Project #2

Written Design Proposal Statement

When researching the artists that were listed as examples, I was really intrigued by Nick Cave. His artwork was so mesmerizing and amazing to me. From the way he uses different types of materials so creatively and his use of making his artwork flow. I was inspired and wanted to make a piece that wasn’t necessarily an extension but an add on. I wanted to design a corset or bralette that would be made out of wire but use beading to add the designs. I was inspired by flowers and Native American bead working so I wanted to incorporate that into the bralette or corset.

I used beaded flowers, corsets, and a few pieces from Nick Cave to show where I got my inspiration from.

History

Back braces are used for medical purposes for a number of reasons. To help align the spine, fix posture, hunch backs, and many more. Scoliosis is a huge factor (mostly within youth because that is when the symptoms for a misaligned spine is found) for why back braces are used and it can help benefit in multiple ways. The first back brace (which was a full body brace at the time) was invented in 1931 and had the patient physically bend over to help fix a curved spine. Since back braces weren’t a thing and were not sold for consumers, doctors would usually make them themselves and guess on how to make it, giving it to specific patients for use. These back braces were uncomfortable and painful for the patient. It was then in 1946 that the back brace went from a full body to a more simplistic design that would help the patient continue on with their normal lives rather than to be bent over. As time passed more and more designs were created to help consumers be able to continue on w daily lives and not be stalled by their braces and medical issues.

UPDATES:

I instead of using making a corset or bralette like I had originally planned out, I also wanted to take inspiration from both Viktoria Modesta and Nick Cave. I loved how Viktoria used an already existing item and altered it to make it more universal and creative. She used prosthetics and altered them to match her outfits, make them more unique, and just designed them so creatively, giving the user more confidence and a sense of versatility. I still wanted to stick with the corset idea, so I decided that I would design a back brace but taking inspiration from Nick Cave and Native American bead working and alter the design of the back brace so that they aren’t so simple like Viktoria Modesta did with her prosthetics. Usually people with scoliosis wear back braces on top of their clothes, so with my designs they would be more versatile and different.

Sketches and model

These are the sketches I did in order to figure out what shape I wanted the corset to be. Although the sketches of the design that I had first created and the final product do not match up, I wanted to be able to keep the geometric shape aspect of the corset. I still followed through with that and cut up geometric shapes (triangles) to form the shape of the corset, I did keep the frames that had drawn out.

I made a model out of tracing paper and tape and drew on the geometric shapes that I wanted to cut out so that I knew how many pieces and how big everything needed to be. Originally, I cut out the shapes of the triangles first instead of measuring everything out on tracing paper. This made everything a lot more difficult since I needed to find shapes that would fit with each other. Making a full scale model out of tracing paper and measuring everything out first was a lot easier so I had to rework and start from a different angle. This helped me learned the how important it is to start with a mock up first and then work from there.

Process Photos

Final Project

*Parsons building was closed so I couldn’t get any pictures, but it will be updated later*

Styling Photos

Reflection

I think that this project could’ve been a lot better than what it looks like. This isn’t really how I envisioned the final piece to look like. While doing the project I came across a few things that were difficult: the acrylic was difficult to cut which in result would end up cracking or the cuts would be uneven, when drilling holes into the acrylic it would crack, and make sure to wear gloves! I cut my fingers multiple times which resulted in me having to stop for little bits at a time which was a waste. I think if I were to do this project again, I would definitely take advantage of the laser lab because it would take hours off of the project, just overall make the corset look cleaner because like I said, its not really how I envisioned it, and add some patterns onto the corset. I was also finally able to understand the use of paper models. I didn’t understand why you were so persistent on the class making paper models, but after a few errors and mistakes, I realized that the paper full scale model helped a lot and made the process a whole lot easier.