I have slowly been making progress on my self-portrait muse and she seems to be coming to life right before my eyes. Although I’ve had a vision of the finished product in my head, she seems to be taking on a life and direction of her own. Working on a project in this way, allowing the piece to tell you where it needs to go, can be quite liberating and intimidating at the same time. As an artist, I need to give myself over to the process, allowing the piece to develop in its own sweet time, and have the confidence to know that in art there are no mistakes. Since shaving her head, I painted it with a pearlescent acrylic and added details with a black marker and translucent letters. I then decided she needed an embellishment to draw more focus to her face and came up with the idea of an Elizabethan ruff. After stiffening lengths of black lace with gel medium, I gathered layers together and pulled it taut to create the right effect. Before I attached the ruff to the figure I hand-sewed glass beads to the edges for extra sparkle. The overall effect of the ruff emphasizes the theme and lends a certain strength to the figure that she did not possess in the beginning.
I really felt that my figure needed a strong support system and therefore designed her undergarments with this in mind – after all, anything can be built on a good foundation. Even though the figure will eventually wear a ‘full metal’ skirt, her legs will still be on view and an interesting garment underneath would complete the bottom half. I used a chiffon scarf to sew her pantaloons and trimmed them with black lace. The corset became a very important aspect of this piece as the design progressed. I wanted to convey a strong sense of timelessness in the style of the corset, so it would work well with the Elizabethan collar but also reflect a current, contemporary feel as well. I chose black felt for the three pieces that formed the base of the garment and couched copper embroidery thread on top to give the illusion of a more complex construction. Further embellishment was made with metallic glass beads and the corset was then laced up the back with black satin ribbon.