Hello...and welcome to my blog. My Etsy shop '
The Paper Boudoir' was inspired by a lifelong love of paper, vintage fashion, historical costume, and in particular, the corset. Why paper, and not fabric? As much as I have tried my hand at many creative crafts, I have never had an affinity with fabric and dressmaking. Having previously opened a shop on Etsy, selling my handmade books, my work frequently incorporated a vintage theme - often in the form of floral, vintage-style fabric, or a cut-out from a 1950s dress pattern embossed on the front cover.
The somewhat tenuous link between my vocation as a would-be bookbinder and paper sculptor originated when I spotted a book on creating sculptures from the pages of unwanted books. And there on the cover of this advertised book, was a picture of the bodice of a dress, made from paper. Somehow it captured my imagination, and having learned the basics of papier mache to construct a dress form, I realised the endless possibilities of this medium, and the chance to indulge my passion of vintage fashion, a passion which went way back to my childhood when I first discovered old MGM musicals in glorious technicolour and the movie stars of the 1940s and 50s.
Although I wore vintage clothing in my youth, these days, I have neither the figure or the confidence to get way with it. However, I love and appreciate vintage clothing styles as though they were mini works of art, which is, I suppose, what I've attempted to create with my paper sculptures. I hope my passion makes up for my lack of expertise in corsetry, vintage fashion or papier mache. My sculptures aren't intended to be strictly authentic copies of certain fashions: I prefer to think of them as my own interpretations of favourite fashion pieces: little mementoes of my appreciation of fashions of the past, my own particular favourite eras including 18th century, 1930s and 1950s.
My inspirations are many and various, but perhaps my greatest inspiration is my own mother, who sadly passed away just over 2 years ago. Looking back through old photographs from the 1950s, I realised what a beautiful, stylish and sophisticated woman she was, with a love of clothes and a passion for style, which she managed to retain right up until the day she died. In memory of my mum, I'm hoping to post regularly on this blog, looking at particular favourite eras, styles, inspirations and highlighting the work of people I admire. I hope you'll join me.
