[Photography] The Mysterious Worlds of Women

Today, I'd like to post some photographs from my final project for a photography class I took in college back in 2007. I believe the film was Ilford HP-5 Plus 400 Fast Black and White Professional Film. 

Taking pictures, developing the film, manipulating light exposure for desired effects, and then printing... Long hours were spent standing in the darkroom, making dozens of prints of the same film until I got something that I wanted. It wasn't easy, but it was extremely fun and rewarding in the end.

And my two favorites :

All I knew was that I wanted a picture of a pitch black room, 

the light flowing out from the refrigerator being the only source of light, 

and a woman holding a knife and peering into 

an empty refrigerator filled with bottles of water. 

Interpretations? I'll leave that up to you. 

[Dolls] Blue Calico

A very simple dress made with a floral fabric that reminds me of calico mentioned in the "Little House" books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I tried out a different style of tucks on the front and also tested out the applique stitch of my sewing machine (Brother CS6000i) on the pockets. 

I love fine, delicate pin tucks, but these are quite lovely as well. 

[Dolls] Country Girls

I love white socks and Mary Jane's :-) 

The floral print fabric worked out very nicely with the smocked design.

I discovered the smocking decorative stitches on the sewing machine (Brother CS6000i) and had to try it out. I ran about 5 or 6 rows of straight stitches across, gathered the fabric together, and then ran the decorative stitch on the gathers. The pleats are not as intricate and detailed as hand-stitched smocking, as you can see from the picture below: 

However, the uneven and scrunched smocking is cute in itself and works well with the yellow dresses. Maybe I'll give hand-smocking another try some time later. 

[Dolls] The Blue Period

My love for sewing began when I learned of BJDs, or ball-jointed dolls, back in 2003. One of the key attractiveness of BJDs is that you can customize them to your taste - sculpts, wigs, eyes, faceup (painting the dolls' faces), clothes, shoes, accessories, and so forth. Some people purchased outfits, while some, including myself, opted to sew original outfits for their dolls.

Being self-taught, there were many, many trial-and-errors as I struggled to learn about the different stitches and drafting patterns to get the look I wanted. However, sewing soon became one of my most favorite hobbies. After a couple of years, I began to sell the outfits I made, and now, as of 2010, I have started to receive commissions. What a long way I have come!

The following outfits are recent works - two identical outfits consisting of a dress, bloomers, anklets, and hair ribbon.

(Volks YoSD Yuu [left], Volks YoSD Kanon [right])

Sewing has also led me into other related crafts, such as ribbon embroidery, as you can see from the little, blue rose that I did on the bib of the dress. 

I still make mistakes, but nothing beats watching your favorite TV show while sewing away :-)