Wearable Art: Folklore and Festival - Making Of
I decided to take part in the wearable art project a second time as I felt I could use what I had learned the previous year to make the most of the experience. A take away from the previous year was the importance of planning and ensuring the costume is robust, easy to take on and off and comfortable enough to wear. I also wanted to make something bigger that would disguise my body shape to look inhuman and be impactful on stage.
The theme for this years wearable art show was 'Folklore and Festival'. My costume is inspired by a character from Welsh folklore called the llamhigyn y dŵr. this creature resembles a frog with bat wings and a lizard tail. It lurks in lakes and ponds, preying on dogs and livestock that wander too close to the water and occasionally targeting fishermen.
I covered the withey structure with hessian fabric. I then covered it in a layer of green tent fabric which I adhered in sections with PVA.
I built my costume on to back pack frames I had made previously, this was helpful in creating a large scale costume that was wearable. I sculpted the base of the costume with PVC pipe that I melted into shape with a heat gun. I ensured that the structure was bolted or screwed together as i have learnt the hard way that glue is unreliable for such constructions. I also scrimmed particularly load bearing joints. I created the shape of the frog head out of witheys, I was eager to try withey sculpting and it is also a sustainable, light weight solution.
I was determined that the frog have a tongue that popped in and out during the performance. I deliberated over this for days; trying several different techniques such as, a piece of chord in a channel that would pull the fabric back into the mouth, and a winch system. each of my experiments were unsuccessful and I found this very frustrating. ultimately I settled for a last minute solution which consisted of a piece of fabric backed with wallpaper, attached to the roof of the mouth. It was also attached to a piece of bamboo acting as a handle, during the performance I would manually stick the tongue out and wave it around. this was such a simple solution and demonstrated the potential of simplistic puppetry techniques. I was very glad of this last minute addition as it was the audiences favourite feature.
I was dissatisfied with the shape to built it out with pieces of foam and rubber piping I found among the scraps we had been provided. I blended these sections into the shape with a layer of gum tape. I used paper light shades for the eyeballs which I paper mache-d over and painted with acrylic.
I added a warty texture by covering parts of the head with bubble wrap and gluing on sliced up baubles of various sizes. I spray painted the head with different shades of green in a dappled pattern, touching up some areas by hand with acrylic.
I made the wings out of witheys and papier mache. I attached these to the internal PVC tube structure with metal brackets to ensure they were securely fixed. For the tail I cut out of discs of cardboard with increasing diameters. I cut each circle in half and hot glued them together with 2" wide strips of card to create semicylinders of increasing size. I used evo stick glue to attach them to a central piece of strong felt fabric, with a 2cm gap between each piece. This was effective in creating a swaying motion causing the tail to wag as I walked.
Show Photos
photos by: Jo Marriot
audience photos by: Bridget Collins