The Gypsy Camp will exist in full effect tomorrow. It’s indoors, so this rain won’t get ya down. And it’s FREE. We all love that.
Excuse the post-valentine’s pun, I could not resist.
As of late I’ve taken to dying a large volume of my clothes because, despite the protest of my middle eastern cousins, bright colors just aren’t for me. People are baffled at how anyone could take the time to do things such as hand dying clothes or turning trash into treasure. Well I’m here to share the secret with you, and it’s simple: it takes almost no stretch of creativity, so much as it takes getting off your lazy ass. If you can spend as much time on Facebook as I do, surely you can take twenty minutes to drive over to your craft store and peruse the mass amounts of insanely fun goodies for you to test your imagination with.
Here is a perfect example of something I recently toyed with: I found these Da Nang pants while perusing a thrift shop on 4th St. in Long Beach last weekend, (for those of you who are label freaks, you know they aren’t cheap), and was able to keep a straight face while the absolutely adorable store owner and his flamboyant, half-his-age life partner rang me up for them at the unbelievable bargain of $2.75. At the time of purchase, the pants were a bright shade of Miami white, and I knew my never ending collection of printed panties just wouldn’t be happy with that. A quick trip to Continental Art in Reseda and my biggest problem then became which wonderful color I wanted my new cargos to be. I chose Violet from the selection of over 20 shades that iDye, the newer improved version of Rit, now carries. This is the end result of dying those pants, a process which took no longer than four actual minutes of my time.
The best part about this was that the embroidery detailing on the pants did not change color. Why? Embroidery thread is made out of polyester or nylon, the two fabrics not changeable in color using iDye. The end result was, in my opinion, better looking than the pants as they were originally designed.
Below I’ve posted a series of photographs and instructions for using iDye. Now get off your butts, pull out all those things you don’t wear anymore (try to stick with plain colors though, as clothing with decals or screen printing often looks cheap and worn out after being dyed), and go pick up some of this kickass iDye. I hope you find this posting useful and fun:
I FOUND THIS DRESS AT HIDDEN TREASURES IN TOPANGA CANYON, IN THEIR ONE DOLLAR BIN.
Originally, it was a shade between mint and lime green. Summer or not, I do NOT wear lime. However, I absolutely loved the lace embroidery around the bust of the dress, and I believed that in a different color, I could have a love affair with this lovely little treasure.
I chose simple Red for this dress (note: check the material in which you are dying before purchasing your colors, iDye makes a special iDye Poly for polyester and nylon fabrics). Here are the steps to the dye process:
This is the iDye. Fantastic stuff and available at almost all craft stores.
Fill a bin with scalding hot water. THE HOTTER, THE BETTER. Heat is what helps the dye to soak into the fabric, so the hotter your water, the richer your shade will be. Pay attention to the instructions and don’t overfill the bin, otherwise the water will dilute and your clothing will come out a muted, lighter tone. I generally like to fill the bin just enough to comfortable stir the clothing around in it. Also note, the iDye packets will dye 2-3 pounds of clothing, but again, the less you dye, the less water you use, the richer your color. All of this depends on you, but luckily, you can’t fuck up.
Next, drop the packet of dye into the water. The plastic coating surrounding the dye will disintegrate in the hot water (I love watching the ink as it mixes with that H2o). Make sure to mix the water thoroughly so that no thick chunks of dye attach to your clothing.
Once the water is mixed, drop yo shit in! Place the lightest item of clothing at the bottom of the bin and fill it from there. In this case, I will be dying the lime dress along with an off white scarf.
Now, we wait. The instructions on the iDye tell you to do this in a washing machine, however the longer you allow the clothing to soak in this bin, the darker it will become. In this case, I want the dress to be as dark a shade of red as possible. I personally like to wait up to six hours, and then rinse the clothing in the washing machine and follow it with a dryer cycle, or if you’re a freak like me, hang it out to dry on your line outside.
And here we have the end result:
Now I can’t wait to wear my little red dress! Hope this was informative and fun. Get out there and dye some shit now.
I received a question on Formspring yesterday (http://www.formspring.me/HallahKaraman) which prompted the creation of this post.
Throughout the few years I spent attending art school, (an overall waste of money and time due to it’s lack of creative motivation and overall focus on process versus freedom), one of the few things I learned was that I absolutely love tragic art tales, and this one is my favorite. In a nutshell (to keep the attention of my non-art enthusiasts) Nan Goldin was your typical starving artist photographer living in NYC, photographing the punk/drug era of the late seventies/early eighties. Most of the photographs you see of hers were taken of friends during the aids epidemic and most of them died soon after at extremely young ages. I’ve been fascinated with reading about their stories and I have purchased several books on her as well as done countless homework assignments based on her work and ideas. She herself was the victim of an incredibly abusive relationship with a man for several years and that is photographed vehemently throughout her published work “The Ballad of Sexual Dependency” which you should all Google RIGHT NOW.
One of my first assignments my Sophomore year was to choose a photographer whose work I admired, which spoke to me, so that I could select favorite images from that artist and recreate them as precisely as possible. This was my absolute favorite assignment of the year, and the help I got from my friends to recreate them made the whole thing that much more exciting.
These were the end results of this assignment: the photo on the left is the original Nan Goldin image, the photo at right is my recreation of the original image. I would love to gather a group together again and do this, purely for the fun of testing the limits.
Thanks for looking! xo
What is your ideal personality type in men?
Ha oh boy.
First off, anyone who knows me really well knows that personality is the most important part of a guy to me. I absolutely cannot STAND it when I am dating someone who is awesome and a friend will turn to me and say “Yeah, he’s really nice, but Hallah…you could date someone so much better looking.” Why are people so shallow? Is it because people who wish to procreate are trying to find someone they can make beautiful babies with? Isn’t part of having children loving them no matter what? Forgive me ladies, if I’m not making sense, but I just don’t understand what could be better than falling in love with someone who also feels like your best friend.
Anyways, my ideal “personality type” has thus far been found to be a combination of many components, here are the ones that stand out:
First and foremost, as of the last six months, I have almost zero tolerance for dating someone who drinks excessively. Let me clarify what this means: I could not care less if you want to have a beer every single day. Beer is fucking delicious. But in moderation. I do drink regularly, but never to the point that the things I say aren’t true or that I just plain don’t remember shit. I don’t want to go to sleep with a sweet loving drunk and wake up next to a sober, colder version of your self from the night before. I’m over it.
I guess the rest of it is a series of things. Honesty is the biggest one for me. Lots of relationships fail because of lack of communication and being too scared to hurt the other persons feelings. I want someone who isn’t aloof, someone who calls to say hi and will pick up the phone. I like to know what’s going on. Humor is also really important, I can’t date someone who can’t tell a joke or take my sarcasm. I prefer guys who show a lot of interest in art and creativity, and especially music. I like holding hands. :) I’m very confident about my looks and what I’m about and it shows in my walk, and the person I’m dating should be able to love that instead of being threatened by me. He also needs to realize that even though I can take care of myself, it doesn’t mean I don’t ever want to be cuddled with. And lastly, I wear almost nothing but mens plaid shirts when I’m home, and if you can’t find that absolutely sexy, well….we probably won’t be having very much sex then.
Hope that answered your question :)
Are you honest with yourself? Do you live more as the person you wish to be than the person that you are?
I think that I try to be as honest with myself as I can be. In certain situations I will absolutely present something as “bigger” or “better” than it really is or was, particularly in the case of my work. For instance, what might really be one painting in a gallery show amongst a hundred, I might advertise to clients as something that is more focused on my specific work than it actually is. Is that lying, or is it a marketing tactic that has been used time and time again? “Act as though you are famous and you shall become famous” is what I’ve heard over and over again. In the case of my work, acting like things are always going smoothly DOES help to make them go smoothly. So for that I have no apologies.
As far as the second portion of this question, everyone has dreams and aspirations of the things they want for the future and the way they want their life to map out. Do I want to find someone who is not only compatible for me to spend my life with, but who also makes me giddy with happiness? I absolutely do. And in every relationship comes compromise and bending a little to suit the needs of the person you care for. If we didn’t bend, if we didn’t sometimes put up with things that weren’t for us, we wouldn’t have anyone. There is no such thing as two people who are absolutely perfect for each other. I do know that I have been known to “lose myself” in relationships and try too hard to please others, and it has resulted in loss and failure. Sometimes I become aware of this too late and kick myself for it.
But as far as my answer to this as it pertains to me and simply me is, I know myself very well. How does one discover who they are? I think it’s a lot simpler than we make it out to be sometimes.
Take your taste buds, for example. If you put, say, a piece of seaweed in your mouth and you cringe and spit it out, you know you don’t like it. Taste buds help, in a weird way, to make up one of the components of who you are. The same goes for music. You put a song on, and your ears, your brain, will listen, you will react a certain way. This is how we learn what we like as it pertains to so, so many things in life. I know what I like and what I don’t like as far as what I’ve already experienced, but with every new situation comes coming to grips with wether or not it’s something you want for a while or potentially for a lifetime. The best I can do is to know myself as well as I do at this moment, and remember to stand strong for what I want or believe in.
No one can ever resent you if you are honest, no matter how much the truth sucks.
My kickass friend Sammy is going to be in a kickass exhibition in Larchmont this weekend. If you’re in the LA area, you should definitely stop by and check out his work. He’s a huge part of the reason I am even half decent at what I do, his inspiration has always spoke volumes to me.
i’m in an ART SHOW that opens this coming SATURDAY NIGHT. not me me but my ART me. my art being my PHOTOGRAPHY. it’d be great to see you there. the show is in larchmont so it’s really easy for me to get there. i hope it’s the same for you, too.
aight, peace, love, shoot n scoot
woot woot
I finished a few new paintings today. I’ve been in a creative slump for weeks (it’s amazing how much your personal life can dictate your creative life sometimes) and finally pulled out of it a few days ago. Here are some of the results.
Fight Club. Chuck Palahniuk always inspired the shit out of me. Every line of his books is a fabulous life lesson.
“You buy furniture. You tell yourself, this is the last sofa I will ever need in my life. Buy the sofa, then for a couple years you’re satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least you’ve got your sofa issue handled. Then the right set of dishes. Then the perfect bed. The drapes. The rug. Then you’re trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you.”
Signing off.
I can’t get enough of the new Instax 210. Polaroid, you’ve made an awful mistake in discontinuing your film. What are all the hipster kids to do now? You’ve probably single handedly saved Fuji with your poor choice.
This is my brother. He’s kind of the shit.
And these are some of the most amazing, real people in my life.
Thank you Fujifilm, for picking up the slack the Polaroid left behind in their wake. The $24.95 a roll you will be profiting from me is surely enough of a repayment.
I purchased the Fujifilm Instax 210 this afternoon, and I absolutely LOVE it. Thank the heavens that instant film has returned. Polaroid, shame on you.
This is going to be some good and expensive fun.
