Art and Design
Art Instagram:
Coriander Foliage
My dress of mirrors is one of my favorite pieces I've made. It was inspired by all the sharp edged ice queens in fairy tales and literature. She was someone powerful you couldn't get close to, but still beautiful. I found a box of mirrors in the Art room at school, and while my teacher had said I could use them, she was massively concerned when I decided to wear them. My mom expressed concern over having seven years bad luck, but technically I cut them, I didn't break them by accident.
I taught myself to sew when I was 8 and from there have learnt how to construction garments in the traditional draping and pattern making way in classes, as well as simply exploring the way materials can work around a human form on my own. In High School I had an art concentration that focused on making clothes out of unconventional materials. Out of the random materials I found in the art room and my own house, I made a dress out of scripts, a corset out of paper and ribbon, and a dress out of glass mirrors among many others.
I did theatre all throughout middle and high school, and I kept the scripts from all the plays I did. By senior year I had over 14 scripts, and most of the pages had been untouched by highlighting and blocking notes so it seemed logical to use them to create something. Based off a sketch I drew, I folded and layered the pages into a ballgown fit for the stage. The plays included: Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, Meet Me in St Louis, Wizard of Oz, A Story of Sadako, Grease, Footloose, Charlotte's Web, Into the Woods, and Our Town. My gorgeous friend then modeled the dress for me making it even lovelier.
This corset was intended for another skirt but it stands alone better. I used what I knew about origami to create the cups. The back I then layered red card stock I found, to make it actually capable of lacing like a real corset. I left it unlined and very light to reflect the purpose of a corset, as an undergarment. The shape of the paper echoes boning, and the folds act as if it could be capable of giving the wearer a shapely waist. It it completely wearable if not very practical.
I have also made dresses out of regular fabric using more traditional techniques. I taught myself how to sew when I was younger but found sewing machines a little frightening, so anything I have made thus far have been by hand. (I currently have a skirt underway that is my first proper sewing machine project after taking costume construction courses to practice my sewing machine skills.)
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What creates a perfect middle between my use of crazy materials and proper sewing is my various costumes I have made. This particular one is the Queen of Hearts inspired by modern interpretations of fairy tale villains in recent pop culture. I designed the dress from a red dress that was too big on me, and various random bits of fabric I found. I made a corset out of a deck of cards inspired by the Alice in Wonderland quote "You're nothing but a pack of cards!" Probably the main reason I made this for Halloween was the idea of a card corset. My sister was also Alice that year so we made quite an adorable pair together.
I saw a ton of beautiful shoes that people have made on Esty, and my recent moto has been "I can do that" so I did. I have made a couple pairs inspired by different things, but these spring time, bouquet of flowers have been my favorite so far.
I've worked with lots of different media and like to be inspired by everything. These are some of my favorite things I have made that are non dress related.
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I like to think of this piece as if the sorting hat from Harry Potter had a really grumpy cousin who was a shoe. I made this boot very grumpy almost on accident. When I work with different materials, I like to let it inform me of where it wants to go. When making this boot, all the folds of the clay work very much like leather and the inspiration kind of stuck. My dad has always been a little confused by it, he asks me why it's a grumpy boot, I dunno he's just a very grumpy boot.
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I am very fond of finding random things and making art out of them. I came into the art room one day and my teacher had an entire bag of just toothpicks and chopsticks. I picked up a glue gun and just went at it. My family loves road trips and because of this I have been to almost every National Park on the west side of the country. What came out of these toothpicks ended up being the tall pine trees you find in the National Parks all up and down the West Coast. The irony is, my mom loves National Parks, and yet finds the one art piece I made inspired by them, a little off putting. The toothpicks are a little too pointy, and in person, they can be a bit dangerous.
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I wouldn't be doing myself justice if I didn't include at least one dinosaur related project. I was that kid that talked about dinosaurs a lot, and still do to the dismay of most my friends. I go to museums on the regular just to get a fair dose of dinosaurs and fish facts. A lot of people who work with clay at some point in their lives will make a slump mold dish and use scraping techniques to get an image to appear to be rising out of the bowl. When I made this though it was almost like reverse archaeology. Instead of finding a dinosaur in the clay, I was creating one. I used brushes to swipe away clay like they do when they find bones that they don't want to damage. I think I had more fun making this, than most other projects I've made. I'm absurdly proud of what is probably the simplest project I've ever done. But dinosaurs are cool, so....
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