Half of Volume One Online!

The last few months have marked a turning point for Isness. It finally has a living, growing presence in its temporary online platform.

I finally found the time to construct a monster jello mold for the upcoming cooking section. The idea behind it, is to allow my "domestic goddess", Nanna, to have a section in each volume where she can display her flamboyant post-apocalyptic/mid-century recipes. Her first featured creation is a giant jello mold, made from long-shelf-life products.

Jello mold inspiration from vintage magazines and blogs such as...

http://badjellyblog.com/about/

http://www.midcenturymenu.com/

cookingwithkoolaid.wordpress.com

My search for an experienced helping had, brought me to The Jello Mold Mistress of Brooklyn Victoria Belanger, and I was delighted when she agreed to step up to the challenge. The process took two days, one for making the individual molds and another, after 24 hours of setting, to stack them, add finishing touches and shoot. It was pretty intense work and I was impressed with Victoria's ability to orchestrate all the complex measuring and timing involved.

Victoria Belanger, The Jello Mold Mistress of Brooklyn, with our completed creation

A first draft of the composite, as it will appear in this volume

This past summer's productivity was also enhanced by two talented, smart, and very personable interns from RISD. Julia Rosenfeld and Alec Stewart joined me and advanced graphics, Photoshop and illustration work. Alec focused among other things, on font design needed for the many mock-advertisements, taking logos and altering them while retaining their general look. Julia helped with Photoshop compositing and illustrated portions of a board game coming up in the children's activity section. 

Alec Stewart & Julia Rosenfeld doing great work and goofing around 

One of the tasks Alec worked on was drawing the architectural plan of the barracks-turned-home.
These will return in each volume. Each time a different room will be encircled on the floor plan and featured as an interior design spread, see example below.

Julia worked on many Photoshop images but also did some explorative illustration work for a gameboard spread, coming up later this volume, as a "children's activity".

I finally finished a very large, complex composite, placing the island diorama in the ocean. 

The raw diorama (about 10" long)

...and in the polluted, ocean off the Pacific coast, where the story takes place.

My latest page installment ends at page 114 where the fourth out of seven characters is revealed, torso first. Hunter is the oldest brother and we run into him while he's hunting on the far side of the island. Hunter carries more archetypes throughout the novel than any other character, but when we first meet him, he's in his... well, "Hunter" mode.

Some of the many garments I had Lee try on before we settled on the belt contraption.
Test shots were taken in B&W because we were planning on a B&W project...

Volume one is mostly exposition, setting the stage and introducing the characters and their predicaments. There are many hints at things to come: Objects that play a growing role as the story unfolds and dialog that plants seeds for developments ahead.

I hope that by next time I update this blog, the whole volume will be online and I'll be busy seeking a publisher and laying out Volume Two.

Thanks for stopping by,

& happy, healthy upcoming holiday season!

Love,

S