Two years of soul searching, deep, personal work. I am healing. My body is changed. I have experienced a calyx of emotion, intellect and bodily presence. Everything feels different. Two years ago today, I had bilateral mastectomy without reconstruction due to breast cancer. I am now a flat chested woman. For the first half of myContinue reading “Breasts, and then no breasts. Year 2. Two years.”
Author Archives: Melanie (Melly) Testa
QSDS
This last weekend I took a trip out to Columbus, Ohio to teach at QSDS, and boy was it a great experience. I worked with women who were focused, ready to learn, open to new information, and each and every one of them made really good cloth. I found companionship in Denise and Susan, whoContinue reading “QSDS”
Quick and Dirty!
I have been playing around with making video on my iPhone. David made the music on my phone in Garage Band. iMovie on the iPhone does not have the ability to place captions, it is different than the same program for the home computer. It is fun to know I can do this and IContinue reading “Quick and Dirty!”
Frittering my time, and enjoying every second.
It is that time of year again… Time to Gather your Sew-plies!! It is warming up. Time to sew on the go. – Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Nothing is black and white
Earlier this week Angelina Jolie wrote her op-ed piece about her decision to have bilateral mastectomy and reconstruction due to a positive test for the BRCA1 gene. I admire Angelina for her bravery and honesty in being open about her choice. I am sorry she needed to make it, of course. But happy that sheContinue reading “Nothing is black and white”
My week in review
In all available time, I have been printing, batching and steaming. I keep daydreaming new images, but have not yet had time to gather my thoughts. I came across a how-to make your own citrus cleanser on the web and am trying it out. I soaked orange peel in vinegar for two weeks. I amContinue reading “My week in review”
A New Day
In the Many Mellys post, I stepped quite squarely into a hornets nest. I would like to apologize if I have upset or harmed anyone by my use of the words gender queer. While I think there are many similarities and points of connection between being a flat chested woman (as a result of breast cancer)Continue reading “A New Day”
Fruit
Last week I carved this fruit set. I don’t know how many stamps, stencils and carvings this set is composed of. I am batching today. My result so far are very interesting A full report to come. I will be printing this image again this week. Check back in!!
Many Mellys
Brace yourself, this is a long one. In the above photo I am wearing a Handful Bra with padded inserts and the camisole I am wearing says, ‘Well-behaved women seldom make history’. This week, I read Stephanie Forsyth’s post called, ‘I Yam What I Yam‘, where she talks about being a potty mouth, beer guzzling,Continue reading “Many Mellys”
working out the kinks
I am working hard behind the scenes here, at Studio Melly. A few months back, I was printing some birds from The 20 only to find that my wash out rate was too high while printing with Procion MX dyes on cloth. I wasn’t getting the intensity of color, or the bold, bright colors IContinue reading “working out the kinks”
Melanie Testa 