Zoe Maxwell  
           
Work           About            Contact          Exploratory Work

Constructed Body

Made with Beech and Maple wood, polyurethane 
foam, hand-dyed muslin and cotton fabric, batting,
brass tacks

Fall 2025  This work explores the chair as a body and as a representation of the self. The chair contends with the balance between welcoming change and permanence. It is an exploration of embracing insecurity through the deconstruction of form, body, and expectations. Physical markers of vulnerability are translated into adornment using hand-dyed fabric that evokes the feel and appearance of skin. Constructed first as a wooden structure using Windsor techniques, the chair is “upholstered” with hand-dyed fabric, permanently tacked to the wood. The fabric alters the structure like added body mass, drawing inspiration from the color and texture of skin.


Ideation


This project was rooted in an iterative process of testing and refining proportions, fabric dyeing, and material pairings. Since the chair uses Windsor joinery, it needed to be glued only after all of its components were upholstered.


Fabric Dying Process

I dyed muslin and cotton fabrics to reflect a similar color and texture to my own skin. This process involved wetting the fabric and both spraying and dotting watered-down Dye-Na-Flow. In the end, I primarily used muslin, as it dispersed and blurred the pigment to better mimic skin rather than appearing overly patterned.