Here's another gem. An artist created these dresses as a way of raising awareness of methods of AIDS prevention. (Don't let that thought scare you off....they're BEAUTIFUL, and wonderfully clever!)

Adriana Bertini, a 35-year-old Brazilian artist takes thousands of quality-test-rejected condoms and turns them into beautiful dresses and skirts and suits (and sometimes even wedding gowns) with all the big, riotous color of some crazy street carnival. Inspired by the HIV-positive children she got to know while volunteering for an AIDS prevention group, Adriana has spent the last ten years creating the sculptural works that aim to convey her message that "condoms must be basic like a pair of jeans and so necessary like a great love."

http://nogoodforme.filmstills.org/blog/archives/2006/12/01/to_go_dress_up.html

http://tinyurl.com/y4q38e

wow ... just ... wow
Lisascenic

That is really cool--I love that people can see beauty in so many different (often quite...um...unusual) objects. Love her message that you quoted also.

Aren't those dresses just wild?

As a dabbler in textile arts, I just love teh effects this artist gets with such a humble material.

Lisascenic

....humble material? I never thought of condoms as humble.

At any rate I think it's amazing what she's able to do! This clothing is beautiful, truly. And thank goodness for colored condoms or her palette would be a bit dull.

I followed the link to her website where you can view more of her work:

http://www.adrianabertini.com.br/

I gotta thank you lisascenic for pointing this out, 'cause I have a wedding coming up and was wondering exactly what to wear...

And if she can do this with condoms certainly I can find something to do with all these mastercarve shreds laying around...kilt anyone?

dewdrop (wondering what wassamatta u could do in the way of puns on this one!)

You're right, Dewdrop, "humble material" doesn't really describe the use of condoms to make beautiful gowns.

Maybe "prosaic material?"

(I know that there's a very funny joke in here, somewhere, but I can't find it.)

Lisascenic

Prosaic works for me!

Last nt as I was writing I kept having to erase everything because without intending to I was making all sorts of risque references. I'd write them here but I suppose Ryan would kick me out!

dewdrop

A few years ago my daughters friend (both art majors at the university of buffalo) made a dress from latex nipples:-p
Yes, the were formed from her own only! Needing about 500 of them to make this dress can you just imagine the time spent! At the gallery event she actually wore this. I remember the shopw was in a unheated building in early winter (imagine this in buffalo) and everyone there was freezing except her.

And what does she do now for a living??

So, did she cast each one from the original, or did she make positives from her first casting and then cast those?

Zounds.

If it was very cold in the gallery, did the ornaments on her dress "perk up?"

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If it was very cold in the gallery, did the ornaments on her dress "perk up?"

i believe they already were. :)
and if i remeber correctly falling leaves is wrong- the molds were plaster molds that she had cast (ouch- for those of you who have never made a plaster mold- the plaster heats up as it dries and thats how you know its done and then cools fast- usually beofre you cna get out of it)
and she had actually used several peoples bodys to make the molds.
- being my sister, herself, another female friend and several males. but she had made only one nipple from each mold, so that the majority were hers.

she actaully wore it around town at everyday places, such as the grocery store and recorded peoples opinions, expressions and judgments of it.