Beware of paper cuts

Fiber arts and 3-D art classes create a unique and stylish use for paper products

Paper is used for so many different things, people hardly think about it.

It’s used for note-taking. It’s used for printing The Colonnade on. It’s used for unsent love letters.

It’s used in practically every avenue of life, except for clothing.

But hanging in the LITC are dresses made entirely from paper.

Students in the fiber art and 3-D art classes were given the challenge of researching a style and theme and translating those ideas into a unique look.

Senior art major Elena Henson used a 1920s flapper style for her piece.

“We did research on what style of garment we wanted it to be,” Henson said. “It was a challenge to look at a square piece of paper to see how it would contour to the body. We wanted to stay true to the style while respecting the type of material.”

Despite being made of fragile paper, these artistic dresses are completely wearable.

Senior marketing major Laila Chamma enjoyed making her 1910s-inspired dress and using her classmates as models.

“We used a lot of different types of paper, like parchment paper, crepe paper, tissue paper and construction paper, along with hot glue, duct tape, brads and Velcro,” Chamma said. “We used each other as models so the dresses are completely wearable and durable.”

Henson, along with her classmates, found this project challenging, but enjoyable.

“It was fun to edit the costume and try it on when it was functional,” Henson said. “It’s rewarding to see it in the library.”

Art professor TeaYoun Kim-Kassor applied ideas from a national design competition and turned it into the dress project for the art classes.

“The inspiration is from a competition in Denver, Colo., where they design from paper. Everything is paper,” Kim-Kassor said. “The idea is to engage the material and make something 3-D like a dress.”

Kim-Kassor believes this project was more than just creating art. She stresses the importance of learning the methods and applying critical thinking.

“Art is great to learn problem solving,” Kim-Kassor said. “It’s not just about what you’re making. It’s about the steps that lead to the creation.”

The students went through a structured process when designing and creating their dresses.

“The total process took about 18 hours,” Henson said.

Students in the fiber art and 3-D art classes began with research of their theme, and then translated it into an idea sketch, formed it into a small model and then measured and constructed to fit the body of their model.

The end result was a collection of dresses completely new to campus.

Kim-Kassor and her art classes were pleased with the final collection.

“I think it came out excellent,” Kim-Kassor said. “Now I want to project art classes to the community. It’s about sharing these artists’ ideas. Sharing with the community is very important.”

Art students want to encourage the community and fellow GC students to view their paper dresses on display in the library until Fall Break.

Posted by Kelsey Cooper on Sep 27 2012. Filed under A&E. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.