Wheelchairs, walkers, prosthetic limbs, crutches and other assistive technology devices are part of our lives. But in the grand scheme of design innovations they’ve been left in the dust. There are hundreds of thousands of designs for chairs, eyeglasses and technology of so many other kinds. Now is your chance to help change the conversation about the assistive technology of the future.

Please submit your art, designs and inventions dealing with mobility, disability and accessibility.

Deadline for submission is June 30th, 2015 at 5 PM PST. The exhibit runs from September 10-19th, 2015 at California State University, Northridge’s West Gallery. Opulent Mobility’s opening reception will be September 12, 2015 from 4-8 PM.

Submit online at https://www.dreamsbymachine.com/opulent-mobility-a-call-for-art-and-ideas/.

We’re excited to see your ideas!

 Part One: Fabric day- Saturday, May 17th, 11:30 AM- 3:30 PM. $15

Part Two: Drape and Sew- Sunday, May 18th, 10 AM- 4 PM. $45

Try both parts and save! It’s $50 for both workshops.

 Day 1 – Fabric day! We’ll meet at 11:30 AM in LA’s garment district in front of Michael Levine, the enormous fabric depot. Thereâ€s cheap parking off of 9th Street and Maple near the store.

Michael Levine has a main store, a home decor store across the street and The Loft upstairs where all fabric is $2.50 a pound. After Michael Levineâ€s, we will check out some favorite nearby fabric shops. For those who canâ€t get enough shiny, right off of 8th Street is Berger Beads Specialty, home of all that is sparkly.

 Day 2 – Stapling, draping and sewing day! We’ll meet at 10 AM at EVE Studio, 3923 W. 6th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90020 Suite #211. Parking is tricky but free on Sundays.

We’ll drape and staple in the morning, then clean up the patterns and sew in the afternoon. Students will create garments on each other and finish them by the end of the day.

 Staplers, staples, scissors, pins, thread, extra fabrics, an ironing board and iron, an overlock machine and 2-3 sewing machines will be provided. If you have a portable sewing machine, please bring it along! That way, no one has to wait for a machine.

Priscilla Suttonâ€s show “Spare Parts”, made from used prosthetic limbs given to artists around the world for re-designing, will put in a virtual appearance from Australia. UCP Wheels For Humanity will spread the word about their charity which increases access to mobility for people with disabilities in developing countries.<

Longtime costume creator and LAVA Visionary A. Laura Brody developed Opulent Mobility. Her re-made mobility device “Driven, The Edwardian Cyborg Wheelchair” was published in Dr. Grymmâ€s “1000 Steampunk Devices” and “Le Flaneur or the Steam Walker”, a Victorian-inspired walker showed at the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation. Full details and the call for art are at https://www.dreamsbymachine.com/lets-talk-about-mobility-a-call-for-art/

NOTE TO ARTISTS: the call for art has been extended to August 21st. Send us your art!

Staple draping is a fun, fast and effective technique for creating anything made of material. And I mean anything, from upholstery to car covers to clothes.  (No, we will not bring your car into the classroom. Yes, we can drape it in the parking lot.) You’ll learn to make your own shapes and patterns, and even learn how to alter your clothes to make them fit and look better. If enough folks are interested, we’ll do a duct-tape mannequin session. This way you can staple drape yourself at home without straining to reach your own back.

FASHION ON THE FLY CLASS SCHEDULE:
Saturdays, June 29, July 13 and July 20 (no class July 6th)
TIME: 12 PM- 3 PM
COST: $45 (due at registration) plus $20 materials fee for scissors, fabrics, staples and a stapler.
AGES: 16 years and older

REGISTER ONLINE/by PHONE/ in PERSON at www.cityofpasadena.net/reserve or (626) 744-7500

Instructor: costume creatrix, LAVA Visionary and professional goofball A. Laura Brody, currently working with Nickelodeon and Disney XDTV.

Ask me about class details at https://www.dreamsbymachine.com/ or at laurabrody@verizon.net.

Staple draping is a fun but practical technique for creating clothing, slipcovers, sculpture, car covers- anything made from fabric. No special skills are needed to start and the tools are easy to use. Weâ€ll use our fellow students to create art right on the body. You will come away from the class with a real-world skill youâ€ll use again and again. Staple draping isnâ€t permanent. Thatâ€s why weâ€ll take your staple draping and turn it into a pattern to use with any fabric you like. In the last class, weâ€ll staple drape furniture.

CLASS SCHEDULE:
Saturdays, March 30th- April 20th
Saturdays, May 4th- May 25th
TIME: 12 PM- 3 PM
COST: $45 (due at registration) plus $20 materials fee for scissors, fabrics, ruler, staples and a stapler.
AGES: 16 years and older
REGISTER ONLINE/by PHONE/ in PERSON at https://www.cityofpasadena.net/reserve or (626) 744-7500

Staple draping is a fun but practical technique for creating clothing, slipcovers, sculpture, car covers- anything made from fabric. No special skills are needed to start and the tools are easy to use. Weâ€ll use our fellow students to create art right on the body. You will come away from the class with a real-world skill youâ€ll use again and again. Staple draping isnâ€t permanent. Thatâ€s why weâ€ll take your staple draping and turn it into a pattern to use with any fabric you like. In the last class, weâ€ll staple drape furniture.

CLASS SCHEDULE:
Saturdays, March 30th- April 20th
Saturdays, May 4th- May 25th
TIME: 12 PM- 3 PM
COST: $45 (due at registration) plus $20 materials fee for scissors, fabrics, ruler, staples and a stapler.
AGES: 16 years and olderREGISTER ONLINE/by PHONE/ in PERSON at www.cityofpasadena.net/reserve or (626) 744-7500

This Sunday night at 8pm, either outdoors in front of a fire and an inflatable movie screen in the Silver Lake Bowl (if it’s a hot night) OR indoors in front of a fire in Roger’s movie theater (if it’s cool), we are proud to present to you: The Event Formerly Known as Nerd Nite!  

Nerd Nite is a series of informative and entertaining audio-visual talks where community speakers share some of their intense interests and areas of professional or lay expertise.  (Apparently there is a real organization that uses this name, and we are not that organization, which is why our event is now “formerly known as…”)  

Our first speaker is Meagan Ramsey, who works as a medical social worker and also is a Gallery Interpreter at the LA County Natural History Museum.  She will talk about spiders, and ask the question: “Aversions to spiders are incredibly common in Western culture, but why do we fear them when other cultures do not?”  Sheâ€ll examine the roots of this fear, explore spider ‘101’ and ‘fact vs. fictionâ€, along the way identifying our local spider species and whether they deserve our shrieks and shivers.

Our second speaker is Erica Li, a newly minted MD who works as a pediatrics resident at Harbor UCLA.  She and her slide show will discuss reproduction and sex differentiation, and ask the question: “When you were an embryo, how did your body know whether to develop male or female genitals?  What did your genes say to your forming gonads, and what did they in turn say to your budding genitalia?”  And: “How do people with Disorders of Sexual Differentiation shed light upon our perception of maleness and femaleness?”

Our third speaker is LAVA Visionary Laura Brody, a costume designer, who will talk about (and demonstrate) her specialty design and construction method: staple draping!  Using re-used fabrics, staplers, scissors and basic geometry, she’ll show you how to create clothing on the fly.  Brave volunteers, come and let her staple you! 

So – bring your family, friends, and perhaps a bottle of something to drink, and come learn and enjoy.

Please register for your free ticket!

Staple draping is: Making your own garments on a real live person, using leftover fabrics, a stapler, staples and scissors. When youâ€re done, take your stapled work of art and use it to make a pattern, take out the staples and sew it together or just cover the staples in duct tape and go out in old school punk rock style. You made it! Itâ€s yours to play with. You can do this even if youâ€ve never sewn a seam. Or if you sew all the time and are tired of all the rules.

Go to https://machineproject.com/ archive/classwork/2012/09/09/staple-draping-workshop/ to sign up!

For your $50 dollars (or $45 for Machine Project members), you get the class plus a stapler, scissors, staples and your own stapled garment to keep.

Come play and learn a skill with LAVA member A. Laura Brody that will keep you re*making for a lifetime.