parure du cou maintenon

i was looking for reproduction art nouveau jewelry and I found this website selling gorgeous pieces. they just happen to not be reproductions, but the genuine article...
the jump will take you to this (not art nouveau but still lovely) pendant that i've become fascinated by.
so...i haven't found what i'm looking for, but this site is great for reference. and in case i ever have a few grand i need to get rid of, i know where to get some trinkets...

drinking horn

Last war I bought a gigantic cow horn to turn into a drinking horn. The polyurethane coating is drying, so I guess it'd be ok to start posting pictures of this weeks long process.

After sanding it a bit, I started by burning designs into it with my leather brander. Horns are basically giant fingernails, so it smells like burning hair, but it doesn't last.
Rose de Neige is my SCA name (as well as my middle name). It's french for rose of the snow. It's a family name.

Then I traced this drawing onto it and used a Dremel engraving tool and this thing:
Yes, that is a dental tool/needle hybrid. Put away your iphones, because this is the new HEIGHT of technology! The stabby-scrapey-thingama...thing. I believe that's the technical term.


...Moving on.
After a few hours of anal retentivity, covering up now permanent mistakes and developing a new appreciation for professional scrimshaw artists. (Yes, those are hand carved images on pocket knives, making anything I do look like graffitti scratched into a public bathroom stall with a safety pin).
There was a lot of india ink involved, this sooty aspect having since been cleaned up with sand paper and elbow grease.


More photos of the final product later. When it's done dripping shellac.

school and such

I GOT INTO FIDM BITCHES.
.
.
.
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and i'm really excited.
♥

Evil-Punk

So at my friend Gail's birthday party, she and I were talking about how wholesome Steampunk costumes tend to be and how it's not considered Steampunk without goggles.
So we decided to be evil Steampunks, who don't dress primarily in brown *shocking!* or wear goggles *appalling!*
Somehow we're going to keep this Steampunk instead of....Bitchgoth?

Anyway, I'm not sure if Gail has remembered, but I've started with a small step of my own:
What's more evil than a sinister eyepatch? Genocide? Tax evasion? I don't think so. Nothing says menacing like a villain who may have been in a brutal eye gouging battle, or vicious childhood accident. EVIL glaucoma perhaps?
Buttons!

Me, first thing in the morning. Menacing, no?

I've evened out the edges a bit since these photos were taken. I might replace the drawing, because it matches the eye that ISN'T covered... That's what I get for trying to get shit done at 2 am.
It's made of leather, paper saturated in Prismacolor ink and one lens I personally battered into the appropriate shape.

to oregon! {again}

Tomorrow I'll be setting off for Oregon tomorrow, for the second time this summer, the first time to visit Josh with Margot in the adorable {albeit kind of boring town when you don't have money for plays and Josh has finals} town of Ashland.
This time I'm going to war! And I'm not driving!!! The only thing that could make it better would be having the whole crew up. And having more money to spend. And maybe for time and supplies to make more garb....Whatever. War is War.


In preparation I've made a sort of Greek dress, aiming for the CREATIVE aspect of the SCA and not necessarily strict ANACHRONISM. It's made of millions of yards of muslin. I braided strips of muslin together to make a long rope to bind the whole thing together. The rope is completely detached, so it can be tied however I want. It looks like a more sophisticated version of Ariel's impromptu sail dress in The Little Mermaid...Which was about as sophisticated as the dildo shaped spire on the castle featured on the original vhs of that movie, but whatever. Here's a sketch:

After the greek dress i set to work on my linen tunic and under tunic set, based off a Viking dress a friend of mine made.
Unlike my friend, I didn't actually have a pattern, so starting with the under tunic I sort of made one up.
I took a pattern from the unfortunate brides' maid outfit my mother made me for my sister's wedding. It was an ugly two piece thing with optional jacket. The kind of thing they'd only actually SELL in those old lady catalogs under 'church wear', alongside your very own pastel Little House on the Prarie nightgown and circus tent sized mumu.
So i lined up the waist line on the skirt and top and cut it out in off white linen and sewed the whole thing together. The part where the sleeves meet the body are a little puffy, cause I had to use the jacket sleeves and I decided to improvise.
After adjusting everything to {more or less} the way I wanted it, I croceted some black hemp and sewed it around the cuffs, ending in swirls. I keep telling myself I'm going to do more down the sides after I grow some patience and Vicky Beckham take a vow of poverty.

For the blue over tunic, I traced the undertunic and cut that out, this time, tracing sleeves from a jacket I actually like. I'm trying to get everything to fit just right, but it's going pretty well.

I also threw together a sort of girl gladiator cropped leather bodice with matching belt. I'm going with a sort of wildling thing to match my mohawk this year.


When I return, legitimate photos will be taken instead of these poorly scanned, murky sketches. Lora and I will be doing a studio shoot so I can start compiling something of a portfolio.

shoes!

So after finding some really cute stamped leather and making a sort of faux Greek dress, I thought I would try my hand at making some simple sandals. I finally finished a couple of days ago and here they are:

I started with sketches (naturally) and settling on which direction I would go in. Laying the leather against my heel and Achilles Tendon and tracing the cut i would make. I cut and sewed the heel pieces for each foot then {several weeks later, when I quit being so lazy...} sewed them to thick, THICK pieces of leather, modeled after the outline of my feet. I put nice, smooth leather in between for aesthetics. The soles were the thickest my leather guy had and my wrist was pretty sore after cutting and punch them with my heavy duty scissors and my star wheel.
After my wrist was healed by watching cartoons, I measured, cut and punched the side straps and flip-floppy toe separator bit and sewed them in as I went along {with the same thick cotton twine, that i coated liberally with bees' wax}.

Then I filled the spaces between layers of leather with the Tandy Leather Factory Tanner's Bond Leathercraft Cement (c), like really dry, chewy eclairs.
I smoothed the glue out by squeezing the leather, so it would be even, wiped away anything that squeezed out, and left them to dry with clothes pins around the edges {which is why there are slightly dented parts that will *hopefully* fade away} and a couple of books stacked on top, with a paper towel to keep them unglue-ified.

Eventually, when I get back out to civilization and a Joann's, I'm going to replace the yarn with a nice, thick red ribbon.
I'm also going to exfoliate and moisturize my feet, 'cause...damn.

"I kissed his mustache and thought of you"

Two nights ago Kersey had an especially epic night at the Pomona Fox theater in Southern California. The rest of us already know that Kersey is a spirited and enthusiastic dancer. Now she's had the opportunity to warm the cockles of Eugene Hutz's heart.

Last night, Diana, Lora, Joanna, Vivian, Gail, Brian and I got together to have a belated Eurovision party. Lately I've become completely enthralled with Eurovision, after seeing Verka Serduchka's 2007 performance of Danzing. The Ukraine was scandelized by the fact that they were being represented by a drag queen in what the whole of Europe considers a very prestigious competition. The joke's on them. She scored second place.

In case disco headdresses arn't your thing, check Switzerland's 2007 entry by DJ Bobo (Vampires Are Alive), an epic balland worthy of Dance Dance Revolution.

With this level of camp usually only seen during Halloween in the Castro, I was out of my skin with excitement for Eurovision 2009. I was not dissapointed.

The night started with Greece. How that man jumps so high in those tight, tight white pants or inexplicably rips his shirt, I'll never know.

Here's Portugal. If I could wake every morning with this adorable woman singing to me that would be grand. Though the Super Nintento Mario World visuals might send me into involuntary convulsions if left on too long.

When Diana first told me about Azerbaijan I told her she couldn't just make up countries for fun (three cheers for public school!). And though I still don't know where it is, what it's people are like, and is far from being always on my mind, I do know that Azerbaijan has a fondness for ice skating outfits, gold chaps, acrobats and Carnival Cruise uniforms.

Oh Finland, Finland, Finland. Rap techno? Really?

If Shakira's hips don't lie, Turkey might have a few skeletons in the closet. However, I did quite like the bouncing bondaged boy in the flowing green skirt.

I really expected more from Germany. Even with Alex C., a throwback to Cab Calloway and an appearance from Dita Von Teese, they fell short. I would, however, like to keep those USO dancers around as cigarette girls for my next party.

I never knew Moldova was hiding a long lost Sailor Scout, but I'm very glad she's been found, alive and safe, with thighs that could kick through a concrete wall.

Armenia brought it old school. As you know anything actually considered 'old' in Europe is about 500 years older than what Americans old. This is what I imagine Lysa Arryn wears when she hurls people out of the Moon Door to their frozen shreiking deaths. If only Lysa Arryn could do it with back up dancers.

The Ukraine really wanted this one. Badly. Between a matching set of illicit space trojans sent to Earth to be the disco slaves of Charo, reincarnated as a sex gymnast stripper when she's done playing in her hamster wheel and ready for her drum solo I'm kind of surprised they didn't.

Who knew Zac Efron and Daniel Radcliffe had a lovechild? Alexander Rybak, of Norway won the whole thing this year with a song called fairytale. I'm sure, for weeks, the song will be stuck in my head as i daydream about his back up dancers do leap frogging push ups in an homage to the disembodied head from Spirited Away.