Freyja
Year: 2017
Event: World of WearableArt Open Section Finalist
Inspiration:
Drawing inspiration from global myths involving feathered entities communicating with the Underworld, Freyja is named after the Norse goddess who possessed a cloak of feathers allowing her to fly between different worlds. From ravens as messengers of deities, and as omens of death, misfortune and war, to the Egyptian Goddess of Truth, Justice and Morality, Ma'at, weighing up hearts/souls against feathers to decide fate in the afterlife - feathers are strongly symbolic. The bell shaped dress evokes Edvard Munch's painting 'The Dead Mother and Child' which created a symbolic image of the death knell linked to this form.
Materials & Techniques:
Moulded leather, wire, acrylic paint, hand-painted feathers, foam, hand beading
More Information:
Freyja was another garment that benefited from my time at TAFE in patternmaking the bulbous garment nicknamed The Blueberry. Only a slight modification needed to be made to the pattern to create the front keyhole shape to feature the leather panels. Packets of loose, black, chicken feathers were ordered from China, and glued and machine stitched into fabric strips to be hand stitched to the skirt. Each feather was painted several times over before a layer of glitter finished them. Freyja was retained for 12 months and exhibited at the World of WearableArt Museum. Freyja featured in the Excellence in Fibers IV Print Exhibition - a juried exhibition, published in Fiber Art Now Volume 8 Issue 2 Winter 2018/2019.
Bonus Information:
In 2017 I created two works for WOW – Freyja, and Cordycephila, and both were accepted. Both had very well constructed headpieces, which began with a framework of aluminium strips (cut on my husband Matt’s guillotine) pop-rivetted together before padding and covering. It was a lesson I learned over the years – that a stable headpiece with good vision for the model was extremely important. Freyja’s collar was made with a modified corset pattern – a trick discovered many years ago through the process of play.
