This collar in my War Collar Series is examining the popular feminine tactile that comes from believing that if you are sweet and demure enough the warrior men will protect you. This is nonesense, of course, because you are always marked out as not one of the boys, which I have symbolised here with the very pretty bells (which I bought in the bead shop in Seven Dials in Covent Garden, London):
This collar was simple to make, but not easy. The flowers are made from paper. I bought a tube of them ages ago and was playing with them at the work table and thought how pretty they looked with the large pearl beads. The problem is that the paper was difficult to sew without ripping, and getting the needle through all that paper and two layers of velvet was hard. It should have been quick to make, but actually took a lot of care. I can actually imagine someone wearing this one.
