Tell Us About Challenge: School Days

 I'm joining 9 other international bloggers opining on the subject of School Days.

In August, I wrote a post about my "school life" from toddler (1957) to teacher (2017).

What else is there to say?
I'm currently teaching again, and I've boarded the struggle bus!

Photo by Santiago Gomez on Unsplash

I'm teaching two classes in Digital Design for BFA Fashion Students at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles. The classes are held weekly on Zoom, which is fine by me.

My sophomore class meets on Thursday from 4-7pm (originally they wanted to have it 7-10pm and I said no way!) They are learning techniques in Photoshop that they can use on their fashion illustrations. Their demos for homework are all prerecorded (I watch them as well and make notes) and they mostly work on their own.
I briefly meet with the whole class and then I do 1:1 critiques on their homework. (Yes, I now know how to make two Zoom rooms!) I believe last week was the first week that I got through all the 1:1s before 7. Phew!

I like to meet with them in the order they submit their work.

Here's our instructors' example of half of the above assignment (they had to realistically bend plaids on the provided figure):

All the efforts from last week's midterm test.
Can you guess the "A"s?

My junior class is meeting asynchronously. That means we don't have a regular class meeting, they just have to turn in their homework by noon, Saturdays. I then record my 1:1 critiques on Zoom and upload it to the course system. It takes me a long time!
They are learning advanced techniques in Photoshop and Illustrator and applying them to their design coursework.

They just had their Midterm test, which was drawing a flat (like a garment blueprint) from this garment photo:

excellent student work

All in all, I'm working on getting a good rhythm going and it's getting incrementally better. By the end of the semester I'll have it figured out! And then it will be too late! Meanwhile, I cross off getting anything accomplished on Thursdays and Saturdays.

Here are more thoughts on School Days/Schooldays

Debbie shares memories of her schooldays in Australia, and sending her daughters to school in Cheddar (UK) where (by coincidence) she’s currently staying! 

Gail from Is This Mutton serves up some amusing memories from school, including the missing gerbil and her mum's ride home in a hearse.

Jill gives us her take on this one is a smattering of memories from her long ago schooldays.

Leslie at Once Upon a Time & Happily Ever After reflects on a long but beloved career as a school librarian. Find her at onceuponatimehappilyeverafter.com/

Marsha spent the majority of her life in school, either as a student or as a teacher, and sometimes both! She writes about her earliest teaching memories.

Mary Katherine ponders her Schooldays, and what she learned that she actually used in later life, at mksadventure.com/

Penny goes a bit off-piste with this theme. She does look at her schooldays, which were sooo long ago! But she also looks at the British class based system of schooling; as in private v state schooling. This is because it not only impacted her life but also it has huge consequences for British society as a whole.

Rosie is talking about her village primary school and a very special 'School Girl' rose!

Suzy reflects on her varied and memorable schooldays, from culture shocks and cherished friendships to inspiring teachers and unexpected changes. Find her at www.suzyturner.com

10 on the 10th: School Daze

10 on the 10th is a fun monthly thing instigated by Marsha In the Middle.

For August, Marsha asked us to recount memories about school - good or bad.

I will start by saying, I grew up on school campuses, I went to school (of course), and I've taught Fashion Design at Otis College of Art and Design (in LA) on and off since 1993 or so.

1. I don't remember the days that my parents lived in the dorm at Berkshire School (in Sheffield, MA)

I'm almost 3 here

but I DO remember prowling around in them during the summer, when no boys were on campus. I also loved doing research in the library. Things took a bad turn about 5th or 6th grade when boys would hoot at me from their dorm windows. I started timing my walks across campus to when they'd be in class.

2. Speaking of 6th grade humiliations, in 5th and 6th grade I had a long 45 minute bus ride to Berkshire Country Day School, in Lenox. Maybe it's time to let go of the memory of a busload of mean kids chanting "Annie Fannie" at me. Horrible. This is why I won't let anyone call me Annie.

3. We moved to Millbrook School (Millbrook, NY) in 1969, and I loved it there. The school had a zoo! With a tapir (of all things)! Fun trivia: Robert Kennedy Jr, currently running for president, was a student there then. He was very much into falcons and hawking. 

I went to Dutchess School and there were only 10 kids in my class! I was queen of my queendom and full of myself.  I wore 15" miniskirts, fishnets, and a red bra that showed through tops.

summer 1970 but we're wearing fall clothing
alas, the photo album with all my weird ''68-70's sewing creations can't be found
so no red bra pix

4. For high school, I attended Emma Willard, a girls' boarding school in Troy, NY. I chose it because they had a very free-form curriculum (hardly any requirements!) and a great arts program. I studied Fine Art (duh), Modern Dance, Fiber Arts, Photography, A/V (such as it was in the early 70s: slides, reel-to-reel audio tape and whatnot)... the list goes on and on. Literature classes came with the expectation of 10-page papers! I think the school is embarrassed about those 4 years (or however long it went on) of "free" learning, but I thrived.

dance performance, 1974

5. College, round one: College of Creative Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara. Adventure awaited! Transplant a naive 18 year old onto a coed campus of 10,000 or so students, living in a half-way converted motel with no kitchen in Isla Vista (the right next to campus college village). There were surfers (did not understand their lingo). There was a nude beach (creepy older guy briefly lured me into his net). Boyfriends! Sex! Well, it was a time of discovery for me. CCS was fantastic. The dean, Marvin Mudrick, created it as "grad school for undergrads" in the arts and sciences. No grades, just scaled credits by how much effort one put into a class. My kind of place! I only lasted through Fall quarter of junior year because I fell in love and moved to NYC with a writer in the program. A story for another time!

art show invitation

6. Seven years later, I went to Otis/Parsons for their Fashion Design program. (I had moved to greater Los Angeles in the Fall of '82, too late to start until '83). I chose fashion design instead of fine art because I wanted a creative career that made money and fine art wasn't cutting it, plus I liked to sew. The Otis fashion program was (and is) Fashion Boot Camp. Very much like Project Runway (Tim Gunn was a dean at Parsons and I'm sure he modeled the show on aspects of the department's curriculum) with longer time constraints. (Our projects ran for a few months vs 24 hours). Otis was brutal and rewarding simultaneously. I learned a lot and got good jobs as a result.

I designed, draped, and tailored this red wool coat, senior year at Otis

7. My first return to Otis (93?) as an instructor in the Fashion department was a total disaster. I was to teach Sophomore Design (sophomores are the worst - they know "everything". Yeah, I remember being that way too). I was thrown to the wolves, with no experience and no one guiding me. I had to do 1:1 critiques with students and figured out that I had about 12 minutes with each for the 2-hour class. Then there was my aesthetic. I was also working at Mattel designing Barbie clothes and let's just say my design direction to the students was not based on reality! This came to a head when a second instructor was brought in and she did a class crit of everyone's designs and kept saying "Where would you wear this?" Mortifying. Those students hated me.

8. In '94 I took a class in Photoshop from Otis's Continuing Ed department. Early days with Photoshop, to be sure! A friend sat beside me, and I helped her a lot. This is when I realized digital design was my happy teaching place! Woohoo. Digital classes were also offered in the Fashion BFA department and I let the dean know that I was available. I became a TA. First there were just Photoshop classes, then Illustrator got added. Illustrator I didn't know. So I'd sit in the morning session, learn the day's lesson, and then help students with their glitches in the afternoon session. THAT's one way to learn software fast! But yeah, no design critiques, just solving technical problems. Perfect fit.

9. After a few years of teaching Digital Design in Fashion and the same class in Continuing Ed, I morphed the latter into two separate classes - one for fashion and one for surface design (making repeating patterns). I LOVED teaching the Digital Surface Design class. But a wiley former student stole the class out from under me, to my continued annoyance. How dare she.

10. My tenth memory transpired in 2017, trying to teach Photoshop to Fashion sophomores (sophomores again. Cue doom music). I know Photoshop. I know MY way of using Photoshop. I DID NOT know the techniques devised for the class. Again, I was in a situation of learning during class. The students sussed that out very quickly. I didn't know how to fix their problems. ARGH! And this time, I had to grade the work. Grading took forever. Not fun. Not a positive experience!

me asking fellow instructors how to grade something

I hope you enjoyed this long trip down memory lane.

I sure did!

Be sure to check out Marsha’s post and her link party for more responses!

Linking up with
Marsha's 10 on the 10th
Shelbee's On the Edge

Is This Mutton's WOW on Wednesday

Inspired By a Joan Didion Quote

“I have already lost touch with a couple of people I used to be...”  Joan Didion

Years:
1987, 1994, 1998
1979, 2021, 1978
1971, 1976, 1980

I posted the above on Instagram, I thought I would go deeper into the images here.

Or at least pull away from the square crops.

There are some versions of me that I gladly leave behind (my married years especially).

Others, I want to keep in touch with the spunky young me.

In backwards order:

2021

Next to four of my map weavings
Holly Jolly art reception, Roswell Space.

1998

A place Severo and I stayed in Cambria.
We toured Hearst Castle that trip. So much fun!

1994

Final day of a week long summer workshop with Rafael Ferrer at Bennington College.
Holding a self portrait.

1987

Otis graduation, BFA in Fashion Design
Lisa on the left, Dad on the right.

1980

Xmas at my parents, Hampden, MA.
What am I doing in that preppie sweater???

1979

That time I was a bride.
Photo by Jamie Wolff.

1978

At Alines apartment, her birthday?
Ex removed from photo.

1976

Outside the art studio.
College of Creative Studies, UC Santa Barbara.
I quit after my first quarter of Junior year to move to NYC with the ex,
as a 20 year old know it all does..

1971

Freshman year at Emma Willard.
Music pod in the library.
Winter uniforms, mine is a micro mini version.

On to the new year and new adventures!

Linking up with

Shelbee's Spread the Kindess

#thevintagefashionchallenge Day 5: Pink

 I featured the Pink crinoline in today's Instagram post:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by anne m bray (@annembray)

The first photo was at Otis College, Spring 1987.
I'm wearing a black boatneck top that I sewed out of blackout flannel, a black velvet belt with rhinestone buckle, the pink crinoline under a shirred prairie skirt, uncomfortable lace tights, the black "witch" shoes I featured on IG on Day 2.

The second photo was used in Bag and a Beret's  2013 edition of VOGOFF. 
See my post with outtakes

I'm wearing:
Black nylon/spandex bubble knit tube dress -- Trash and Vaudeville, NYC 80s
Pink petticoat -- Cowboys and Poodles on Melrose, LA? Screaming Mimi's, NYC? 80s
Red/black stripe cotton/spandex leggings -- Betsey Johnson 79(?)
Booties -- Norma Kamali 85
African bracelets + necklaces -- Jone Pasha, Providence RI, 80s
Jumbo Chain necklace -- Patucci, The Front Porch, Providence RI, 80s
Sunglasses -- vintage from optician Providence, RI 80s

I no pink patches from the quilt today.
Patch fatigue has set in (already).

Make It Yourself March, Week 2: Sustainable Making

This week's MIY March subjects are Sharing and Caring:
• Sustainable sewing tips
• Material sourcing
• Our most treasured textiles

I'm going to reminisce on some of my own workshop experiences that fall in the "sustainable" category. These also might give you some ideas for sourcing fabrics, fibers, and even art materials.
The boldface type will link to individual posts.

Slow Clothing and Mending at #CAFAM July 24, 2017
I mentioned Ruth Katzenstein Souza in the previous post. She is the goddess of sustainable practice and mending.
Read her "Original Call to Mending" from 2014!

Seeing these amulets, formed from saved bits of thread ends, fabric scraps, etc sparked my imagination.

[image source]

DIY Yarn from Old Tees with Frau Fiber April 21, 2018

That time I learned how to make "yarn" from teeshirts.

Which led to turning my old jeans into an art piece (still a WIP)

And my return to weaving.

Fiber Workshop with Carrie Burckle at Otis (no posts!) June, 2018

Experimented with various upcycling techniques, including

• Paper bags into yarn (difficult):

• Weaving warp ends that Carrie collected from Diedrek Bracken's projects that he worked on at Cal State Long Beach upcycled into my own off-loom weaving:

Original cotton, Diedrick dyed it pink.

Mock ikat with poured bits of red dye

Still sewing the squares together.

Note to self: I really need to write up a post or two about that workshop! Even if I have to predate it to get in onto the blog chronologically. 

Upcycling = lots of fun possibilities!

BOOM Goes Otis

I volunteered to work the Otis Centennial Scholarship Benefit & Fashion Show and I ended up in a stairwell.
I made the most of it.

Linking up with

Patti's Visible Monday

Catherine's #iwillwearwhatilike
Shelbee's On the Edge of the Week

#MeMadeMay Week 2: Tunic Rehabs

These items are NOT from Repair/Repurpose Mountain.
Instead, it was adding a tiny bit of hand sewing that made me love them all over again.

First, the green stripe rayon tunic.
It kept sliding off my shoulders and driving me batty.
The problem? Neck hole too wide!
A simple 2" in at the shoulder on both sides and my sanity was restored.

"This tunic matches my eyes. Yes, I'll pose with it."

Next, the Japanese kimono textile:

I'm "backstage" at the Palm Desert Civic Center Amphitheater.
Severo had a gig with The Pettybreakers. It was 106ºF.
I found this a good print for disguising spilled guacamole.
Write up on the Glutton blog soon.

And last, the BOOM! tunic, which I tolerated at work in order to be extra festive for the Otis Senior Exhibition after work.

The Chico's ombre dot scarf, acquired last year, pairs perfectly with the tunic.

At Otis. Couldn't figure out the student who created this mirror piece.

Linking up with Patti's Visible Monday

Catherines #iwillwearwhatilike

Oh yeah, DOTS!

iSpy at the Otis Scholarship Benefit Fashion Show 2017

Remember the fluevog print dress?
Here it is at the Step-and-Repeat:

[David Crotty/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images] 

While David shot me, I sketched him:

This year I went to the afternoon rehearsal, then lurked with the photographers and sketched.

I think I drew 26 sketches!

Later on, I was captured by an Otis photographer posing with photographer Kai He:

His sketch turned out a bit more abstract:

Um, VERY abstract! He just wouldn't stand still!

One of the highlights of the evening was getting a selfie with my Otis classmate Chris Chang.

Chris designs the line Poesia in Shanghai, she mentored one of the Senior Class projects.

I hadn't seen her since we graduated umpteen years ago.

(A sketch of Chris and photos of the student work later).

Linking up with Patti's Visible Monday

Shelbee's On the Edge of the Week

SpyGirl at the Otis Benefit Fashion Show, Part 2

CREATED/ LINKS/ 

There will be three parts to this saga. I'm rolling it out (very) slowly!

The Otis Benefit Fashion Show happened on May 2, at the Beverly Hilton.
I've made it a thing to lurk at the step-and-repeat photo area prior to the evening show
(in Part 1 I wrote about attending the afternoon rehearsal).
It's a great people-watching opportunity and I sketch the VIPs!

Kendra Bollenbach and Joan Ransohoff 

The McKnight family, framed by photographers Kai He/The LA Fashion and David Crotty/PatrickMcMullan 

Paul Wilson, Alaina Wilson, Liz Evans, Brian Evans

Jonathan Skow and Trina Turk

Peter Lai and Rosemary Brantley (chair of the Otis Fashion Dept)

In Part 3 I will show my sketches, cleaned up -- don't hold your breath waiting for this!
I'll document my progress on Instagram and Twitter.