Armour; the Working Woman

purple sugar skull with 2 hands holding 2 red flowers. The skulls eyes are black in the inside with white dots decorating her eyes. She has a heart nose that is black inside as well.
side view of headband headdress gar-met. Showing feathers wrapped by this purple and black and white bandana and denim rectangular piece. There are also red, light purple and blue plastic and fabric flowers on the headband. the feathers are blue, green and brown.
The flower and feather headband headdress. Consists of light purple, fuschia, blue, white and red flowers. With green blue and brown feathers wrapped by this tyrian purple bandana, denim and black and white bandana.
front side of denim short sleeve utility jacket with 2 leather straps attached to the bottom of the jacket. The edges of the jacket are also a bit hand distressed and cut by me.
side of denim short sleeve utility jacket with 2 leather straps attached to the bottom of the jacket. The edges of the jacket are also a bit hand distressed and cut by me.

Mediums: plaster rigid wrap, air dry clay, wire, denim, plastic and fabric flowers, feathers, bandana, headband from target, thread and 2 keychains

In this assignment, it was at required to at least work with cardboard, rigid plaster wrap and air dry clay. Using the materials, making 3 pieces. One for your head, something to hold in your hand, and something you can wear. All relating to a social issue you want to highlight and propose solutions for.

My thing was the working woman and the issues some working woman face and their autonomy. I choose to highlight the lack of protection of undocumented woman. I am including all woman ranging from undocumented women from other countries to lack of protection and autonomy of sex workers.

So, starting with the purple skull, she is my interpretation of the law scales but in the form of a sugar skull holding 2 red flowers. I made the skull starting off with a wire base for the head, I stuffed it with cardboard, and wrapped and rigid wrap. so give the skull more weight on its sides i repeated the patter of wrapping tiny pieces of cardboard with the plaster wrap. When i got the wight and form desired, i wrapped the mass in air dry clay, let it air dry and then painted. The purple is used as a counterculture reference to when royalty used to only be able to wear purple. The skull is supposed to be protection. The sugar skull a reference to my Mexican heritage, referencing day of the dead.

My second piece is the headband. drawing inspiration from the day of the dead and Xochiquetzal, a Mexican Goddess/deity. The flowers representing beauty and a nod to Xochiquetzal and day of the dead references. Giving beauty to these woman, giving flowers and strength back to them in this fight. The feathers are also a nod to Xochiquetzal and the traditional headdresses.

The last piece is the denim utility short sleeve jacket. the fabric was intentional, which is why i went “working” woman route. Denim has a lot of history with the working class which worked out nice for the idea of my project. I attached to clips made from some keychains I got from Mexico. This was also a functionality purpose, so the working woman can hold as many tools as she needs.