Gloves

Mood board

Deciding on an object to make:
I had been thinking that I wanted to make an object that represented the difference between the amazing and wonderful natural complexity of the inner person, and the way that only shows through in a 'glass darkly' kind of way to the outside. And perhaps even to suggest to the person looking at it that the 'rind' over the top was also part of the wonderful natural expression of the person inside.

Pair of embroidered leather gloves
Made in England 1615-1625
Leather embroidered with gilt and
silver-gilt thread
V&A London

Then I took a cousin to the V&A to look at the Wedding Dress exhibition, and we had a look at another gallery as well, with examples of 17th Century furniture and objects. There were lots of gloves there.

Glove 1600-1625
Kid leather and satin embroidered with silk,
silver-gilt threads and seed pearls, with silver-gilt
bobbin lace and spangles. Made in England
V&A London

Gloves were used to indicate social status, to make the hands and fingers look long and thin which was associated with attractive personality traits, and were very similar for men and women.

Glove 1660-1680
The curls around the wrist are made from fabric,
and are very modern looking in the sense that they
change the whole 3D feel and proportions of the hand.
V&A London

I was initially thinking of making a glove covered in skin, but when I started on this it was too difficult not to have connotations of dead flesh, and also intrinsically hard to get a good representation of the colour and pattern of skin.

So I decided on a glove that was a bit like bark, or roots, covering a tree, reflecting my studies of roots from earlier in Exploring Ideas. This also had the advantage of intrinsically symbolising a barrier made from inside.

The process of coming to this decision has been a slow gathering of apparently unrelated threads. I was fretting a bit that I hadn't decided yet, and then one day it dawned on me that I had already decided, without knowing it!

Creating a glove pattern:
In order to make a glove I had to make a pattern for it. I based it on a kid glove that I had kept of my grandmother's.

I drew an approximate pattern onto tracing paper by drawing round the shapes of the glove.

I traced this pattern onto fabric, a tacked it together to check the fit.

My first attempt at the thumb left a gap.                                    

Which I corrected using an extra arc of fabric. When I come to make the final version, I have unpicked the glove, and I will cut these two pieces together.

This is what it looks like with the printed organza over the top.
My idea is to cut slits into the fabric of the glove, and use the folded printed organza as texture around the edges of the slits to emphasise the shapes.