Joan of Arc
I was inspired by the painting of Joan of Arc by Albert Lynch and wanted to take the look in it, and modernise it. I was inspired by 1950’s fashion and the glamour that that era possesses, so I took that as my jumping off point to create this look.
Joan of Arc by Albert Lynch; my inspiration for this look
My initial sketch, showing how I planned to transfer all of the details from the painting into a dress.
Progress picture: beading the skirt overlay with 2mm beads to portray the chain-mail. This skirt will be worn over the main dress. The finished shirt uses over 10,000 small beads, as well as around 100 bigger beads to create the final look.
I matched the silver and gold fabrics to the different parts of the amour in the painting, and I hand embroidered the 'Jesu Maria' that is engraved in the armour.
You can see in this close up of the skirt all the Individual 2mm beads I used for the skirt and how it lays over the under layer on the dress. I chose to do two seperate layers as oppose to beading the fabric directly to give my faux chainmail independent movement.
Using free hand machine embroidery, I emulated the etchings on the armour so they could be as small as they are in the painting.
I used the same beading technique for the fascinator as I did for the skirt, however I used a bendable wire as oppose to plastic beading string so that it could hold a shape.
