I am sitting here trying to figure out what I want to write about. The longer I sit here, the less I can think of. Interesting how that works, huh? Sometimes it seems like the more we rack our brains for ideas, the less capable we are of coming up with them. I wonder why that is. Is it the stress of trying to come up with an idea, or is it just some weird block our minds do. It’s like with artists block. How can I go from having so many ideas bouncing around in my head I feel like I’ll go crazy if I don’t put them on paper and get them out of my head, to having absolutely no ideas floating around and feeling like my artsy side is an empty and boring void. It is the weirdest sensation and I wonder what it is that causes it. I’m sure I could research some scientific explanations of sorts, but it’s almost more fun to think of it as a philosophical conundrum, something that may or may not an explanation. Food for thought, as it were. Another crazy thing is how artist block hits every artist. It’s not something that happens on occasion to a few unlucky people, it happens fairly frequently to every artist. And it could happen right in the middle of a project. How strange is that? One minute you could be working on a painting, a story, a garment, anything, making really good time on it, or being really proud of it, and then all of a sudden, with absolutely no warning, artist block comes up and now you can barely remember how to even use your paintbrush. It’s the same one you’ve been using the whole time, but now it looks and feels like a foreign object in your hand. I’ve had moments where I even stare at the tool I’m using trying to figure out why, for the life of me, I feel like I can’t remember how to use it. Or it seems like I’ve never done it before. I do that a lot when I’m trying to force myself to design something new when I’m in the middle of a design idea drought; I can be sketching away, happy with how the ideas of flowing onto the page, and then all of a sudden I’ll forget how to draw. Every line is squiggly, and in the wrong place.. I won’t be able to get any of the shapes right, the shading will look forced and unnatural (which is saying something for a cartoon like sketch) and the proportions will be so off the figure on the page (which should have resembled a female human) now looks like some weird, alien creature. On those particular days, I don’t even attempt to draw a face, even a cartoony stick figure type of face, it would be the death of me. And then you can wake up one morning and have all of your skills back, as thought nothing ever happened. I’ve researched different ways to try and cure artist block, but I’ve learned that sometimes, no matter what you do, it won’t come back until it wants to. It’s as though my muse has gone on some sort of very long vacation far away and will come back as soon as shes good and ready.

I thought, tonight, I might bring the blog back around to the actual business, or at least a top more related to the business. This is just a little bit of a shout out to let it be known that more stuff is coming soon and will be posted on the site. I have many projects in the works, in various states of the design process, and have a lot of new ideas I want to bring to life. Currently, I’ve been working on a bunch of fabric skirts that I’ll have some pictures posted of soon in the gallery. I have so much fabric laying around from various projects or just liking it at the time, that I’m trying to get it used up and turned in to stuff. Latex is still my main passion, and I will be doing some more new latex projects soon. Latex is just such a fun material to work with, and it suits my particular design aesthetic better than any other material I’ve worked with. Leather comes close, and I would like to do some more leather pieces that I could add to the site, but it still doesn’t have the same appeal to me that latex does. And, If I’m being truly honest with you, I think latex is so much fun to wear. It’s comfortable and so unique. It’s especially fun to wear here in Colorado… a friend of mine calls it “Scaring the locals” since it is a fairly subdued and traditional type of town, being weird and out of the ordinary is really not hard to do here (minus having to shop elsewhere for supplies and accessories). Can get some interesting looks walking around here in some of the stuff I’ve designed. It probably doesn’t help I currently have bright reddish pink hair. Makes life so much more fun to be able to show my true colors though. Besides, why stick with neutrals and dull colors when there is an entire rainbow of options to choose from and so may different ways to play with a look to make it truly original. At least we have a wonderful costume shop here that has some great make up and tights (its a little paradise of color and personality in an otherwise drab set of options). Why have a favorite color if you can’t show it to the world in your style. I hope more people can learn that color isn’t as scary as it seems.

It seems like I keep posting these later and later in the day. Not sure if that is helping or hindering my creative juices in terms of what to write. The days just don’t seem long enough lately, and trying to make the most out of a day can lead to really long hours. They aren’t too bad, though, since I really do love what I do. It sometimes makes me wonder how life got this way. It used to be you worked as soon as the sun came up, and work was over once the sun went down. There really were no exceptions because work depended on daylight. Candles were a commodity that few could afford in those days, so work was over and families were able to spend time together sitting in front of the fireplace. How did we go from that, to “burning the candle from both ends”? And why is it so difficult to slow down and take time to rest. What, in society, has trained us that working non stop is the way to go. When did we stop valuing personal time. Our minds and bodies need rest to heal and function, so why is it so hard to come by? So many of us try to get as little sleep as possible just to have more hours in our day. Which is fine for the occasional moments, especially if it is involving doing something you truly enjoy, but it has become a habit to a point where its hard to sleep at nights, or at least hard to get a full nights sleep. I was sitting here wondering if people were happier or less stressed back in those times, and realized that they had just as many things to keep them awake at night as we do now. I’m sure they wondered how they could pack as much as possible into their days, which, if you think about it, were so much shorter without candle light or electricity, and worried about health, and family, and other things we still think about today, and plenty of things that aren’t even on our radars any more now. So I guess, humans are just humans, and (other than modern technology and the like) we really haven’t changed that much.

I only missed a day in between blog posts this time, so I count that as a win (at least its not a year.) Thanks to the last post, you know where I went to college and that, as simple as it is, I learned I loved fashion from none other than Barbie herself. And as far as that goes, I was never a little girl that wanted to be Barbie or to look like Barbie, all I wanted was her wardrobe and some of her awesome stuff, but yeah, mainly the wardrobe. The fun part now, is I can make clothes for people rather than dolls now, which can be a lot more fun. My other reason for going into fashion design, was that I never really liked stuff I found in the stores; it was just never anything that really spoke to me, so I figured, at the least, I wanted to learn how to make my own clothes so finally I would have stuff I was looking for. The downside to that is… I don’t always know what I’m looking for, so sometimes the things I make still aren’t what I want. But oh well… that’s just part of the design process and the trial and error process of learning what my own personal style really is. And at the end of the day, isn’t that really what fashion is about? Taking pieces we like and adding twists to them to make them our own, whether its with embellishments or accessories. Sometimes I’ll find a pair of high heels I absolutely adore, and end up not having anything to wear them with… so I’ll make an outfit to match. It’s why I wanted to be able to do custom design for people. I have the skills and abilities to be able to make an outfit to match my shoes, or make an outfit that popped into my head, and I want to be able to help other people be able to do that as well. We’ve all ran across that certain dress, or blouse, or other article of clothing, and said “I would love this if (add color, design element, style, etc., here) was different.” I want to be able to give that option to my clients. They might love a particular style of a piece, but not the color, or the color but not the length, etc. I want to make those changes for them, so when they get that item, they know it was made specifically for them. A piece truly unique to their own style.

So far I have proven I am not very good at writing blogs, or keeping up with them, but I’m going to try again anyway. I really have no idea what to write in these things, especially as it relates to the business, so I think I’ll just start writing and see where it leads me. Who knows, maybe my muse will arrive somewhere along the way. Starting with a little about me might be a good idea, so let’s begin. I am the owner and designer for Mae’D by Stefani… yep, in case you are wondering, I am Stefani. You weren’t expecting that twist of events, now were you? When I was younger I was in to so many different things, I loved drawing, reading, playing my saxophone, playing piano, writing really bad little stories (but not short stories, no one would ever want to read my attempt at a short story…it’s terrifying). As it came time to decide what I actually wanted to be when I grew up, I had absolutely no idea. The only thing I could come up with was something to do with art. From there I tried to narrow it down and in doing so, remembered I was one of those little girls that loved my Barbie… or should I say, loved my Barbie clothes. I would set out my entire collection and end up spending the entire time just changing her clothing over and over again, and learning how to make new clothing to add to my collection. That epiphany lead to me pursuing my Bachelors Degree of Fine arts from the Savannah College of Art and Design, which, I’m proud to say, is actually a university now. Go school! That seems like a good place to stop for the night… it gives me more to write about tomorrow. Maybe with some luck, I can actually get into the habit of writing these. 🙂

Here is a teaser from the current photo shoot!  Edits are done, just have to get them posted.  Bear with me, still learning how to use my camera 😀  This was such a fun photo shoot!  We had a good time and I even enjoyed editing the photos 😀  The outfit will be for sale soon, as is, and as a made to order piece 😀

Don’t have much to say this morning…except that I will be doing a photo shoot so some new pieces will be posted soon!

Wanted something new to wear on a date night, so I whipped together this little number.  I’m quite happy with it, sorry about the wrinkles…it has been hanging in my closet 🙂

Nothing new to post here at the moment… just received some fabric for a couple new projects though! And have a photo shoot scheduled soon, so will have a lot more things coming shortly!

Just got a new camera! So exciting!  Now I can start getting better quality pictures of more of my stuff.  And I’m finally able to get decent pictures of my little steampunk, latex, mini top hat!  Bear with me….there is a definite learning curve to this new camera 😀