Under Armor

Photography by Dean Powell

Ingrid Goldbloom Bloch’s fascination with alterna- store, Bloch came across Gutter Guard, an alumi-
tive art materials began as a little girl when she’d num mesh material designed to keep leaves and
follow her dad around hardware stores inspecting other debris from clogging rain gutters. Using the
bins of nuts and bolts. Over the years, the Needham, Gutter Guard as backing, Bloch wove ¼"-wide strips
Mass., self-taught artist and mother of two has cut from the cans into the mesh, then used a drill
found ways to combine hardware with traditional art press and rivets to hold everything together.
materials such as beads and yarn for one-of-a-kind “I love the challenge of construction, and putting
teapots, urns, and lingerie. both materials and objects in a new light. I do this
Bloch, 45, has fabricated bras and bustiers out of by either changing the expected construction of the
everything from welded metal to stainless steel object or using materials for something other than
mesh, detailed with rivets, grommets, and hooks. their intended use,” she says.
“When I tried on sexy push-up bras, I realized just In this spirit, bustier straps are made from a strand
how uncomfortable they were. I started thinking of soda can pull tabs, panty edges are finished with
about the cost of beauty over comfort and became dryer vent rings, and hose clamps are refashioned as
interested in using hard materials for something that’s garter straps.
supposed to be soft and feminine,” Bloch explains. The family tradition continues with Bloch’s two

Her Trashy Lingerie ensemble — bustier, garter, boys, ages 5 and 7, who follow the artist around the and underpants — cleverly combines recycled soda hardware store making their own mini-sculptures. cans and hardware materials. Why Coke and not —Katie Kurtz Pepsi? “I thought the red Coke cans looked hot for a lingerie series,” Bloch replies.

On one of her weekly trips to the local hardware

>> Bloch’s creations: flickr.com/photos/ingridgold bloombloch