Winterthur Museum and Downton Abbey

So last Friday I had the good fortune to be able to see the Downton Abbey exhibit at Winterthur Museum outside of Wilmington Delaware.  So I'll just leave some pictures here -

This lovely dress features a hand beaded vintage front panel -

I loved how they had photos of the actual show and scene in which these costumes were worn



One of my favorite of Lady Mary's outfits -
I love this style and think I have the pattern
for the jacket, the Skirt is a simple gored skirt -
This looks to be a linen type of material.

I took lots of detail pictures for the costumers - love this delicate
feature of the ribbon on the sleeve and collar -




A perfect little hat to complete the ensemble

When Lady Sybil came out in this I gasped! The fabric is genuine
vintage fabric and was disintegrating on the actress as she
wore the outfit and had to be sewn on to her -

 

I loved that you could walk around some of the costumes
and get pictures from all angles.

 

This is one of Lady Edith's lovely dresses, I loved the
colors and the detail

A close up of the back detail

 

There are many more pictures to share. I have some up on my personal facebook page and on the Lady Gotham page. I'll also do a post just on Winterthur, the grounds and the house - Wow, to live in such opulence!

 

 



Other People's Details

Enough about me - what do I notice on others' costumes? In other words, what inspires me?

Seriously, look at this both from the front and side, a rat - holding a little lantern! Little details like this really make your costume stand out.  Okay, this isn't little, it's the standout detail in the entire outfit.  You really don't need anything else.  He could have worn pajamas and I don't think anyone would have noticed because THAT HAT!! Adam Kline made this and he does some taxidermy, he says he's just started but I find that hard to believe. He's made some genius pieces, slightly disturbing maybe, but I love rats and taxidermy with a twist and he's just a little twisted!!
 



I've shown you Karen before but here's a close-up of her headdress at Wicked Faire 2014 - just beautiful, and the other little details, the makeup and the choker - all works but the real star here is the headdress and she doesnt' let anything else overwhelm it.



Lady Vader from Steampunk World's Faire 2013.  She made the mask and it's just perfect. 

What can set off a costume better than a great set of wings - Look up the Tangible Artist on Facebook to see more of Mercury's detailed work -

So that's a roundup of some detail you can add to your costumes, concentrating on that ONE thing, the had, the wings, the mask, the headpiece.  The costume where there is one detail that everyone wants to see, and needs to take a picture of - Next up - massive details that keep you looking at someone's costume for as long as they'll stand there!!

 





Woodland Goddess Details

 

Didn't want to completely overtake the last post with pictures so I saved the details of my woodland goddess for today - Above you can see the headdress I made from silk flowers, leaves and yes, there are a couple of birds in there! I'm here with my friend Karen who also made her headdress and outfit - great minds think alike, we both planned these costumes independent of each other and wound up mirroring each other much of the weekend!

 

Close up of my belt bag with added fringe to match my skirt! And did you notice the fairy-guy attached to my belt? Willow's Creations- look for them next at Steampunk World's Fair!

 

Here you can see the Chatelaine I made and how I wore it suspended from a d-ring from my corset, below you can see the details but in this picture you can see the added bottle of woodland creature bones, mementos from dear friends - The detail of the fabric you can see here - silk with embroidered vine/leaves - one of my finds from a local craft/reuse store I frequent, and this is why, I picked up 3 yards of this fabric for $2 a yard - I go once a week and I managed to snag some of this in a brick red background too! 



On left, leaf pendant from Suburban Girl Studio suspended from a hand dyed silk ribbon.  I tried to keep the materials as nature as possible.  The belt bag has a leaf motif and between that and the corset is where I got my initial inspiration.  On the right you can now see the chantelaine more clearly - including the tree of life motif clay bottle, and the clay charm with the wind on one side and the sun on the other. 

 

 So a timeline of how this idea started - I received this great corset in a grab bag from Damsel in this Dress - she does these every year for Black Friday - I traded the fairy skirt -

I was almost bummed but then I remembered I had this fabric -

 

And then the belt bag fabric - and then I bought the shirt fabric from Joann's with a coupon, the lace for the sleeves came from the PA Fabric Outlet, with plans for Victorian cuffs but it worked perfectly for sleeves - One thing leads to another and you have all the details that add up to a well thought out planned and put together outfit.

It's in the Details!

 

Etched Bat Earrings

 Costuming is all about the details - it's those little extras that make a costume "pop" and special.  Lady Gotham is nothing without her cape -




Full Spread out Cape just screams "Batman!"
Photo by Zayne L. Miller

One of the Belt details, bullet shells glued onto a tin and spray painted.

Steampunk Bat Collar, the Brass bat centerpiece was hand cut, etched and polished by me -
 

Additional details of the costumes below -

Belt bag brings an "explorer" type feel to the costume,
especially with leather gloves and matching belt.
Photo by Zayne L. Miller



Details for Steampunk Circus include
the silver "roping" on the hat
and the military trim reminiscent
of the Ringmaster. Photo by Kristen Miller
 



The Lace edging on this outfit change the oft used
Circus stripes into a Lady's day dress with spunk. Photo by Zayne L. Miller
 

Once Upon a Time - Regina Cosplay - where one little detail makes a difference!









Perfect example of details, although the cape is "spot on" to the show, my hair is the wrong color and not long enough, the hat is wrong and I frankly look nothing like Regina on Once Upon a time, but pull out that poisoned apple -and everyone knew who I was - Photo by Scott "Fotoplex" Levine -

Berks Bead Bazaar - Lots of cool Art Beads!

One of the great things about Berks Bead Bazaar is how it has introduced me to smaller beadmakers - beadmakers who make all their own beads, by hand.  And anyone who knows me, knows how I'm attracted to things ceramic or clay or porcelain - so here's my stash from the show on March 1-2.
The show was smaller this year and missing some of my favorite vendors, vendors from which I had some pretty specific needs, but this show kinda felt more like home.  It had some of the best artisans I have come to know over the past few years.
First of all, let me tell you about Artisan Accents by Staci Louise - I buy her beads because they challenge me.  If you know my work - and saw what I made from her beads on my Day of the Dead post, you know it really stretched me.  Well, I bought more of her beads, specifically to make me think and to stretch and exercise my creativity - no idea where these are going - Go to Staci's web site to see the magnificent pieces she makes with her components -

These pieces vary in size from about 1.25 inches to about 3 inches for the wing.  The round copper piece reminds me of something Gallifreyan (Doctor Who reference), the wing is a recurring image of mine. I generally don't like hearts but I love the colors in this one.  They all have this copper/old metal/worn and used type of vibe to me, hearkening to something that has a history and it's up to me to discover the context in which they lived.

 Next up - a fairly newish friend of mine - Diana from Suburban Girl Studios - she has a great etsy shop and she is updating it today fairly soonish so if you like her work, head over because the good stuff doesn't last long and it's all good stuff.  You'll see a theme starting here and carrying over into my next purchase - Some of the pieces here are destined toward future costume accessories for myself (the scarabs) and the rest will probably be made into jewelry and sold but you never know because Diana's stoneware is just so cool I hate to let go of any of it.  And check out that cool pendant in the middle! 

Love the cogs and the keyholes - and the natural glazes, but she has a bunch of other more colorful stuff, these gorgeous leaves with many colors, not my style but sooooo pretty!

 Next up we have Jenny Davies-Reazor - for the past couple of years we have been missing each other at events.  The bead world and the costume/con world collide between the two of us.  When anyone would find out that one/other of us were into beads/cons they would say - do you know "Dianne?" "Jenny?" and we had never met.  It got to be a big joke that we were never in the same place until one day - Last fall, We were!!  Jenny makes great polymer and ceramic beads and you see the theme here.  Definitely on purpose.  I have a whole line of jewelry coming out for Steampunk World's Fair that is based on keys, keyholes and literary and fairy tail references.  These were perfect!

Loved these different sized keyholes, the piece on the left will most likely be a bracelet though I was thinking about a choker as well - the pretty pendant in the center reminds me of the keyhole from the Twelve Dancing Princesses.  There are some strange fairy tales and I aim to stick to the originals, no Disney here - Fairy Tales are a lot more Grimm than you think - (see what I did there?? Lol)

I'm off to make jewelry now - see ya next week when I either show off some of the recent accessories I have made for my costumes OR post some pics from the Gilded Festival -

Wicked Faire Review

Wicked Faire was held in conjunction with Voltaire's Wicked Necrocomicon and my daughter was one of the artists in their Artist Alley - She also loves to cosplay a Fem Ash and does a wicked good job! Here she is posing with the adorable Jose Puertas.  I apologize because I don't know the character he does but wow, what a great job!

Here's Kristen in her mundanes, posing at her table with her awesome artwork and her altered dolls.  If you see anything you're interested in, feel free to contact me. She is on deviant art as well.

 

And here is my group of Damsels, minus my dear friend Sue who accompanies me to most of my events.

 

I took Tango lessons and no one asked me to leave!

My friend JP gave an awesome panel on Boosting your Creativity - Lots of great ideas and I felt very motivated afterward!

I debuted 4 new costumes, the Woodland Goddess who you see dancing, the Purple Steampunk Circus here and Regina/Evil Queen from Once Upon a Time.  I made the complete outfit except for the corset and hat  for Regina and I'm really happy with how it came out. Standing next to me is Karen who made/repurposed most of her outfit as well and the headwear is so pretty - difficult to fit inside a van, but pretty!

My last costume is a Ruby/Red Riding Hood costume also based on Once Upon a Time - Here I am "letting the wolf out!"

 Wicked Faire was great and I had a wonderful time.  It was different than last year as I wasn't vending and my daughter was present.  I spend a lot of time running back and forth so I could spend some time with her - but I didn't really want to be "mommy" on such a fun weekend.  I have also realized that I never posted a review of Gilded Festival - so I will have to get right on that before I get too far behind!!