I've said it before and i'll say it again. One of the things i really love about the teaching component of a Teaching Artist job is, the cycle of my classes forces me to revisit specific topics on a regular basis, remind myself what i know about them and do more research into both historical methods and new technologies. It's not that i didn't love ( Read more... )

Well, my grand plans for writing up more of the sessions I attended at US ITT certainly fell by the wayside, in favor of some exciting real-life developments! I have all the notes and flyers, and I will eventually get to writing up my thoughts on the conference, but instead, I got involved in some exciting research and development courtesy of the ( Read more... )

Yesterday, in part one of this two-part post, I discussed the process of making a custom hat for the horror hostess “Penny Dreadful,” up to the point where the brim was prepared ( Read more... )

Occasionally, I am contacted through this blog (or sometimes as a result of trade journal publications or presentations at professional conferences) about doing contract millinery for various independent clients. I have done these kinds of jobs for regional theaters and dance companies, performance artists, burlesque starlets, television and film, ( Read more... )

I finally have all the images for a post i've been itching to write for weeks: aborigine masks for Shipwrecked!And, even though we begin teching the show tomorrow night, today is a holiday that we've all got off, i'm puttering around the house and have a spare moment to write it up. So without further ado, here's an overview of the process ( Read more... )

We're in full swing with production on The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, the largest show our theatre has ever produced. If you've been reading labricoleuse for a while, you know that it's a huge deal around here--we've gotten a big NEA grant for all the work we're doing above and beyond the show itself under the auspices of the Dickens Initiative ( Read more... )

One useful tool for milliners--particularly those who block hats--is called a block spinner or head spinner. A spinner is basically a sturdy base with a peg which supports a dolly head or hat block while a milliner works, lifting it up and stabilizing it while allowing her/him to spin the block or dolly head around the peg for 360-degree access ( Read more... )

Wow, a whole week has gone by in which i have not gone to a museum to write about or seen some random performance to discuss. (I did go to the American Folk Art Museum, which i decided not to write up because, beyond a scrimshaw corset busk that nearly made me cry [1], it didn't have anything i could argue as even obliquely topical. It was awesome ( Read more... )

Remember a while back when i conducted the poll on crossover items, sometimes the responsibility of props and sometimes costumes? I'm doing some silk fans for our upcoming production of Amadeus and i've just finished my prototype.

( Images and text on how i did it. )

The King was a challenging design in our recent production of The Little Prince. I had to work closely with the draper, M. Spencer Henderson, to pull off the extremely stylized effect of the costume.

( pictures )