Jacques-Julien Houtou de Labillardiere will be joining us at Chateau Dumas next summer with Susie Vickery and Selvedge Magazine for the Making a Historical French Mannequin Workshop, 22-29 August 2020. Find inspiration from the likes of Napoleon, Baudelaire, King Louis XVI, or perhaps Baron Henri de Cruzy, the Marquis de Marcillac who lived at the Chateau in the early 1800s. Whoever you choose, we’re sure you’ll enjoy the adventure…
Monsieur Houtou de Labillardiere’s body is made from antique German mangle cloth. The fabric is a tightly woven red-edged natural linen that Susie found it at an antique fabric shop in London's Notting Hill. For Susie’s workshop, we’re planning a trip to a flea market and a visit from Fabienne who’ll bring stacks of antique fabrics for the puppets.
Using a base pattern, students will begin by stitching the body in soft wool felt before learning how to make articulated joints. They’ll learn to sketch portraits in thread beginning with a sample face then move on to stitching a portrait of your own choosing. After mastering the technique it'll be time to embroider a characterful face and the hands before developing a hairstyle and clothing. We work with historical costume books and scaled-down patterns.
There are a few places left and different room options at Chateau Dumas for the week, we hope you’ll join us. If we had to choose a room for Jacques-Julien, it would definitely be La Marquise, from here, he can survey the parterre gardens and hunt for rare orchids in the park and orchard...
