I apologise to my poetry readers for the fashion related posts, I will get back to that later. But this is my imagination and I believe creativity should never be limited and I am all for thinking outside of the box! I would also like to say a huge hello to everyone new and who checked out my last post, welcome to my imagination, make yourself at home!
I wanted to share my college work with you. In particular the previous ‘Secret Garden’ post as well this. I’ve always loved making things and the more complex the better. This is my scarf project and complex would be an understatement!
The brief was ‘Opposites’, to make neckwear – experimenting with print, shape and/or colour. I should explain the way my imagination works is if there is a box with the obvious inside I’m jumping on top of it like a deranged rebel punk, the obvious doesn’t appeal to me at all, and so the cogs started turning.
During researching how I could manipulate fabric I came across an artist called Rowan Mersh, an artist who uses matchstick and Vinyl records with black and white stretch fabric. He’s totally unique. I focused on his work with spheres for this project but if you have a minute, totally check him out!
Origami! Somehow my mind took me to how could I make a ball? after a little bit of research I began experimenting with kusudamas. These are a kind of paper decoration ball made up of flowers. 1 square of paper folds to make 1 petal, 5 petals make a flower, I’m unsure how many flowers make 1 Kusudama, but I tell you it felt like 100’s!
Now it’s one thing making it out of paper, fabric is a different story – organdy was the only thing that worked. To the left are the results, both balls are complete Kusudamas, don’t try this at home… can cause iron burns and dreaming of origami!
Givenchy’s collection at the time (spring/summer 2008) had featured some Elizabethan ruffs, so I experimented making these too, it all had to be hand stitched and the amount of fabric you need is never-ending!
So this is the result, my creation. It took a great deal of work and it looks a little obscure but it is only a concept piece. If you would like to see how to make a kusudama I have include an image of instructions, courtesy of google images!