Online workshop on mannequin making

MS243: Making Museum Quality Mannequins
Instructor: Helen Alten
Price: $475
Dates: Apr 4 - May 13, 2011
Location: online at <URL:http://www.museumclasses.org>

Description: A good mannequin makes an exhibit look professional.
Unfortunately, most museum staff do not know how to make a costume
look good on a mannequin. The result is that costumes look flat,
provide incorrect information or are being damaged. Buying an
expensive "museum quality mannequin" is not the solution - garments
rarely fit without alterations to the mannequin. Learn how to
measure garments and transfer that information to construct a new
form or alter an old form so that it accurately fits the garment,
creating an accurate and safe display. Learn about the materials
that will and won't damage the textile. Making Museum Quality
Mannequins provides an overview of all of the materials used to
construct mannequins in today's museums. Learn inexpensive mannequin
solutions and how different materials may use the same additive or
subtractive construction technique. Fabrication methods for many
mannequin styles are described. Finishing touches - casting and
molding, hair, arms, legs, stands and base, undergarments - are
discussed with examples of how they change the presentation of a
garment.

Course Outline:

    Introduction
    The Case for Support
    Measuring
    Choosing a Mannequin Style
    Materials
    Subtractive Constructions
    Additive Constructions
    Casting and Molding
    Examples of what works and what doesn't
    Stands, Appendages and Realism
    Undergarments
    Attaching it in the exhibit
    Conclusion

Logistics: Participants in Museum Quality Mannequins work through
sections on their own. Materials and resources include online
literature, slide lectures and dialog between students and the
instructor through online forums.

Museum Quality Mannequins runs six weeks. To reserve a spot in the
course, please pay at
<URL:http://www.collectioncare.org/tas/tas.html> If you have trouble
please contact Helen Alten at helen<-a t->collectioncare< . >org

The Instructor:

    Helen Alten, is the Director of Northern States Conservation
    Center and its chief Objects Conservator. For nearly 25 years
    she has been making mannequins and teaching mannequin
    construction techniques. She lectures throughout the United
    States on collection care topics and wrote four chapters on
    different mannequin construction techniques in Museum
    Mannequins: A Guide for Creating the Perfect Fit (2002). Helen
    currently conducts conservation treatments and operates a
    conservation center in Charleston, WV and St. Paul, MN while
    eternally questing for the perfect mannequin.


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 24:46
                  Distributed: Tuesday, April 5, 2011
                       Message Id: cdl-24-46-020
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