Decorative Arts: footwear projects
Dec. 16th, 2009 12:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
labricoleuseJust the quickest of breaks in end-of-semester hecticness to post but i couldn't keep them to myself! Decorative Arts class presented all their final projects yesterday afternoon, and i have some fun images of some of the projects.
The way the semester worked out, we wound up doing the footwear project last due to respirator training scheduling with our Safety folks; because of the danger of the solvent-based chemicals we use in footwear applications, i won't teach that unit til all students have gone through respirator training and fit-testing and have their proper PPEs. They have to do two different footwear projects--a simple project and a complex project. Simple projects are often something like spats/gaiters, a soft shoe, or a basic shoe modification. Complex projects are all over the map, everything from animal feet for human performers, to transformation of a modern shoe into a period style.
Footwear projects by 1st year graduate Kaitlin Fara
At left is Kaitlin's complex project. She researched 19th century stocking patterns and construction techniques, then created this reproduction of a clocked knitted silk stocking and wrote a modern pattern for it. (If you have ever attempted to knit from a period knitting pattern, you know how arcane and undecipherable they can be to knitters used to modern standards of pattern notation.) At right is her simple project--she removed the soles from these simple flats, covered this with the floral fabric, and resoled them.
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Footwear projects by second year graduate Shanna Parks
At the back left is Shanna's simple footwear project, a pair of butter-yellow deerskin ghillies for a Scottish country dancer, with ornamental Celtic knotwork stitching on the toebox. At right is her complex project, for which she stripped a pair of modern pumps and created these tricolor T-straps based on a 1930s research image. The right shoe is complete, but the left shoe has been left with threads hanging from the work she did using my industrial patcher to apply the appliqued parts, the remainder of which will be sewn by hand with a leather needle.
Simple project: Cars "kids" slippers for an adult performer by first year graduate Claire Fleming
I love these! Claire has a background in costuming for professional children's theatre, and mentioned a production she had heard about (but not worked on) in which the costumers had to create some Thomas the Tank Engine character slippers for an adult actor playing a little boy. Clearly you can't buy such a thing in a size 12 mens, so they had to be made from plush toys. Claire wanted to try this sort of project for her simple shoe, which i thought was a super-fun idea! (Children's theatre is always good for some great craftwork.) The shoe on the left shows the red rubber-treated slipper-bottoms Claire installed, while if you look at the shoe on the right you can see the opening for the foot in the "car roof."
Complex project: frog feet for a dancer, also by Claire Fleming
Claire wanted to do frog feet based on a dance shoe for her Complex project. These are made from a thick cotton jersey with a soft jazz shoe base. The structure is supported by both wire and trimmer-line, and they're really easy to wear and don't at all interfere with a performer's dexterity. Fellow grad student and former dancer Kaitlin Fara put them on and tried them out to much applause!
Footwear projects by undergraduate senior Lily Peifer.
At left is Lily's complex project of crochet-covered ankle boots. They began life as plain brown suede. At right are her simple shoes, based on a research image of some soft Chinese slippers of this construction and with a similar cat-face design on the toebox.
Aren't they lovely, fun, zany, and just excellent? I am so proud of all their work.
Here's some nice news: I decided to cross-post a lot of my "grad school application FAQ" posts over on TheatreFace.com (a networking community for the theatre profession), and my "Should I go to U/RTA?" post was profiled as a highlight in their weekly news update. Cool!
And, a book link: one of my students brought in a book she used in a research paper, and it's really fascinating, X-Rediography of Textiles, Dress, and Related Objects, by Sonia O'Connor and Mary M. Brooks. The old footwear is truly amazing--with all the nails and shanks and in one case, even TOE BONES down inside them. There are some really disturbing-looking x-rayed old dolls, too. If that interests you, definitely check it out!
I swear, i just have to finish getting these evals written and grades turned in, and i will write that entry on the bloody lipsewing appliance.
That will be my Christmas gift to you all, perhaps. Ha!
The way the semester worked out, we wound up doing the footwear project last due to respirator training scheduling with our Safety folks; because of the danger of the solvent-based chemicals we use in footwear applications, i won't teach that unit til all students have gone through respirator training and fit-testing and have their proper PPEs. They have to do two different footwear projects--a simple project and a complex project. Simple projects are often something like spats/gaiters, a soft shoe, or a basic shoe modification. Complex projects are all over the map, everything from animal feet for human performers, to transformation of a modern shoe into a period style.
Footwear projects by 1st year graduate Kaitlin Fara
At left is Kaitlin's complex project. She researched 19th century stocking patterns and construction techniques, then created this reproduction of a clocked knitted silk stocking and wrote a modern pattern for it. (If you have ever attempted to knit from a period knitting pattern, you know how arcane and undecipherable they can be to knitters used to modern standards of pattern notation.) At right is her simple project--she removed the soles from these simple flats, covered this with the floral fabric, and resoled them.
------------------------------------
Footwear projects by second year graduate Shanna Parks
At the back left is Shanna's simple footwear project, a pair of butter-yellow deerskin ghillies for a Scottish country dancer, with ornamental Celtic knotwork stitching on the toebox. At right is her complex project, for which she stripped a pair of modern pumps and created these tricolor T-straps based on a 1930s research image. The right shoe is complete, but the left shoe has been left with threads hanging from the work she did using my industrial patcher to apply the appliqued parts, the remainder of which will be sewn by hand with a leather needle.
Simple project: Cars "kids" slippers for an adult performer by first year graduate Claire Fleming
I love these! Claire has a background in costuming for professional children's theatre, and mentioned a production she had heard about (but not worked on) in which the costumers had to create some Thomas the Tank Engine character slippers for an adult actor playing a little boy. Clearly you can't buy such a thing in a size 12 mens, so they had to be made from plush toys. Claire wanted to try this sort of project for her simple shoe, which i thought was a super-fun idea! (Children's theatre is always good for some great craftwork.) The shoe on the left shows the red rubber-treated slipper-bottoms Claire installed, while if you look at the shoe on the right you can see the opening for the foot in the "car roof."
Complex project: frog feet for a dancer, also by Claire Fleming
Claire wanted to do frog feet based on a dance shoe for her Complex project. These are made from a thick cotton jersey with a soft jazz shoe base. The structure is supported by both wire and trimmer-line, and they're really easy to wear and don't at all interfere with a performer's dexterity. Fellow grad student and former dancer Kaitlin Fara put them on and tried them out to much applause!
Footwear projects by undergraduate senior Lily Peifer.
At left is Lily's complex project of crochet-covered ankle boots. They began life as plain brown suede. At right are her simple shoes, based on a research image of some soft Chinese slippers of this construction and with a similar cat-face design on the toebox.
Aren't they lovely, fun, zany, and just excellent? I am so proud of all their work.
Here's some nice news: I decided to cross-post a lot of my "grad school application FAQ" posts over on TheatreFace.com (a networking community for the theatre profession), and my "Should I go to U/RTA?" post was profiled as a highlight in their weekly news update. Cool!
And, a book link: one of my students brought in a book she used in a research paper, and it's really fascinating, X-Rediography of Textiles, Dress, and Related Objects, by Sonia O'Connor and Mary M. Brooks. The old footwear is truly amazing--with all the nails and shanks and in one case, even TOE BONES down inside them. There are some really disturbing-looking x-rayed old dolls, too. If that interests you, definitely check it out!
I swear, i just have to finish getting these evals written and grades turned in, and i will write that entry on the bloody lipsewing appliance.
That will be my Christmas gift to you all, perhaps. Ha!
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Date: 2009-12-16 07:30 pm (UTC)