Experimenting with colour and abstraction, aimed to depict a church in an abstract expressionist style using bold colours and lines. I’m fascinated with biblical imagery although not religious, things like churches, stained glass windows and crosses recurring in my works and something I want to explore further in the future.
Date: January, 2024
Dimensions: 50cm x 60cm
Materials used: Acrylic.
Artist research
Research and discussion of works by the Artist Anish Kapoor. His bold use of colour and sculptural depiction of flesh-like and gruesome structures fascinated me about his work. The way it was bloody and confrontational and made you think about mortality, destruction, violence, it brings forward thoughts on the worst parts of humanity.
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Materials used:
Further investigation and response
Looked at a few more of his works, and analysed his pieces in more detail. To the Right is a response to his work, I experimented with fabric manipulation, drawing inspiration from the raw, hanging sculptures that resembled fleshy skin and dyed the fabric to get the impression of a blood soaked piece of clothing. I put vertical lengths of wire and dress pins into the fabric to experiment with texture and ruffles in the surface of the fabric, using a blanket stitch to bring the piece together on the edges. From the work I interpret themes of confinement, violence and femininity.
Response
Here I wanted to continue down the route of textile works inspired by the artwork of Anish Kapoor. I found this multi-coloured wool and crocheted it in the round to create a piece that looks like an intestine, returning back to my previous concepts of the human body, flesh and blood.
Moving on from the work of Anish Kapoor I wanted to continue with the imagery of flesh and the human body, I went on to look into the designer L’emaine who creates fleshy, gory garments made from latex and silicone, a designer that inspired later pieces.
A response to the work of both Anish Kapoor and designer L’emaine, both of which conjure fleshy and gruesome depictions of the human form. I created necklaces, upcycling pieces from old compasses and glasses frames. using wax and silicone to replicate the flesh-like, gristly inside of the body. Using black satin ribbon instead of a typical chain to juxtapose the grotesque and the feminine.
Date: January, 2024
Materials used: Wax, hot glue gun, latex, old compass, glasses frames, nails, safety pin, ribbon.
Algae sketchbook spread
Visual inspiration taken from the internet, old books, pieces of latex algae attached to the page. After experimenting with using latex for another piece I dyed it green before drying it to create an algae-like look. My Interest in plants and ocean life has inspired recent project as part of a fashion collection.
Features pieces I created using ai app ‘Dream’ using prompts like ‘red flesh molecules’ to create these pieces that inspired future projects.
Mix of first hand photos (sink images and fish bowl with red dye in them) taken whilst experimenting with various inks and dyes as well as various other images I found that inspired the aesthetic and themes I wanted to explore in my collection. This piece aims to evoke themes of femininity and the grotesque, a critique on oppressive beauty standards (For further information about the message of the pieces refer to ‘Fashion Collection’ page.)
materials used: fabric dye, felt tip, posca pen.
Similarly, a variety of sources that provided visual inspiration for the second piece in my collection. This one focusing on the natural landscape and a garment that suggest a unity with nature that contrasts with the opposite one, contrastingly, depicting the inside out, the human body, within, as a garment, for all to see. (similarly refer to ‘Fashion Collection page for more information.)
materials used: marker, felt tip.
Preliminary sketches for corset as part of my collection inspired by the works of Anish Kapoor and designer L’emaine.
Further development of ideas and design for the corset piece as part of collection, taking inspiration from Victorian style corsets, the garment a symbol of femininity, restricting beauty standards and societal expectations of femininity.
Finalising design for the corset piece.
Preparatory sketches for the second piece in the collection, a dress inspired by marine plant life and ecological issues such as washed up animals and sea junk. giving the appearance of the garment being washed up on the shore.
Sketches for piece that could be completed in the future as time restricted it being completed as part of the collection. Inspired by Victorian mourning jewellery that often featured human teeth of lost loved ones, to be styled with the corset in line with the theme of the human body.
Materials used: marker pen, gel pen.
Sketches for necklace that could be completed in the future, would have been part of the collection, inspired by warts and boils as part of the human body theme. (Image shown at bottom of page is a snippet from a painting by the artist Christian Rex Van Minnen.)
Materials used: marker pen.
Sketchbook
Design idea for a shell necklace that could have been styled with the second piece in my collection, the algae dress. Could be completed in the future.
materials used: marker pens.
Design sketches for a cropped hoodie inspired by the exaggerated pointy shoulder pads of the 80s. Shown styled with the corset, tying in with the colour scheme of the piece, using bloody, flesh-like red hues.
materials used: marker pens.
Design sketches for a pair of parachute pants that could be pursued in the future, created using an upcycled tent as a way to combat textile waste and to get a light, flowy feel to the garment. The design down the side drawing inspiration from traditional tribal tattoos.
Materials used: sticky note, sharpie, marker pen.
Sketches for a future project to create a ghillie suit inspired by the natural elements of the algae dress in progress, inspired by the way the wearer becomes a part of landscape around them. Here the wearer camouflages into their surroundings similarly. I envisioned it to be paired well with the opposite parachute pants as the colour combinations would be harmonious.
Materials used: gel pen, marker pen.
‘Your showing too much skin’
The resulting garment was nothing like the final designs I sketched up in the sketchbook, however depicting the human body I think its fitting that the process was more organic that changed and mutated as it progressed and that I allowed myself to veer off from what I’d planned to do. From blow torching pieces of leather to stitch into the corset to sewing in large amounts of latex to replicate bloody raw flesh. For more info on the ‘why’ I created this and the messages behind it see ‘Fashion Collection’ page.
Date: February, 2024
Materials used: (fake) leather, latex, cotton, fabric dye, string, bones.
Ongoing Projects
Algae dress
The Base layer now completed, crocheted fabric will be added on to give the impression of netting. The dress will be dyed in a grey colour using a Shibori dyeing method to allow the green of the latex algae pieces to stand out and strings of pearls and shells will be added to tie into themes of femininity and blending into the coastal landscape.
Draped various pieces of netting I’d crocheted and wool/ dyed string to experiment with composition to layer over the algae dress, looking to get the effect of it looking as if the dress had been washed up; netting, sea junk and seaweed tangled up with the dress.
Kombucha leather
Scoby growing
Experimenting with kombucha leather, a biomaterial popularised by the Ted Talk ‘grow your own clothes’ by Suzanne Lee over a decade ago. Using the scoby (the layer seen at the bottom of the jar), a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast that grows as a by-product of kombucha brewing to make clothing by drying out the scoby to produce a leathery material that is entirely biodegradable.
Small scoby leather piece
One of the first scoby’s dried out a a test piece, further experimentation needed to be able to get the scoby to dry out smoother with less of a wrinkled surface to increase surface area of material grown. I’m looking into sustainable alternatives to help combat unsustainability caused by things like textile waste in the fashion industry as part of my Welsh Bacc artifact.
Larger scoby leather piece
bigger piece I’ve managed to successfully grow, more pieces similar size needed as I plan to make a corset out of the kombucha leather as my artifact for the Welsh Bacc. It acts as an extension of my work done and themes discussed in the corset piece for my collection. With this piece I want to question and challenge beauty ideals and standards. I want to juxtaposed the unconventional, the grotesque with skin-like kombucha molded into a corset, a symbol of femininity as well as oppressive beauty standards dating back to the Victorian times where tight corsets to get a small waist, this act of conformity often led to various health issues which shows the damage and violence of such standards. I wanted this piece to be a social/ political statement about the lack of sustainability in the fashion industry as well as the influence of harmful beauty standards in the industry on women.
Ruby French 