Beat

March is flying by and I can barely keep my fingers grasping its silky mane. The pace has much to do with keeping busy. I'm back to work, 40 hours a day, and with a show that is keeping my plate full. So far projects have trickled into my shop at a manageable, albeit break neck pace. Next week ups the ante a bit again with the arrival of the designer and several costume fittings.
One major project is done already...stenciling a chinese dragon down the front of a silk shantung dress. The draper my my job a piece of cake by giving me a rectangular chunk of fabric with all of the seams and darts thread marked. No guessing games, and no odd ball piece. The stencil I designed and cut turned out beautifully. The dragon was too long to create in one continous stencil; he was cut down to four slightly more manageable pieces. Nothing is quite so satisfying as starting a finishing a task during the course of one work day.
The rest of my list is not quite so cut and dry. The kimonos are by far the largest project to come my way. The first four have been cut out, two of which I've already applied the discharge paste too. The discharge process is working beautifully so far. Crisp white images emerging from the pastel backgrounds. I'm much more nervous about applying the color to the kimonos. I have full faith in my painting abilities, rusty though they may have gotten. I'm more worried about the time crunch I am forced into. After I paint the kimonos, the shop still needs time to assemble them. And with nine to do at an estimate of 12 hours each we'll be cutting close to get the last one or two done before tech.
I foresee overtime in the near future, either on my end to keep me ahead of the shop, or on the shop's end to allow me as much time as possible to do the job right. Either way, two weeks into the build and I'm already fried.