From High to Wilted Wigs

For the grand finish, I have decided to try something a bit more risky...

Yes, I decided to play with something a bit more temporal; a wig made from vegetables.  Inspired by one of the artists whose work always draws me back, Giuseppe Arcimboldo.  For someone living in the 1500s, his fusion of still life and portrait is truly avant-garde.

And I got the perfect idea for the wig block:

a.k.a. Mr. Cabbage Head

I reused the paper towel holder from the first wig block and stuck it into the cabbage.  It was surprisingly secure.  I purposely chose a smaller cabbage size as the ball wig block taught me to size only the upper head shape, not including the jaw.

 As decided, the third wig foundation will be a more traditional sheer, stretchy fabric style.

 

 I picked up some nude hosiery, popped it on to Mr. Cabbage Head, and based stitched the legs around.  Technically, I should of cut the legs and sewn the opening but I was worried about the quality of 99 cents hosiery as they tend to tear easily as it is.  Looking back, I wish I used stretchy thread for this step as the restriction of the normal thread throughout the cap made it pretty difficult to put on.

Mr. Cabbage Head also wanted to join in the picture

 Grocery shopping took on a whole new meaning when you are shopping for texture and colour instead of cooking and price convenience.  I picked up some green onions; three different types of kale I think (or it could of being lettuce or cabbage of some sorts, the grocery clerk was unsure as well); bundles of extremely foul tasting parsley; and carrots and radishes for some pops of colour.  I set them to dry a little thinking of starting the attachment of the "hair" today (I didn't want to work with dripping vegetables as it will be pretty messy) but notice them starting to curl and wilt.  In alarm, I started right away.

I rarely take in-progress photos because I tend to get carried away in the process and enjoy the surprise of the final piece.  But this time I though it would be useful for explanation purposes.  In reflection of the first wig's hair arrangement issues, I started sewing on the vegetables from the nape this time and worked my way to the crown.  Starting with pieces that has a stronger spine, circling up using variety of textures, and ending with the more delicate parsley.  As I worked, I noticed the vegetables starting to droop which put me into a frenzy resulting in numerous poked fingers.

Here is the final work with the radishes and carrots added in.  The radishes were extremely difficult to work with as the fruit was not securely attached to the leaves so I had to poke it through the whole thing.  I wanted the wig a little longer as well but was restricted by the length of the vegetable stems.  Though the texture turned out beautifully.

Last but not least, my little model wearing the vegetable wig:

As you can see, the parsley has notably wilted quite a bit by this time resulting in a little dent.  But I think I did a good job with the "hair" that is framing the face; notice the use of the green onion in the reversed direction?  My fingers smelled pretty bad all night no matter how many times I washed it.