Studio practice Dust sheet

 

After the failure of the button collar I wanted to try again at making an Elizabethan inspired ruff- but also making sure I was trying out unusual materials but still made something that had an elegant and delicate feel to it. I found these works by Julie Smith- usually a landscape painter- she used sizoflor, a very thin woven web like material that florists use to wrap bouquets. It can be heated and molded around objects and stitched into- I'd planned to use this to make some sort of flowing woven ruff - sewing into it with golden threads, but it didn't arrive in time.

So instead I used a plastic dust. I knew from previous experiments that I could heat it and mold it around a shape easily. I really like the results - when the plastic melts it creates these beautiful lace like veins and you can keep layering strips to create whatever form you want, and it will hold when it solidifies.

I think this incorporates all the qualities of lace that I'm drawn to- it has a nice transparent quality, it's delicate- flows into different forms - while using interesting materials - also reminds me of the rabbit glue sculpture.