Last summer, I
suffered a minor scrape on my leg. I accidently scraped a one-inch by two-inch
piece of skin off my shin so I pushed the skin back into place and put on a
bandage.
I had to change
the dressing often. It would not stop weeping. I had to bathe carefully and at
night I had to bandage it with plastic wrapping to keep the blood off my
sheets. It took weeks to heal and the new skin is different from the old and so
where the wound was is still clearly visible.
Well, on the
night of my dinner party (Thursday) I did it again — this time on the other
leg. But this time, I knew not to
push the skin back; doing so increases the risk of infection. So I pulled it
off and yesterday spent the whole day in shorts and indoors so that air would
allow the wound to form a scab.
I built an
elaborate bandage with which to sleep on Thursday night. I lined the wound with
cotton bumpers so that I could loosely wrap my leg in cloth yet not have the
bandage touch the wound and by the end of the Friday, when I went to bed, I had
a dry wound.
Friday was, therefore,
highly productive. I was a homebound feather factory. I have systematized
feather making so soon I will be finished with the skirt.
The conundrum
of the bodice looms. I have spent more time contemplating how I will build the
structure for the Cardinal than I have considered how to make a
one-size-fits-all bodice of peacock feathers. I have an idea to “Fortuny” some
paper.
Mariano Fortuny is one of two* personal heroes whose ateliers I have visited. My
plane landed in Rome so I went to the Vatican where I had a deep emotional
experience. (I was raised Catholic.) Then, I went to Venice and to the Fortuny
studio where I had another.
Fortuny dresses
are perfection; they are seismic triggers of admiration. With his wife’s help —
she was a dressmaker — they bound fabric tightly in thin straight folds. They
chose fabric that held the folds once the fabric was released from the binding;
the released fabric had accordion folds, therefore, that clung to the body of
the woman wearing their dresses and that is the ideal one-size-fits-all
solution.
I doubt it will
work with paper, but I am going to try. I’m hoping I can emulate it by both
folding and sewing the paper. Fingers crossed!
* (The other is Luther Burbank).
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