Snapshot: Lauren Hruska
By Katharine Dunn, Dean's Editorial Fellow
Most of us have encountered Lauren Hruska in her role as GSLIS admissions assistant, handling all front-line communications for the Office of Admission. Hruska is the friendly person on the other end of the phone or computer who patiently walks prospective students through deadlines and application requirements. She also coordinates admissions events, gives tours, and is in charge of the new GSLIS blog at http://gslis.simmons.edu/blogs/admissions/. Many of us don't know, however, that Hruska is a crafter extraordinaire. She knits, sews, welds, blacksmiths, draws, writes, and makes books. This month, for our craft issue, Hruska talks with us about her creative pursuits, outside of work and in it.
Editor's Note: Just as InfoLink was going to print, we learned that Lauren was leaving GSLIS as of the end of November. We are sorry to see her go, but look forward to seeing more of her creations soon.
What arts and crafts projects are you working on
right now?
I've been welding a lot
lately. I just went to visit
my dad in California. He
moved out there a few years ago
because he always wanted to be a
farmer. I introduced him to Craigslist,
and he's going crazy. He buys tons of
old farm equipment, and among the
equipment are welders—machines
that through an electrical process fuse
metal together by adding
supplementary material. It's kind of
like sewing except with melted metal.
So while I was out there visiting him,
we made a table. We also spent some
time blacksmithing, heating up steel
with a torch and then pounding it
into different shapes. I made a metal
dress last year, and I was making a
hat to go with it—a cloche that sits
close to the head, with a steel mesh
frame and bent steel curlicue pieces
over it. It'll be a little more sculptural
than a functional hat.
Tell me about the metal dress.
It was made of nuts and bolts, a lot of
different pieces I found around. I
welded the pieces together—big
washers, little washers, nuts and
bolts, some bicycle chain—into kind
of a bustier shape, and then I used
steel plating for the sides and the
back. The chain was the straps of the
top, and I had a sheet metal skirt to
go with it. I made it at Stonybrook Fine Arts in Jamaica Plain,
where I took a welding class. I was also taking a fashion class at
Mass Art. I made the dress in the welding class and brought it
into my fashion class.
How did you figure out measurements as you were building the
dress?
I burned myself a lot fitting it to my body. I tried to use a pattern
that I made as if I was going to sew it. And that didn't quite work
because metal isn't flexible, and the pattern is two-dimensional.
So I could use the pattern to rough out the shapes, but to get the
actual bends, I needed to heat the metal. Then I had to form it
against me and say, 'Oh, this hurts my ribs, I have to bend it
some more.'
Have you worn it?
Not out. It's a little heavy, about 20 pounds.
Tell me about the metal dress.
Was it your plan to create something to span your welding and
design classes?
I took the welding class because my dad had just taught me how to
weld. I signed up for the fashion class because I wanted to figure
out what to do with the rest of my life. And so taking them at the
same time led me to really pushing myself in both classes.
The class at Mass Art was an introduction to fashion design. We had to make two garments, and the metal dress was my first garment. It was like one of those Project Runway challenges, to make something out of materials not typically found in clothing. The second project was to design something. A friend of mine gave me a sari from Bangladesh. I've never known what to do with it, so I pleated it and made it into a really simple but elegant dress. The sari was the front, and it has bat wings, and then there's a sheer silk back.
Is this the first time that you've done
something like that?
My mom taught me to sew when I was
really young. So I've always sewn, but
I've never been great at it. I'm not quite
patient enough to be a detailed
seamstress. It was the first time that I
pushed myself creatively with sewing.
What else do you like to do that's artsy?
I make a lot of journals and blank books. I'm always saving
scraps of cool-looking paper from magazines and
newspapers and wrapping paper. I'll use that. And also I'll
save stuff that has a personal connection either for me or the
person I'm making the book for. I'm working on one for my
friend right now who's pregnant. I try not to do anything
unless there's a significance to it. I just like to believe in the
things I do. And it feels really good to share people's
experiences with them through arts and crafts. I'm best at
that.
Kris Liberman [manager of continuing education at GSLIS] taught me how to knit last year, so I've done some knitted projects for people. I've done knitted purses and some scarves. I made my grandma a really nice felt bag that she loved. I'm also really into fashion and helping people with it. Even just my mom and my grandma — they're two women who don't really purchase clothes for themselves a lot.
"I just like to believe in the things I do. And it feels really good to share people's experiences with them through arts and crafts."
Are you a personal shopper?
I've been their personal shopper. It's great for my grandma
because she just feels like a million bucks. I got her this peach
blazer a couple of years ago. She's fabulous looking; it looks great
on her, and she feels so good about herself. So I made her this
bag to give her something really fun and a little bit more stylish
than she would buy for herself. It was built with her in mind. The
colors and design are all something that I know she would like.
Do you get to be creative in your job at GSLIS?
Yeah, in a lot of different ways. We just started a blog that's just
gone live. And also I've redesigned flyers. My job is to be focused
on everyone else's job: the faculty's jobs and their needs, my
bosses' jobs and their needs, all the prospective students we have
and their needs and wants. Meeting with people and talking to
people is the most creative thing I do because we get so many
types of people and we have so many faculty with different
personalities. That's what I focus on. It's a way for me to get out
of my own head and be open to learning how everyone else
thinks about things and expects things to be done. I get to try on
other types of experiences.
Tell me about taking the 19th-century book McTeague by Frank
Norris and turning it into a graphic novel.
I had transferred to BU and was working 30 hours a week at a
coffee shop. I was taking five courses a semester and working like
crazy. I didn't have time to write a 20-page paper for my gender in
American Literature class. My professor made an offhand
comment about how the characters in the book are almost
exaggerated, they're almost cartoonish, and that someone could
write a comic book about them. And I said, 'I'll do it! Sign me up.'
I was dating someone at the time who had the Adobe suite—so I had access to Illustrator. It was self-taught. I drew circles and squares and colored them in and added text boxes. And it probably took way longer than a 20-page paper would, but it was so much more fun. It was a totally different way to immerse myself in the text.
It's kind of a bleak story, right? The final section is a death scene.
That's rendered with a lot of stars and exclamation points. I
think I did that scene at three o'clock in the morning.