hoopla: the art of unexpected embroidery

Over a year ago I was working on a project that was keeping me form the 1925 corselet. (Oh corselet, will I ever find you?) The project was for the book Hoopla: The Art of Unexpected Embroidery by Leanne Prain.

My copy arrived this week and it is so exciting to see my work in it's pages.

There are some fun pieces in there and I'm so happy to be a part of it. Hoopla!

a corset that will never be worn 2

I wanted to play a bit with the figure, to really sculpt a new shape. This corset doesn't look unusual from the three quarter angle, above.

But from head on you can see the two halves are not symmetrical. I wanted to create a female torso as sculpted by Hans Arp, or painted by John Currin. I don't form clay, or paint canvases, but I can shape a figure with a corset so I started playing with numbers and came up with a pattern.

The curves are quite pleasing, and a little disturbing.

It was lots of patterning fun drafting a pattern where every single piece is different, but other than that this corset is like any other. Same materials and construction methods. I did dye the coutil and managed to get the color very even. Yea. I really like this corset. There is a sense of movement at the fabric wraps around the imaginary body that isn't present normally when you look at a corset. It's a shame it will never be worn.

a corset that will never be worn

A quick image of one of the projects I'm working on that has been keeping me from the Corsets and Crinoline corsets. Since it's corset related I thought I'd share it even though it's not quite finished.

I'm so pleased with how the quilting matches at the center front. I originally planned a separate panel for the busk but when I saw that chevron I nixed that plan. I'll be back next week with pictures of the finished piece and an explanation.