Rami Kim Workshop

Yesterday I attended Rami Kim's workshop sponsored by the ASG chapter here in Albuquerque. The morning session was a trunk show and PowerPoint, followed by lunch, and a hands on session in the afternoon.

Pictures really don't do her garments justice, as there are so many subtle little things going on that the photos don't pick up. Although I don't have a "wearable art" lifestyle, I can appreciate the amount of work that went into them. They're truly showpieces.





Here are some examples:




Rami primarily works with cottons and dupioni silk, and embellishes with hot fix crystals, beads, Asian charms, and metallic threads. Many garments have Asian themes--Rami says she has come to appreciate her Korean heritage much more since she moved to the U.S., and she incorporates it into her work.

In addition to the garments, Rami showed some quilt wall hangings that she makes from all of the leftover bits from the garments. She also does handbags (doesn't everyone?) and brought some examples.



The meal break featured box lunches by a place called Sweet Blessings. I was unfamiliar with them, but they do a good lunch. Mine was turkey with homemade cheddar and green chile bread. The dessert brownie was huge! Imagine chocolate fudginess offset with cherry filling and topped with a chocolate streusel. Genius!

We also had shopping opportunities. Rami brought purse accessories and an assortment of cute Asian charms. I bought a couple of sets of leather handles and several of the charms.

After we ate, on to sewing. Rami taught us several techniques that she uses in her garments. Some were based on a Korean technique of paper folding called chopkey. It's somewhat like origami. She also took us through mirror image prairie points, which I can totally see being used as embellishment on a silk blouse, and lined prairie points, which look much more intricate than they are. We also learned how to make stiched tucks, straight and curved. I don't really have good photos of these, so I'll try later to post some illustrations. It was nice to do something hands on, and it reinforced what we had seen during the morning session. Although my personal taste is more simple, I can see incorporating some of these techniques into my sewing repertoire.