Dressing a Steampunk Vampire

Going to the Steampunk convention, Teslacon III, was one of the biggest highlights of 2012 and even though I had no idea what the following year would hold, I wanted to be involved somehow for Teslacon IV.  Long story short, due to moving to Scotland I wasn't able to attend Teslacon this time around in 2013, but I did sew for it!

One of the special elements of Teslacon is the cast who remain in character all weekend and act out a specific storyline.  For Teslacon IV, new villianous characters were introduced: factions of werewolves and vampires.  My friend Nicole was responsible for designing and creating the costume for the head werewolf, and I for designing and making the costume for the lead vampire.

After a bunch of conversations about the character and doing several sketches, the head of the con decided on the one above (which was luckily my pick as well).  I was told the colors should be blood red, and I began sourcing fabrics.

Then I moved abroad and things became rather tricky.  It's never easy to do a long-distance sewing project for another person, and this particular venture was even more stressful since there was no opportunity for a fitting.  I had a set of measurements to work from and could only make everything as adjustable as possible, cross my fingers, and hope that everything would work out okay.  It also did not help that the largest mannequin that I had access to was several inches smaller than the actress, but I got the costume done and in the post.

And it wasn't a disaster!  The bodice ended up being a little bit big in the bust, but for having no fittings whatsoever I consider it a success. I can't stress enough how unideal not having at least one fitting is.  I would never ever recommend it!

Not being in attendance at the con, I was really happy to see the pictures of the vampire costume in action.  Logically, since I wasn't there, I didn't take any of the photos below!  It was great seeing Tabitha as Angelique de LaMorte, accompanied by her faithful minions and various other nefarious sorts.

across the ocean and what came before: House of Grey

There have been some pretty epic changes in my life since I last wrote anything, and some of that change will definitely be flowing into the blog.  The very, very short version is that I am now living in Scotland and am studying for my MFA in Performance Costume.

But before all of that, my last post from the end of May sort of left things hanging, and it's high time to let you all know what was up!  During the summer, my friend Nicole and I started up a little steampunk venture, making ladies hats and accessories.  We wanted to create unique items that didn't look like anything else currently available, and used a lot of of antique and vintage trims and fabrics when making these pieces. 

We called our shop House of Grey, and our etsy store is up and running! 

Here are some of the items which I made for the shop, and Nicole posted some of her work a little while ago on her blog as well.

Fully functioning headphones of cast bronze and plastic with fabric covered cushions and inset stones.  I made these a few years ago during a metals course in university, but they fit very well with the aesthetics of the shop.

And of course, hats!  They're all built on buckrum and wire bases, and I developed a new pattern for each one... no repeats!

 

And of course there are handbags as well, like this one made of and lined with silk taffeta on an antique accordian clasp.

And while moving overseas certainly changes some things, I don't intend to let my now being in Scotland prevent me from making more pieces for House of Grey.  Obviously I'll have to fit things around my masters work, but I'll still make and add things whenever I'm able.

I am the Night - Steampunk Ballgown

 Every good costume event naturally includes a Grand Ball of some sorts, and Teslacon was no exception.  The ball itself was hands down the best dance I have ever been to, far outstripping all the Civil War and Regency balls in terms of equal numbers of men and women (all who had clearly made an effort to look as fabulous as possible) and general affability and an eagerness to be social and mingle. It was glorious.

For my gown, I mainly drew inspiration from evening gowns from about 1905-08, and as the whole theme of Teslacon was 'a journey to the moon' Nicole and I themed our dresses accordingly.  She was the Moon and I was the Night.

The fabric is a greyish lavender lightweight rayon blend with a texturized stripe, and a shimmery black of some unnatural fiber was used for the accent.  The upper portion of the skirt was stitched with hundreds of small tucks along the stripes of the fabric before the pieces of the skirt were cut out and sewn together.  The bodice is also mainly constructed of the tucked fabric, and is lined with polished cotton of a similar color.  The bottom edge of the bodice is piped, and it closes up the back quite simply with hooks and eyes.

Of course, it's the accessories that really make an outfit, and I had loads of fun making the little half-mask headpiece to go with the dress.  It's made from clock hands, which were very lightweight and quite easy to shape as I wanted, stitched to a ribbon covered headband.  A spray of black feathers finished it all off.  The one thing I did not make, actually, was the wonderful, beaded necklace/shoulder piece.  I found it on ebay, and it worked perfectly with what I was aiming for.

We took a few pictures the night of the ball, but gowns rarely show to best advantage in hotel hallways, so yesterday Nicole and I got all dressed up once more and ventured out for a photoshoot.  We ended up taking pictures in the wonderful sculpture yard outside Charlie's Antiques... the owners were really nice and seemed quite happy to let us wander all around and take as many photos as we wanted.

We had SO much fun doing the photoshoot, and choosing only a few pictures to put on the blog was really difficult.  As it is, I leave you with perhaps more pictures than I would normally post... 

And finally, a couple images of Nicole and I together. Self-timers are a blogger's best friend!

Steampunk - Take II

My original plans for Teslacon included three totally different outfits, but due to time constraints the plan was altered somewhat.  On the second day of the convention I re-purposed the military style jacket from the day before (minus epaulets and tassels), and paired it with a matching skirt.  The pleated underskirt is made of the gold silk dupioni which lines the jacket, and the little drape is made of the same green as the jacket.

To be honest, this skirt almost never existed... I had talked about what I wanted it to be, but had run out of time to do anything about it.  The day on which we left I had to work all morning, and Nicole whipped it up based on what I'd described.  Aside from the bow in the back (which is actually the same bow used to adorn the sword scabbard on the previous day's outfit and is attached with a liberal dose of safety pins), the skirt was done that morning in a couple of hours. 

While wearing those short shorts the first day was fun, swords can get really heavy after a whole day of wear and I was very glad to be in something lighter and more comfortable the next day.

These pictures were taken in front of the super-awesome cigar rolling machine belonging to Foundry Cigars.  It was made by Dr Grymm Laboratories, and sort of felt like the embodiment of the steampunk aesthetic.  And yes, that is a cigar in my hand... they even had cogs on them!

Steampunk! The adventure begins with Teslacon III

Having just returned home yesterday from my first Steampunk event, I'm still floating on the high that was Teslacon.  I'll do more individual costume posts over the next few days, but I wanted to rave about the con for a bit first.

Nicole and I took the long drive to Wisconsin together, and the seventeen hours in the car (each way) was not in any way too high a price to pay for the awesomeness that ensued.  Steampunk as a genre has appealed to me for quite a while, and the reality of it exceeded all my expectations.  I honestly can't say enough good things about Teslacon... the immersive storyline was ridiculously entertaining, panels were amusing or informative or both, there were wonderful things to be bought in the dealers room, and the level of creativity shown by the majority of the attendees was beautifully refreshing. 

Most of all, I was impressed by the attitude of the Steampunk community in general.  Across the board, all the people we met and interacted with, from first-time con-goers to in-character staff to enstablished artists and authors, everyone was friendly and open and enthusiastic.  The general attitude was that we were all there to help each other and that information was to be shared and beginners were encouraged and artisans supported each other.  There was no snobbery, no one-up-man-ship, and it was glorious.  The reenacting community could learn a lot from the steampunkers in that regard.

Perhaps best for me personally though, I felt like I could be creative again.  Taking leaps of imagination was embraced and encouraged, and that was a marvelous feeling.

My outfit for the first day was inspired by an image of a military style Burlesque dancer from the 1880s or 90s, with added spatterdashes and a bit of juditious tweaking of design.  The whole outfit is worn over my mid-19th century corset.

The trim on the jacket and shorts is a metallic gimp braid, which was all sewn on by hand after the items were assembled.  I believe I used about twenty yards total for all the trimming.  Detachable lace ruffles are basted into the cuffs.

The little hat is built on a buckrum base and the visor is a rich brown leather edged with gold braid.  And the spatterdashes are a little bit sneaky... I actually fastened them with a long invisible zipper on the inner seams.  The buttons are permamently stitched down and don't actually function.

I had so much fun walking around in short shorts and a sword all day.  The strangest thing was having to remember that my legs had to do something in photographs... I'm so used to being in long skirts when in costume!

Steampunk Wings and Still Stuff

I really want to see more 1860s inspired steampunk impressions... there's a world of amazing stuff out there from the bustle-era onwards, but it seems as though the steamy age of the 50s and 60s is quite overlooked.

Oil on Masonite, 18"x24"

Also, apologies for falling behind a bit on the internet!  Even though I drew the initial sketch for this painting last summer, I didn't get around to actually painting it until about four weeks ago.  It was really great to be properly painting again... I hadn't realized how much I'd missed it.

In the spirit of getting back into the practice of regularly painting, I did a couple small still lives recently as well.  It had been several years since I'd painted from life, and even longer since I'd done a still life of any kind.  What I'd managed to forget, however, is how incredibly boring I find still lives to be.  There must be some sort of magical method or prop that would make the practice interesting, but as it stands, I find this sort of thing incredibly dull.  Good practice, but so tedious.  Both are oil on canvas paper, 9"x12".

I have a final sketch and prepped board ready for the next painting, and I'm really rather excited about it.  There'll actually be a real background and environment for once!

And next weekend I'll be travelling up to Michigan for my favorite Civil War event, so hopefully there'll be good pictures and interesting tales to relate after that.  I'll be taking a sketchbook along with me too... I've never sat and sketched people at a reenactment before, but I think it could be a lot of fun! (also, I really don't feel like doing handwork or knitting these days, yet I don't want to be completely filled with sloth and idleness)  ;)