Lycra Sausage

For some time now I've been planning a sculpture series called 'Never Let You Go'; a body of work comprised of individual stuffed fabric sausages that are each trapped within an elongated, rib cage-like, vine structure that appears to be tightly embracing them.

Inside-out end of fabric sausage skin, sewn into a dome shape

Initially, I made a small test piece (see earlier 'Never Let You Go' blog post) using a cotton fabric but after I'd hand stitched it, stuffed it, and inserted it into the vine structure that I'd prepared for it, I found that it didn't have the right amount of 'bulginess' between the vine's stems, that I was looking for. With that in mind, I've decided to switch fabric and try spandex/elastane instead. 

Partially stuffed, fabric sausage element of Never Let You Go sculpture

After a few failed attempts at machine sewing this material I decided go for the slow but sure method, and sew it by hand. Apparently, unless you're a proficient machinist (and I've not used a sewing machine since I was at school, and the only item of clothing that I managed to make whilst at there was an uncomfortably tight pair of PE shorts) spandex/elastane is notoriously tricky to machine sew.

Completed sausage element of Never Let You Go sculpture, relaxing on artist's bed

For this first, full-sized, version of a Never Let You Go sculpture I wanted the sausage element to protrude a reasonable distance from each end of the vine part of the work, so I settled upon a length of roughly 260 cm. After I'd sewn and stuffed it, I soon realised just how big a 8.5 foot long fabric sausage actually was - as you can see from this photo of it lying on my bed (the only place I could think of to temporarily dump it when I needed the bench space in my studio, to work on some drawings for a commission that unexpectedly came up).

Here's a little video that I made toward the end of the hand sewing stage - after I'd finished rounding off of the sausage ends.