I'm a featured presenter of costume and properties topics at the upcoming USITT Southeast regional conference, to be held at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Center for Dramatic Art. I'll be conducting two sessions--a presentation and a workshop, both on one of my pet topics, parasols!
"Introduction to Parasols" is a lecture, held from 9am-10:30am on Friday, August 28th. Many examples of vintage and modern parasols will be on view, and the lecture will discuss the history of parasols, as well as techniques for repairing, restoring, and recovering parasol frames for stage and screen.
"Parasol Workshop" is a four-hour session, from 1pm-5pm, also on Friday the 28th. Participants will learn the process for creating a canopy for a parasol using readily available modern frames. Preregistration and a materials fee is required for this session.
I'll have copies on hand of my parasol book, Sticks in Petticoats: Parasol Manufacture for the Modern Costumer, for any conference attendees who might wish to purchase a copy in order to pursue more complicated parasol canopy shapes in future. The book is also available at 30% off retail online at Lulu, both in print format and as a download, for those who might not be able to attend the conference. (For some reason, you can't run a %-off sale on an eBook with Lulu, so i have just repriced the cost, which is why you don't see the "sale" price--it's normally $13.30 but is $9.99 due to this conference price.)