Sarah Costello
she/her
32, living in Scotland, and making wearable metalwork. My background is blacksmithing so my work tends to be larger and a bit outside traditional jewellery in that I tend to adorn less typical areas of the body like hair, and I customise clothing with armour inspired pieces
“I create ‘To put it most simply, I'm afraid. Whether that's my transness, my queerness, or just plain anxiety talking, I'm fearful, suspicious and paranoid. Where the specific inspiration comes from is a bit of a mystery to me, it could be growing up addicted to rpgs like Final Fantasy, watching star wars and Lord of the rings but I have essentially made an entire artistic practice to justify making armour and spiky things to, on a physical level, possibly protect from bad guys and their spiky things, but on a psychological level, project an image of a person not to be fucked with!’”
"Truly the term ‘wearable safe space’ could not be more apt - It's really what all of my work is! Not even just this piece but my whole practice is just me building a protective metal shell, like a porcupine but also with armour. Incidentally the kilt jacket is one of the very few pieces that doesn't have any spikes (yet) but the idea is the same - look at the metal, not at the human.
It almost seems counter intuitive - why would I want attention if I'm so afraid of people's intentions? - but it's more about controlling the narrative. I get in first to sort of give a warning, and that in turn flips the anxiety from expecting attack to ‘I'm ready, go ahead, try me’.
I don't know if that's healthy, but it helps!"
How does your work relate to the theme Adorned Serenity— How does the work function as a wearable safe space?
Kilt Jacket, stainless steel, 2023
“I don't see this piece as being specific to me, I even make metal patches for people to sew onto their own clothes so they can have the same without needing metalwork skills. If I had a way to make more and have more folks wearing them, I would do it but currently capitalism is barring that from happening.”
How do you see this piece existing in the world as a wearable safe space?
Or is this piece specific to you?
If someone found this piece and needed an instruction manual to make the safe space work — what’s a quick how to?
“Fortunately this one is easy - Just put it on and you're good to go!”
Anything else you would like to share about this work? This can be an important part of the process, sourcing materials, or research.
“I'm not sure how it relates to the function but the fact that the base is a kilt jacket makes it especially fun for me as a scottish person. It's a part of scottish formal dress which adds an extra layer of feeling "put together" maybe. Its also fun as a trans woman to claim this part of typically mens clothing as mine and to change it to be more me.”
