... and dust and cowboy hats too!
The big show that our troupe worked so hard on premiered at the Wild Wild West Steampunk Convention.
Well to be honest in its beginning it was to be a show specifically for this Con, but it grew to be so much more. But this is what happens with you get a writer like Erin Lausten involved. In short this show is now the beginning of so many more with Short Stories to match!
Walking around on the first day we fell in love with all the creative costuming! Watching different acts and listening to some awesome bands, we drooled with excitement at the possibilities that lay before us. In finding locations for pictures we were awed to be standing in the same places that so many Westerns were filmed. (We giggled when someone behind us noted that one section looked like Tatooine.) In short we were overwhelmed with the ideas swirling around us and we needed to FOCUS!
The Slumber Party Returned
The first night found the three of us that had bunked together at Estrella War bunking together again! Let the giggling ensue...
Oh you bet we were giggling when we were trying to fall asleep. We were so tired from the preparation, packing, traveling and doing some last minute costuming that we were a bit Punchy. We were outright laughing when we thought of Estrella and Ms. DT!
The Giddyness continued
The next day because we stayed up late and got up early. (Early enough that three females could get a shower, get mostly ready for the day and get to breakfast by 9am. Amazing right?) That as we were finishing the last minute grommeting in the hotel room we couldn't help but giggle. AND when we were walking around the the Convention we were not as shy as we normally are when handing out promotional materials. I think we scared a couple of folks at Old Tucson Studios.
Of course the giddyness disappeared when OTS and the directors of WWWCon got their wires crossed with our performance times. We did take it in stride and got the consolation prize of attending The League of S.T.E.A.M. dinner theater. What a hoot! Especially after attempting to eat a 2 foot pizza. (I wish someone had gotten a picture.)
Not a total bust for the first day of our first Steampunk Convention.
There was, of course, two more days left!
Showing posts with label costumes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label costumes. Show all posts
Monday, March 21, 2011
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Projects, projects and MORE projects...
So this is where we once again talk about Trickster Time... He is getting so much publicity from me, I wish there was a way to bill and collect from this elusive artist.
This is a glimpse into what my life has become and it will only get more insane from here.
The troupe has performances coming up that we are really excited about and can't wait to do. Of course we need to make costumes and refresh ourselves with certain styles of Middle Eastern dance. These shows are fast approaching. As a group we are realizing that just because something is a month away, it does not mean that we have a month to work on it.
When you take into account the time you already have committed to work, children, spouses and other activities the amount of time available to actually do work decreases. Also, the time you need to take to create and sew a costume takes away from the time you can use for rehearsal. This works the other way around as well. On top of all these things you should really try to factor in the fun that Trickster Time will have with you. He likes to work with Nemesis to create problems with the sewing machines or computers you are using to work on costumes and music. Time will also play around with the day that you are working and give you the impression of having 8 hours but the 4 hour project doesn't get finished because you only really had 3 hours to truly work on it.
It makes me tired just thinking about all the things that Time can do to you when you have a deadline. It also wears me out just trying to explain how it all works. Or doesn't as the case may be
Now here's where it gets interesting or insane, take your pick.
I am networking for the troupe as well as trying to costume myself for the BIG show coming up in March. Having agreed to do some other work where I need another costume by the end of this month. Yes, 2 weeks from now. Along with rehearsals and the dance class I am teaching, I am sure I will find the time. (Was that convincing?)
Then there is the multi-level marketing that needs at least some attention. No more than 15 minutes a day really. But somehow that 15 mins seems more like an hour when you try to find it loose and free. A block of 15 free minutes is the Jackalope of my world. Truly, have you ever really seen it?
Add on to this craziness my personal quest to bring more money into my household. I now have 2 commissioned sewing projects. Well 3 if you count the project I was supposed to do during the summer. I need an hour a day to fit those in and have them done before the event they are to be worn at. ACK! (Yes, I realize I asked for this.)
And last but not least is the writing. It's always waiting for me. Like that old friend from college that is happy to hang out with you but you always leave hanging until all your other social obligations are taken care of. I am honestly writing a little something every day. But slow and steady is not the actual pace I want to be at right now. (Impatient? Me?)
Now as I return to planning and costuming I do regret that I am not posting as often as I'd like. Nor am I writing as much as I could. I also have lots of unfinished sections on that multi-level marketing website. But it's okay. I am blaming it all on that trickster Time. Otherwise my 2 hours a day would be enough to get everything done.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it!
This is a glimpse into what my life has become and it will only get more insane from here.
The troupe has performances coming up that we are really excited about and can't wait to do. Of course we need to make costumes and refresh ourselves with certain styles of Middle Eastern dance. These shows are fast approaching. As a group we are realizing that just because something is a month away, it does not mean that we have a month to work on it.
When you take into account the time you already have committed to work, children, spouses and other activities the amount of time available to actually do work decreases. Also, the time you need to take to create and sew a costume takes away from the time you can use for rehearsal. This works the other way around as well. On top of all these things you should really try to factor in the fun that Trickster Time will have with you. He likes to work with Nemesis to create problems with the sewing machines or computers you are using to work on costumes and music. Time will also play around with the day that you are working and give you the impression of having 8 hours but the 4 hour project doesn't get finished because you only really had 3 hours to truly work on it.
It makes me tired just thinking about all the things that Time can do to you when you have a deadline. It also wears me out just trying to explain how it all works. Or doesn't as the case may be
Now here's where it gets interesting or insane, take your pick.
I am networking for the troupe as well as trying to costume myself for the BIG show coming up in March. Having agreed to do some other work where I need another costume by the end of this month. Yes, 2 weeks from now. Along with rehearsals and the dance class I am teaching, I am sure I will find the time. (Was that convincing?)
Then there is the multi-level marketing that needs at least some attention. No more than 15 minutes a day really. But somehow that 15 mins seems more like an hour when you try to find it loose and free. A block of 15 free minutes is the Jackalope of my world. Truly, have you ever really seen it?
Add on to this craziness my personal quest to bring more money into my household. I now have 2 commissioned sewing projects. Well 3 if you count the project I was supposed to do during the summer. I need an hour a day to fit those in and have them done before the event they are to be worn at. ACK! (Yes, I realize I asked for this.)
And last but not least is the writing. It's always waiting for me. Like that old friend from college that is happy to hang out with you but you always leave hanging until all your other social obligations are taken care of. I am honestly writing a little something every day. But slow and steady is not the actual pace I want to be at right now. (Impatient? Me?)
Now as I return to planning and costuming I do regret that I am not posting as often as I'd like. Nor am I writing as much as I could. I also have lots of unfinished sections on that multi-level marketing website. But it's okay. I am blaming it all on that trickster Time. Otherwise my 2 hours a day would be enough to get everything done.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it!
Friday, December 17, 2010
Creativity runs Amuck...
But then again this is a regular and natural occurence in my current circle of friends.
I told an event organizer to be careful and give my group general guidelines for a show she is planning for the spring. Hard and Fast Parameters are needed to rein in the inevitable cascade of creative juices. She laughed and unfortunately told me that this show was no holds barred. Even more unfortunately, I let this slip to the gals Wednesday night. Whoops!
Now let me explain why the lack of parameters is worrisome.
In February of last year I saw a post calling for entertainers. Dancers, tarot readers, etc. The posting stated that the organizer was looking for entertainment for a Ball to be held as part of a big event. I contacted the organizer thinking this could be fun. I didn't realize what a roller coaster this would turn out to be.
My idea was that we would either have our musician friends play for us or pick out some recorded music and we would dance. A quick set, nothing spectacular. Well, it ended up being an extremely memorable and spectacular set.
It started with the costumes. What kind of costume would be appropriate for a pop culture event? Then came the storyline. Which I might add became more and more elaborate as time went on. Plus since there were two vastly different types of costuming suggested we had to incorporate both which is how the storyline came into play. Then of course there was the fun of getting the music that we wanted/needed to put it all together. So for two months a new idea came up almost daily, (a different way to showcase some prop or our costumes) and of course there was putting together the music. We almost bought a portable blacklight and a fog machine to really utilize some of these ideas. Seriously, it got crazy with the creativity. (I was going to post snippets of Facebook posts but thought better of it. I don't want to scare anyone away!) The show ended up as a fun and memorable 20 minute set.
Currently we are in the midst of putting a 30 minute show together for WWWCon in March. This has gotten even more creatively HUGE. There are new costumes, costume changes, sets and all manner of props. Patterns are being created for the costumes, right down to our footwear. Thank goodness we have the "soundtrack" done. Did I mention this is a production?
Our troupe does not just dance, there is also THEATRE Darling.
Don't misunderstand me. The troupe CAN and does just dance to live or recorded music. We have even recently done just that at a local Fall Festival. We have a simple set coming up this weekend as well. There are some venues and performances like these where doing anything beyond dancing is inappropriate and we get that. However, when we get a little leeway or a touch of encouragement to add a little more, it becomes very apparent that "little/small/slight" is not in our performance vocabulary.
What is the point?
I began this post because we've been asked if we want to put a comedic bit together. And I let slip that the promoter said this show was no holds barred, so long as it was family friendly. My mistake. Even in the middle of major planning and working on the big show in March, there was already the inevitable..
"I have an idea!"
Within the first 12 hours. After an evening practice. Meaning that at least 6 of those hours were spent sleeping.
It is a great idea that sounds like a hysterically good time and I can't wait to work on it. But trust me on this one folks. It will only get bigger from here.
I told an event organizer to be careful and give my group general guidelines for a show she is planning for the spring. Hard and Fast Parameters are needed to rein in the inevitable cascade of creative juices. She laughed and unfortunately told me that this show was no holds barred. Even more unfortunately, I let this slip to the gals Wednesday night. Whoops!
Now let me explain why the lack of parameters is worrisome.
In February of last year I saw a post calling for entertainers. Dancers, tarot readers, etc. The posting stated that the organizer was looking for entertainment for a Ball to be held as part of a big event. I contacted the organizer thinking this could be fun. I didn't realize what a roller coaster this would turn out to be.
My idea was that we would either have our musician friends play for us or pick out some recorded music and we would dance. A quick set, nothing spectacular. Well, it ended up being an extremely memorable and spectacular set.
It started with the costumes. What kind of costume would be appropriate for a pop culture event? Then came the storyline. Which I might add became more and more elaborate as time went on. Plus since there were two vastly different types of costuming suggested we had to incorporate both which is how the storyline came into play. Then of course there was the fun of getting the music that we wanted/needed to put it all together. So for two months a new idea came up almost daily, (a different way to showcase some prop or our costumes) and of course there was putting together the music. We almost bought a portable blacklight and a fog machine to really utilize some of these ideas. Seriously, it got crazy with the creativity. (I was going to post snippets of Facebook posts but thought better of it. I don't want to scare anyone away!) The show ended up as a fun and memorable 20 minute set.
Currently we are in the midst of putting a 30 minute show together for WWWCon in March. This has gotten even more creatively HUGE. There are new costumes, costume changes, sets and all manner of props. Patterns are being created for the costumes, right down to our footwear. Thank goodness we have the "soundtrack" done. Did I mention this is a production?
Our troupe does not just dance, there is also THEATRE Darling.
Don't misunderstand me. The troupe CAN and does just dance to live or recorded music. We have even recently done just that at a local Fall Festival. We have a simple set coming up this weekend as well. There are some venues and performances like these where doing anything beyond dancing is inappropriate and we get that. However, when we get a little leeway or a touch of encouragement to add a little more, it becomes very apparent that "little/small/slight" is not in our performance vocabulary.
What is the point?
I began this post because we've been asked if we want to put a comedic bit together. And I let slip that the promoter said this show was no holds barred, so long as it was family friendly. My mistake. Even in the middle of major planning and working on the big show in March, there was already the inevitable..
"I have an idea!"
Within the first 12 hours. After an evening practice. Meaning that at least 6 of those hours were spent sleeping.
It is a great idea that sounds like a hysterically good time and I can't wait to work on it. But trust me on this one folks. It will only get bigger from here.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Drowning Smurfs...
Giggle Three
(you all are probably getting tired of the dye job stories.. hehehe)
This of course is the continuing discussion of silly things that came up when creating costumes. If you are a friend of mine on a social network you have seen a picture of the whole troupe in these beautiful "peacock" color costumes and every bit of them were made by us! We are so Talented. But I digress.
Trying to come up with something simple, girly and bellydance'ish we zeroed in on wrap pants. There is only one seam right in the middle and the rest is hemming. Fairly simple and we had fabric we could dye in any color already. After deciding on the purple velvet for the ghwazee coats the pants had to be bright to contrast and still be one of the "peacock" colors. The name of the dye we used was Sapphire, but my friend insisted it was Smurf Blue. I didn't care. It was bright, pretty and would get pants on us. (Dancing w/out pants would have made some of the men happy but Not the other dancers.) Thus the bright blue dye on the raw silk pants that gave such an amazing contrast.
One of the fun things that happens when you dye anything, be it fabric or hair, is that you Always end up with some on yourself. I have learned to wear clothing that I don't mind being multi-colored. We try to remember to put on gloves but sometimes they tear. Of course, most of the time the problem is that you are in a rush to get things done and at some point forget to don the gloves. When it comes to me, I just don't care enough to worry about what my hands will look like. (My husband will attest to this as it was true when working on my Mazda years ago as well.) On this round of dyeing I actually didn't get my hands on much so I just had blue nails and some spotting. My friend managed to turn her fingers blue almost to the second knuckle. I was a little jealous, I kind of like getting "dirty" when doing art. Next time I was going to do more.
My friend, who had commissioned work to finish for her business, had more blue things to dye the next day. I noticed on her status update that her fingers looked like she had been drowning smurfs! The image that came to my mind of course is that big cauldron that Gargamel had with smurfs in it trying to get out. The whole time my friend is laughing and pushing them down into the pot. Because THAT is how they all became BLUE!! So really she wasn't drowning smurfs but dyeing them to match our outfits!
(It gets much stranger.)
The following week, we were dyeing the small pieces of our costuming. This included the Peacock Camo armpit covers and the Grilled Peacock veil I wore as a butt cover. (Covering is important to us.) And yes this time I get color on me. I really did put a glove on, but it split right at the bottom. Did I notice? Yes. Did I care. Not one bit. I started out being careful about where I put my hand. As we started having fun really mashing in the color I stopped paying attention. Later on I looked at the "peacock" coloring on the heel of my hand and began to think. If having blue tipped fingers meant you were drowning smurfs then what did peacock coloring on the heel of your hand mean?
Smooshed Peacock!
"I am very sorry sir, but your pet peacock was buzzing in my ear while I was talking. Before I could think about it I just swatted it down and smooshed it."
Wait. Peacocks are too big to just swat down. Hmmm. What if it was a peacock mosquito? No. Female mosquitos are the ones that bite and only Male peacocks are colorful. (Told ya it would get really strange.) Would a hummingbird sized peacock be small enough? YES!
"I was chatting with a friend when a peacock hummingbird came a little too close and mistaking it for a pesky bug I swatted it. I felt really badly when I realized my mistake and am now marked with the colors of my crime."
This lunacy I have only shared now, with you. Don't you all feel special?
This was the point when I realized... I needed sleep.
(you all are probably getting tired of the dye job stories.. hehehe)
This of course is the continuing discussion of silly things that came up when creating costumes. If you are a friend of mine on a social network you have seen a picture of the whole troupe in these beautiful "peacock" color costumes and every bit of them were made by us! We are so Talented. But I digress.
Trying to come up with something simple, girly and bellydance'ish we zeroed in on wrap pants. There is only one seam right in the middle and the rest is hemming. Fairly simple and we had fabric we could dye in any color already. After deciding on the purple velvet for the ghwazee coats the pants had to be bright to contrast and still be one of the "peacock" colors. The name of the dye we used was Sapphire, but my friend insisted it was Smurf Blue. I didn't care. It was bright, pretty and would get pants on us. (Dancing w/out pants would have made some of the men happy but Not the other dancers.) Thus the bright blue dye on the raw silk pants that gave such an amazing contrast.
One of the fun things that happens when you dye anything, be it fabric or hair, is that you Always end up with some on yourself. I have learned to wear clothing that I don't mind being multi-colored. We try to remember to put on gloves but sometimes they tear. Of course, most of the time the problem is that you are in a rush to get things done and at some point forget to don the gloves. When it comes to me, I just don't care enough to worry about what my hands will look like. (My husband will attest to this as it was true when working on my Mazda years ago as well.) On this round of dyeing I actually didn't get my hands on much so I just had blue nails and some spotting. My friend managed to turn her fingers blue almost to the second knuckle. I was a little jealous, I kind of like getting "dirty" when doing art. Next time I was going to do more.
My friend, who had commissioned work to finish for her business, had more blue things to dye the next day. I noticed on her status update that her fingers looked like she had been drowning smurfs! The image that came to my mind of course is that big cauldron that Gargamel had with smurfs in it trying to get out. The whole time my friend is laughing and pushing them down into the pot. Because THAT is how they all became BLUE!! So really she wasn't drowning smurfs but dyeing them to match our outfits!
(It gets much stranger.)
The following week, we were dyeing the small pieces of our costuming. This included the Peacock Camo armpit covers and the Grilled Peacock veil I wore as a butt cover. (Covering is important to us.) And yes this time I get color on me. I really did put a glove on, but it split right at the bottom. Did I notice? Yes. Did I care. Not one bit. I started out being careful about where I put my hand. As we started having fun really mashing in the color I stopped paying attention. Later on I looked at the "peacock" coloring on the heel of my hand and began to think. If having blue tipped fingers meant you were drowning smurfs then what did peacock coloring on the heel of your hand mean?
Smooshed Peacock!
"I am very sorry sir, but your pet peacock was buzzing in my ear while I was talking. Before I could think about it I just swatted it down and smooshed it."
Wait. Peacocks are too big to just swat down. Hmmm. What if it was a peacock mosquito? No. Female mosquitos are the ones that bite and only Male peacocks are colorful. (Told ya it would get really strange.) Would a hummingbird sized peacock be small enough? YES!
"I was chatting with a friend when a peacock hummingbird came a little too close and mistaking it for a pesky bug I swatted it. I felt really badly when I realized my mistake and am now marked with the colors of my crime."
This lunacy I have only shared now, with you. Don't you all feel special?
This was the point when I realized... I needed sleep.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
It's just Worm Spit!
Giggle number Two (BTW these are not in chronological order)
Some folks really have a way of expressing themselves in a way that is both succinct and humorous. I love these little tidbits because while they never fail to make me giggle, they also paint the exact picture necessary. It is also funny when they come out after some slightly related remark is made elsewhere. This was one of those times that will be etched into my memory.
I believe it was the last day of dyeing and stitching for our costumes that I spaced the errands I was supposed to run before getting to my friend's house. Since those errands weren't run I got to the house early. Color me embarrassed when I came into the house during a phone conversation. My hostess was all kinds of gracious, I was just feeling dumb because I forgot stuff, again. (The forgetting things is a whole Other story.) She brought me chai and I waited patiently really trying to just relax and not listen in on the conversation. That is until I hear, "I don't know why silk items are such a high priced commodity, it's just worm spit." This was said very matter of factly and I had to cover my face and bite my tongue so my laughing wouldn't interrupt the conversation I was supposedly ignoring. Thank goodness my mouth was not full of the yummy chai!
This week was also the week that "The Cat in the Hat Knows a lot About That" was repeating the silk thread episode.In this episode one of the children needs silk thread to repair her dress and the Cat takes them some silly place to meet silk worms. The worm is upset at being called a worm because she is in fact a CATERPILLAR. The nerve of us for mistaking the two!
Now if you've gotten to know a little of how my mind mashes things you'll know what comes next.I hear 'it's just worm spit' and think 'No they're caterpillars'. I try really hard not to say things like this out loud, because I don't want to be that kind of nerd. But I think them all the time. So now I have in my head this little ditty "Worm spit, Caterpillar Spit it doesn't matter it still feels nice." Yeah, we won't take that any further.
Telephone conversation finished, chai refilled and silks ready to be prepared for dyeing I grin at my friend and say "So it's just worm spit eh?" She bursts out laughing. When she gets herself back under control tells me "But it really is." We then go into the discussion about how this protein that is pretty readily available comes at such a high price in retail markets. I do point out that it is actually the work involved between the silk as fabric and the silk as finished product. There is a lot of prep work, care and special treatment that silk requires that other fabrics such as cotton do not. All of our hard work to create a set of simple yet pretty costumes proved just that.
Now I can honestly say that I have a beautiful costume to dance in that is mostly comprised of beautifully dyed Worm Spit, (or Caterpillar Spit if you'd rather.)
Some folks really have a way of expressing themselves in a way that is both succinct and humorous. I love these little tidbits because while they never fail to make me giggle, they also paint the exact picture necessary. It is also funny when they come out after some slightly related remark is made elsewhere. This was one of those times that will be etched into my memory.
I believe it was the last day of dyeing and stitching for our costumes that I spaced the errands I was supposed to run before getting to my friend's house. Since those errands weren't run I got to the house early. Color me embarrassed when I came into the house during a phone conversation. My hostess was all kinds of gracious, I was just feeling dumb because I forgot stuff, again. (The forgetting things is a whole Other story.) She brought me chai and I waited patiently really trying to just relax and not listen in on the conversation. That is until I hear, "I don't know why silk items are such a high priced commodity, it's just worm spit." This was said very matter of factly and I had to cover my face and bite my tongue so my laughing wouldn't interrupt the conversation I was supposedly ignoring. Thank goodness my mouth was not full of the yummy chai!
This week was also the week that "The Cat in the Hat Knows a lot About That" was repeating the silk thread episode.In this episode one of the children needs silk thread to repair her dress and the Cat takes them some silly place to meet silk worms. The worm is upset at being called a worm because she is in fact a CATERPILLAR. The nerve of us for mistaking the two!
Now if you've gotten to know a little of how my mind mashes things you'll know what comes next.I hear 'it's just worm spit' and think 'No they're caterpillars'. I try really hard not to say things like this out loud, because I don't want to be that kind of nerd. But I think them all the time. So now I have in my head this little ditty "Worm spit, Caterpillar Spit it doesn't matter it still feels nice." Yeah, we won't take that any further.
Telephone conversation finished, chai refilled and silks ready to be prepared for dyeing I grin at my friend and say "So it's just worm spit eh?" She bursts out laughing. When she gets herself back under control tells me "But it really is." We then go into the discussion about how this protein that is pretty readily available comes at such a high price in retail markets. I do point out that it is actually the work involved between the silk as fabric and the silk as finished product. There is a lot of prep work, care and special treatment that silk requires that other fabrics such as cotton do not. All of our hard work to create a set of simple yet pretty costumes proved just that.
Now I can honestly say that I have a beautiful costume to dance in that is mostly comprised of beautifully dyed Worm Spit, (or Caterpillar Spit if you'd rather.)
Monday, November 8, 2010
Grilled Peacock.... (with Pineapple Sauce?)
Giggle One of the Costuming Saga (BTW these are not in chronological order)
Sometimes in costume making, you create items that will double as both part of a costume or an accessory. We did a few of these with silks over the past two weeks. The colors we got were both breath taking and fun. And when the color got all over us, that was fun too. I personally got to learn a little about the chemical reactions that make the dyeing process happen, (Zahira sneaks science lessons into Everything!) I was also trusted to squirt the dye out of the bottles onto the silk. Woo Hoo!
This time around the dye pot, I learned that dyeing silk is not an exact science and sometimes the silk or the dye is naughty. Color doesn't always take OR the color changes a bit. This makes every project a true science experiment. My definition of an experiment: A true scientific experiment comes about when you don't know what will actually happen. You can make a hypothesis and put your materials/data together but you have to Wait for the outcome.
One veil in particular did both of the above-mentioned naughty tricks to us when we were in the process of creating it. It didn't take color in some spots AND one of the colors came out differently than expected. After pulling said veil out of the processing container, I pointed these two bits of mischief out to Zahira. She leaned back a little and tapped her finger on her bottom lip in her patented "I'm creating" mode. After a few moments of thought her eyes began to sparkle and a dazzling grin appeared. Painting! That is how we change what we Got into something we Want. First came the pleating of the veil, then out came the paintbrush. Dipping into the dye pot and stroking color onto the fabric Zahira told me to just wait and see. I followed her directions and wrapped the silk, put it in to steam and when we pulled it out I was amazed.
The veil had lovely graduated sections of the "Peacock" coloring we were striving for, but with painting the pleats we got this striped effect as well. Our troupe colors were dubbed a few weeks ago as Peacock Camo, because of the colors and how the dye soaked into the fabric. This veil had none of the camouflage type spotting, it only had the colors we have been using for our Peacock Camo. Since there was this purple striping across most of this "peacock" veil, the imagination could only conclude that it had been on the grill. Thus this veil is now dubbed - Grilled Peacock.
I, of course, began laughing at the thought of the face most people would make if offered grilled peacock. Then, I began to wonder what it would taste like and furthermore what kind of sauce could you serve with it. (Strange? Yes! But it gets better.) Pondering the sauce, my mind wandered back into costume land and I tried picturing what color would be peacock'ish and compliment the costume well. Gold came to mind almost immediately and on the heels of that thought came the thought that pineapples were "gold". The only conclusion that I then came to was that if you are going to have Grilled Peacock, you MUST serve it with Pineapple Sauce!
The Grilled Peacock veil I took as my decorative "butt cover" and wore it with pride. I made sure that I had gold jewelry to compliment the whole Peacock ensemble. That way when I walked around and while I was on stage I could imagine myself as Grilled Peacock with Pineapple Sauce!
Sometimes in costume making, you create items that will double as both part of a costume or an accessory. We did a few of these with silks over the past two weeks. The colors we got were both breath taking and fun. And when the color got all over us, that was fun too. I personally got to learn a little about the chemical reactions that make the dyeing process happen, (Zahira sneaks science lessons into Everything!) I was also trusted to squirt the dye out of the bottles onto the silk. Woo Hoo!
This time around the dye pot, I learned that dyeing silk is not an exact science and sometimes the silk or the dye is naughty. Color doesn't always take OR the color changes a bit. This makes every project a true science experiment. My definition of an experiment: A true scientific experiment comes about when you don't know what will actually happen. You can make a hypothesis and put your materials/data together but you have to Wait for the outcome.
One veil in particular did both of the above-mentioned naughty tricks to us when we were in the process of creating it. It didn't take color in some spots AND one of the colors came out differently than expected. After pulling said veil out of the processing container, I pointed these two bits of mischief out to Zahira. She leaned back a little and tapped her finger on her bottom lip in her patented "I'm creating" mode. After a few moments of thought her eyes began to sparkle and a dazzling grin appeared. Painting! That is how we change what we Got into something we Want. First came the pleating of the veil, then out came the paintbrush. Dipping into the dye pot and stroking color onto the fabric Zahira told me to just wait and see. I followed her directions and wrapped the silk, put it in to steam and when we pulled it out I was amazed.
The veil had lovely graduated sections of the "Peacock" coloring we were striving for, but with painting the pleats we got this striped effect as well. Our troupe colors were dubbed a few weeks ago as Peacock Camo, because of the colors and how the dye soaked into the fabric. This veil had none of the camouflage type spotting, it only had the colors we have been using for our Peacock Camo. Since there was this purple striping across most of this "peacock" veil, the imagination could only conclude that it had been on the grill. Thus this veil is now dubbed - Grilled Peacock.
I, of course, began laughing at the thought of the face most people would make if offered grilled peacock. Then, I began to wonder what it would taste like and furthermore what kind of sauce could you serve with it. (Strange? Yes! But it gets better.) Pondering the sauce, my mind wandered back into costume land and I tried picturing what color would be peacock'ish and compliment the costume well. Gold came to mind almost immediately and on the heels of that thought came the thought that pineapples were "gold". The only conclusion that I then came to was that if you are going to have Grilled Peacock, you MUST serve it with Pineapple Sauce!
The Grilled Peacock veil I took as my decorative "butt cover" and wore it with pride. I made sure that I had gold jewelry to compliment the whole Peacock ensemble. That way when I walked around and while I was on stage I could imagine myself as Grilled Peacock with Pineapple Sauce!
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