I was planning to just keep the research for this to what I needed to make a nice dress, since Italian is not my area of research for my persona. Shows me for thinking. This is just far too interesting to not read and read and read.
I decided on my portrait because of the subject matter. Finding a little more out about Camilla is really fascinating and I think its going to add to the outfit.
First of all, she's not from either Venice of Florence, which I suppose does explain why her dress is a bit different from so many other portraits. She's from Mantua and married into one of the most prestigious families in Emilio-Romagna, living near Parma. Parts of the house she lived in still stand, decorated with amazing frescos.
The house apparently offers tours and as part of their production, they do a reenactment of Camilla's marriage to her husband Pier Maria Rossi. That's him in the picture to the left. It's a companion piece to her portrait, also done by Parmigianino. How cool is that! If I ever decide to get ambitious again, my husband might need garb to match mine. Sounds like a totally fun vacation destination too. I'm pretty drawn to the wallpaper behind Pier Maria there. Maybe artichokes will find their way into some of the embroidery on the drawers,
I also started looking into shoes. I knew I wanted to make some chopines, but wasn't sure what the shoes to wear with them looked like. Hadn't thought too much about it yet, but since I am down at my parents, and my dad has a pretty great woodshop, it sort of asserted itself. I started thinking about shoes so I could make sure to size the chopines correctly. I found some wonderful info here. I adore the cutwork effect of the pinking on the extant pair to the right. The pinking on this pair of chopines seems sort of similar and I might fiddle with it a bit to see if its something I can do if I simplify the pattern a bit. A trip to Tandy is in the works once I get home. I'm hoping to get the wood for the chopines at least crudely cut today so I can carve and shape it later this week.
Lots to do today with family, so I don't see much else happening with the project until Monday other than more lacemaking in the car on the way home.
Have you seen this site for chopines? He's really talented and knows his stuff!
ReplyDeletehttp://aands.org/raisedheels/
You should totally make an outfit for your hubby!
Yes, that is the tutorial I am planning to use. I have his tartar boots started for my persona so I already knew exactly where to go.
ReplyDeleteMy husband is not the type to wear a codpiece, so I'm not certain how the outfit would go over. His persona is Persian and its already a fight to get him into color. He picked the persona because he wanted someone that was good at math since he's a computer scientist irl. He sort of just deals with me and the strange things I hand him to wear. I may do it anyway.