Posting to Kill Time

As I wait for my Kung Pao Stir Fry to be "ready" to serve in Café World over there in FacelessBook, I thought I'd write a quick post about the good news/bad news University situation I heard about this week. (If you keep up with Faceless Book, you might have already seen my status updates.)

Bad news first. The Fibers program in the Fine Arts Department no longer exists. Not sure which came first, but the professor is now Emeritus status, officially retired in Spring, and the courses have been eliminated from the curriculum. The equipment is still there—for now. There are a few students finishing up their Senior work this semester. What will happen to all the looms, dyeing equipment and yarn remains to be seen. I'm looking into it.

Good news next, following a little background info.

Back in the late 80s, I took some of the sewing and garment construction courses in the Home Ec Department when they had a Fashion Design major. I almost majored in it, but backed away in fear that I would never measure up (no pun) to the "real" designers. Silly me. The courses taught me to sew, alter patterns, and do flat-pattern design. My motivation for these courses was to learn to make my own stage clothes because I didn't like the generic, poorly-constructed spandex offerings in the stores, and I wanted to have a unique look.

I was signed up for the course that taught the draping method (as seen on Project Runway), but got distracted (probably by yet another band) and didn't follow through. I always regretted that, because one of my underlying goals has been to know enough to "be" a fashion designer even if I didn't major in it. This was revived a few years ago, when I thought the perfect MFA for me would be a combination of Fibers/Textile Design as Fine Art coupled with a solid Fashion Design/Merchandising background. Top it off with Entrepreneurship education, and IMHO, I'd be a force to be reckoned with.

Except... the University's Apparel-related department had eliminated the design portion (and all the related sewing/construction courses) and gone totally merchandising/marketing. Not what I wanted at all.

As recently as last year around this time, I'd contacted the department to ask about the Merchandising offerings, and figured it still probably wouldn't fit my plans.

So this week, I've been scouring the internet searching high and low for anything related to draping—a weekend clinic, a week-long workshop, a class in Michigan or within a reasonable distance in Ohio, a video, a good book... and then, on a crazy whim, I decided what the hey, I'll check out the University again, just to make sure.

Surprise.

Fashion Design is BACK! The course that sounds as if it will teach Draping techniques is being offered first summer session! The clincher might be the prerequisites. Thanks to modern technology and the recent overhaul of the course selection system, the HOEC 101 and 101 I took back in 1987 are not recognized, even though the course content (taught by the same teachers who are still there) sounds identical to AMPD 2510 (which used to be AMPD 251, which used to be AMID ####, which might have been... you get the idea).

I've put a call in to the head honcho over there to find out. I'll keep you posted; but mark my words. One way or another, I am IN THAT CLASS this summer (if it truly IS the class I think it is). Or some other draping class.

One fiber-related door closes, another opens. Oh, the Kung Pao dinged, it's done. See you later. If I'm not back this week, Happy Turkey Day.

Labels: breaking news, college life

posted by Jeanne @ 11:46 PM