Final Project – Amber Griffith

My intention for this piece was to showcase the differences between what’s considered societally acceptable and unacceptable when it comes to self-expression through appearance. I knew that I wanted to do this through cloth because of the ties into clothing and fashion and that I wanted to work in more three-dimensional elements for the hair and jewelry as a way of experimenting with visual texture.

My process included many separate steps to combine into the larger piece. After choosing base materials for the body and shirt, the first step was to do the block printing. I chose to do a floral pattern because flowers are a common symbol of beauty as well as common motifs used in both fabric and tattoo designs. After printing on both the skin and shirt fabrics, I did some basic assembly with a sewing machine to put the pieces together and further solidify the split halfway through the piece. I then threaded the hair using brown yarn for one side and multicolored yarn for the other and braided each half in simple french braids, tying off each side with yarn from the other half. I put some finishing touches on adding in various amounts of earrings to either side and doing any final adjustments to the braids as needed.

Throughout this project, I learned a lot. Aside from the more obvious increase in understanding of the tools and materials I used, this piece also helped me to understand some bigger picture topics as well. While the topic of body modification and the perception of tattoos and piercings was a topic that struck home for me personally, as I worked on the piece and contemplated further additions to the work, I realized how many similar parallels can be drawn with other pieces of identity in a similar way. I also got to learn first hand how a single piece or statement can affect the world around it, as we found the display of my piece next to others impacted the interpretation of both mine and others’ projects.

Final Piece: