FOUNDATIONS REVEALED COMPETITION ENTRY
Priestess of Dagon, Father of the Deep Ones
(click images to to enlarge)
Other Credits
Makeup Artist & Photography Assistant : Rose Tental
Outline the story …
My creation is an interpretation from one of my favorite H.P. Lovecraft Novels : "The Shadow over Innsmouth". It's the story of a young man, a bit too curious, discovering the horrific truth about humans matching with Deep Ones (horrible humanoids sea creatures) to have immortal children, gold, jewels and plenty of fish.
I wanted to create a corset of a Priestess of the Esoteric Order of Dagon with jewelry, pearls, seaweeds and, above all, the big and immobile eyes of Father Dagon and the Deep Ones. I fell in love with the interpretation of Dagon by the artist Trufanov who was the main inspiration for the eyes and gills design. Because Lovecraft has a tendency to sexism (among other oppressive ideas), I wanted my Priestess to be sexy and powerful instead of a submissive victim without strength or will.
The aesthetic of the Lovecraft Cosmogony is very chaotic so I wanted to create something asymmetrical. It was thrilling to work around the beauty in ugliness and horror. Because Dagon and the Deep Ones are creatures of the see, I tried to create very organic embroideries with greens and earth tones. My inspiration for the embroideries comes from Michele Carragher work (Game of Thrones Embroiderer) for the seaweeds embroideries and Michele Clapton (Game of Thrones costumiere) for the dragon scale smock. For the eyes and gills, I was inspired by the amazing work of Fistashka.
Outline the construction…
I used a pattern from Sparklewren (Underpinning Museum) with very deep cleavage and oversized hips for a very graphic effect.
My corset is made out of a changing taffetas, coutil and 32 flat and spiral baleens for a strong structure. I tried a lot of new techniques for this project. I began with the dragon scale smock that I've ironed flat for a fish skin effect.
Then the eyes and gills for which I used a technic inspired by Fistashka embroideries. I used glass beads (I had some of them since my teenage years ;) ). It took me more than 30 hours.
The taffeta was fragile so it was a bit challenging to use it on the corset without destroying it, so I accepted and used this fragility as patina. The seaweed embroideries were also a first for me. I did a lot of research about Michele Carragher's work. The youtube channel "Taking time with Tasha", who learned with Michele Carragher at the London Embroidery School, helped me a lot. I used embroidery thread mixed with artificial gold thread, wire mesh ribbon, miyuki beads, glass beads, plastic beads and mixed colors fake pearls. I used a color palette of old gold, pink and purple. Emiah's tutorial about beaded corsets helped me a lot to manage embroideries between baleens and through strong fabric layers.
Through all those steps, I had the Game of Thrones Costumes book open on my desk, as well as the Waisted Creation book.
Wonderful work of art 😍
Thank you very much <3 <3
Stunning art piece! looks SO cool on
Thank you so much <3
I love the smocking! Such a wonderful effect, particularly with that taffeta.
Thank you very very much! 🖤🖤🖤
Gasp! The details and texture of this are stunning!
Oh thank you very much Kait <3 !
This is a piece of art. you nailed all the techniques you use to make this!
Thank you very very much <3
I love it: from the texture of the smock to the delicate embroideries, the shape of the corset….
Your work is stunning, and you’re so talented!
Thank youuuuuuu <3.
this is all about evocative textures and sheens. i love your squid-y eyeballs with their fabric lids, and the placement of your motifs is smart– keeps the eye moving over the surface. good luck from icarus!
Thank you very very much for your comment’. It goes right to my heart. <3
I love this! Such rich textures and beautiful detail work! Bravo!
Thank you <3 <3 <3
Aaaaaaaaah so beautiful I might have lost a few SAN points. I love it ! The beading is… insane. (sorry, the puns just make themselves)
Huhuhu ! I’m the SAN DETROYER ! <3
Thank you so much <3.
Je l’ai déjà dit sur les corsetières francophones, mais ton corset est vraiment impressionnant. Ce marron glacé avec le smoke en écailles et ce perlage… il est magnifique! Vraiment, encore Bravo! 😀
Absolutely beautiful detail work!
Thank youuuu <3
This is fantastic, so many amazing textures.
Thank you very very much <3
The embroidery on this is just amazing, i’m completely blown away. Deeply in love with how you did the golden details.
Oh thank you very much <3
Absolutely phenomenal job! Your beading looks like you’re a pro and you did so well with the dragonscale embroidery! I also appreciate that you addressed the issues with the author as a person and intentionally did something that would have blown his closed little mind! 😀
Thank you very much ! Your comment means so much to me. Thank you for reading all the text about my creation. It was very important to me to talk about the fact that I’ve chosen a character of this author but I don’t share his values.
See, I look at this and it reminds me of all the reasons why I wanted to learn about costuming in the first place! I am in awe! The beading and the colours of those amazing eyes, and that dragon scale texture are just incredible!