This project is the culmination of my mannequin-making journey. The last three articles published on FR have looked at the history and social significance of mannequins and dress forms, explored a variety of DIY methods of creating such forms, and documented my experiments with several of these methods.

The body-cast that I made as a fitting form has been very useful already – I draped a burlesque costume for the original model, which fitted her perfectly and incorporated all of her physical quirks. Having a mannequin in one’s own measurements is definitely the ideal for making one’s own clothes, whether you make a body cast or pad out a standard mannequin. The fabric display forms that I made have also done their time, but are not quite as slick and polished as I would like them to be for display purposes. So I decided to have another go at making a display form, largely inspired by the gilded form seen in many a Sparklewren photograph. Any excuse to play with the book of gold leaf singing its siren song from a dark corner of my studio…

 

Materials

• Fabric display form, as shown here,
• Moulded cup bra (optional) – R50($4.50),
• Wide steel busk or metal ruler (optional),
• Wide brush for glue,
• Soft brush for smoothing on leaf – R16.

 

Equipment

• Cling wrap/film,
• Packing tape,
• Newspaper (one Sunday edition should be plenty) – R20,
• Wallpaper paste x 2 packs making 750ml each – R90,
• Expanding foam x 1 large can – R160,
• Wood filler (try to find one that says it is flexible) 2x 200ml – R40,
• Primer (grey or white) x1 spray can – R60,
• Base coat (colour up to you) x 1 spray can – R60,
• Watered down wood glue,
• Gold leaf +- 50 15x15cm sheets – R160,
• Varnish/sealant x 1 can – R120.

I’ve listed the cost of all the materials I had to buy to make this mannequin – items with no price listed were things I had at home, and are not specialised or expensive. I spent a total of R776 – roughly £45 / $70 / €56. I don’t know what such a mannequin might cost from an industrial supplier, but I imagine it would be several times this amount.

 

Construction

I decided to use papier-mâché and work over one of my fabric display forms, using a few simple tricks to enhance their shape. I chose papier-mâché because it is cheap and simple and would give me a nice sturdy surface for my gilding.

 

My biggest gripe with the fabric mannequins is the flattened and lowered bust, so I bought a cheap bra that looked like it would suit the proportions of the fabric mannequin. If you do this, be sure to buy a bra with foam cups as this sort of cup holds its shape better and will give you a smoother result than stuffing a soft-cup bra.

 

(N.B. My fabric forms are not made with the original pattern – I slimmed it down and narrowed the waist to better fit smaller sample-sized corsets.)

 

I put the bra on the mannequin and filled the cups with fabric scraps to stop them from caving in while I worked on them, and then mummified the form in cling wrap. Wrap the cling wrap as tightly as you can without compressing the fabric form, and try not to leave any gaps for the glue to leak through onto your form.

 

You can see in this picture that I used tape to finish wrapping the neck, and I also used a solid steel busk to support the mannequin’s back for more upright posture. I just stuck it on with duct tape – came off easily once I was finished.

A close-up of the new bust.

 

Now it’s time to start with the paper!

I tore the newsprint into strips – I wasn’t too 'persnickety' about the width of the strips as I knew I would use different widths on different areas of the form. I prepped my adhesive (more info on what I used further down) and got to work in the kitchen on a few sheets of newspaper, with my fabric form standing on a bar stool. The process wasn’t very messy at all though, largely due to the adhesive I used.

 

I used this extra strength wallpaper adhesive that I bought from my local hardware store, and can definitely recommend it! It was very easy to prepare – just mixed with cold water – and extremely easy to work with. I just scooped it out of the jar with my hands and smeared it onto the form as required. It wasn’t sticky or gooey, it dried pretty quickly, and washed off easily with water.

 

I smeared some glue directly onto the cling wrap and smoothed a strip of newsprint down onto the glue. I continued all around the form overlapping my strips of newsprint and trying to keep the strips going in the same direction around the form – partly to make it easier to tell which layer I was working on and partly because I thought that reversing the ‘grain’ of the paper between layers would give me better structural strength. I found that my nice neat grain got lost on the curvier areas of the form, where I broke the newsprint up into smaller pieces to avoid lumpy folds. Don’t worry too much about this – you can generally tell where you have been working by how wet the paper is.

I had to let each layer of newsprint dry before applying a new layer, but luckily we were having a very hot week in Cape Town, so I was able to get three or four layers done in a day.

I lost track of how many layers I used but I think it was around seven or eight. You can get a good idea of how solid your form is by pressing it gently but firmly when it is dry. If it holds it’s shape and doesn’t dimple under your finger then you are probably OK.

 

This is a good time to decide where you want the bottom line of your finished display form to be. I just got out a marker and sketched a slanting line, low at the front and raised at the back. You can see that after deciding where to end my form I stopped papering past that point.

Once the paper shell was fully dry I cut the papier-mâché shell off the form using a pair of craft/kitchen scissors (no point blunting my nice fabric sheers!), cutting down the side of the form and gently levering the shell off. I pulled sticking bits of cling wrap off the inside of the form and used masking tape to close the cut. I also trimmed down and taped over the neck of my paper shell, because the next step is to fill the shell with expanding foam and I didn’t want the foam leaking out of the neck. I also cut off the excess paper at the base of my form.

 

I propped my paper shell upside down so that it is as vertical as possible. (You can use a spirit level or any vertical line, like a table leg or door frame to do this.)

Next l filled the paper shell with expanding foam, using the foam to strengthen the form and setting in a hollow tube that will hold a pole and secure the finished form to it’s stand. I used a length of cardboard roll that I got from a fabric shop – the kind that bolts of fabric are rolled on – but you could use anything as long as the inner diameter is big enough to admit the pole of your stand.

I put my length of tubing into the paper shell before adding the foam, using a broomstick to hold it upright while I squirted the expanding foam in around it. Depending on the kind of foam you are using, you may need to do this in stages to let the foam set in between layers.

Once your form is filled with set foam, you can use a craft knife to trim of excess foam at the base of the form to the same level as the paper edge.

 

Remove the masking tape that you used to close the ‘seam’ down the side of the form and over the neck. Masking take doesn’t stick firmly, and you don’t want it peeling off later. Use more adhesive and newsprint strips to cover the base, neck, and side seam of your form. Again, you will need to do this in stages, allowing the layers to dry in between.

 

Here you can see the side seam of the form covered in a layer of newsprint.

 

Next I used a flexible wood-filler to even out small surface irregularities, working with a silicone spatula. I found this step pretty exciting, as the form suddenly stopped looking like a craft project and became very sculptural, with lovely texture in the filler.

 

Once the filler was dry I started sanding with 150 grit sand paper to smooth out the filler. I had planned to sand the filler really smooth and even, carrying on with 220 grit sandpaper once I was done with the 150, but I really liked the texture of the filler once it was partially sanded. No jagged lumps, but lots of graininess and irregular shallow ridges which I thought would look great under the gold leaf.

 

So I went straight onto priming the form for gilding.

I used two layers of primer – a coat of very pale grey spray primer and a layer of gold spray paint. I wanted to have a gold base under the gilding so that any cracks in the gold leaf were not unsightly and grey. Gold leaf also looks different applied on different surfaces so the base will affect your final result.

N.B. Follow the application instructions on the spray cans – general tips are not to hold the can too close to the form as this limits the diffusion of the paint particles so you end up with oversaturated, dribbly spots. Try to spray the paint on in strokes, as if you were using a paint brush. Always spray in a well-ventilated space, or wear a spray mask.

 

Once the base coat is dry one can start gilding. Hurrah! Play time!

You will need some kind of ‘size’ - or adhesive - I used a watered down wood glue, mixed roughly two parts glue to one part water. I went through three or four tablespoons of glue all together.

For the gilding you need to settle down somewhere you can make a bit of a mess, preferably as wind-free as possible so that you don’t lose sheets of precious gold leaf to a stray breeze. Gold leaf can be frustrating to work with and it is easy to get frustrated and wound up when it doesn’t behave. If I have trouble I try to remember to take a breath and relax, telling myself that I will get there eventually and the gilding will be beautiful.

I do my best gilding in the evening with a glass of wine!

 

So, I painted on my adhesive on in sections, applying the gold leaf a sheet at a time. I had to break the sheets up to cover the forms curves, which I was worried might give an odd texture to the gilding but was fine in the end. The leaf tears easily and there will inevitably be gaps between some of the sheets. I just waited for the area to dry fully and patched it up with more size and leaf.

Once I had a layer of gilding over most my form I inspected it carefully and filled in any. The adhesive needs a few hours to dry properly, but after that I used soft brush (I used a decent quality artists brush, R 16 , but you could use a make up brush, or maybe even a soft flannel cloth) to brush away any loose pieces of leaf.

 

This is messy, but I try to enjoy how the little flakes of gold drift and float around me.

 

Once the form was gilded to my satisfaction it needed to be sealed to protect the leaf from rubbing off on my corsets. I used a clear gloss polyurethane lacquer that came in a spray can, applying it in much the same way as the primer layers. I used polyurethane as apparently it is pretty scratch resistant, which sounded like a good thing. Time will tell!

I am using a second hand mannequin stand that I bought a while ago but you can make your own fairly easily – refer to my previous articles for more info.

 

This is my finished mannequin, whom I am christening Lily (as in ‘gilding the lily’ - a phrase much in use in my house).

 

Reflections

I am very happy with Lily – particularly with the texture of the filler showing through the gold leaf. Thank goodness I didn’t sand it completely smooth! I enjoyed working with the papier-mâché very much, and I’m also happy with the shape, although I might raise the bust and inch or so if I make another mannequin, which I probably will. Maybe in silver? Hmmm…

 

In any case, I loved making Lily and am excited to introduce here to the world. I hope you found her construction interesting, and look forward to seeing other people’s versions.

A golden display mannequin for under R800? ($70) Why stop at one?

 

(Please note, prices are shown in South African Rand. At the time of publication, the exchange rate was approximately 1 Rand = 0.086 US Dollar)

 

 

add