Making a Three Dimensional Design Project out of Trash!

 The project was for my 3D design class. We had to make a sculpture that represented ourselves or our interests. We had to predetermine our materials and have a theme.

I have always loved fashion, NOT THAT I HAVE ANY FASHION SENSE mind you, but love to look at fashion. So I decided since I do love my sewing machine, that I would make a 3D woman, roughly my size, and I do mean roughly, like a few sizes smaller........with a great dress all made out of recycled materials, mostly junk mail, tarps, and plastic grocery bags.  I included the shoes, belt, and purse as those added little bonuses!

The first part of the project required duct taping a mannequin to make the actual form. The duct tape I had to buy, but that is the only one of two materials that are not recycled. There are a ton of tutorials on line that demonstrate how to make a dress form from duct tape. I had contemplated doing one of myself, but the thought of being duct taped for a few hours, well it didn't sound appealing. So I used a mannequin, hence she is a lot more slender than I am.  I joked with my professor, "Hey, that's how I see myself in MY mind."












I got smart and used white duct tape. Here she is all, taped up!  You then cut down the back and stuff! I used all junk mail. Gotta love the United States Postal Service and their junk.......
















Then I realized that the duct tape wasn't quite the look that I was gong for.....my neighbor who is about 5 peered into my garage and yelled, "Daddy the neighbor is making a mummy for Halloween......" (Ahhh the honest criticism of a 5 year old).  I didn't think that was quite the look I was going for so I then decided I needed to plaster her. Enter the second non-recycled material. I used old scrap material to help strengthen the plaster.  Most of the material was salvage from old projects and some clothes I was going to donate, like old t-shirts. This helped to stabilize her! This picture depicts her torso plastered and her arm which is still duct tape. You can certainly see the difference.

 I bought a dowel and a piece of wood from Home Depot and with some help from Mike
got the base built. Esmeralda was now standing. (I had to name her something high maintenance, she was taking a lot of time after all......)

On the right, she was painted a champagne color so she didn't look so ghost like. The dress was made from recycled grocery store bags that were ironed together. A technique that I owe to Alisa Burke. She is pure genius. I then drew my own pattern, sewed the dress together and painted the dress a mulberry pink. The white fluff at the bottom are actually recycled tarps that were from a construction project near my apartment that were tossed.





The belt and trim on the dress were done with pop tabs, thank you Darlene and Tracie for helping me collect a few hundred of those!

 The bottom came along nicely once I discovered the power of a heat gun, melting the tarps into a nice little flounce!

 The back!

The shoes were made from soda pop cardboard containers. The purse was an empty box from granola bars and they were covered in gum wrappers.
Her she is ESMERALDA! Hope you enjoyed.