As a Designer Member of the Craft and Hobby Association, I try to participate in the various events that highlight the creativity and innovation of our designer members when my schedule provides for it. Cloth, Paper, Scissors Magazine sponsored the Crafty Couture exhibit, a showcase of dresses created by Designer members that embody mixed media technique whilst using products found in the arts and crafting industry.
The dress is a fabric base, hand-sewn with connective thread that interfaces with Arduino technology (AdaFruit), and is embellished with copper and wood pieces (Lee Valley). The idea of mixed media is a "fusion" between crafting techniques and the emerging mediums and media outside of the crafting industry. To be relevent in today's creative spaces, those who create must be willing to step outside of their traditional comfort zones and test the boundaries arbitrarily set in place by one industry or another. Our dress was never meant to stay on a mannequin, it was designed to be worn, to be functional, and to be an ambassador of sorts... a mouth-piece of what mixed media could become.
Thank you to Lee Valley Hardware, AdaFruit, BIC Mark-it Markers, 3M, Fiskars and all the incredible folks who voted for it.
