Tag Archives: maleficent

MALEFICENT FABRICS :)

MALEFICENT FABRICS 🙂

by michaela de bruce, July 25, 2014

 

I remembered O have a lovely crepey fabric in stash 🙂 It’s what I used for my Rachi so I can hopefully make the moors robe and a circle skirt to go with my Rachi robes to make a custom jedi 🙂

Velvet… omnomnomnomnom.

 

 

Leather for the boots! This brown pvc coating does come off (with a solvent)

 

 

Perfect finish and weight for functional boot covers. Who am I kidding. I’ll make a full boot upper!

 

 

The MJ Trends stretch matte PVC. This is amazing! Super stretchy much softer than it looks here, I have not stretched it as I do not want to pin through the fabric. But I have tested it against their shiny butt stuff and it has a very similar stretch. Slightly more vertically though. So a light single knit backing with a light but good coating. I have a few samples to send to locals to get a feel. I may be able to post small 5cm by 10cm pieces to others as well.

Well worth the money and shipping. It’s fully tracked so it is pretty much dollar for dollar fabric/shipping. This is why I didn’t get spiral steels at the same time. Now I wish I did!

 

1 COMMENT


    • KRISTEN

      REPLAY

    • July 25, 2014

    OOh that fabric does look amazing plus all the drapy fabrics in your stash!

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Coveralls, finally

Coveralls, finally

So yes, it’s been an interesting few days since I decided absolutely no resin or messy work until I have new coveralls. So do you think any of the automotive or hardware stores have them? No. Don’t be silly. You only need dust or paint (spray, not brush on) protection. I had to spell it out that I am talking about real fibreglassing with resin and glass and all that too.

So finally at the local family owned mini one stop shop yes, there were my favourite super light super cheap coveralls. Only two but they are both mine.

And so are a few more bits to make feathers. Just need to check what glue I can use. But it should work well 🙂 And I can also test some more supplies. 🙂

Also a big box arrived from Queenstown 🙂 So operation make a slightly more comfy but not really Star Wars costume has begun. After 12 years. Zam! XD I will probably be just using the greeblies as a guide to side because I think this is a case where my sculpting is a little more precise. But having them on hand means I can actually use them as a guide 🙂

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MALEFICENT NOTES

MALEFICENT NOTES

by michaela de bruce, July 13, 2014

Just some sketch notes, I do line art rather than full sketches so as to clearly define seams and edges. Inext stage is to get more specific in terms of exact position. The detail page of the back is for when I see the film again and get proper notes. The lower back is very poorly documented in current publications so I’ll have to hope the doll is accurate or that I can get those costume details from the big screen 🙂
The DVD cover has been released so hopefully it will be out soon enough to use for references!

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I AM GLAM 70S ROCKER

I AM GLAM 70S ROCKER

by michaela de bruce, July 11, 2014

PVC and feathers!

So I need a pair of coveralls desperately. I finally tossed the pair that were basically held together with old resin.

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Head cast update

Head cast update

I am very slow at this, yay for the fatigue and the pain hitting at different times, anyway:

Casts trimmed and prepped for putting together:

Cunning use of a foam wig head to make the side match up:

Single layer of thick matting around the seam- yep it’s pretty open.

The neck does meet and that was where I made sure to get the two parts together.

So this is basically me with my hair being a bit of a pain and filling out the sides. My separate ear pieces are still in plaster.

 

The ears should be able to be tackled tomorrow. The plaster is breaking down nicely.

Still disconcerting seeing my stressed out smile. Sheesh. It’s actually in part due to my vampire fangs and in part due to jaw tension. If anyone ever sees me making faces while at a photoshoot, this is what I am trying to avoid.

Also it’s a bit genetic. My brother has the same turned up corners. I think we both get people assuming we are smirking.

No but seriously I thought I’d have a frown and pursed lips based on this thing, not looking like some renaissance painting of a saint.

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Even more maelficent references

Even more maelficent references

These are all from my insomniac moments so were all over my bookmarks in my netbook.

http://www.bvifinland.fi/uploads/text/MALEFICENT_PRESSKIT.pdf

Presskit. Pretty darn amazing.

 

http://www.gnomonschool.com/?p=3213

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152284393301288.1073741828.30259571287&type=1

Making of Maleficent presentation. Someone did take notes from this which is how I found it.

http://stuartngbooks.blogspot.co.nz/2014/06/making-of-maleficent-event-held-at.html

http://stuartngbooks.blogspot.co.nz/2014/06/making-of-maleficent-talk-with-robert.html

 

http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Maleficent/Gallery

Updated really quickly though there is not an easy way to view them in order of addition or in movie.

 

http://wegeekgirls.com/2014/05/05/24-brand-new-stills-from-disneys-maleficent/

Particularly big stills on the click throughs.

 

http://www.panoramaaudiovisual.com/en/2014/05/30/maleficent-witch-par-excellence-of-disney-comes-to-life-on-the-big-screen/

Just differently worded discussion of the make up and horns.

 

http://www.stepheneinhorn.co.uk/home-maleficent-designs.asp

The designer of some of the jewelry

 

http://www.modanaesquina.com.br/2014/05/o-visual-de-malevola-como-artistas-e-desenhistas-criaram-o-estilo-iconico-da-vila/

A really nice article with a few different texture swatches than have been seen before.

 

http://www.flickeringmyth.com/2014/06/faerie-evil-making-maleficent.html

Very in depth page on the CGI elements.

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/10919429/The-woman-who-painted-Angelina-Jolies-eyes-in-Maleficent.html

THE HAND PAINTED LENSES!!! AND the woman who did them 🙂

 

http://amomsimpression.com/2014/05/23/sitting-angelina-jolie/

See, buns for supporting horns/lekku etc. It’s not a made up thing 🙂 I think the slots on the top of the support also pass her hair through and you can then pin/tie behind an use front hair and extensions to hide everything.

Evil Fairy clip, the darn tabbard is closed all around so I am now a bit lost as to how to make this work. Her robes turn in to an open cape as she races across the moors. That may be the CG model but surely they didn’t just cut out her robes for this? Mind you the original robes make zero sense in terms of layers and cronstruction…

A quick look, but in HD of the  London exhibition.

July 5, 2014  

2 Responses to “Even more maelficent references”

  1. Kristen / 6 Jul 2014 11:38pm #WOuld love to know what paints are used to hand paint lenses, must be something that sinks into the lense itself rather than sit on top, more like an ink than a paint.

    Makes sense with the buns for the horns to sit on, Angie has such lovely thick long hair, it has to go somewhere. Though she also says little little buns, which makes me think of the time i had my long hair put up under a wig by Fiona Cush, who worked for Optic Nerve. She twisted my hair into many many teeny little buns that could then be flattened onto my head with pins and then the wig was laid on top. Might be a combo of both techniques to smooth out her hair that flat.

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  2. Kristen / 6 Jul 2014 11:42pm #the contact lense company site – http://www.eyeinkfx.com/

    Reply

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Synacthen test, dolls, and now to sleep. Maybe.

Synacthen test, dolls, and now to sleep. Maybe.

So Synacthen is an alternative to corticosteroids but that is not what I had the test for. The test is to make sure my own body is producing cortisol after more than a decade on steroids. There are no genuine long terms studies that I know of. Long term studies usually only cover months of use not years (osteopaenia shot out!)  But I haven’t really delved PubMed for a while so some studies in the last few years may have popped up.

So the synacthen was painful. The nurse said right from the start it would feel like a punch in the arm. Yes. Yes it did. A punch with a thumbtack hidden in it. But it wore off so really was like a prolonged B12 injection.

It’ll take 5 days for the results as a pathologist has to look at it. I’m hoping it’s clear because this long term use has been preying on my mind for five years at least. So that was after 8 years of use… that may put in to perspective how long term this has been!

But then I got to catch a bus to Newmarket so I could get some fabric geek on. Centrepoint has moved their fabrics around and there is some glorious stuff there. Glorious. I wanted to hug everything. And at a reasonable price! They had $5/m fabrics! They have their $200/m stuff as well but wow! Also perfect pleather for my Maleficent Onsie. Her action suit. Sorry, I keep avoiding the term body suit because yes it’s very tropily me.

And I got alginate to get a cast of my face! Figure now is ideal. And I have enough resin for a really solid, solid cast proper. I don’t know if there is any reason to not cast resin in alginate- I suspect due to the porous nature- but a slick of release/sealer or whatnot will help. Just gotta determine what the whatnot is based on either chemical/physical properties or experiences. I just don’t want a cast I can’t move around myself. I have enough molds like that.

http://www.make-up-fx-forum.com/index.php?topic=535.0

My go to, love this forum. I am a lurker but read read read.

http://www.taxidermy.net/forums/FishTaxiArticles/04/l/04836EAE7D.html

And this is what I mean by don’t even rely on costume specific references! I am not in to taxidermy but hey, this covers many of the issues shared by trying to cast from a body. I have also used car modding forums and outdoor sculpture sites.

 

And today I have the side effects I was supposed to watch out for- itchy face and tired and a need to.. go. Go, go.  So I may have a nap during this weird weather spell and see if I can at least tidy.

 

And I need this doll:

http://www.stitchkingdom.com/disney-toys-r-us-sdcc-exclusives-71544/

(Winged Fairy Maleficent — Relive the fierce and exciting battle scene from the hit Disney film Maleficent. Maleficent is ready to seek vengeance, dressed in a true-to-character fitted black body suit with knee-high boots, dramatic black wings and elegant horns.)

Reasons are obvious-references especially of the back. The headpiece is not the right one but wow they went the whole way with even stitching details (due to scale I didn’t expect some of them to be there.)

But it has also confirmed to me how I’ll make the wings (yay working out hinging.)

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Maleficent progress :)

Maleficent progress 🙂

Firstly going back to the preshow last minute stuff!

 

Horns: cut to shape then glued in place. You can see the dip on the horn on the right hand side. I do still like this effect but having seen the movie now I don’t need to go mad trying to do this again! they are much more opaque and with a less defined series of growth rings, so yay 🙂

Yes, I like my shadow in these things!

With the layer of black resin straight over! Also more fibreglass on the crown. This made it more rigid and actually in hind sight it wasn’t needed.

Sculptures and casts for the soft parts on the costume. I can’t believe I did that all in one evening!

And the staff. This may be why my ring finger was so bad…. that’s hand modeled epoxy 🙂 With microballons it’s a beautiful putty but epoxy is not my friend!

oh hey and that paint was just acrylic ink and paint mixed with IA and brushed on with a chipping brush. It was not fully cured. But handy hint: ochre and yellow ink, with a smidge of black paint and then a small dab of gold paint mixed with IA makes for a slightly curdled paint mix that creates a great wood grain effect.

 

And now… my head cast:

Plaster mother with some of my home made playdough smooshed in. I pressed a thin layer then pressed my face in then added more on my face then pressed in. It’s not perfect but it has my proportions and may be a bit more true than my previous cast.

Resined! OMG!!! Chopped strand filler is a game changer! I mix a slurry of resin with pigments and a little cabosil, then while it is starting to slump use glass tissue to hold it up. Paint a more liquid slurry on the back then throw (literally, like dusting a bread board) the chopped strand in side and press and move any excess further up. Then paint another layer and do the same. There is a lot of excess strand in the mold that can be brushed out when cured.

Also I found my pink suede boots and realised the heel is a bit chunky but super sturdy so will be a good base for the boots at the end of the film 🙂

So yes, tabbard to action suit to winged form is happening. Funnily enough it may take up less room than the current gown…

June 26, 2014  

2 Responses to “Maleficent progress :)”

  1. Meilin / 26 Jun 2014 7:18pm #For the epoxy + microballoons, did you mix that up so that it’s putty consistency or is there some store-bought mix that you use? Also, do you use gloves and get a reaction anyway or do you forgo the gloves to get better artistic control? I don’t have an allergy to epoxy (knock on wood) but I hear you can get sensitized to it…

    In any case, the staff and horns look great!

    Reply

    • admin / 2 Jul 2014 6:51am #Thank you 🙂

      I do wear gloves and the more dense kind of coveralls as well as a mask. I should get a full reperator but I need dust and chemical filters and I think you can only get one or the other. Pretty sure a solvent filter will also filter these larger particles though…

      I mix the resin then stand added filler by equal parts. I think it wind up 4:1 powder to resin. And it is then hand (in glove!) mixed to a dry dough (think scone dough) before being applied. I thin dip my (gloved!) hand in water and use that to smooth and push the surface to shape.

      I have longer fingers but small hands so I usually wind up with my hand breaking through gloves. SO I may just have to start wearing to sets at a time or hunting out the more durable sort. Once my hands break through I try to work as fast as I can.
      My current ptoblem is in part beacuse I need the three main kinds of antihistamines and I only have Loratadine on hand. Also I got some resin on my forearms when I took my coveralls off. I thought I had cleaned it off but actually not. Releasing my Shae helmet cause some fibreglass rash and so I got the stuff under my skin and poof! ALong with the synacthen test I am really riding the crest of a fairly full on allergy! Luckily skin only. A bit of coughing but that could be dust.

      Thank you for your questions 🙂 It’s always lovely to know people are reading and also thinking about it 🙂

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Quickie update, state of the Elsa, Maleficent and me.

Quickie update, state of the Elsa, Maleficent and me.

I need to leave soon to get the final of a three step vaccine. And next week have to go to hospital for a blood test (to make sure my body has not gone a bit skewy with the old cortisol and not producing any) which will take an hour and a half. Gah. But then I get to go to another lab and get tested for adrenal antibodies and then another for TB testing. Again! really!!!!!!!

So yes, my disease is nasty enough that we use hard core front line stuff that makes medical practitioners freak. Like this is seriously the sixth time I’ve had a test for TB of some sort (chest xrays, and the blood test before each request for these medications and then again once approval has been gained.)

I cannot have the skin test, again. We had them when I was 13 and with no follow up even though I presented with a rash for.. oh… a year after. So no. No we will not be doing that again. Mess with my immune system in some ways but not in ways I know will trigger an uncontrollable reaction.

Anyway so I’m possibly feeling the Mabthera slowing down/RA catching up as I have hot joints symmetrically across my body. So I’m slowing down even computer work.

So that gets me back to Elsa.

I have stalled her for a few reasons. First is above, second is all the Maleficent Feelz (I love me some flawed IPs I know, will post about it as there was a tumblr post that touched on it) and third is it is a hugely popular costume and I feel a bit worried about it all.

I don’t do popular costumes. I just don’t. So finding myself ranking high in google searches has made me pull back a bit as I haven’t even got anything cut yet. Well my tests yes.

But it’s also popular here. And with my moderate position of “power” I hesitate to do something in case a contestant is put off or thinks I’m going to be thinking “that’s not how I’ve done it” because that is not how the judging process works. And not how I work. I love seeing how people tackle engineering issues and come up with different methods :)

I also feel guilty because at each show this year people have been asking when I’ll wear Elsa and so again the Olde Guilty “I’m taking focus” thing comes in. But then I’m also excited when I see other people doing things I love so….

Anyway, I have just fired up photoshop and will also fire up the Scan n Cut website to see how I can get the snowflakes laid up and also how to vectorise them (I may need to reinstall Illustrator though I am just not good at all with it…) so that I can get them in to all sorts of portable files. And I need to see how small the knife will go so as to see if I can get sewing holes in my sequins 🙂 And I will hunt out some sample from other stores after all and see how they work 🙂 I’m more worried about the shipping and customs of 25kg of sequin film than anything.

 

Anyway, I now also have a partial head cast- for making a perfectly fitted set of horns and cheek prosthetics. I soloed it, which is possible but so not safe! I only did because I know the product (how hot it gets and heavy and how far I can push proportions) and my own levels of panic and how to do things in stages so there was no risk of being encased in plaster. So what I have are perfect ear molds, a nearly great back of head (it fits perfectly just has big gaps) and what is essentially the mother for a face mold. It’s too big (did upper and lower in two stages) and so I’ll have to fill it with something that will take fine detail and not stick to my face. Or be something I’m allergic to. I also learnt that my ears are seriously defined and not very squishy.

So salt dough/play dough is my current option. It’s also biodegradable 🙂 But I’ll have to make, press and cast from it in one day so that may be a day where I have people around to get some help (hold my mold while I strap it together! Smash my ears!

Anyway so massive mess has been sorted and that was after a day of social times where people cae

2 Responses to “Quickie update, state of the Elsa, Maleficent and me.”

  1. Meilin / 25 Jun 2014 3:34pm #I hear ya on Elsa popularity. But… If you love it and have invested so much effort so far (hello, sequins?) then just make the fricking costume already.

    TB test, gah. Even with a seriously compromised immune system I have trouble figuring out where you would pick that up. Better safe than sorry I guess.

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    • admin / 26 Jun 2014 12:13am #Unfortunately I do live in a high risk area- an area with a lot of migration and people with low vaccination rates etc.

      The effort invested so far is not so much that I couldn’t just pass the costume elements on and not be too far out of pocket (the experimenting has been a bit hit and miss.) I think it’s the specific way I want to do this and being burned out on corsetry having done so much historic stuff. But I have to remind myself this is more like testing out the 7 of 9 undergarment than yet another hourglass corset. 🙂 Yay spanks with a bra! Essentially. I want that effect of her dress being a floating layer- or two floating layers and the only way to do that is have the support completely separate from the gown and make the gown just barely skim. Difficult normally but extra difficult with a ridiculous wide lower rib, narrow waist and wide upper hip. There is so little room for vertical movement.

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Sigh.

Sigh.

 

Yes, great new sleeping place booboy.

3 Responses to “Sigh.”

  1. Kristen / 23 Jun 2014 8:17pm #HAHAHA, cats are half adorable and half asshole. White cats will search out and find the darkest fabrics to lie on.

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  2. Aimee / 25 Jun 2014 5:40am #Oh cats are always such great helpers with costuming…!

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    • admin / 26 Jun 2014 12:14am #He was checking the hem or something ;) He is the same weight as the gown!

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