Feather Armour – the alternative limb project

source: crafthausning

The Alternative Limb Project offers a personal bespoke service which provides unique prosthetics to blend in with the body or stand out as a unique piece of art, reflecting the wearer’s imagination, personality and interests.

The wearer is involved in all stages of the process from conception of ideas to the final work. An alternative-style limb can help to break down social barriers, delight the eye and provide an unusual talking point.

Director
Sophie comes from an art background, with a first class honors degree at London Arts University where she studied Special Effects prosthetics for film and T.V. She then went on to work for 8 years, as a sculptor making realistic looking, bespoke prosthetics for amputees at one of the leading prosthetic providers. She worked in all areas sculpting fingers, toes, partial feet, partial hands, bespoke liners and leg and arm covers for amputees. In her spare time she made more experimental art work in this medium before setting up her own studio.

Sophie now works as a specialist consultant and can work alongside your prosthetist. As well as producing realistic looking artificial limbs, she uses imaginative ideas to create alternative effects with direct input from the client. She can interpret your ideas and create a unique design that will reflect your interests and personality.

Grace Mandeville wearing feather armour, co-created by Sophie de Oliveira Barata and Rowena Vickerman, photographed by Charlotte Epstein, MUA – Hayley-Joanne Keatley

Collaborators
Sophie often collaborates with other artists with different skill sets; such as graphics, laser cutting, metalworks, plastics and woodwork. This allows for many possibilities and can generate interesting results.
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source: uklinkedin

The Alternative Limb Project offers a personal and friendly bespoke service, which provides unique prosthetics to blend in with the body or stand out as a unique piece of art, reflecting the wearer’s imagination, personality and interests.

The Alternative Limb Project was founded by Sophie de Oliveira Barata to provide alternative limb covers that, not only delight the eye, but also help to break down social barriers and encourage a positive dialogue about the human body and difference. Alt Limb Pro will work with amputees and their prosthetist from the conception of ideas to the final work, with the on-going objective of reflecting the clients imagination, personality and interests through their limb.
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source: ytimes

Sophie de Oliveira Barata works out of a bright white, semidisheveled northwest London studio surrounded by feet and fingers, legs leaning against walls and hands that look real enough to shake. With a background in art and special-effects makeup, she worked for eight years for a prosthetics manufacturer before deciding to become a creator of bespoke limbs. “It meant I could use my creative skills and do something massively rewarding,” she said, dropping an oddly appealing man’s foot in my lap. “Making an alternative limb is like entering a child’s imagination and playing with their alter ego,” she said. “You’re trying to find the essence of the person.” In 2011, de Oliveira Barata started the Alternative Limb Project and soon found interested clients. She created one leg with a stereo embedded in it, another with removable muscles and a third, among others, that housed minidrawers. Recently she began collaborating with artists skilled in animatronics, 3-D printing, metalwork and carbon fiber. “After losing a limb, a person isn’t the same,” de Oliveira Barata said. “So this is a form of expression, an empowerment, a celebration. It’s their choice of how to complete their body — whether that means having a realistic match or something from an unexplored imagination.”