually to wear our experiments for purposes of real everyday life out in the world.

I am sure Mabel Watson Payne will be quick to spot (and name) every animal.