Conservational mannequins cheap way to produce quality mannequins?

[stricky1]

Hey!

I was asking myself if anyone of you ever made a conservational mannequin theirselves.. It seems like most mannequins are made from a dow 220 Ethafoam core, with polyester batting and coating-fabric.. It doesn't sound too hard (well except the foam-cutting

) and in my opinion something that could be tried out.. The question I have is how such a form could be supported and mounted. I guess the foam is not rigid enough to support a full costume itself, so I think the biggest problem is to think about a supportive armature, which conforms with the conservation standards.

Anyone of you ever tried something similiar out?

 

[the_batdemon]

Re: Conservational mannequins has anyone of your ever done one yourself?

You lost me on "conservational". What you are describing, with the batting and cloth cover sounds more like a dress maker's form than a mannequin. I've seen some videos online of the process, they use paper mache for the core. Most newer mannequins are fiberglass or a composite. Older ones were paper. The closest I've come to making anything like this is a duct tape dummy.
The ethafom should be strong enough for most costumes by itself, but for limbs, i'd support it with an armature to be safe.

 

[Jayn]

Re: Conservational mannequins has anyone of your ever done one yourself?

I thought the title said "conversational"... like talking?? or conversation starters? :lol ( dyslexic today)

I've made them out of PVC pipe, but I don't know what would qualify as conserving.. Maybe search museum suppliers?

 

[stricky1]

Re: Conservational mannequins has anyone of your ever done one yourself?

The idea of conversational mannequins would indeed be funny.. Serves for people feeling alone, give them some dissent arguments, add some animatronics and we probably filled a market gap here.. Naahh (and you really got me here, thought I misspelled and had half the RPF laughing at me, yet)..

Perhaps I should illustrate what I mean by conserational.. The problem with these ''cheap'' fiberglass, or whatever plastic, mannequins is, that they might outgas over time, doing damage to the fabrics which rest on them.. The idea is to create a mannequin which is made of non-ageing materials to reduce the effect of detoriation as far as possible.. As these mannequins are a bit expensive when you buy them (not to say that they are hard to find) and you can not control what was used in the making, I thought that maybe making them yourself would be an option, as I came across a site explaining what is mainly used in museum-mannequins..

Was asking myself if someone else had a similiar idea. You know exchanging idea and experience, that kind of stuff ... I mean if my idea works, that could be a huge step to get hopefully cheap quality mannequins out to the people, or at least an alternative to these fiberglass mannequins.

 

[rollerboi]

Re: Conservational mannequins has anyone of your ever done one yourself?

Please do share the site discussing museum mannequins.

I plan to make a duct tape dummy of myself over my Christmas break.

I do see what you mean, though. For conserving, and displaying, period clothing, you want something that's not going to have a long-term transference/degradation effect on the clothes. I have no idea what kind of materials that would constitute. Would making a carbon-fiber composite layup count?

 

[stricky1]

Re: Conservational mannequins has anyone of your ever done one yourself?

I hope these are all sites I found:

Ethafoam and other polyethylene foams in conservation

Conservation of leather and related ... - Google Bücher

SchaefferArts Archival Clothing Care

I haven't worked through the links in detail yet, as I'm way to unconcentrated and tired today but hope to do so on the weekend. But the process does sound easy to me: cut the foam, pad it and sew a cover-cloth over it. I can't think about a mount yet, as both wood and metal would disqualify for me, maybe some acrylic or plexiglass-setup, although it would have to be discussed if aluminium wouldn't be a better choice than plexi.The plan also depends on on how rigid Ethafoam is, and if it could support a costume weighting 6 pounds without losing its form..

I really would like to give this a try and maybe build a prototype, expose it to harsh conditions and make some studies on the grade of deteriotation. I'm just not that good in cutting the foam. I'm seeing myself cutting it getting all kinds of shapes which none do resemble a human body just in the least.