Day one

We began by stretching two pieces of muslin across the dress form while pinning it into place. Using two pieces allowed us to find where the shoulder seam would sit. We cut the fabric along the next in order to get a flat curve around the shoulder and neck. Keeping the material as flat as possible allowed me to use my pencil to trace out the type of collar I wanted. I tried to go with more of a sharp tip while rounding out around the shoulders into the back. Once it was traced out, I carefully cut the muslin making a fabric pattern. I made sure to label the center front and center back on each piece.

Day Two

I took the fabric pattern pieces I made and then carefully traced out the two pieces onto the same piece of paper, making one complete pattern. I ensured that on the center front piece, I indicated that it must be cut on a fold, making a completed collar piece. I then repeated the muslin step again, but this time forming the neckpiece of the collar. Instead of cutting off the tabs made by curving the fabric, I left them so when I cut the pattern out of fosshape I would be able to fuse the two pieces together. Once I had my paper pattern I cut the pieces carefully out of fosshape. Wanting to keep it close to the shape of the fosshape I pinned it carefully, ensuring to make it as symmetrical as I could. Once I was satisfied I used the steamer, I carefully hardened the fosshape into a solid copy of the dress form in the shape of the gorget.

Day Three

Day Three was a very, very long day. I got to class super early and began working on sculpticoating the fosshape gorget. This allowed me to stiffen up the fabric a bit more than with the steam. I allowed that to dry, taking this time to trim the collar down a bit. Later I was able to begin a crumpling brown paper, getting it slightly damp and using the sculpticoat to paper mache. This was to give the collar a leathery look. I spent the rest of the time during class and then for a while later on the same day working on that. Once I got home I began painting the gorget with a mixture of browns with red undertones. this allowed me to get a nice tan. Once that dried I made fosshape loops and paper mached them to hold onto little glass bottles. while those dried I shaped out little bolts and screws for texture. I ended up baking the clay to quicken the process, once they were dry I got to painting immediately. I added a little more texture around the neck by using a leather cord I found. I took the little glass bottles I found and put different colored paints, pink, orange, blue, and purple. I added silver paint to the mixtures as well to give the liquid some shimmer once I added water. I burnt paper and made labels for my potion bottles.

Day Four

I started the day by taking an old spiral-bound notebook and took the metal spiral. I straightened it out and then carefully wrapped it around a pencil until it was tightly coiled. After that, I began gluing on findings, steampunk-inspired buttons my classmate had kindly given me. I also glued on a clasp that felt very fitting. I then slowly began putting grommets into the back of the gorget, making it easily laced and tied. The grommets will prevent damage from the leather strap used to tie it closed. Once the buttons were dry, I glued on the metal coil. It added a wonderful look to the piece. I went against painting it with a glossy top coat because I wanted the leather to look rough and worn out.

Overall I enjoyed this project very much. I put a lot of thought into what I wanted from this project. I do like working with the fosshape. It is very cool to watch it shrink when using the steamer. One mistake that I did was trying to use an iron on the fosshape. I thought if I held the iron over it with the steam on high it would work. I got bumped and my iron touched the fosshape scrap I used. It stuck to it a bit and left a tiny bit of burnt plastic on my iron. Luckily it scrubbed off easily.

Update after the original post

My younger sister wished to model for this as well.