Water sleeve dance 水袖舞

Hello guys

Freshly finished today, allow me to introduce this tribute to a beautiful chinese movie: House of Flying Daggers by Zhang Yimou, starring Zhang Ziyi as Mei. The story takes place during the Tang dynasty ( VII-X century) in 859. The hanfu is easily the most recognizable costume of this era:



As you may observe, the water sleeve dance is characterized by these long sleeves remiscient of flowing water. Since the Zhou dynasty ( one millenium BC) this dance has been practiced by skillful chinese dancers.  







Everything is handmade, excepting the facial sculpt. The body is a WorldBox female AT203 body in light suntan.




The hanfu was handsewn without a sewing machine, of course the patterns were also created especially for her. The thought of wiring up the sleeves crossed my mind, but considering the gentleness and slow dance in the movie for this scene, letting the fabric naturally fall would fit better.
Fabrics: satin, cotton, lycra, spandex.





The hair and headpiece were modeled in fimo clay, however pearls were added for the jewelry. The headsculpt was handpainted in acrylics, brushwork only. Skintone wise, light suntan is quite strange to look at irl. At first, I thought I might struggle a bit to replicate the skin of the body, but it was an unecessary fear. The result is pretty good once achieved I believe.











All clothing is removable at will. Usually I work with snap pressure buttons, or embroidery threads when required. The loose pants were also sewn, but alas I'm not the kind that enjoys lifting up women's pettycoats  



Making-off:







The particular scene that inspired me to do this figure:

https://youtu.be/paQWp82kgNI?si=WQQF8PiAZkN8-1ev

Anticipating the next exhibitions, I'll craft her a base and also a pair of shoes in the future. Looking forward to your opinions !

Thank you for reading this post  

Beautifully done, Marquise, and most impressive. Wiring or on-wiring is a tough choice, but I think you made the right call, and certainly achieved beautiful poses with it. The only thing that makes me wonder is that the head sculpt looks quite mature (which is actually a good thing in this hobby), and one usually thinks of dancing girls as rather young.

Yeah impressive work and very beautiful. I like that you also show the making of pics, I always find those very interesting! 


And yeah, her costume reminds me on falling and dancing water

Wow! That is impressive work and very beautiful. The posing of the figure and the clothing is exceptional. You would never know that you sewed this all by hand. Gorgeous.

Extremely elegant figure, top class painting, and simply wonderful positioning on the dancing pics!

Stunning work on all aspects. Beautifully painted and sewn, with excellent choice of materials. And gorgeous results. Very nice homage to a classic film!

The craftsmanship on that dress is just superb, so are the photos.

Wow! She looks absolutely gorgeous!! What a beautiful theme to pick and great craftsmanship on all accounts. Well done!

GubernatorFan wrote:Beautifully done, Marquise, and most impressive. Wiring or on-wiring is a tough choice, but I think you made the right call, and certainly achieved beautiful poses with it. The only thing that makes me wonder is that the head sculpt looks quite mature (which is actually a good thing in this hobby), and one usually thinks of dancing girls as rather young.

Thank you ! Wiring would fit better her second hanfu, one of which she wears after this particular scene. The dance she displays in comparison is energenetic and acrobatic, but here as previously mentionned, she moves slowly in soft manners. No need for poses that defy gravity haha.
This bald raw headsculpt with the actress' features is the only one available I've found on the market. Contrary to belief, I may suggest that accomplished dancers at the pinacle of their art are mature for sure ( outsides prodigees and even so). Excellence is an habit afterall, it takes time to master any skill.

Thank you everybody for your comments

LaMarquise wrote:

GubernatorFan wrote:Beautifully done, Marquise, and most impressive. Wiring or on-wiring is a tough choice, but I think you made the right call, and certainly achieved beautiful poses with it. The only thing that makes me wonder is that the head sculpt looks quite mature (which is actually a good thing in this hobby), and one usually thinks of dancing girls as rather young.

Thank you ! Wiring would fit better her second hanfu, one of which she wears after this particular scene. The dance she displays in comparison is energenetic and acrobatic, but here as previously mentionned, she moves slowly in soft manners. No need for poses that defy gravity haha.
This bald raw headsculpt with the actress' features is the only one available I've found on the market. Contrary to belief, I may suggest that accomplished dancers at the pinacle of their art are mature for sure ( outsides prodigees and even so). Excellence is an habit afterall, it takes time to master any skill.

Thank you everybody for your comments

Absolutely: defying gravity (unless one wants to go full on Crouching Tiger...) is very much the reason why one should not over-rely on wiring. And I agree, there is plenty of good logic about maturity and experience. The stereotype (at least in western culture) is that performing dancers are at least somewhat youthful, although I can think of ballerinas that are more experienced. Perhaps so here. Either way, I like the head a lot; again, in our hobby, more mature (even middle-aged) looking female heads are a rarity. This one is both mature and beautiful at the same time.

Impressive outfit and dance sequence.

Thanks !

She looks stunning! I really liked this beautiful film and I think the fabric choices here look stunning to capture flow and drape. Excellent hand sewing, and the clay modelling is also wonderful. Thank you for sharing your process too, fantastic work.

Absolutely beautiful work on that, the details are awesome and the figure is very pretty.

Stunning - just absolutely stunning!
Remarkable job, both on the outfit but also doing the hair and decorations with FIMO! Who would have thought... I am always in awe when seeing what people are able to achieve with Fimo or similar clay...