I realised that I never put my World of WearableArt entry up on this blog, although if you are following my Facebook and Instagram you will know that ‘Meine Erste Leibe’ won the 2025 Open Section AND Supreme Award runner up.
Here is my rationale:
Ernst Haeckel’s Artforms in Nature immortalise his first love, Anna Sethe.
Mycetozoa returns Haeckel’s wife, Anna Sethe, to the earth, its white satin lined canopy framing her in death, as his brightly coloured art celebrated her in life.
Ernst Haeckel was a German biologist, naturalist, artist, and Darwinist.
His wife and soul mate, Anna Sethe died on his 30th birthday. Walking along the Mediterranean in a state of grief, Haeckel noticed a jellyfish in a tidal pool. Its delicate yellow tendrils reminded him of Anna’s golden braids, and he named it in her memory. A few years later, he received another specimen he thought even more beautiful, and this became his botanical study, Desmonema Annasethe.
Haeckel married again, twice, but Anna was his first love and he strove repeatedly to find her essence in science turning his back on religion. He selected this epigraph, by Goethe, for his work written after the tragic loss of his wife, Generelle Morphologie der Organismen (1866).
‘There is in nature an eternal life, becoming, and movement. She alters herself eternally and is never still. She has no conception of stasis and can only curse it. She is strong, her step is measured, her laws unalterable. She has thought and constantly reflects—but not as a human being, but as nature. She appears to everyone in a particular form. She hides herself in a thousand names and terms and is always the same.’
Whilst historically, Haeckel can be viewed as a problematic anthropologist, his illustrations are as beautiful now as they have ever been, his influence on art and architecture remains constant. And he loved Anna Sethe. We do not know much about Anna and I supposed that, like women of her era and position, she might have practiced needlework. This was my starting point for the recreation of Haeckel’s illustrations.
I first became aware of Ernst Haeckels ‘Artforms in Nature’ in 2005 whilst I was creating ‘Lady Curiosity’ my Award winning piece for the 2006 World of WearableArt show. I used some of his imagery on her ‘tattoos’ and became obsessed with his scientific illustrations.
In 2012, I drew the design for ‘Meine Erste Leibe’ but knew it would take months that I didn’t have and expertise I had yet to gain to create it. In 2019 I used my design as the premise for a graphic novel (in progress), a student who finds the drawings of the unfinished work of another and sets out to create it. Then in 2023 after years of creating WOW pieces, illustrating and writing, I had the skills I felt necessary to create the design that had haunted me for over a decade. But it still wasn’t long enough to reach the deadline for 2024. I have been working on the intricate construction for this piece for over two years now.
In 2025 with the final completion of this work, I’m able to move forward with the novel. My creative works are intertwined, communicating to each part of my art practice, like the tendrils of a jellyfish and the spores of mycetozoa. Making art has always been my first love.
I have made 30 individual reproductions of Haeckel’s artworks, representing the age he was when Anne Sethe died and one for each of my years in WOW. first painting them onto calico, padding them, stitching them to velvet, hand embroidering them and embellishing each one with gems. I stitched the last of them whilst caring for my elderly dying mother over the three months of summer, so each has a special resonance for me. The jellyfish Haeckel named after his beloved Anna are centre stage at the front of the garment.
The mycetozoa sporocarp top piece, began as 3 large lampshade rings which I cut and welded together (a new learned skill!) then covered with fosshape. A white felt covering went over this and the interior lined with stretch satin. The ‘ribs’ are made from felt covered PEF rod. The delicate canopy is made from fosshape ‘flowers’ and heatshrink covered wire, each individually gemmed. Working from Haeckel’s illustration, was a mathematical mission to work out the placements. I solved it eventually with many bits of paper patterning over an exercise Swissball. Making it sturdy enough for repeat wearing and being able to pack it down easily was another engineering puzzle to solve.
The corset and fruiting bodies of the skirt are felt with wool roving wrapped wire.
The bodysuit is power mesh and the ascidiae (sea creature) gloves made from hand dyed and painted fabrics. The black skirt is black velvet lined with polyester wadding and backed with black cotton fabric and finished with black satin ribbon for a nod to Victorian mourning garments.
And here are a bunch of photos including an old woman running up on stage to get her award. Oh, that’s me!
Thankyou to World of WearableArt for the photos and video.
