Hand-made S-bend dressform
Hi everyone!
As many of people are interested 'how I did it' here's the summary. I didn't intend to show a master-class or any kind of a tutorial so I just took some pictures by the way. Now I can share it by your requests =) Sorry if my English will fail me, hope eveything I say is correct and clear =)
I mentioned in one of my comments I want to make busty and curvy Victorian dressform, late Victorian long bodied form and may be natural era corsetform with long and slender hips to train my skills. Full of plans ))) If anyone has specific suggestion or wants to make it together to share the experience and results - I'm ready!
Have to note - I'm not a sculptor and all I did was supported by my own vision of finished thing (I didn't have any education or classes on the field), my only inspiration and teachers were actual historic images I found over the web to find specific features for silhouette of that period (I do not clame any right for any image I show here, all of them are mine or were found in public acsess over the Internet).
Inspiration
A woman of 'Belle Epoque' is a high standard of opulence and elegance for me. I guess not only for me as many of famous haute couture fashion designers refered to that time. Almost the first time in costume history women let the fabric gently fall from the waist down showing hips. The corset of a new construction in the beginning of the century changed modern silhouette a lot. Waist reduction reached its peak by that time.
S-bend corsets were in fashion only a short period - 6-8 years as I know, that style was unique and still remains the same, patterns are rare and miles away from easy adjustable commersial patterns we used to now. Having a rough copy of S-bend corset from 'Corset and Crinolines' I managed to make a try.
As you may see I used pads to create artificial body architecture but in my eyes all had to look not just 'better' but the best. I had no other way but to make my own solid S-curved form.
Points to start with
I wanted a solid form so I rejected ideas of pillows and torso patterns filled up with any fiber. In the very beginning I decided to choose several images I find ideal to be The Standard. It was the young woman with flowers (see the first image) and illustrations to Daniel Kops 'Heart' corset (http://google.com/patents/about?id=oFlwAAAAEBAJ). For me that is how the woman of that time would look like. Curvy shape, round bust, small waisted, perfectly flat belly, shoulders leaned forward - that's what I needed. I thought about proportions. If you drow some lines, you will see what I did
The blue line is the rigid cardboard tube that had to be the base, the spine of the dressform, red lines are shoulders, bust, waist and hips levels. They are approximatly the same distance far one from another. The presence of some spine inside the dressform is vital! When I tryed to make my first one for a mid 19th cetntury corset - it was broken by the stress of lacing in the most vulnerable area - at the waist level
Work in progress
My tube was long enough to make a dressform with hips and shoulders. I started from the bottom. It has to be the of correct form but wide to make a dressform stable. At first I created a volume and then smoothened it up to check the contours. I didn't saved glue during the work to make strong and solid thing
Then I left the city for vocations leaving it to dry in this state.
Then worked over the shoulders and general contours.
Working with layers in PhotoShop I checked if my form suitable for Kops Heart corset streching it the same proportions in height and width:
Then I found the pattern Joanne Arnett (http://bridgesonthebody.blogspot.com/) fantastically worked with for http://foundationsrevealed.com/
I scaled it for desired waist - 50 cm and made a rough sample and then tryed to make sure it fits
Or combined them both:
By this means I could easily check if my form needs any corrections and if it has some tough asymmetry. I found that it had too sharp bust point and flat butts and corrected it. Then I decided it had too low shoulders and raised them
Now it looks like this and I do hope it not so far from picture of a young woman with frowers:
Me working:
Sorry for nudity - I just worked in the middle of summer and it's hot here of July =)
So create something that would inspire you, make some inusual, fantastic forms!!!
As many of people are interested 'how I did it' here's the summary. I didn't intend to show a master-class or any kind of a tutorial so I just took some pictures by the way. Now I can share it by your requests =) Sorry if my English will fail me, hope eveything I say is correct and clear =)
I mentioned in one of my comments I want to make busty and curvy Victorian dressform, late Victorian long bodied form and may be natural era corsetform with long and slender hips to train my skills. Full of plans ))) If anyone has specific suggestion or wants to make it together to share the experience and results - I'm ready!
Have to note - I'm not a sculptor and all I did was supported by my own vision of finished thing (I didn't have any education or classes on the field), my only inspiration and teachers were actual historic images I found over the web to find specific features for silhouette of that period (I do not clame any right for any image I show here, all of them are mine or were found in public acsess over the Internet).
Inspiration
A woman of 'Belle Epoque' is a high standard of opulence and elegance for me. I guess not only for me as many of famous haute couture fashion designers refered to that time. Almost the first time in costume history women let the fabric gently fall from the waist down showing hips. The corset of a new construction in the beginning of the century changed modern silhouette a lot. Waist reduction reached its peak by that time.
S-bend corsets were in fashion only a short period - 6-8 years as I know, that style was unique and still remains the same, patterns are rare and miles away from easy adjustable commersial patterns we used to now. Having a rough copy of S-bend corset from 'Corset and Crinolines' I managed to make a try.
As you may see I used pads to create artificial body architecture but in my eyes all had to look not just 'better' but the best. I had no other way but to make my own solid S-curved form.
Points to start with
I wanted a solid form so I rejected ideas of pillows and torso patterns filled up with any fiber. In the very beginning I decided to choose several images I find ideal to be The Standard. It was the young woman with flowers (see the first image) and illustrations to Daniel Kops 'Heart' corset (http://google.com/patents/about?id=oFlwAAAAEBAJ). For me that is how the woman of that time would look like. Curvy shape, round bust, small waisted, perfectly flat belly, shoulders leaned forward - that's what I needed. I thought about proportions. If you drow some lines, you will see what I did
The blue line is the rigid cardboard tube that had to be the base, the spine of the dressform, red lines are shoulders, bust, waist and hips levels. They are approximatly the same distance far one from another. The presence of some spine inside the dressform is vital! When I tryed to make my first one for a mid 19th cetntury corset - it was broken by the stress of lacing in the most vulnerable area - at the waist level
Work in progress
My tube was long enough to make a dressform with hips and shoulders. I started from the bottom. It has to be the of correct form but wide to make a dressform stable. At first I created a volume and then smoothened it up to check the contours. I didn't saved glue during the work to make strong and solid thing
Then I left the city for vocations leaving it to dry in this state.
Then worked over the shoulders and general contours.
Working with layers in PhotoShop I checked if my form suitable for Kops Heart corset streching it the same proportions in height and width:
Then I found the pattern Joanne Arnett (http://bridgesonthebody.blogspot.com/) fantastically worked with for http://foundationsrevealed.com/
I scaled it for desired waist - 50 cm and made a rough sample and then tryed to make sure it fits
Or combined them both:
By this means I could easily check if my form needs any corrections and if it has some tough asymmetry. I found that it had too sharp bust point and flat butts and corrected it. Then I decided it had too low shoulders and raised them
Now it looks like this and I do hope it not so far from picture of a young woman with frowers:
Me working:
Sorry for nudity - I just worked in the middle of summer and it's hot here of July =)
So create something that would inspire you, make some inusual, fantastic forms!!!