Category Archives: projects: media recreations

Recreations and original costumes not bound by historical fashion.

ahsoka progress

I was very worried as my latex thickener took a while to arrive and my molds wound up soaking too long. But it’s all good 🙂 But the latex I had was certainly bad. Not so bad that it couldn’t be rescued but rescuing requires a lot of work 🙂

Thickener and coloidal silica 🙂 I probably should have grabbed microballoons, explained later 🙂

I used up as much of my latex as I could- two bottles of thickener will turn 2.5L of latex into a very thick consistancy, but it does still run, not immediately but over a few hours.

What have I done here you may ask. Well here is the answer 🙂

Self supporting latex

In order to have self supporting horns but an adjustable thickness tentacle latex layer I first lay up a thick layer of the thickened latex (for this also with some added silica to limit warping) then  a layer of peeled foam in 5mm or 10mm thicknesses soaked in a latex and water mix. I push the foam into the latex just enough to adhere but leave a layer of just latex to create a skin to the foam.

This is tricky! If the environment is too warm the latex well turn tacky while working with it causing deformities. This has been my fifth run and it’s the first time this hasn’t happened because it was much cooler yesterday than any other day this summer.

The peeled foam is very soft, very soft and not at all self supporting alone. In fact its use is to pad and create a soft layer.

But once soaked in latex and left to cure it becomes fairly rigid. The cells become rigid but the air pockets remain.

The foam also tends to not pull away from the walls of the mold while the latex is curing. This makes it much easier to be able to control warping of large pieces like this. It also reduces weight and can be stitched then glued/latexed to hide the join. It is also possible to pare back the foam with a knife to thin it out for the tentacles.

This is sort of a reverse industry standard method of skinning foam for creature effects. Having a mold means I control the skin texture a lot more but means working a bit blind in terms of being able to know exactly how thick that skin is.

This standard method is how I make my lekku in general. And as I work to finish this piece I’ll be able to share tips on how to do that- it still requires skill to avoid limiting stretch of the foam and adding  weight! I also want to update my Rachi Lekku and Talon lekku 🙂

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long time no post!

it usually means I have been away 🙂 And I was 🙂 For Children’s Day it was a day of Elsa-ing it up for Hamilton, then Sunday helping the Rebel Legion and 501st at Frankton Thunder- a huge fundraising event for Child Cancer Foundation 🙂

Got to play Wookie hairstylist and it was fun 🙂 So today has been spent fixing my Leia wig so it can be multipurpose 🙂 both required silicon conditioning and it’s lasted very well for Leia! Today was putting some wefts back in 🙂

I started by thinning out some of the excess wefts at the top of the head- most wigs do this! It’s because it is easier to sew the wefts on the solid ground than the elasticated straps at the back. Even when wigs are sewn in the correct order. So it is a time saving/cost saving device. But it makes it almst impossible to style a wig and have the wig sit flat. I took out about 1/3 of these.

But this is what I was faced with when I started the part down the back. That diagonal weft makes a big mess of my neatly calculated volume for each side so I spent a day inpicking the left side and restitching. To those thin elastic straps.

What I also did was to thin the sides out completely over the power net sections, back that with more lace and sew a smaller number of wefts back in.

Next step is to stitch the long wefts from a second wig to toupee grips so the wig can be worn in any style. I had stitched the wefts to the sides but that would make the wig not at all alterable 😉

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phantom costumes long overdue

I kept trying to find inspiration for making an Aussie version of the Rooftop dress, but I keep finding myself coming back to this:
rooftop

(full file is 6M)

And a few tiny images of the German versions where the underskirt ruffles are gradient dyed/knitted and so create a wonderful play on light. It looks like the lace is more ruffled than it is. I don’t really have any of my own scans of that though.

And the wedding dress.
wedding

These are both from the UK c2000. The wedding dress especially is so classic in shape and details but more era specific with the beading. I made my overhaul to have that kind of decoration so I am desperately trying to get my old little discs to work. I think I need  a better drive though. Even in compatibility mode the drive doesn’t read the discs. But I know there is a treasure trove on them.

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what a day at least I have a skirt

That would be a new row added at the hem and all the rows tilted slightly. (the black net is because my Elissa support is perfect for this too- it is being made to be separate and able to swap out between frocks.)

But after this my life got a bit complicated.

I decided to clean my cooler in my PC. And when i fired her back up no screen and an A0 q-code. Which I should have recognisewd as AllOkay.. but freaked, reset and then got an A2 error, still no screen.. So after a bit of pulling everything out I realised I put the hdmi cable in the hdmi slot. Nope. Should have popped it directly into my graphics card.

So that A2 error was one of fans being slightly slow every so often- by less than 10 RPM which is ridic to beep at me and you know..

Anyway, so then I put my SSD and HDD back in and whoops, hope.

Took SSD and HDD out and still nope.

It was a SATA cable. JUst one. So I now how a power cable and SATA cable group set aside to put them all back in but not right now.

Also I was supposed to close up my PC and let the fans do their work properly but no my site was down. For an hour.

Why?

My theme. The theme broke. My first thought was the CF thing, but no. Just really incredibly bad timing of the theme breaking!

But I had a cleanout of themes and plugins so that’s something….

 

Also before I goofed I managed to transfer most of my media files to different arddrives so pretty soon will have the ability to be nice and portable.

But really it’s been about 10 hours from cleaning my cooler to.. now.

 

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phantom wedding dress

This project is super long term and matches my Elissa gown for length of time since starting!

However the skirt is finally getting the lace flounces! I decided to just go ahead and make this like the show gowns which is to not use my delicate vintage lace but a lovely net lace that I removed colour from 🙂 This has left the net ever so slightly pink and the flowers arctic white. The dress is a very creamy crepe and there will be opalescent organza (vintage- it’s not the super slick stuff now) and there will be some pearled lace appliques and ruched ribbon headings

Amazingly the lace was pretty much in the perfect lengths for full ruffles (3 times for each row)

So I started by gathering and quickly decided tiny pleats made more sense.

Not to sure how I managed to make the left side flatter, but the florist pins at the top of the skirt in the last image is where that side will be raised to before the lace is stitched down. I’d love to have used my vintage lace as it’s much wider but really I think the lace will look much better once the pins are out 🙂

So this skirt is feeling very mid 90s UK in style. Funnily enough 😉

The bodice is very much mid to late 90s UK too 😉 But you can see the organza is more subtle than more recent ones such as used in Wicked 🙂

So this has undergone many changes, a few piccies from when i first made and wore it:

 

This was the last iteration. Notice the wooden doors behind? Yeah that means this was before the fire. After the fire the bodice had a lot of soot damage so a lot of the hard work got undone.

Yes, when I was well I did a quickie trip to Europe and saw the show in Hamburg, London, And Copenhagen. And wore this frock each time. Long before it has become okay to cosplay at events btw. In fact this was just a few months before Rheumatoid Disease became part of my life.

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ahsoka tano progress

Yesterday I mixed and cast latex for my Montral. I need to gather a few more supplies, for supporting and maintaining the shapes nce out of the molds. i also cleaned some leather to back the armour pieces. I also made some card templates of the pieces that were curved too much to match in the chrome tanned leather.

Today I got some of the chrome tanned leather cut to match those templates and also took a pattern of my greaves.

I transferred the card template to the leather using tailors chalk. I extended the lines as a guide for findint eh perfect point. I leave a seam allowance on all edges so I can decide which is the better option once set up for curing.

I folded the leather so I could get perfectly matching left and right sides, and it ensured I got a left and right copy for each side!

I used the flattest piece for the only really flat piece in the armour. It is currently weighted to remain as flat as possible.

 

The greaves were the most complex  to transfer, so I have taken a pattern from the pieces. I first cut along the known joins, then folded the widest pieces in half to fine room for an additional curve to be cut.

I had to label each panel as the pieces are not symmetric, reflecting the curves of a human leg. These line drawings will be scanned and tidied with paths in photoshop tomorrow. Right now thee lines are overly accurate.

Even the knee cap is curved.

The cap and upper decoration are also asymmetric so have to be labeled in a way to remember which side is which.

All these paneled pieces are for the linings, there will be contact adhesive between the outer and inner layers as well as a very open gauze for stability against stretching.

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throwback thursday-barbieshep

In anticipation of @bioware @masseffect andromeda, #femshep #commandershepard

Photos by @littlenoisephotography

Costume, props, styling: michaela de bruce

http://www.arrayedindreams.com/costume-portfolio/sci-fi-mass-effect/femshep/

 

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ahsoka progress

That is leather wetforming on two sets of forms. So lucky to have been given one and the other was a very reasonable auction!

 

Today I have put some chrome tanned leather in water to soften so I can form those. There will be a layer of cloth between to keep them stabilised.

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I hear you face cast..

I HEAR YOU FACE CAST..

by admin, January 30, 2015

But a distance photo was needed to check over all fin flare. May need a little fixing.
Getting there 🙂

Now to sleep 🙂

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2016 year in review

I made nothing from what I can remember. Just straight up nothing. I started the year well but with the passing of my darling Booheart I started grieving and it just never really let up. I was not able to focus through to the end of anything. And then my disease management started to peter out (as it does after 6 months) and so I never had the chance to play catch up during that time. I was just trying to keep up with health.

Oh yeah, my site was hacked and destroyed do I spent a lot of time trying to rebuild that.

I did a heck of a lot of prep work though. I got projects started, and research sorted and tidied and a huge amount of headway on my book of patterns and some very novel research, I even got a lot of costumes nearly finished.

And I cleared away a lot of stash. A lot. My studio is also back to working and there is a lot of new space 🙂

 

So all of these will continue through next year 🙂

Research

Album Amicorum: started, patterns were made years ago but converting them to be hand coloured stalled- can’t find good watercolour paper that doesn’t pill. Pages on stitches put up but I may want to replace them if I can mimic 16thC hand better.

Two big research projects at the point of editing for publication. I just get myself down a citing rabbit hole. So I have had to take a break and am back to looking at layouts already established and the hook to get people interested.

Also older pages are back in my site, including scans from my Girl’s Own annuals, and pages of information from Der Bazar.

 

 

Sci-fi:

Ahsoka: patterned, leather work tooled some formed, sculpt finished, molded and three tests made. That was really a heck of a lot…

Mon Mothma: dress remade it’s far too short. Might just toss it unless someone under 5’2″ wants it! New fabric is resistant to dye remover so 6m of abstract blood orange lace anyone?

Senatorial Leia: new wig. Two lace fronts put together and the new buns look really good. Got that big central shape and a single turn around the outside. Got photos to add to my page on how to make the style. Boots to make over bought, as well as soles that are a better match (she has no separate heel) and very smooth flexible vinyl for the tops. Belt and dress got idied. I made it like 4? years ago? A. got to wear it, the belt got misplaced and I just got tired trying to replace it. But I have two full sets of plaques and buttons also to go to a new home!

Padme light blue: Well the 19m of fabric just barely made three full sets, so I do have two to go to a new home but my own has stalled due to my dress form bust being totally wrong in shape. Got to pad to body squish really.

 

Fantasy:

Elsa: new cape!!! And I did finally find a source for all the thousands of sequins I want, and have tested a tool for punching tiny holes 🙂

Maleficent: New horns sculpted (I am indeed just going to smooth them, digitise them, and do textures in Sculptris. I cannot get the texture the way I want and it may get lost in digitising anyway.) Gown remade! It needs sewing and my sewing machine hates it.

Freya: leather work figured out!!!!!! Now I get to do a scaled pattern and then create a full sized template for cutting. I’ll have to be super smooth!

Cersei: I have decided to use braid as pretend embroidery, and to paint the darn lions. Maybe. It may wind up my lazy butt non decorated at all frock.

Historic Early

Princess of Cleves doublet: ready to line.

Basquina y jubon, y manga redonda (silver); lining in progress.

Saya entera (Valois): lining of skirt in progress- might be changed to something easier to sew!

Cleves velvet; new hem half done- all hand stitched, all heavy, all wibbly fabric!

Cleves accessories: pearls and leaves and sequin additions are happening!

New cleves gowns: OMG!!!!! SO inspired, actually making twonow that I will have space wil the passing on of other garb 🙂

 

Historic Inspired:

Mina: new bodice lining made and fitted, stay tape decoloured, extra leaves made.

Marie Antoinette: hoops nearly finished, materials gathered, skirt draped!

Satine wedding: ummmm.. potential saree for border base found and paid for- waiting for banks to send payment through tomorrow)

Satine Pink Diamonds: fabric cut, bodice lining overlocked.

 

Historic Late:

Robe de Style. Okay I did make this from scratch. That is one project then 🙂

vvdovvdo2

Sheer dress started- princess undergown needs decolouring, and sheer layer is pinned only.

walking dress fabric set aside, pale blue striped, and embroidery relocated.

sheer saree day dress tested. Will go over the princess petticoat.

I think that is enough to try and finish…

 

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