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Mulch Media Gallery » Creations with Wool » Fea the Soul Weaver

(36 objects, created 5/14/2012)

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Album: This is a private album that is not visible to anonymous users Fea the Soul Weaver

Summary: The Gown of Fea the Soul Weaver is an art project designed to combine storytelling with costume making. The project's scope includes developing the concept of a character and storyline, designing the garment, researching materials and construction methods, and constructing the gown. Nestled within the holes of Irish myth, Fea's story is a combination of carefully chosen elements from the historical legends of the Tuatha De Danann. Even the mythological figure Fea, who's name is based on the Gaelic word for "weave", is chosen to support the initial character concept. Where Fea's traditional history lacks content, a new story is created: During the Tuatha De Danann's battle against the Fomorians, Fea saves the spirits of the dying by weaving their souls into her garments. Designing Fea's gown then becomes an illustration of a moment in her newly created history. To further support the character concept, materials and construction methods are selected to emphasize Fea's action of weaving souls. Materials like hand-dyed wool are sculpted into faces and felted into a base garment. The felting process, like Fea's weaving, knits the individual wool fibers into the weave of the base fabric. Costume construction and materials also include making weft-fringe of human hair, fabric appliqué of Celtic patterns, and hand-sewn beading. The final results of the project should be an art piece that explores elements of shape, materials, and construction that best represent the concepts behind a character's story.

Date:

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Fea visited the Westercon 69 Art Show. I didn't bring the project board but did pin a copy of her story to the dress.

Fea visited the ...

Read the legend behind the gown. Here is the story of Fea the Soul Weaver (PDF).

Read the legend ...

Costume creation story board: The Gown of Fea the Soul Weaver

Costume creation...

Costume creation story board: The Gown of Fea the Soul Weaver

Costume creation...

The Gown of Fea the Soul Weaver - Final view

The Gown of Fea ...

The Gown of Fea the Soul Weaver - Final view

The Gown of Fea ...

The Gown of Fea the Soul Weaver - Final view

The Gown of Fea ...

The Gown of Fea the Soul Weaver - Final view

The Gown of Fea ...

The Gown of Fea the Soul Weaver - Final view

The Gown of Fea ...

The Gown of Fea the Soul Weaver - Final view (black & white)

The Gown of Fea ...

Fea design sketch. • The Fea project developed out of wanting to explore two ideas. The first was based on seeing an image of Animal X’s costume, “Holocaust“ (http://www.ibelieveinfaeries.com/animal/gallery/gallery/pages/death.htm). I thought the idea of having faces integrated into a garment was fascinating. Unlike Animal X’s costume though, I wanted to explore making the faces more a part of the garment, like an overall texture.

Fea design sketc...

The Fea project developed out of wanting to explore two ideas. The first was based on seeing an image of Animal X’s costume, “Holocaust“ (http://www.ibelieveinfaeries.com/animal/gallery/gallery/pages/death.htm). I thought the idea of having faces integrated into a garment was fascinating. Unlike Animal X’s costume though, I wanted to explore making the faces more a part of the garment, like an overall texture.

The Fea project ...

Inge Stahl “Medea” To find more visual inspiration, I searched the internet for images that had the integrated texture I was wanting. Inge Stahl’s work titled “Medea” (http://homes.hallertau.net/~bst46/english.htm) and Kalenisis’ photo “Sister of Earth two” (http://kalenisis.deviantart.com/art/Sister-of-Earth-two-3533467) were two images that I liked the merging of natural elements onto the female form.

Inge Stahl “Mede...

Kalenisis “Sister of Earth two” To find more visual inspiration, I searched the internet for images that had the integrated texture I was wanting. Inge Stahl’s work titled “Medea” (http://homes.hallertau.net/~bst46/english.htm) and Kalenisis’ photo “Sister of Earth two” (http://kalenisis.deviantart.com/art/Sister-of-Earth-two-3533467) were two images that I liked the merging of natural elements onto the female form.

Kalenisis “Siste...

The next step was to dye the wool into the colors I wanted for the project. The best and easiest instructions I found to follow were from Pie Knits’ blog, Feb 20, 2006 (http://pieknits.blogspot.com/2006/02/dyeing-with-wiltons-icing-dye.html). This was an incredibly easy and fun process. Because the dyes used were edible (Wilton’s Icing Dye), the entire process could be done in the kitchen using the pots I already had, no special equipment purchases were necessary. Another amazing thing about dying wool is how little mess there is. You know when the dying process is done when all the dye has been absorbed from the water by the wool. Unlike fabric dyes, there is no real rinsing required, the wool as fully absorbed all of the color.

The next step wa...

My felting needles were purchased from Wool Works (http://woolworks.com/).

My felting needl...

Once I had the tools and supply of wool I tested out the felting process by making one face. It was fairly time consuming the result worked well enough that believed I could make the project work.

Once I had the t...

Making the faces took a lot of experimentation but I finally developed a system for I could produce them fairly efficiently and with good results. Many of my early attempts had to be reworked so that they looked better and matched the later version.

Making the faces...

In general, the method I worked out was to layout several layers of the dyed wool. Each layer was spread out so that the “grain” of the wool was in a different direction. With enough layers so that the wool was about an inch thick I would then felt the layers together with my multi-needle tool. With the lightly felted square I would then pinch in the major features of the face, tacking each into place by using the single needle to push the wool into the foam work surface. I then used the single needle to felt in the rest of the facial details: pushing in recesses like nostrils and wrinkles; teasing out obtrusions like eyebrows and noses; cutting in holes like eye sockets and mouths.

In general, the ...

As part of a human and organic element, I wanted to work in a fringe of hair around the wool faces. I made wefts out of a mix of synthetic and human hair. The wefts were made by laying out layers of the three different colors of hair onto a bead of glue. A strip of fabric (so I have something more solid to sew to the dress) is pressed onto the glue. Once dry I cut the strip of fabric down the middle to create two long wefts of hair.

As part of a hum...

As part of a human and organic element, I wanted to work in a fringe of hair around the wool faces. I made wefts out of a mix of synthetic and human hair. The wefts were made by laying out layers of the three different colors of hair onto a bead of glue. A strip of fabric (so I have something more solid to sew to the dress) is pressed onto the glue. Once dry I cut the strip of fabric down the middle to create two long wefts of hair.

As part of a hum...

As part of a human and organic element, I wanted to work in a fringe of hair around the wool faces. I made wefts out of a mix of synthetic and human hair. The wefts were made by laying out layers of the three different colors of hair onto a bead of glue. A strip of fabric (so I have something more solid to sew to the dress) is pressed onto the glue. Once dry I cut the strip of fabric down the middle to create two long wefts of hair.

As part of a hum...

The next step of the project was to arrange all of the faces onto the dress. With the base-fabric gown draped on a dress form, I arranged each of the face with the lightest colors towards the top and the darkest at the bottom. The goal was to add a weight to the garment, to show Fea’s heavy burden while weaving in the souls of the fallen. In addition to the color arrangement, the faces were also rotated and laid out to create a spiral pattern; the faces wind their way up Fea’s form.

The next step of...

Each face was square and built to look straight on, but I found that with pushing the wool around and adding filler where needed, I could tilt the faces into different directions.

Each face was sq...

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