Structures of a samba costume: back piece basics

For the most part, the structures of a samba costume are made of steel wire and welded together.

I have only putting together back pieces, head pieces, hand ornaments, leg ornaments and necklaces out of steel wire, but I know some people also use steel structures for the bra. I just use a well padded bra for that. :D

Below is a simple back piece for a child dancer (the photo with only wire.). There´s a simple V-form in the middle, such as shown here, in a padded version, but the child´s back piece also has small wings which are made of  2 steel wire hangers.

The hangers are welded into the back piece on both sides with attachments in multiple locations.

 After the welding, I use duct tape to ensure all of the welding seams.

 and then I pad the parts that touch the body with foam.

Here is another version of a child´s back piece. The pink V-form is already padded and the pink lycra has been twisted around the padding. The flower shape of the wings was later on ornamented with fake rose petals.

At first, though, the flower forms was covered with a light weight fabric which was hot glued onto the frames. After that, the fabric was covered with rose petals.

The hot glue was put in in lines and the petals were attached to the glue.

And after numerous sticks of glue, this is what it turned into. :)

More about making a back piece here.