10:21 PM,  Dain said...

I suppose it's like any other thing, you learn as you go along. I've always thought that taste is the ability to know yourself very, very well, in whatever capacity. You learn what you like and don't like.

I would suggest looking at what people are doing contemporarily. I don't know any good jewelry sites, but I imagine there are shops that sell offbeat, upcoming designers--really inventive stuff. I figure, that's the best place to look for ideas.

Or maybe it would help to expand into other materials... like metalworking. I bet you could take art classes that would let you build up skills. Once you have new skills, new styles open up to you, I think.

I don't know, I barely know a thing about jewelry in the first place. But just some ideas.

1:35 PM,  Colleen Shirazi said...

Yeah...it's tricky. Ultimately I would like to do metalworking, because I would then be able to create unique components, which are key to unique pieces, after all. But I don't foresee doing so for at least another year. It's a money investment but as importantly, a time investment. What I'd like to do is figure out what I want to do first, before making the investment.

It's not too different from what you and I have done with cosmetics. We started out with less expensive cosmetics, to figure out what works and what doesn't. It's better than investing heavily in the $ stuff only to find out later that most of it doesn't work.

Hermmm...I do check out what other people are doing. Most of it, I can admit, I don't like. Some of it I like but can't see buying or wearing. It's...as I say, tricky.

Oh well I'm in phase three. This year (I'm starting my "year" around the time I started making jewelry, September 2005), I intend to make permanent pieces...the stuff you can see yourself wearing ten years from now.

Next year or thereabouts...that's when I'm thinking of going to only a few pieces, but expensive materials. You can buy 18KT gold components online, you can buy a lot of stuff...Tahitian and Akoya pearls, you can buy antique beads, yadda yadda... I don't want to do that yet, it's too soon.

12:43 AM,  Colleen Shirazi said...

My daughter just pointed out that briolette bead looks like Dior J'Adore.

1:43 AM,  Colleen Shirazi said...

Well, they do say Western civilization is, well, declining. It's too bad. Anyone outside our culture watching some of this stuff would probably just be confused.

Weeellll...skinny jeans and leggings were popular in the 70's (the jeans) and 80's (the leggings). They do look good, as long as you have the right legs for them, but that's the same thing with miniskirts. There is always a current fashion that looks great on someone in late teens or early twenties, with what I can see now is a perfect figure (when I was that age, I never saw perfect as perfect). And there is always a current fashion for everyone else. So, if you can't do the miniskirt or leggings or what have you, there is always something else to wear.

The "skinny fashion"...is ephemeral. It's capturing something that not all women ever possess, and those that do possess it, do so for only a finite period in their lives. My own body changed after I had the kids and got old. I mean there's no reason not to maintain a good figure for your age, but it'll never be the same as it was when you were in your twenties or thirties. So I think it's a good thing, to always have a "skinny fashion." It's not good to expect everyone to stuff themselves into it, but for those who do not stuff, I think it can be beautiful.

Now, why we as a culture push the limit...why we border on socially approving of eating disorders, while, at the same time, we as a society get fatter and fatter...and we rush to socially approve of that too, even though being too fat is just as unhealthy as being too thin...I can't explain that.

2:02 AM,  Colleen Shirazi said...

Hermmmmm...layers are like Uggs. I suppose. I never see Uggs around here, only read endless complaints about Uggs on the Net.

Uggs supposedly look like crap, they were at one point ubiquitous, everyone dissed them, yadda yadda...but from all reports, they're warm. They even keep your feet dry. This makes them interesting to me. Not here and now...my Doc Martens boots keep my feet warm and dry in our relatively mild climate...but the concept.

Now layers, you find in California. It's not a fashion. People have always worn layers here. You have to. The weather is crazy.

For example, this morning it was so cold I turned the heat on. (Okay this is California, you have to turn the heat on.) By afternoon, it was hot. Short sleeve hot. In the evening, it was back cold again.

Almost any time you wear clothes warm enough for the morning and evening, you have to have a creative way of shedding at least one layer of them in the afternoon. Whenever it looks hot outside, it can suddenly turn cold; you almost always have to have a wrap of some kind with you, and preferably some way of tying it so you don't have to carry it.

It was slightly worse in Washington because of the rain. It starts raining right out of the blue. So, add a waterproof layer to the fact that it's freezing there.

Layers for the sake of layers just strikes me as silly. If it's cold though, I always throw on another layer.

2:10 AM,  Colleen Shirazi said...

Ohhhhh...I know exactly what you mean about "not readily identifiable."

It's been in the back of my mind for some time...how, more and more so, we are buying all of our clothing at exactly the same stores. The same brands, the same models even.

I think the trend will be toward smaller designers, boutiques, people making their own clothes or starting their own cottage industries...in the same way the trend is toward esoteric perfume houses. Ultimately, people will want something different.

9:16 PM,  Colleen Shirazi said...

Not to enable or anything, but making jewelry is a great hobby. :D You can make a surprising range of pieces using just softflex (which is beading wire, almost as flexible as thread) or jewelry wire.

The ring would be out of the question, but the other two pieces...not that hard to make.

You've got to get your ears pierced!!!!! I went to one of those "Piercing Pagoda" type kiosks at the mall when I was 11. Now I hear it's better to go to a real piercing place...which uses a needle...rather than the mall shops...which use a piercing gun. I've been happy with my gun-pierced lobes but fyi.

One thing you'll need to know is if you have a metal sensitivity. I can't wear 14KT gold or sterling silver earrings, much less the cheaper stuff. I can do 18KT gold but it's $. What I use for my own work is niobium.

12:36 PM,  Colleen Shirazi said...

Nice... I like the grey one better though. I realize it's three times the price, but, I dunno. It's more youthful looking.

Well, there is utility in clothing, and there is anti-utility. Utility is something that "trickles up" because it starts with clothing that has a specific function...blue jeans, painters' pants, tee shirts, boots, sneakers, and so forth...the underlying function becomes the fashion.

Anti-utility would be something like skirts, high heels, long fingernails, white-collared shirts, stockings, and so forth...something that specifically keeps you from doing certain kinds of work...by wearing it, everyone knows you don't mop floors for a living.

In between I suppose there are items that don't fit either description but I tend to think first in terms of utility. Which I think is more of an American thing than a European thing. I'm not saying I wear only utilitarian clothes, it's more that I'm conscious of it.

1:43 AM,  Colleen Shirazi said...

You're still thinking of clothing as art, that's the thing. It's probably more of a strength than a weakness. Or...? It's just different.

I've always preferred function, myself. Even my concept of making jewelry is more functional than decorative. I know that is not how most people think...but a single piece of jewelry can completely change the flavor of an outfit. Having lots of jewelry is cheaper than having lots of clothes, as long as you make the jewelry. It's not exactly a status thing, it's more something people can't put their finger on, since the majority of my designs are unique.

I like that grey sweater better than the white one.

4:44 PM,  Dain said...

I don't think I'd be satisfied with clothing NOT as an art, though. It's sort of like how you minimalize a stash, you know? Look for holy grails? I mean, if I'm going to wear these clothes every day, instead of all those sophisticated, tailored looks, there's gotta be an aesthetic reason behind it. For me, at least. Otherwise, what's the fun?

1:40 AM,  Colleen Shirazi said...

You won't regret getting Doc Martens. It's a stupendous brand. I have a pair of boots and a pair of sandals...they've lasted year after year. And they're great in cold or wet weather.

Nice top too. :)

4:34 PM,  Dain said...

Wow, those look great. Fun hobby. : )

3:36 PM,  Colleen Shirazi said...

It is a lot of fun...and it's good for you. I think mainly because you have to be extraordinarily patient, which I'm not normally...then there is the design aspect, because you have to create from scratch (I've used only a few "readymade" designs).

Then there is the materials aspect, because you have to figure out what to use and where to buy it from.

I'll have to say it's cheaper in the long run than buying jewelry. There's a big investment of time, and some money, up front, but once you find your groove, you're pretty much set.

Say...let's switch the comment email back to the old email. I still have it open, it would be handier for this kind of thing.

2:31 PM,  MrsETaylor said...

Love your blog, May I add in to my links? thanks again

7:07 PM,  TheLipstickPageForums.com said...

Sure thing and thanks for the link!

I'm not sure we are very "green," but I do find "disposable clothing" incredibly annoying.