Dark Babies photos by Karen Hsiao

My friend and artistic collaborator Karen Hsiao sent over some images she created recently. She calls them her Dark Babies. Oh, I like these...

That black lipstick...

Prints are available at her store. 

We're working on an entire new series that unfortunately I have to keep under wraps for now, but I can't wait until it comes to fruition. If my blog does go away, you can find my work on Karen's site. We still have lots of things left to do together!

Kat Hooded by Karen Hsiao

Karen Hsiao continues to send me images from time to time she made using my hoods, and I have to say this one really took my breath away. The beautiful Asian face in profile, with red lips and braided hair. Another dream image, made real. 

We have a new project in the works, possibly even more massive than Black Cherries. I can't give too much away, but it's dark, and it's sensual, and it's beautiful. I can't wait to dive back in...

New Year's Eve plans?

If you haven't made any, why don't you come join us as we celebrate the new year perv-style? Book launch party for Karen Hsiao's Black Cherries, and Victor Lightworship too, with some of their favorite models. Presented by the Stockroom. Promises to be a fetish/festive evening for all. Hope to see you there! Advance tickets available here.

You are cordially invited... of course!

For any of you who are fans of Karen Hsiao's work, please stop by to show your support, and pick up a signed copy of the "Black Cherries" book while you're at it! It's very exciting to have this event hosted at La Luz De Jesus Gallery, one of my all-time favorite art galleries in LA. Hope to see you there! 

Karen Hsiao's Black Cherries Book Now Available!

Two years in the making, and finally the end result is here: Black Cherries-the book! 

8.5 by 8 inches, perfect-bound book on glossy heavy stock, with 99 pages, gorgeous printing with many 2-page spreads. Available here for $30. 

For those who follow this blog, you've seen this project in progress, and all the work involved to make it a reality. For me, it's very surreal to have the product of my imagination taken and transformed into something so special (and tangible) by another artist - the incredible Karen Hsiao. 

Thank you, Karen for making it a reality! I had no idea when we met that something of this magnitude would result. It's been an incredible journey, and I'm looking forward to working together with you on future projects. 

Clear Vinyl hybrid hood pix by Karen Hsiao

Karen Hsiao has been shooting with the vinyl and leather hybrid hoods we recently created together. The hood features several different snap-detachable face covers in different leathers. The photos are a bit of a different look from the Black Cherries set, all light tones and transparency... a really stunning model too! Check out Karen's blog here for the full set. 

And for those of you who are interested, the Black Cherries book is set to be released next month as well... It will be available for sale on Karen's print site. I'll let you know here as soon as they are on sale! 

Clear Vinyl hood prints by Karen Hsiao

Karen Hsiao is starting to send me images of the photos she has taken with the clear vinyl hood I made for her a few weeks ago. I am just blown away (yet again) by how she can take the things I make and utterly transform them, taking them to another level of expression. 

In these pictures, the model's body head steams up the inside of the hood, creating a mysterious smoky effect. With her hair obscuring her face, the model's identity is partially hidden, but revealed too, through the transparent plastic. Her features are distorted and abstracted, and the only opening - at the mouth - emphasizes her glossy red lips. A symphony of flesh, moisture, body heat and hair. Reflection, transparency, asian beauty and a mood of quiet introspection. Has something just happened... or is it about to happen?

These (and two more images) are being offered by Karen as high-quality prints in her online shop for only $35. Check 'em out here...

I feel so fortunate to be working with Karen. I think together we're creating things that neither one of us would be able to accomplish on our own - I know she can sew, and I can take pictures, but there's some kind of alchemy at work. I keep grooving on the element of surprise, whenever I see what she has done with a piece, and where she has taken it.  

Transparent Butterfly Straitjacket

After all the other crazy see-through things I've been making lately, why not a butterfly straitjacket with attached hood? Why not... Karen Hsiao picked this one up tonight, and (as always) I'm looking forward to what she does with it. Promises to be very interesting... Stay tuned for updates!

Snap-on Face Covers

Wrapping up the snap-on face covers for the transparent vinyl hood project. 

One transparent vinyl hood (with a smaller face opening) got snaps all around. 

 The initial idea was to have a panel that could be removed made out of the clear vinyl. 

 It snaps into place to connect with the hood. 

 Since the face cover could be swapped out, I went ahead and did some other variations. Like a nose-only in black lamb:

 Open eyes and mouth in black patent:

Open-eyes and mouth in off-white lamb:

 Six different versions in all...

New Open-Edition prints by Karen Hsiao

Karen Hsiao has just announced a new series of open-edition prints now available at her online store. These are some very-recently created images, and have a darker tone than her Black Cherries series. They're a bit more intimate, close-up, and in-your-face. Gorgeous prints on premium glossy paper for only $35? Hell yeah!

Click on the title to go to that print's page in Karen's store. 

Purple II

Gag II

Purple I

Little Day Dreamer

Hoods in Clear Vinyl

Ongoing hood construction experiments in vinyl, this time crystal clear. Turns out that when Karen Hsiao tried to shoot the smoky dark tinted vinyl I worked with before (see here), it looked more like patent leather than something transparent. It wasn't exactly see-through when she got it on her model. 

There will be no mistaking it this time: this stuff is totally see-through. 

Can't say I love sewing the vinyl itself. It is difficult to work with - first off because it's so hard to see. I don't know how they ever managed to make Wonder Woman's invisible plane. It's very slippery and plastic-y. Doesn't breathe at all.

 There is something very precise about it, however... and it's cool to be able to see through to the marks on the other workpieces. These pieces don't stretch or move around as you sew them. 

 It makes aligning pattern parts pretty simple. Kind of like having x-ray vision. 

 You have to triple-check everything, because it's easy to work on the "wrong" side unintentionally. On one of these, I sewed the tongue to the wrong side. But then I thought: If I can't see it, will anyone even ever notice? My guess is no.

 I suppose it's a good exercise in stitch placement control. You could definitely see it clearly if you aren't sewing exactly on the line. 

 I used double-sided sewing tape to hold the seam allowance in place along curved mouth or face openings.

 On a leather workpiece, these seams could be glued down and folded before sewing. 

 But with the vinyl, I needed a way to hold the seam allowance in place without glue. I tried freehanding it without the tape, but it proved nearly impossible to get a smooth edge. It's too hard to pull the panels apart for topstitching while guiding all the little notched parts of the seam allowance in a controlled way. 

 Tape to the rescue. You can see the 3 hood types here: 2 open face variations, and one mouth-only. 

 Once the tape is in place, I peel off the backing paper with the seam ripper. 

 This leaves just the adhesive itself behind. 

 The 3 hoods, nearly complete: 

 One other thing I got to try was using heat to help the vinyl take the shape of the head form. I hit the hood gently with the heat gun. You can see the before and after below: It definitely works! The wrinkles smoothed out, and the hood really took on the complex contours of the wood form. 

I felt like I was walking a fine line: Just enough heat to take the shape. Too much, and I felt like the vinyl could easily ripple or distort too much. 

I'm also making a set of removable face-covers for one of the open-faced hoods. These will attach with snaps around the face opening. 

 There will be one in black lamb, one in ivory lamb, and one in the clear vinyl. 

There will be an open-eye and mouth version, along with a nose-only version in each material. 

 Before topstitching...

 ...and after:

 I like how the face-covers look almost like primitive masks or some kind of modern art...