Pride Parade 2013!

My Contribution to the 4th Annual Eco-Friendly Fashion Show

4th Annual Eco-Friendly Fashion Show

The fashion show is one of those events you need to prepare for months in advanced. Because this year would be my last year hosting this event, (I am a senior) I needed to make sure that this was the most memorable. I had countless responsibilities for the fashion show, one of them being to create a fundraiser for the club hosting the show: the multicultural club. I decided to design and construct several dresses for various students within the school for a donation to the club. It was a last minute decision, and within a short amount of time I was proudly able to make 10 dresses. Here are how a few of them looked on the runway:

4th Annual Eco-Friendly Fashion Show - slideshow

Jellyfish Lantern

Simple lantern made out of tissue paper, glue, wire and string. 

Dragon Head

Last year I created a dragon head as a prop for the 3rd Annual Eco-Friendly Fashion Show. It was a fairly long process. I first sketched out how I wanted the dragon head to look like and how it would look like on the set. Looking back now, I think I would have created numerous other sketches in different angles to get a clearer idea of how I wanted it to look like. Using newspaper, masking tape, a soda bottle, cardboard, wire, and glue, I constructed the shape of the dragon head. To be honest, I struggled a lot with forming the mouth of the dragon. When I first made it, I thought it was too flat and wide, giving it the appearance of a duck rather than a ferocious dragon. Disappointed, I went back and made the snout more narrow, perhaps too narrow, however I didn't seem to notice it at the time. I tried giving the dragon some texture by paper maching it with some napkins left over from an event. Unfortunately, with the paint applied it resulted that the napkins didn't give it the bumpy rough texture I intended. Painting the dragon was a long process. I mixed various shades of reds, oranges, and blues to get the color I wanted. Looking back now, to make the dragon look more realistic I would have tried to determine where the shadows of the face would be to paint them a darker shade. To make the teeth, I used air-dry clay and attached them with white caulk. I painted them using creamy yellows, dirty greens and mud dry browns. On the day of the event I realized I should have used bolder colors on the teeth to make them more noticeable. Ultimately, I wouldn't consider this to be one of my proudest works, however this process taught me several tips that I should keep in mind when creating another large props.

Let the Preparation Begin!

The Eco-Friendly Fashion show event will take place earlier this year in order to meet the yearbook photo deadlines. Therefore we have already begun planning for the event. This year, two weeks before winter break, we will taking intensives rather than our regular subject classes. However instead of taking an intensive, I along with the other members of tech crew, shall be teaching one... actually two. The intensives the tech crew will be teaching shall revolve around the Fashion Show event. I will help teach the dress-making intensive and the set designing intensive. The outcome of the dress-making intensive shall be for each girl, or pair of girls to design and create a dress that will be modeled during the show. To show my students (haha kinda weird referring to my peers as students) an example of a dress made out of recycled items, I decided to start working on my dresses a little earlier this year. Today I completed my first dress for this year's event.

My model really wanted a dress that had a vintage vibe and because the event is hosted by the multicultural club, we wanted to incorporate her culture into the dress as well. Therefore we gathered chinese newspapers and I stained each one with a mixture of coffee and a few drops of red food dye. I was inspired by this dress' structure and design: http://data.whicdn.com/images/37551437/417366_327286734033867_1498988909_n_large.jpg

I liked how the torso of the dress was well fitted and the ruffles decorated the skirt of the dress. 

Staining the newspapers and stapling the ruffles on the dress was tedious work, but I was quite content with the outcome. I haven't yet tried it on my model, but as soon as I do I wil be able to add the finishing touches. 

TYWLS of Astoria's Multicultural Night Dance Performances 2012

The Multicultural Night Dance Performances are one of TYWLS of Astoria's most popular events. These performances take place on Multicultural Night, a traditional event that began in 2006 when TYWLS of Astoria was first established. Our first Multicultural Night took place in a small crowded room in P.S 85 while our official school building was being renovated. Already it was easily recognized that our school of 80 students was filled with diverse cultural backgrounds. As the school began to expand, so did the Multicultural Night event. Where once a classroom was a sufficient enough space, an entire block is now dedicated to celebrate the diversity in our growing community. The Multicultural Night Dances was introduced to our school in 2009 as an extension to the Multicultural Night. Students from various grades devote their time to creatively choreograph the culture they choose to represent through dance. As a result of the dancers and MCC's (Multicultural Club) hard work, the audience experience cultural diffusion at first hand. 

This year the dance performances were amazingly successful. Nataly Sanchez, our school's designated camera operator captured the talented performances. Using Nataly's footage, I was able to create a brief video depicting the cultural dances performed. Enjoy :)