We have arrived! After a five-hour drive, we finally made it to Clockwork Alchemy in San Jose. 🙂 After checking in and hauling in what seemed to be endless loads of luggage, we managed to settle in just long enough to catch our breath before changing our clothes and running off to give our first presentation. While we were off giving o ur presentation, Mac and Molly, our creative consultants, proceeded to make themselves comfortable…

Mac Approves!

Our first presentation was about Victorian fashions in general and we were filling for a presenter who had back out at the last-minute so we adapted our presentation How the West Was Worn: Victorian Fashions And The American West so our overview had a decidedly Western slant but hey, that’s how we roll. 🙂

Unfortunately, we were unable to secure any pictures but tomorrow promises to be an interesting one and we’ll be giving our presentation Bygone Bijoux: Victorian Accessories, which focuses on the use of accessories to help create that specific Victorian “look.

Well, it’s off to a long-awaited rest and we’ll have more for you all tomorrow! 🙂

The wonderful view from our room- well, we’re not here for the view. 😉

It’s morning now and the coffee is beginning to kick in. 🙂 It’s a bit stronger than usual since I naturally forgot to bring the creamer…

Today promises to be a busy on but we’re up for the challenge- our presentation is later today but we’ll be circulating about, meeting with many old friends that we have not seen in a long time (although the internet makes things easier) and no doubt, we’ll meet some new ones.

An interesting thought came to me yesterday while giving our Victorian fashion presentation- somebody asked us about the types of wool that were utilized on men’s coats. I have to admit, that I was so focused on explaining styles that it blindsided me- it was a technical question that I was not expecting and it only goes to show that sometimes your audience is not what you expect. After recovering and quickly reviewing my Introduction to Textiles class in my head, I managed to form a response that I hoped would address the audience member’s question. 🙂

However, it did get me thinking that perhaps the subject of Victorian Era textiles would make a good topic for a presentation. It would probably be a bit more technical that what we usually present but I think we’re up for challenge. One more thing to add to my list of future projects. 🙂 It only goes to show that sometimes inspiration comes at times we least expect it.

Well, on with the day and we’ll be checking in a bit later.