Lengha Bodice : painting stage

After a few months to complete the drying stage, when the sections were rock hard, I painted the inner surfaces in acrylic paint to further seal them. Using a rich pallet of my favourite Alarazine Crimson and scarlet, with touches of French Ultramarine, the inside was soon glowing like fire…The eyelet holes had survived the process of plastering and painting and so far seem a good solution to joining the whole thing together. Velvet ribbon will add a contrasting textural element to the final work.

The inner surface painted in acrylic paint and varnished

Initial painting in oil paint with beginnings of
the decorative theme.

 My inspiration for the decorative element of the piece was 17th Century silk velvet Mughal hanging which I saw in the V&A's 'The Fabric of India' exhibition. The colour combination is a vibrant lime green contrasted with crimson and with my addition of lighter pink add gold accents.

The back section

 The textile inspiration for the back section came from a piece of contemporary brocaded Indian textile, bought from the V&A. The 'paisley' shape is a well recognised motif that recurs throughout the centuries, but is more correctly termed a 'buta'  or botch, a droplet-shaped vegetable motif of Persian (i.e. Iranian) origin, or a stylised floral spray and cypress tree, bent over at the top to create the motif we recognise now.
To create further rigidity and a luscious gleam to the outer surface, I resined both sections in two stages. The resin assisted by gravity will rapidly flow down and over the edge of any surface, so it had to be poured, coaxed and manipulated to just cover the surface and not dry in great blobs at the edges. I had several failed attempts at resining curved surfaces before I embarked on this project, so glad to say it worked!
For the final view you will need to come to the exhibition!

side detail of the back section with its resin coat

The original working sketches for the piece, showing details from the
17th century hanging