Technology: Progression/Obsession is the theme of this year’s Runway 3.0 fashion extravaganza.

“It’s the perfect setting for the event and our theme,” said Habes. “The designs will play with the ideas of extremes in fashion, the role of technology in our culture, and the revolutionary speed of progress in both fashion and the world around us.”
http://www.buffalostate.edu/news.xml?prid=3265

1. Turquoise 100% silk, one shoulder, tunic offers the perfect background for this ivory, tulle, tutu embedded with floral elements. Fiber Optic lights embedding throughout the tutu give an extra " LOOK AT ME !!!" excitement on the dance floor.

Amy Lee Reusch has appeared in numerous photo shoots for
local photographers was my choice for this look #4.
SUNY Oneonta '05
Art-Photography
Buffalo State College '09
Art Education Cert. Program
Clarence Senior High School '02

Thank you Amy for being part of ricerafferty team @ Runway 3.0. We all benefited from your professional experience.

Friendship woven in time.

During our three years in the Buffalo State College Fibers Program, Sheila and I created more than artwork and skills, we created ties that bind. For one semester I was the only student in the fiber program. The professor gave me the title "best and worst student". Presently I have been replaced by new students, memory of my contributions to that the Buffalo State College Fiber Program have been swept away like the debris tossed into the trash after completing the intended project. Fortunately, my connection with Sheila as well as a few of my other conscientious students will last my lifetime.

Beginning in the technology department Sheila decided to switch over to the fiber program. Throughout the three years we worked together, I often took on the "lead dog" position during our Independent Study Fiber classes. I shared my knowledge from my Buffalo State College 2005 Summer Research Fellowship Grant copulations. Together we built frames, hammered nails, calculated patterns, mixed dyes then created the first Ikat projects to come out of the program. After insisting Batik be added to the fiber program we struggled with teaching ourselves skill building with tjanting tools, brushes, hot wax & dyes.

I shared my knowledge with Sheila and the other students who spent extra time working in the studio how to mix MX Fiber reactive dyes for permanent use in garments and outdoor project. Up until this point the MX dyes looked good on samples only to wash out or faded with time or weather. It during the time working with Sheila that I noticed the natural connection between being a mom and being a teacher.

Sheila was among the core group where I made my maiden voyage from Fiber Program student to Adjunct Instructor introducing Devore into the Fiber program. To this day my teaching notes are providing instructions in the Devore/ Velvet Burnout technique to students I may never know. Sure hope the teaching handouts I provided still bear my name somewhere on the pages.

Since Sheila is the same age as my daughter Kara, during the countless hours we spent together in the studio we talked about life; family, dating, sex, marriage, and children both being one and having your own. When Sheila made excuse why she could not take advantage of the Spring Break Internship she was offered by Professor Elaine Polvinen, Head of the Fashion Technology Department, I strongly encouraged her that this experience was necessary to build her career as a textile designer. How was I supposed to know she would meet Tod during this internship, break up with her high school sweetheart and move to South Carolina ten days after graduation.

For three years we talked via facebook, email, text, send pics, her wedding, printers, houses, diamond rings, her job, my job and about my blog.

Yesterday, I walked into her parents home for the first time, hugged Sheila, kissed her on the right cheek as uncontrollable tears ran down my face.

Sheila Mansell is getting married...

.

"Don't cry" she said, "this is a happy time."

With thirty-two years of experience what can happen in a marriage I wish Sheila, ALL BEST ;~)

Sheila looked soft, beautiful and happy like a precious, lovely, baby doll.

Sheila and I created more than artwork in our time together, we created the ties that bind.

Here is Sheila with her MOM at her bridal shower. Her mother is sharing her feeling about Sheila and trying not to cry.

Mom did a better job than me finding happiness in bridal showers

Sheila with her loot in front of her Senior Project, Tapestry from the Buffalo State College Fiber Program. Weaving and tapestry are the strong points of that program, intelligent is the student who can benefit from a professors expertise even if he does not want to do it ever again. Keep weaving fiber girls...

My bridal shower gift to Sheila. It is a Deni European Meat tenderizer and an European dishwasher safe chopping board. I used up cycled tissue paper cut elements from wrapping paper attached to create a pleasing presentation and finished off the package with an embellishment created from teaching samples I used in Shibori demonstrations with my students. Perhaps a gift can say more about the giver than the one who receives the present.

Today I have a new teaching positions with inner city middle school students in Buffalo, NY. Many of the students I taught as an Adjunct Lecturer in the Design- Fiber Program @ Buffalo State College are still connected to me. Never concerned if my students like me or not my only concern is that I shared my knowledge and that they respected me as their instructor.

Some students and I, happy to say, have created the ties that bind ;~)

O great creator of being grant us one more hour to perform our art and perfect our lives." Jim Morrison

From the first moment I entered the Fiber Studio I felt right at home. A large windowed wall allowed daylight into flood the studio. Fresh outside air came in through the open fourth floor windows. Two long padded tables filled the length of the room. Several ironing boards were strategically place near the wall outlets. There was a "kitchen" area with several large stainless steel sinks, a refrigerator to hold the mixed dyes and locked cabinets that contained almost one hundred containers of dye hues for cotton, wools and silks. On the other side of the kitchen was a washer, two clothes dryers and a large area to spray out silk screens. This basic equipment would become my tools for learning to work with Fiber Reactive Dyes, paper making and creating pattern/textures on fabrics. All of the excitement I experienced in kindergarten the first time I saw finger paints came back to me when I entered this studio.

When I was in kindergarten my eyes would dance every time Mrs. Klingensmith brought out finger paints in big mason jars. The jars were filled with red, yellow, blue, black and white thick, rich, smooth color that I joyfully scooped out with a tongue depressor onto special paper. Such a wonderful experience to move the thick, pudding textured, color around the paper to paint with my hands. Even today nothing makes me happier than putting on my apron/artist smock, working with color, getting into my work, walking around the table, getting dots of paints or dye on me as I work, large sinks to wash away the splatter, clean my space, then step back to bask in the joy of my creation.

Little did I know that semester would be the beginning of a six year relationship with the Fiber program. We covered two projects my first Fiber class. Shibori and creating textures using textile ink on fabric with low tech printing techniques.

Thick textile ink is as much fun to work with as the finger paints only now I had a project with guidelines to follow. First I played with what textures could be produced on the cotton muslin. The textures were later developed into a mimicry pattern of an animal in its environment. The class was required to make a Kimono out of the fabric they created.

Oh my goodness, I thought I died and went to heaven ;~)

There was no pattern for the kimono so I volunteered to come in during the College Open House to make the pattern for our class from the dimensions/ drawings in a book. I selected a Tigress for my Mimicry project. Like this mammal I cared for my two babies providing; food, protection and learning experiences to encourage independence for my children. My kimono, made of cotton, is asymmetrical featuring abstracted tiger patterns to represent the tigers journey through the grasslands. The field of design placement facing left and right simulates tigers, although solitary creatures, peacefully meeting then passing by along the hunting trails. My kimono was featured in a student show Spring 2004 Upton Hall Gallery.
http://view.buffalostate.edu/main.php?g2_itemId=25547


Shibori was like instant art to me. Like the Spin Art booth in Kennywood Park where I took a squirt bottle filled with paint then drop different colors onto a piece of paper quicky spinning at the bottom of a gallon size pail. If I added just enough color drops the excess spins off to produce instant art. Shibori is like that to me. If I press the fabric smoothly, follow the fold patterns and tie the blocks securely in place to produce a resist against the liquid dyes more then likely it will produce a pleasing pattern. The results are so interesting that I was captivated by learning the various resist techniques, color application processes and how the different hues reacted when layers together. The only thing more fun than adding color to the cloth with Fiber Reactive Dyes was removing the color in a pattern using the chemical Thiox. My love of color, patterns, creating fabrics for wearable art and sewing grew exponentially in the Fiber program.