Pew! Pew!
Man oh man... here I was, all ready to flail my hands around at being at skip 180 on the flist, from just being away for a day. Then I realized I'd actually stopped looking at the internet at 11:30 am on FRIDAY, which made a heck of a lot more sense.
Anyhoo...
HAPPY HALLOWE'EN!
And a Blessed Samhain to those who celebrate.
Have some glitter skulls. All holidays are better with glitter.
[You have ravgonfly to thank for those, btw.]
I've been frantically putting together my costume. Some year I will learn that teaching one's self multiple new craft skills while putting together a costume is not the best way to go. But it had been several years since I put in a ridiculous amount of effort for dressing up, so I was due. And I learned! And stuff worked [for the most part]!
I also had good inspiration. I was attending a Dia de los Muertos Dance and my Free Will Astrology told me I should go as an anarchist. Mushing these two things together, I ended up with a Crash Queen, /Transmission. [I told everyone at the dance 'Pop punk anarchist' and when they looked confused, I'd shoot them with my ray gun.]
This is my favorite picture, despite it being a bit out of focus.
There's back story with her. [Of course there is - I'm completely ridiculous.] She's into demolitions - yay for making thing go KA-BOOM! - and there are supposed to be stenciled patches that read detonate! or have TnT on them sewn to her knee and elbow pads [She's a crash queen who's very mindful of safety - note the protective eye-wear], but that was me biting off more than I can chew.
I've spent the last... two and half weeks or so braiding yarn at coffee dates and movies nights. I pulled a marathon horror movie marathon while I braided and knotted and cut. I did some research on dreadfalls back at the beginning of the month, and used that as a basis for 'wig' construction. There are three large sections of 'hair' layered over one another here, and three smaller clips to attach as needed [I'd planned on having ponytails, but the layered sections were bulky enough I ended up not needing them]. _sara - who came over to help with assembly, bless her - said I looked like very muppet-like. :D [Okay, she said I looked like I'd slaughtered a bunch of muppets and were wearing their pelts. Which kind works for the concept]. The wig proved to be a little too footloose and fancy free - the pieces slid around too much and I had to de-construct and re-assemble the whole thing once at the dance. I didn't lose of the pieces though and none them went flying across the dance floor at any juncture so I'm calling this a prototype and calling it a win.
Here's a photo of more of the outfit.
I also did some stencils. Not as many as I'd like, as I had wanted to cover my coat with patches to brighten it up. Originally I have designed patches (and a medal) to represent each of the members of My Chem - and Bob, because I was working a BP - Killjoys meld ( and because I COULD, thank you). But I was giving myself a bad case of the Motts as well as running out of time, so I stuck with text. [ Though now I have a sizable Umbrella Academy patch to put on something...] I put '/transmission' on the back of my coat and made a t-shirt that says 'shut up and let me see your jazz hands' .
Now, the last time I did stencil work like this, I was in ninth grade and made stencils of unicorns. I am not exactly awesome at wielding exacto knives and generally have issues cutting out straight lines. And I don't work with text that much. But the preliminary layout work at Kinko's went well, so I was hopeful. [I don't have a working printer at home, or have access to very many fonts, so there were additional adventures with copy machines. \o/] It took me about three hours to trace and cut out the stencil -ugh- and it took three layers of fabric paint [when the second coat dried to slightly tacky, I put a piece of white paper over it and ironed, to set the paint and re-seal the stencil... if you were interested in the process. And even if you're not, since I feel the need to chatter about this regardless. :D?]. I used freezer paper for the stencils - because of the plastic backing, you can iron it on to fabric for a good seal, and if you have a relatively simple design, you can peel and re-use the image. Mine were too complex for that. Next time I do text or an elaborate design I'm going the screen painting route. But I am very pleased with the results and will definitely make stencils this way again. It's cheap! Between the paint, the freezer paper, copies made at kinko's and a new exacto knife, I think I spent ten bucks on supplies. So, I'd recommend the technique, but think it's best suited for simpler images.
I am so bloody grateful for my industrial light table. I rescued it from the curb 15 years ago and it's moved with me... six times and is incredibly heavy, but is one of the most useful tools I own.
The rest of the outfit - orange bandanna, belt, arm warmers, half gloves, thigh socks, thigh highs and boots came from my closet. Elbow and knee pads are part of my roller skate gear. Zebra bandanna, heart skull patch and rubber barbed wire bracelets came from the mall. The coat came from K-mart. T-shirt and skirt came from goodwill [Super cheap! I love goodwill.] Goggles belonged to T-padre and were part of the Halloween package of Extreme Awesomeness that T-madre set me. SHE ALSO SENT ME A RAY GUN. It's slick-ass - it lights up, has a laser sight, make a billion different noises AND turns into a sword. Best ray gun ever! Best mom IN THE UNIVERSE!
Here are a bunch of pictures from the dance. Most of these are from people's phones, so the quality ain't the best.
These two are from the costume contest. I thought you guys would appreciate the ridic dance moves.
ETA: Here's a pretty good picture of the ray gun.
So that's that. :D I'll be adding pictures as they surface. [I want to keep a record of this here.]
I'm trying to figure out how to incorporate the wig into belly dance gear. Maybe as a belt, though I'd really love to figure out how to stabilize it as a wig enough to use it *as* a wig. It's very comfortable when it's not trying to slide down the back of my head and isn't overly warm.
This post got loooong. I'll yammer a bit about horror movies and writing check-ins in a separate post.
So. How's everyone's holiday going?
Anyhoo...
HAPPY HALLOWE'EN!
And a Blessed Samhain to those who celebrate.
Have some glitter skulls. All holidays are better with glitter.
[You have ravgonfly to thank for those, btw.]
I've been frantically putting together my costume. Some year I will learn that teaching one's self multiple new craft skills while putting together a costume is not the best way to go. But it had been several years since I put in a ridiculous amount of effort for dressing up, so I was due. And I learned! And stuff worked [for the most part]!
I also had good inspiration. I was attending a Dia de los Muertos Dance and my Free Will Astrology told me I should go as an anarchist. Mushing these two things together, I ended up with a Crash Queen, /Transmission. [I told everyone at the dance 'Pop punk anarchist' and when they looked confused, I'd shoot them with my ray gun.]
This is my favorite picture, despite it being a bit out of focus.
There's back story with her. [Of course there is - I'm completely ridiculous.] She's into demolitions - yay for making thing go KA-BOOM! - and there are supposed to be stenciled patches that read detonate! or have TnT on them sewn to her knee and elbow pads [She's a crash queen who's very mindful of safety - note the protective eye-wear], but that was me biting off more than I can chew.
I've spent the last... two and half weeks or so braiding yarn at coffee dates and movies nights. I pulled a marathon horror movie marathon while I braided and knotted and cut. I did some research on dreadfalls back at the beginning of the month, and used that as a basis for 'wig' construction. There are three large sections of 'hair' layered over one another here, and three smaller clips to attach as needed [I'd planned on having ponytails, but the layered sections were bulky enough I ended up not needing them]. _sara - who came over to help with assembly, bless her - said I looked like very muppet-like. :D [Okay, she said I looked like I'd slaughtered a bunch of muppets and were wearing their pelts. Which kind works for the concept]. The wig proved to be a little too footloose and fancy free - the pieces slid around too much and I had to de-construct and re-assemble the whole thing once at the dance. I didn't lose of the pieces though and none them went flying across the dance floor at any juncture so I'm calling this a prototype and calling it a win.
Here's a photo of more of the outfit.
I also did some stencils. Not as many as I'd like, as I had wanted to cover my coat with patches to brighten it up. Originally I have designed patches (and a medal) to represent each of the members of My Chem - and Bob, because I was working a BP - Killjoys meld ( and because I COULD, thank you). But I was giving myself a bad case of the Motts as well as running out of time, so I stuck with text. [ Though now I have a sizable Umbrella Academy patch to put on something...] I put '/transmission' on the back of my coat and made a t-shirt that says 'shut up and let me see your jazz hands' .
Now, the last time I did stencil work like this, I was in ninth grade and made stencils of unicorns. I am not exactly awesome at wielding exacto knives and generally have issues cutting out straight lines. And I don't work with text that much. But the preliminary layout work at Kinko's went well, so I was hopeful. [I don't have a working printer at home, or have access to very many fonts, so there were additional adventures with copy machines. \o/] It took me about three hours to trace and cut out the stencil -ugh- and it took three layers of fabric paint [when the second coat dried to slightly tacky, I put a piece of white paper over it and ironed, to set the paint and re-seal the stencil... if you were interested in the process. And even if you're not, since I feel the need to chatter about this regardless. :D?]. I used freezer paper for the stencils - because of the plastic backing, you can iron it on to fabric for a good seal, and if you have a relatively simple design, you can peel and re-use the image. Mine were too complex for that. Next time I do text or an elaborate design I'm going the screen painting route. But I am very pleased with the results and will definitely make stencils this way again. It's cheap! Between the paint, the freezer paper, copies made at kinko's and a new exacto knife, I think I spent ten bucks on supplies. So, I'd recommend the technique, but think it's best suited for simpler images.
I am so bloody grateful for my industrial light table. I rescued it from the curb 15 years ago and it's moved with me... six times and is incredibly heavy, but is one of the most useful tools I own.
The rest of the outfit - orange bandanna, belt, arm warmers, half gloves, thigh socks, thigh highs and boots came from my closet. Elbow and knee pads are part of my roller skate gear. Zebra bandanna, heart skull patch and rubber barbed wire bracelets came from the mall. The coat came from K-mart. T-shirt and skirt came from goodwill [Super cheap! I love goodwill.] Goggles belonged to T-padre and were part of the Halloween package of Extreme Awesomeness that T-madre set me. SHE ALSO SENT ME A RAY GUN. It's slick-ass - it lights up, has a laser sight, make a billion different noises AND turns into a sword. Best ray gun ever! Best mom IN THE UNIVERSE!
Here are a bunch of pictures from the dance. Most of these are from people's phones, so the quality ain't the best.
These two are from the costume contest. I thought you guys would appreciate the ridic dance moves.
ETA: Here's a pretty good picture of the ray gun.
So that's that. :D I'll be adding pictures as they surface. [I want to keep a record of this here.]
I'm trying to figure out how to incorporate the wig into belly dance gear. Maybe as a belt, though I'd really love to figure out how to stabilize it as a wig enough to use it *as* a wig. It's very comfortable when it's not trying to slide down the back of my head and isn't overly warm.
This post got loooong. I'll yammer a bit about horror movies and writing check-ins in a separate post.
So. How's everyone's holiday going?