661060

This is a rather late intro to my participation in Frocktober…

Crystal pocket dress by Arnsdorf

Frocktober is a “festive fundraising initiative” in support of the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation. Anyone may take up a frock-related challenge during the month of October, seeking financial sponsorship for her/his efforts, which is passed on to the OCRF to aid the organisation’s ongoing work (more info available via the links).

It seems like a really good/simple idea, and I made a quick decision to take part - my idea was to do some sketches with the aim of exchanging them for donations.

Let's Be Frank shirt dress by High Tea with Mrs Woo

For every day of the month of October, there will be a drawing of a different dress. The first seven are finally done, as you see here … As I go, I’ll continue to photograph the sketches and post them at this blog. I’m also going to pin them up on the front wall of our shop, Milly Sleeping.

Zig-saw dress by Hua

If you happen to see one that you would like to keep, I would love to do a swap with you (on behalf of the OCRF)… My suggestion is a donation of $10 but it is up to you to nominate the amount you are able to give.

You may reserve the sketch of your choice by leaving a comment attached to the relevant post, or by emailing me (leah@millysleeping.com or leahandned@gmail.com), or by visiting Milly Sleeping. The drawings are numbered here for identification purposes but the number doesn't actually appear on the drawing. A red 'R.' that appears next to any of the numbers will mean that the sketch is currently reserved.

Sunday dress by Lonely Hearts

You may either entrust your donation to me, or you can donate online (via the Frocktober page), or I can send you details so that you can do an online transfer or send a cheque/money order. If you are donating independently, pleasepleaseplease quote my registration number – 661060.

Donations of more than $2 are tax deductible and you will receive a receipt directly from the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation. Please understand that I will need to view all receipts before passing on the sketches and can make no exception to this condition. If possible, I would like to keep the drawings as a group until the end of Frocktober.

Stay Awake dress by Kuwaii

“It's not an auction” … and I say this, A/ because it is a very funny line from Reality Bites and, B/ because I will not be accepting ‘higher bids’ for any of the sketches – once one has been reserved, I will consider it reserved until at least October 31 (… you are very welcome to email me and leave your details in case the first sponsor doesn’t follow through).

Joey shirt dress by Limedrop

I won’t be able to produce one per day but I will be producing one for every day (31 total). Each of the sketches is a date-stamped original - grey-lead and watercolour, on A5 watercolour card.

Huntsman dress by Romance Was Born

If I’ve left anything out or you have a question, please feel free to send me a note or leave a gentle comment below. Too many words today - but in my next post I'll tell you the names and designers of dresses one through seven.

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I have always wanted to go to Boston, because my mum enjoyed being there in the Winter, and thus Boston is perennially lovely and snow-covered in my mind. This want has suddenly become urgent as there is a Charles LeDray exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston.

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"In the world of small miracles, I discovered that one of my former students, Charles LeDray, has become famous!"

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"Charles LeDray is primarily self-taught, although he attended art school in Seattle and worked as a museum guard at the Seattle Art Museum, both briefly."

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"In the age of mechanical art production, the intensity of such a personal working method might be thought to imply madness, or, at the very least, cultural naivete."

There was an early morning parade at Flinders Street Station yesterday, by which I mean a different kind of parade to the daily comings and goings - a fashion parade that was late starting as all fashion parades are. I was kept entertained by the rain, the traffic lights and ordinary synchronicities.

Once you start taking photos like these, it is very easy to just keep clicking and clicking and clicking - the conditions change very quickly and the camera seems to see more than you do. It's very hard to know afterwards if you've captured anything interesting, or if it was just the process that was interesting. Blogger has suggested that these are mildly interesting but not terribly, by allowing me to only upload so many. The last one is my favourite.

I had twenty minutes to myself in town this Saturday and, having charged up the City Library's central staircase, I was saved in some way by this mad proud pink creature atop the giant, dogged bumble-bee.

This is one of about a dozen paintings by Victorian artist Matthew Clarke that comprise his self-funded solo show, Matthew Does Art. It ends this Friday, and I think it's worth a look. The compositions and colours are really, really, really great and I love all the funny faces - I suppose I should be content to just admire Clarke's pictures but I really want to keep one.

Any of the pieces would have a pretty demanding presence in one's home - it would be like inviting a very noisy friend (and their pet elephant) to stay indefinitely.

These brooches were made to accompany lemon and white iced cupcakes, and all sorts of other divine little things. They were commissioned by MM (see her nice blog) for a magazine shoot.

Photographing work is often surprising/fraught. Sometimes I am disappointed by qualities that are lost or diminished; other times the image really aids the piece. The latter is the case here. I shot these in early Winter when the sun seemed always low in the sky.

Evian Lee (formerly of Von, with Lui Hon) made two sets of exquisite collars for the shop, for LMFF in 2009 - one set from plaster of Paris, the other from tyvek (with tiny tyvek-covered buttons) ... We also displayed some of the calico toiles because they were too beautiful not to.

I like to think of these as keepsake holders. They are small leather pouches strung on a silver chain to be worn about the neck.

They have a pocket at the front for practical things such as coins and keys and bobby pins, and a discreet pocket at the back for tiny precious things like a charm or a crystal or a photo-booth memento, a cat's whisker, a pressed clover and so on.

They are made from remnant leather (colours and characteristics do vary) and are about the size of the palm of your hand. Choose one from Milly Sleeping (limited stock available) or have one made to order via leahandned@gmail.com - $59 for a short chain or $65 for a longer one.