Bra Ball: I'm Seeing Stars!

I've written before about Mary Lou Zeek, the proprietor of the always fabulous Mary Lou Zeek Gallery. Mary Lou not only runs a great gallery, she is also an initiator of community art events, i.e., the Door Show and the 100 Artists Show (coming in February, and something I will be participating in for the first time). But I digress. Her current cause is the Bra Ball where she is gathering artful bras to be made into a ball. How could I resist the call to art up a bra!?!

Here is more about the idea for the Bra Ball (as written in Salem Monthly):

The bra ball concept originated with artist Emily Duffy and hundreds of women in El Cerrito, California. Mary Lou Zeek, wanting to drive awareness for breast cancer, encourages the women of Salem to send in or drop off their bras -- "paint it, stitch it, write on it, or dedicate it to a breast cancer survivor and we will build a Salem sculpture in the gallery."

I had some early ideas for arting up a bra, but then sorta ran out of time (I know, what's new). I couldn't find the bra I had purchased over a month ago, so I ended up rummaging in my own underwear drawer and chose a bra that I didn't wear very much and sacrificed it for the cause.

I first added some fiber paste, then some light molding paste, and finally some glass gel beads. Then paint, then the audition of bits and bobs. Here's the process:

The words on the bra were taken from Songs of Sappho and read:

VII. To Aphrodite
Love-Goddess of the wreath of gold,
Would that this lot were mine.

(J.M. Edmonds)

Me modeling my finished piece of bra art!


And by the way, there's still time to art up a bra and drop it off at Mary Lou's gallery! My friend Destree expressed an interest and wished out loud for a large bra. Well, I was out and about and just happened to stumble upon (into?) a 42DD bra. It was a gift to Destree, who was not only overjoyed, but was considering making a purse out of it! Here she is modeling the soon to be arted up bra: