I have always wanted an old dress form in my craft room. I just drool over the photos I find on the net… you know, the old fabric ones decorated with brooches or necklaces, sometimes a sparkly crown. But, I have no room for one right now, not to mention the extra funds. Plus, I don’t have many flea markets or vintage shops in the area, so I have no clue where to start looking. I did find the one I wanted to buy (pictured to the right), that is, if I can’t find an actual vintage one. I found it from DressFormMall on eBay.

Anyway, the reason I bring my love to your attention, is because I’ve decided to make one. Yup, MAKE one. I know, I’m crazy. But, you see, I’ve been creating a lot of necklaces for my upcoming Earth Day Fair, and I wanted to display them somehow. I love the look of necklaces on a bust, and because of my previously mentioned delemas on getting a full sized vintage one of my dreams, I started looking for a smaller tabletop version. I had no luck. They were either too expensive, or just too big. So, I had a crazy idea start brewing in my head… I could make one. And not only that, I plan to make a cast of it to recreate it. I know, its insane.

So, on Tuesday night I dragged a bag full of clay, wire, newspaper, tons of tape, and some tools to my art league meeting. Of course bringing in these odd supplies to an art league meeting stirred up some questions; so I had to explain myself. They thought I was nuts. I had an inkling of doubt, but I dove right in to the project determined to make it work. My plan was to create a wire form, stuff it with newspaper, then finish it off with clay. Luckily one of my buddies suggested I use a large soda bottle as a base. We just happened to have one in the room, so I gave that a try. With a little snipping in the back, it fit just perfectly within my bust template I had prepared. I worked on it for about two and a half hours, and the whole time I couldn’t stop myself from giggling as I sculpted her. We were all laughing about me sculpting “boobies”. lol

I ran out of time quickly. I stayed a bit later than usual but I wish I had even more time to work on her. I’m happy with the way it came out though. It’s a lot better than I had even hoped for. But, the whole time I was making it, I was cursing myself for forgetting my camera! lol So, no pictures yet. :(  I had to leave the bust in our art room to dry. Next Tuesday I’ll probably take some more time to smooth out the clay some more and perfect it. After that, I’m scared. My plan was to make a cast of it out of plaster or perhaps silicone, so that I have a mold of it. That way, I could make copies out of paper mache. It would be much lighter in paper mache, plus I’d be able to make as many as I wanted. Right now in her clay version she weighs about five pounds! Making a mold of her would require cutting her in half. That’s what scares me. What if I ruin her? I’m not sure what to do… I guess I could always make another if she got ruined. I must face my fears!

I’ll leave you with some beautiful inspiration photos.

1. Paris Style Dress Form, 2. dress form party, 3. Vintage Dress Forms, 4. Mannequin with Jewelry, 5. Picture 351, 6. Cool Manni, 7. coco wearing my necklace, 8. sj studio, 9. Natasha’s Vintage Prom

PS I always wondered how people made these awesome photo mosaics. I finally discovered how! Just visit Mosaic Maker to make your own! For flickr photos, you just have to insert the page url, not the photo url that you get from right clicking on the photo. (I found that out the hard way of course!)