This week started out as ambitious, ended up as a disappointment.
The brief was to either search the “Instructables” website for a design and re-create it ourselves; or we could do our own design so long as we wrote an instruction manual with it. I went for the 2nd option.
Having decided I wanted to make some sort of jewellery, I originally settled on using some perspex & acrylic cut-offs I had lying around. So I went ahead and drew around them, and transferred the outlines onto tracing paper so I knew exactly how much material I had to work with. After that, I went to the library to find some inspiration.
I started investigating different ways of bending acrylic to my will, and decided that the easiest option would be if I could fix it to a fabric strip (both for comfort of the wearer, and for time’s sake - this was again a 1 week project). Joy (the sewing/fabric technician) introduced me to “Bondaweb” - double-sided glue for fabrics - and this seemed to work well for the acrylic.
The idea had ballooned into a fully fledged costume - hence the old cheongsam & skirt, which I combined to create a slightly longer dress. Some ideas I had included create a neck-dress out of acrylic/perspex complete with pauldrons. Ambitious, eh?
I created the pendant for the necklace out of rose petals (Joy suggested it may be interesting to trap something between the layers - she was right) trapped between persepx & acrylic, securely wrapped in a shimmering nylon fabric (”Crystal Organza White”). It was after this that I became unconvinced that I could ensure the acrylic necklace would lie on the wearer’s neck properly. I investigated two other options, both involving rose petals.
Option A: create a tube of rose petals trapped in nylon fabric, wrapped around an old silver chain
Option B: create a choker of rose petals, trapped between nylon fabric
I settled on Option B. I used velcro pads to secure the choker, although I would have preffered using a hook & eye.
I then attempted to do something similar using tulip petals, trapped between fabric layers for a belt. However, that all went pear shaped for two reasons: 1. I was mostly feeling my way through it; 2. The tulip petals hadn’t been left to press for long enough and we starting to go off by the time I was stitching the belt together.
What did I end up with this week? A choker made of rose petals & nylon, a pendent of acylic, perspex & rose petals, a flower press & a frankensteined dress. Now I just need to write the instruction manual. On the plus side, I’m hoping I may be able to take some other ideas further for the next project, depending on the angle the tutor is intending us to go. Exoskeleton, anyone?