Cultural Hair Post

18th century France (Marie Antoinette's reign)

Marie Antoinette (2006) Directed by Sofia Coppola 

"The second half of the 18th century is an era particularly identified with hair and makeup, as these became such potent symbols of aristocracy during the Enlightenment and French Revolution.  France and (to a lesser degree) England were the fashion leaders of this era, and it is to these countries that this article looks to identify the changing trends in hair and makeup."

"Wigs were introduced in the 17th century, when King Louis XIII of France (1610-43), who had let his own hair grow long, began to bald prematurely at the age of 23.  Courtiers were quick to emulate the fashion, which spread to England during the period of the Restoration of Charles II (1660s-80s)....However, women rarely wore whole wigs.  Instead, they increasingly hired professional hairdressers (coiffeurs) who added false hair to their natural hair. "

In 1775, Queen Maria Theresa of Austria-Hungary wrote to her daughter Marie-Antoinette,

“Likewise I cannot help but touch upon a point that many of the papers repeat to me too often: it is the hairstyle that you wear. They say that from the roots it measures 36 pouces high and with all the feathers and ribbons that hold all of that up! You know that I have always been of the opinion that one should follow fashion moderately, but never carry it to excess. A pretty young queen full of charms has no need of all these follies. Quite the contrary. A simple hairstyle suits her better and is more appropriate for a queen. She must set the tone, and everyone will hurry to follow even your smallest errors…”

Marie-Antoinette responded,

“It is true that I am a bit occupied by my hairstyle, and as for the feathers, everyone wears them, and it would look extraordinarily out of place not to” (quoted in Hosford).

http://demodecouture.com/hairstyles-cosmetics-18th-century/

Into Modern Hair...

Modern French Hair Fashion

Braids(As it turns out, "French" braids aren't French at all.)

"If we're looking for the origins of modern-day French braids, Eurasia isn't even the right continent. Instead, the place to start is North Africa. People have been wearing the three-strand gathered plait for thousands of years, and the earliest evidence of the style comes to us from the Tassili n'Ajjer mountain range in Algeria. There, rock art depicting women wearing rowed braids dates back almost 6,000 years."

http://www.popsugar.com/beauty/History-French-Braid-22404991

More Modern Hair

                     

Boards Sculpture Piece

I got this idea from a sort of strange, surreal music video that had a lot to do with rocks and natural movement. There was magma and sand moving in sort of a collage-like fashion. The spastic movements of each prop was so neat to me. The coolest ting was, it reflected the human relationship (whether it be love, friends, or even relatives). The rockets were sedimentary which was in a way symbolic.

first I took a costume mask that I found at Hobby Lobby. Originally i was going to make the mask from layers using foam-core, but i didn't think that the features of a human face would show up so distinctively, so I used a mask instead. The eyes were supposed to be closed, so I took masking tape and cut it into rectangle, inserting it into the inside of the mask and pushing it into the sockets of the eyes, creating the dome shape that an eyeball would have. I was going to use foam-core over the entire face, but again, decided that would hide the facial features, so i used hot glue and made lines across the face for the "smaller". From my references, I looked at the more distinct layers of rock, and used foam-core to create those layers. Hot glue was used to smooth the around the foam-core layers.

My teacher suggested Gesso as a good paint primer for this project (as I was using Acrylic, which is impossibly hard to cover dried Hot Glue with -_-). It was especially helpful for the eye lids, because I put masking tape on the front of the mask to make a more realistic eyelid. Before actually painting the face, I inserted glue below the mouth, coming out of it, to make it appear as magma spewing out of the mouth.

The total duration to paint this mask was about 2.5 hours (and then another hour to paint touchups the next day). I am not very pleased with this photo: its not the best representation of this mask, as it appears more shiny  in the photo.

I really regret not having taken progress photos of the main body of the sculpture. So instead, Ill just discuss it. I used 16 gauge wire from the wire sculpture conversation piece project in my 1st semester  material studies class, to create a frame. Then, with a monstrous amount of paper mache mix and newspaper, i paper mache'd the frame. It was quite difficult because I had large spaces between the net like frame, since I didn't want the frame to start the sculpture off super heavy with just metal. 

This photo is actually from after spray painting the foam body of the sculpture. I decided that (hot) gluing the shredded foam around the  base of the mask/face would make the mask look more natural when attached to the rest of the sculpture.

This is the final piece. Im hoping when/if it is displayed, it will hang a little lower, more at like average human height. originally it was supposed to look like a volcano, but with the teal accents (especially in the yarn), it looks more like an underwater volcano. There are always improvements i want to make, and this was no exception. I am still trying to figure out how to use hot glue in a cleaner manner.

I think doing these sculptures are important especially since I had 3D art this semester. I don't think it would make much sense to do 2D artwork, because it doesn't show what Ive learned this semester; and its not like I would turn in a sculpture for a semester of 2D art.

Min Masterpieces Proposals

10/26/15 

Body mantle Project Statement

11/02/15

     This body mantle project was based on a design/art school project done throughout many schools, most mentionable, DAAP. The goal was to create not really an article of clothing, but more of an extension of the body, which was also wearable. This extension had to be created using no less than 100 items. In edition, the selected connectors (excluding any adhesive or binding material) had to equal the same length. While some used a connector(s) along with the material, others were connecting the materials to each other. My chosen material didn't allow me to do so. 

     I had chosen silk leaves, so my connector would have to be something thin enough to poke through the stem holes on the leaves or if a hole were to be poked through the silk material, it wouldn't tear the material. The most easily accessible type of wire available could've been gauge wire, due to the thickness and malleability of it. I decided to use floral wire instead.

    My first design was a pair of (fairy) wings with an armor chest "plate". It seemed like a good idea, and had a good sketch plan. Until I realized my time available to me... With all the twisting I had to do, strengthening and reinforcing the wire and all, I realized quickly I'd have to edit my design. It took almost a week to finish what would have made the top of the first wing. Half of one down- Five and a half wings more to go. It was Friday of the first week (with only a week of work time left) when I picked up the sketchbook again, working to a design with more possibility to be completed by the deadline. What was before a set of wings, had to become a hoop skirt. One that was inspired by "steampunk" design and fashion. It still incorporated the leaves on each "level" of the skirt. It was good because the length of what would be the wing was good for the bottom of the skirt. 

     Something about this project that was surprising that other than the big block of time almost "wasted" at the beginning, there weren't very many issues. The only issue was how much my wrist hurt after constantly turning it to twist the wire together. However that is something I'd have to sacrifice to art class. And one could say that tearing a hole in my tights was another issue, which I could agree with... but purchasing more pairs of tights was no big deal.

     I twisted the wire by taking about a foot of wire, bending over (totaling 2 feet , or 24 inches), then twisting the wire. After twisting the wire, I'd make another- which was still secured- and twist that together. I did this 8 times total for the bottom hoop, 6 times for the middle hoop, and 4 times for the top hoop. I added a "hook and loop" which could easily be both secured and opened quickly. Wire about the same length as the bottom hoop was used to section off each "level" of the skirt. To attach the various leaves, I took 6 inches of wire (uncut starting from the end of the wire's twisted length), then twisting that thin enough to poke through a hole in the stem (or leaf, depending on the type)that was there or made with an X-acto knife. I considered these vines which would make the hoops of the skirts.

Overall, I'm quite pleased. I would say one thing I would want to change about the overall design or appearance is that I wanted to make the appearance of a hoop skirt more obvious. I did use well over 100 silk leaves, so maybe using less- or at least at the ends of each hoop's vine. I may have used too many leaves which made each vine heavier, thus making it difficult to emphasize the skirt or its ability to grow bigger at the bottom. I think If I were to do this project again, exploring sewing would be something i'd be interested in.

Lori's body mantle skirt

October 30, 2015

Conversation Pieces Project Reflection

The original idea of this project was to "recreate" a household object using wire. The first part of the project was to create simply the object. The second part would be to create an abstraction piece, which would be the companion to the first piece. This project dealt with the context of shape, construction, and lines in space. 

         The wire as a material was difficult to work with, especially when constructing a basket, which involved weaving, twisting and securing the ends of wires in tight spaces, and straightening the pieces as I went along (which I would say after completing the piece, is a very obvious struggle still displayed). I started the first piece by constructing 3 rectangles, and creating the corners by vertically placing and twisting the pieces into place. This was the basic shape of the piece. I then attached the handle- made by two longer pieces of wire curved over the two longer sides of the baskets. Then came the most difficult part: weaving. I counted out 7 pieces along the length of the basket, with one which split into two smaller pieces on one side. I then counted 5 pieces along the width of the piece, and started weaving. I would say the most difficult part I found when starting the weaving process was making sure to alternate which pieces went under the frame and which pieces went above the frame at the ends, constantly reassuring that two pieces next to each other weren't both above or below, messing up the rest of the weaving process. I made this mistake later along the way when weaving the sides. Making this mistake seized me of much needed, very precious time, that was maybe used chatting with my friend in the studio and disproving the theory of multi-tasking. But of the first piece, the most difficult part would be the side weaving, due to the waste of material and loss of time.

         Onto the abstraction. This piece was a bit more fun, as it was easier. Once I'd learned and had come up with some ideas and techniques for weaving. Using prompts to fabricate ideas and sketches to become 3D companions. Multiple sketches were done, and some groups were even compiled into the final sketch design. Charcoal and Mylar paper were the key components for these sketches. Using prompts such as "to undo", "to reduce/ to dislocate", and "to allude/ to imply" for my brainstorm sketches in particular. My first design highlighted the prompt, "to undo", and would simply lay flat pieces of the basket, and weaving in a more 2D space. This would be done by simply creating 11 rectangles, which would dilate in size, framing each other, the weaving the width and length pieces into the rectangles. The handle would be the only part that was 3D.

However the design I ended up going through with, completed scratched out the idea of dilating the rectangles. The design involved creating 12 same-size rectangles, as well as a base, which would run along the bottom of the escalating rectangles. The base would be a balance and attachment piece for all the weaving pieces to attach to, which I found could be an easier and much quicker approach. Because the length pieces would be woven in a slanted direction, due to the stair-like appearance of the squares, I found it be much easier to place the pieces onto the top, pull the weaving pieces inside or outside the frame of the rectangle and push and secure each rectangle into place. This cut time and looked much better in the final design- from what I think, of course.

         The idea for this project is much like the idea of the masking tape shoe project. It would help the artist to understand what components make the piece. Unlike, trying to make the second piece look like the first, it was completely warped, but techniques to apply to it improved for the second pieces in both designs. The piece appeared as a 3D line drawing in the end. 

100 Objects Body Mantle Project Inspiration

The idea behind this project is to take 100 of the same, non-conventional, objects and make a piece of clothing or accessory using just that object, by attaching all of it together with one source (ex: wire, string, etc.). This project allows nothing under 100 objects, but can exceed 100.