Experiments!

Does it make me a nerd if I love experimenting?

One of my first experiments within a practical session was this tattoo technique which adopts the 'tribal' theme so well! Using a fuller's earth powder mixed with water, I spread the mix evenly in a long rectangle onto the skin. Using the end of a wooden scalpel stick I carved out a pattern. I did swirls as I have been looking at the moawi tribes and this is a very common pattern. I dried the pattern with a hair dryer and then used black aqua colour palette to paint over the hardened paste. The result was very fitting due to the final look of the pattern being cracked and crumbled, this texture adds to the imperfections that tribal communities represent today, making the tattoo more cultured. The crackling of the fuller's earth basically represents, to me anyway, the thought of the actual earth's surface and how the natural resources of the world like the soil cracks, so I feel it brings a real raw meaning to any tribal look. This is a major technique I am considering to use in one of my final images! LIGHT BULB MOMENT!

This fullers earth continues to remind me of this image I came across on tumblr..

As you can see the paste on this member of a tribal community is quite thick, like the effect fuller's earth has without having a tribal pattern carved in. I love the bold colours on to the fuller's earth too, brings it away from being so simple and raw. However in contrast to that when using the fuller's earth I did like the natural colour of the paste, it was an original grey which I feel relates it to the earth' natural, original colours!

Here is a  collage of images from one of my experiments during a practical session. My aim was to design and create a pattern onto the hair, as in many cultures paint (sometimes from the face) onto the hair to enhance their tribal looks. In order for me to produce this pattern, I needed a tub of powered 'fullers earth', water, rice and aqua colour gold. I sectioned the hair around the front of the face, I got three sections and as I twisted them in the  hair and sprayed them back. Once held into place I smoothed over a thin layer of the water and fullers earth mix over each section. I then mixed up a batch of the rice mixed into the paste and spread that over the top. Using a hair dryer I dried each section covered in the rice mix until it all the dampness had gone. This then made it easier to paint over with the aqua gold palette. Once completed, the texture actually gave the gold sections of hair a gold beaded look, I particularly liked this due to jewellery being a major factor within the 'tribal look' within alot of tribal communities.

Contemporary Native American Music Video

Here is Lana Del Ray's New Music video for her new single 'Ride', within this video there are many scenes containing different types of fashion seen mainly in America! One scene in particular caught my eye whilst researching the Native Americans! Seven minutes into the video, herself and other actors are dancing around a fire. The theme is a mixture of biker, native american and classic america, this mixture brings a more contemporary view of the Native American fashion, linking it into the world today.

Hello South America!

South Americaaaaa!

My own interpretation of the Amazonia tribe through a painting.

South America's tropical lowlands contained many cultured tribes who lived in the rainforest all the way back from 12,000-6,000 years ago! One of these tribes being the Amazonian indians! Despite the fact that this tribe mostly wore no clothing they had their own tradition of producing some form of fabric. Due to the hot climate these pieces of material are only small enough to cover small parts of the body. A popular pattern for the clothing is the Montaña craft tradition, this includes ponchó's, tunic's etc with a geometric design.

Amazonian women mostly wore their hair long or cut shoulder length and cut it in bangs over the forehead. During various ceremonies certain hair accessories would be added to their 'look'. A common ceremony accessory is the 'headdress' worn by men and women; consisting of a headband with long feathers spread around the root. Black body paint and nose rings are popular too for ceremonial events.

Many women from Amazonian tribes would stick sticks onto their face as a part of representing age, the older you were the shorter the stick would be stuck on! The sticks would almost look like whiskers! This has definitely got me thinking about how tribes relate to animals so much! AND I LOVE ANIMALS! Definitely time to relate some of this to the wild life out there don't you think?! This also highlights how 'not so different' tribal communities believe we are from animals! Are we really? Are we really that different from animals when you really think about it?

Tribal body art/modifications!

A bit of body art never hurt no one! or did it...

Tattoo's aren't just a trend today, Tattoo's go as far back as when the ancient Egyptians existed. In Tribal communities especially, they represent something more meaningful than just a fashion statement. Tribal tattoo's can be seen as a sign of belonging to something, they almost act as a 'brand logo' to represent where you come from. Tattoo's within tribes can also mean things such as a religious statement, or even bravery, for example in Africa a tribe known as a 'Peul Tribe' would see someone applying a henna tattoo with a needle on their tongue very courageous. One of the most popular tribal tattoos known world wide is the Maori facial tattoo called Ta moko, where permanent grooves are carved in the skin.

Here is an example of my own version of a Maori carved tattoo onto a magazine image:

Tattoo's are placed all over the body, one of the most common places tattoo's are placed are the hands. Such tattooing called 'Henna' is extremely common, especially within many indian cultures. Henna tattoo's are not permanent, they are usually seen in a light brown colour on the hands.

Here are my own observational illustrations of hands, then after adding my own henna designs onto the hands: using different media's, pen, pencil, charcoal etc I was able to design my own henna hand patterns.

The purpose of these hands linking is to represent what indian married couple would look like. As you can see I have added jewellery onto the woman's wrist, as jewellery to indian woman on their wedding day is vital! Also the point of this image is to show you the meaning of tattoo's, especially to these women, as most indian marriage's are arranged and the groom and bride normally can not see each other until the big day, and during the day the bride's face is covered up and only her hands and feet are on show hence why she has henna's done! Henna's for an indian bride are a way of showing beauty as the groom can not see any other part of her body, a beautiful henna tattoo will be very attractive to a groom. Thus body art has meaning!

Not every tribe uses tattoos as a form of  body art, other tribes use raw materials to design a pattern onto their body. This image here I found on the picture website Tumblr, it was uploaded by beauty-of-africa. As you can see she has white circles drawn all over from her neck to her elbows, adding to the beautiful jewellery she has round her neck! I get the feeling that tribes do anything they can to enhance parts of the body or to give themselves a unique look to divide them from the rest of the world. To them it is most probably greatly attractive to have very bold bright colours on the skin carved into interesting patterns.

Not all tribes just paint the patterns onto the skin, other tribes believe body art has a much deeper meaning to it, literally. This photo is of a man from the Moari tribe, which are found in New Zealand. What you can see on his face is a form of body ate called Moko (or moari tattooing). Instead of using ink and needles which are needed for tattooing, Moko is much more indepth than that, to achieve Moko the skin must be cut and scarred to create curves and texture in the skin. It is not always just done on the face it can spread all over the body.

Here is a video produced and presented by the National Geographic Channel on Scarification within tribes. Scarification is yet another way of modifying the body within many tribal cultures. Here the video show's what happens in the Bessoribe tribe, located in west Africa, and what happens when a boy becomes a man. The process of a male child leaving his childhood for adulthood is celebrated by creating scars on his abdominals. It is done by a fellow member of the tribe using sharpened scrap metal. The meaning of this scarification to a young male like this is that they are being courageous, and also that this is seen as attractive by other females he needs to impress!

 Other extreme body modifications are undertaken by many other tribes, such as inserting lip plates to stretch out the lips, or even teeth sharpening! In contrast to our british culture these acts are signs of importance, change, courage and simply to be unique in their own mysterious way.

Music Video inspiration!

 My favourite Rihanna only happens to fit the brief...


This video caught my eye as I saw it as a personalised 


interpretation of her view of tribalism. At the start of the 


video Rihanna portrays the character of an animal in the 


jungle, for example her slowly moving in the water at the 


beginning reminds me of a crocodile or something like that! 


Even the styling throughout the video defines each type of 


character she is trying to portray, again at the beginning- 

relating to my crocodile suggestion she is wearing a dark 


coloured scale like bikini! Part of the video is dedicated to 


the desert and the tribes found within that, the styling 


gives off an Arabian theme with the head scarfs and baggy 


trousers! The scene is brilliantly done with the dry tree's 


and dusty surroundings! The video also presents the 


perception of a more glamorous tribal look, this consisting of Rihanna in a more contemporary outfit but with tribal patterns. In this section of the video she is surrounded by an African tribe-like tent with other woman dancing around her. Which brings me to see also that in the video in the scenes which were outside the men are with her, then when she is set inside the women are there dancing with her... can someone hear GENDER ROLES?! This obviously represents the roles of each gender; women taking care of the family and cooking, whilst the men are outside hunting for food and protecting their family! The styling also includes plenty of accessories such as bangles which take my mind straight back to african women within tribes who over accessorise with such jewellery! Yet another set is in this video, one of Rihanna sat on a blanket of fur, amongst the roots of tree's surrounded by exotic flowers. This scene brings in even more elements of tribal life, especially in the jungle with the overgrown plantation, and also the vicious circle of life with the fur from another animal under her body.

This whole video brings together so many aspects of the wild life some tribes live, got me thinking about all the different roots I can take within this unit!

Brief!

Hello Wild Kingdom..

Wild Kingdom? To me that sounds like animals and jungles right? Well my guess wasn't far off the actual purpose of this brief, which is titled;  Tribal and Physical Transformation. The outcome of this project is to design and produce 2 final images; one for a catwalk and one for an editorial campaign.

A tribe is a group of people, mostly known for all following the same religion. Being in a tribe gives people a sense of belonging, protection and family. There are far to many tribes to chose from to pick which one i’d use to base my final images on. Thus, for now, I will begin to look at a variety of tribal communities through videos, books, music, art and fashion  until I find one I feel I can express well through make-up, hair and fashion styling.

Here's a digital mood board I created to reflect my interpretation of this brief, it's quite simple, but I feel its a strong combination.