Creating a Phoenix Fire Dress

                                             
  My phoenix necklace, which can be purchased here.

As always I began with a series of sketches. I wanted the dress to be inspired by the fire that the mythological phoenix is so commonly symbolized with. (A phoenix dies in fire and is reborn from the ashes )

 My first design was stylish but not as dramatic as I wanted this dress to be. I really wanted the flames to flicker and move as the wearer moved.
So my design underwent some changes even after I had already sent in my design sketch and had been accepted into the show. I designed a fitted dress with an overskirt that would flare out as one walked. The overskirt would have the flames on it so that as the skirt flared it would give the appearance of moving 'flames'.

                           The original look of the fabric

Once I was satisfied with the design I began to paint the fabric. For this piece I used some 1970s drapery material that I had salvaged from the side of the road year ago. I have no idea what the material is just that it was clearly meant to look like a silk shantung. It has a matte side and a shiny side. As the material is some sort of strange synthetic (probably with some sort of plastic in it's composition) I had a heck of a time getting it to take my paints. I knew better than to try to dye a synthetic material but I had no idea that even painting it with acrylics would be so challenging! It didn't grab the paint in an even manner and would often look perfect when wet but about 75% lighter once it had dried. I took 2-3 sessions of painting for each piece. This was much more time consuming than I had anticipated and this placed me in a bit of a time crunch in order to get the piece finished in time. Not to mention the challenge of painting over 6 yds of material!

 I will say that once the fabric was painted it was beautiful. The sheen that it had almost gave the appearance of leather once the piece was done. I dry brushed copper paint over parts to really give the piece a luminescent warmth as well as the appearance of 'sparks and embers' up and down the length of the dress.

For my closures I found some filigree brass hooks. Once my underdress was complete I began work on the overskirt. The 'flames' or tendrils weren't hard per se ( I simply cut the pieces in random spiraling shapes) but they were exceedingly time consuming.

I had to paint a wide variety of colors as I wanted the flames to be varying in shades of reds, oranges and yellows. Each piece had to be painted 2-3 times before I could actually begin cutting the 'flames' out and then each 'flame' had to be pinned to the overskirt before I could hand-sew it on. The challenge was trying to place the flames correctly when someone wasn't wearing it.

I had the overskirt hanging up but it was difficult to see how it would hang on a person. Also, once I finally pinned all of the flames onto the overskirt I found it rather challenging to sew the flames on due to the mass of fabric that I was working with.
Needless to say, I was sewing flames onto my overskirt pretty much all the way up to the night of the show.

 I had originally wanted to create a sort of stomacher of feathers but decided that the feather cheapened the look of the fabric if used in too much of an abundance. Therefore I kept the feathers to a simple accent on the belt and created a fascinator for my hair. I had never worked with feathers before and found this to be a bit challenging, but fun at the same time. Especially when I figured out how to curl feathers. It's a messy process but a lot of fun too. I'll probably do a video in the future on how to do this yourself.

The finished dress on the night of the show! :)

Keep an eye out for my next blog post. I'll be posting a video as well as photos of all of the amazing designs that were showcased at the Armory Art Center's Fashion Artillery Show.

To read about last year's Fashion Artillery Show entry please click here.

Backstage on a Runway Show

This post is the promised continuation of my last blog post about the recent wearable art runway show that I participated in. I'm sorry that it took so long but I had some technical difficulties in getting my video to upload.

Here are some backstage photos that I took as my fellow models and artists got ready to strut their stuff down the runway. I was truly in awe of all of the amazing talent that was there! Enjoy!

 Artist, Sandra Kuba, putting some last minute touches on one of her fabulous pieces.

 

'Untitled' by Sandra Kuba- silk and wool roving. fabric, trim and buttons

 

A detail of this piece. Look at all of the layers! Just beautiful!

 

'Untitled 2' by Sandra Kuba- asst fabrics.

Necklace, 'Midnight Fantasy' by Rachel Dugger

                                    A detail of that amazing skirt. LOVE the quilted cityscape!

'Untitled' by Barbara Stern- water bottle caps, beads, wire, bubble wrap, garbage bags, aluminum foil, paper clips, duck tape, styrofoam and paper fasteners

 

' My Inner Child' by Amanda Thompson - Astroturf, fabric, beads and paint

 

A detail of her fabulous coat. No idea how she managed to sew that stuff!

 

Putting the finishing touches on ' Sea Shore Evening Gown' by Veronika Koushal and Juliana Saez

 

 'Untitled' by Camila Gonzalez- black garbage bags, industrial Nagaland and soda can pop tops

             The back of this piece was really cool. Just loved the creativity!

Artist Sarah Buchanan puts the finishing touches on her model's makeup.

          'Untitled' by Shanley Mitchell- coffee filters

 

'Upon Further Inspection' by Shani Simpson- styrofoam plates, paper fasteners, tape, coffee filters, cardboard, dried beans and much much more.

 

'Dinner is Served' by Jackie Trufford- tablecloths, plates, silverware, wire and fabric.

 

Sarah Buchanan with her model. Her piece was entitled ' Natural Events' and was made using pewter, coral, bone and river grass

 

 

 

'Throw A Penny, Make A Wish'- hand-painted and distressed muslin, image transfers, plastic and pennies.

                           A detail of the front of my dress

 

The back of my dress

 

Here is the video that I created for this piece. Keep watching to the end because I included some footage of the runway show that a kind friend of mine took Great night!

 

 

There's also a great article that was written about it here.

I'm grateful that this project is over, but as with all creative ventures, there is a definite bittersweetness about it's finale as well. It was an amazing experience and one that I will never forget. However, I am definitely looking forward to being able to work on some new projects!

Which of the pieces is your favorite? Have you ever created a piece of clothing out of something unusual? What has been your favorite creative experience so far?

I look forward to sharing my next pieces with you soon! Have a great day everyone! <3

Wearable Art Runway Show

For the past five weeks I have spent over 200 hours working on a project for the Armory Art Center's Fashion Artillery Show. (a wearable art runway show) The theme of the show was Daydreams and Nightscapes. As I mulled over the two I decided to go with Daydreams. Daydreaming essentially consists of a person dreaming about the things that they might wish for. You might daydream about being famous, or beautiful, or rich, etc. Once I had taken it to this point, I began to ponder the ways that we might make a wish. (blowing out candles, wishing on a shooting star, etc) In the end, I chose the act of throwing a penny in a fountain and making a wish. As I often daydream about living in a bygone era, I chose a retro look for this dress. This is how my dress, 'Throw A Penny, Make A Wish' was born.

The Armory Art Center requires that you provide them with your idea and concept sketches in order for them to accept you into the show.

My initial sketches were quite rough. I originally intended to create the piece out of photographs. ( Photographs of things that people would wish for, mixed with photos of water)

A clear plastic with pennies would create an overlay.

As I contemplated the logistics of the dress, I came up with the idea of drilling holes in pennies so that I could lace up the back. Knowing that the weight of this dress would be considerable, I also devised a possible strap option if this should be needed.

 

 

My finalized concept sketch for 'Throw A Penny, Make a Wish'

 

Once my design was accepted into the show, the hard part began. I had to actually MAKE this piece. I also learned something that I hadn't known before. We would be required to attend a dress rehearsal as well as actually walking this piece down a runway. Once I knew that this piece had to last through essentially TWO shows, I decided to toss my original idea of working with paper. I have both worked with and worn paper clothing in the past and I didn't feel that this medium would last through two nights. While figuring out the actual logistics of this piece, I also didn't think that there was a way to make the paper sturdy enough to hold up the weight of the pennies. So I had to do some revisions to my design and decided upon muslin as my base medium instead. I chose this because it's essentially a blank canvas. My 'wish images' would be created using image transfers and I would create the watery look that  I wanted using paints.

 

 

 

The finished underdress pattern in muslin.

 

I thought that I would be able to drape my piece on a dressform,but couldn't find a dressform to borrow or rent in time. Therefore I had to create my dress by creating a flat pattern. It was essential that the piece be VERY fitted as I wanted it to be strapless and it would be carrying quite a bit of weight with all of those pennies.  I decided to model my own dress out of necessity. I didn't have a dressform, so to ensure that it would fit correctly, I had to be my dressform. It's sort of difficult to pin a dress when it's on yourself but somehow I managed it.

 

                                Once I had the dress fitting snuggly enough, I dismantled it so that I could begin creating the surface painting and transfers. I had never worked with image transfers in the past so I took great care to do alot of practice runs beforehand. I used gel medium for these transfers and found it to be a rather inaccurate science. Some transfers would come out quite well and others not so much... I created a fun ombre look using acrylic paints. It was exhausting painting so much material but I enjoyed having so much control. By handpainting the piece I could be very specific about where I applied the darker blues and where I applied my green and gold tones. To help give myself a more hourglass shape, I applied darker blues at my waist and hem so that those areas would recede to the eye.

 

The hardest part of this project was the pennies. I had originally thought that I could sew the pennies into the plastic with my sewing machine. I sandwiched the plastic with tissue paper thinking that this would help to keep it from sticking on my machine's feeders and foot. Sadly this wasn't the case. After much trial and error I came to the rather horrifying conclusion that I would have to sew all of the plastic components by hand.  So I creating a sewing pattern with the tissue paper, mapping out all of the sewing lines like a grid and began sewing the pennies in by hand.

 

 

After I finished the bodice pieces and added the muslin drape, I worked on the 'peplum'. (again by hand)

 

                                                       The finished dress and peplum.
                               

                                    My original idea of lacing up the back was kept. I had my dad drill some holes in the center of pennies so that I could lace up the back. I like the use of the pennies because it doesn't interrupt the flow of the top as traditional grommets would have.


To see some backstage photos from this show as well as some video from the runway show, stay tuned!! I'll be posting a continuation of this post tomorrow! Hope that you've enjoyed this post and have a great day!

 

The Journey of a Photoshoot

I mentioned in a past blog post that I had been hired to do costumes for a photoshoot in L.A. Well that project is finally finished and I wanted to share that experience with you.

My director, Drew Bates of Unique Publications LLC, wanted something reminescent of the 1950s. (Not necessarily historically accurate but inspired by this time period) He mentioned Katy Perry as a possible celebrity to grab inspiration from. The words that were bandied about during our initial conversation were flirty, fun, slightly innocent but still sexy. Taking all of these things in mind I developed an idea of what I thought would work best in terms of style or silhouette, pattern, color, etc. Drew had chosen a kitchen location for the shoot that had quite a bit of color in it.

 He had also created some brightly colored 'products' that our model, Camille, would be holding.

Also Camille, our model, was going to be dying her hair a bright red for the shoot. Seeing how much color would be in the scene I chose to go with minimal color for my costume choices. I directed my focus more on getting the right silhouette and to find pieces in fun patterns .

I was so excited when I came across this apron!

 It was absolutely perfect for what I had in mind and I felt as if it had been created just for this shoot. Once the apron was purchased I let it inspire me for the dress that Camille would wear underneath. Seeing the fun stripes in the apron, I decided to contrast those with some polka dots. My finished choice was this.

To bring in some of the fun colors of the scene and especially the products that Camille would be modeling with, I found some fun vintage bracelets to use as accents and tied in the bright yellow from her bracelet with a bright yellow petticoat to add the full skirt that was so common in the 1950s.

The end result is this.

 Everyone did such an amazing job with this photo shoot and I am just so honored to have been a part of it!

Take a minute to check out Drew Bate's new and improved website.

As you know, I always try to support my fellow handmade artists whenever possible so several products for this shoot were bought from etsy shops.
To find your own fun retro apron, go here.
To find fun bold bracelets, go here.


Thanks for reading and I hope that everyone has a wonderful day!!