CORSET
Project type:
Thesis work
Materials:
Metal net, kombucha leather, block print on silk organza, wool yarn
Date:
2024
My thesis body of work is centered around the concept of the loss of home. Throughout life, one inevitably leaves people and places behind, often not willingly. For me, it was the loss of my childhood home and "the motherland".
This piece is a metal corset, covered with kombucha leather. It is a combination of architectural inspiration that is always prevalent in my work and the organic component that always comes hand in hand-with it. In the process of making, the corset wire would always make my fingers bleed and the structure itself turned out incredibly uncomfortable to wear. The kombucha leather slowly grows into the net, covering the prickly edges and gradually adapting to the conditions of the surface. After a while looking back at it you stop noticing the points that made you bleed and you adapt, but at what cost.
The structure
The corset is woven out of a chicken coop net. The edges are secured using a millinery technique of wrapping wire. Traditionally it is done using ribbons of tulle, but I used a smaller gauge wire instead to keep the industrial aesthetic.
The concept requires it to be unpleasant to wear, and strips of the kombucha leather act as a thin cushion smoothing out some of the prickly edges.
Kombucha "skin"
I wanted kombucha to resemble thicker skin that grows over time as you get used to the unhealthy environment you are in. So the skin had to be unhealthy looking. I added unraveled fibers from wool yarn to create veins and kept the structure wet, so metal oxidizes and poisons the skin.
