Training Day

​Last week I finished my Gerber Accumark classes and started on the first project. I felt so so grateful every morning to be learning a new skill to better my career in the arts. So first off THANK YOU! Canada Council for the Arts, Calgary Arts Development, IATSE 212 and our Research Coordinator Cathleen Sbrizzi for this incredible opportunity. That being said, halfway through the course I thought, 'Is it too late to return the money? This is too hard'. I am not a natural with computers and although the drafting portion was fun there are a lot of complicated steps to processing your draft that had me buggin'. I took the course on zoom alongside our Senior Cutting Consultant Liz Sutherland and we both texted the 'mind blown' emoji back and forth a few times.

I believe that computers will inevitably be used for drafting in costume wardrobes, maybe not in the same way as fashion but I believe the research we are doing is very important. So far the process is very slow going but that is to be expected when learning a new skill. It is frustrating but the drafting part is strangely addictive. I find myself wandering over to my computer in the morning before I've had coffee to try to fix something.  I have completed my first project of body blocks for my 1/2 scale male and female mannequins. There were some tears...my computer froze sometimes and I am anxiously awaiting a zoom meeting with my instructor to ask her some questions but I am excited to keep progressing.
 
Also thank you to Kaeleah Spallin for printing us all a copy of the Gerber program manual, it's been very helpful to have at my fingertips. 

Gxoxo

Blog Post by Genevieve Savard
Test Cutter CCRDI