Fimbria Figura
Year: 2011
Event: World of WearableArt Creative Excellence Theme Under the Microscope Section Finalist
Inspiration:
Fimbria Figura was inspired by an image of a coloured scanning electron micrograph of the fimbria of the fallopian tube. The fimbria (fringe) at the end of the fallopian tube possess finger-like cilia, which activate to create a vortex of movement along the tube. Silk organza was dyed, and screen-printed with a pattern derived from a microscopic cross-section of the fallopian tube. Each silk shape is distorted with fishing line stitched in a circular pattern, and the edges have been frayed to create a fringe. Shibori-bound lame represent the cilia, further extending this fringe. They swirl over a garment base of metallic foil jersey distorted by plastic tubing, forming a vortex from head to toe.
Materials & Techniques:
Hand dyed and screen printed silk organza, plastic tubing, foil jersey, screen-printing, shibori-shaping, hand beading
More Information:
Fimbria Figura was retained for 12 months, exhibited at the World of WearableArt Museum, and displayed in April 2012 at the Intercontinental Hotel, Wellington NZ during the WOW show season. Many metres of double silk organza were used for this piece – fortunately I had bought quite a lot at a fabric liquidator some years before. Fraying the edges of the silk circles was a time consuming, finger-numbing exercise, and I tried to bribe others to help me, with no success. The base of the headpiece is a colander, which allowed me to feed the tubing through to secure it.
Bonus Information:
The model for the photoshoot was a girl in my class at TAFE Fashion Design, who also happened to be a fire-twirler, dancer and performer with a local event entertainment agency. She was so good at modelling BioLumina the year before that I did not hesitate to ask her again. Scrap pieces of Fimbria’s silk organza found its way into many felt projects – it’s nice to use as much as I can, and special to have fragments live on in other works.
In 2014 I was asked by a newspaper to model Fimbria for an article, even though I really didn’t want to. It was not a pleasant experience, as the photographer made it very clear that he considered me most inappropriate as well!
