The Twilight Zones, PinBall Wizard, and beyond!

In January I took on perhaps the most ambitious costume design project to date and followed that up with my second year designing the Twilight Zones for Theater Schmeater.  Needless to say I have neglected this blog again for four months… days after I made it a resolution to pay more attention to the blog!  I guess that is the way I roll!

 

TOMMY- The Rock Opera

I get an email on January 5th asking if I could design for the Burien Little Theater’s Tommy production that opens February 17. At first I say no because it is too far a commute for lugging costumes with no car.  Then my friend Michelle tells me that she is playing the Acid Queen (which I wanted to see) and that I can commute with her, the budget is decent too, which intrigues me- a good budget will make up for a lot of things.  Short story- I accept before looking at the script- faintly remembering Ann Margret rolling around in beans and Elton John with rising platform shoes that I love the thought of designing the outfit for.  WELL, the 1992  Broadway Rock Opera is not as high on LSD as the 1974 movie and it has about 30 costume changes in the prologue alone, gulp!  I just had to dive in head first and figure out how to swim later because the clock was ticking away.

Here is the whole set of pics on Flickr

Review- 

 

 

The Twilight Zone-

Lisa Branham and Daniel Christensen in Twilight Zone Live!

 

The week after tech of Tommy, I start designing for the Twilight Zone… which I have known about for months now and I have the scripts and seen the episodes already.  I was excited for this because we have move this production for the very small Theater Schmeater Play house to ACT in downtown Seattle, tripling the audience capacity.  I really love this production because of the period.  Since the original series ran from 1959-1964 (I think) the is a very specific period and the director, Tim Moore,  is very detailed in his vision.  Its like my own little Mad Men world…. with some Monks mixed in.

Review

 

 

I am POOPED!  I slept all last week because of the lack of sleep for the prior 3 months.  Thank my lucky stars that I won’t be designing for theater until September.  I want to sew for myself!!  BUT I do have an Art Show on May 12 at Coyote Central.  So Stayed tuned!

 

 

John Q Smith, Chris Macdonald in The Twilight Zone Live!

Chris Macdonald and Buddy Mahoney in The Twilight Zone Live!

 

More from the theater front….

So this is a new (ancient) play that I am designing for Open Circle Theater here in Seattle.  The story of Ajax is a Greek war tragedy written by Sophecles .  This is an adaptation by a local thespian/writer, Todd van der Ark.  It is a weave of modern and classical text and symbols- like modern desert fatigues mixed with  knife fighting.  One of the things that the director is spotlighting is PTSD syndrome and I think that it is interesting to see that this disease was also a problem in the ancient Greek society.

I also did the graphic design of this post card and the poster for the show!!

Twilight Zone 2011

Fear for your lives!!

The play I am designing costumes for, “The Twilight Zone”, opens next Thursday Night.  If you are in the Seattle area you should definitely come check it out.  The show run March 18-April 16, 2011- Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8pm.  This years episodes are as folllows:

The Obsolete Man

Time Enough at Last

The Mosters are due on Maple Street

 

Don’t be shy…You are sure to see aliens and have nightmares!!

WOW…. has it really been since November?

So obviously I have been ignoring this here blog.  Soooo Sorry!

Here is what has been taking precedence:

http://www.coyotecentral.org/

I have been teaching a design, sew and embellish class for middle school students.  We have been doing lots of sewinging.  I will also be having a workshop for “Nick Cave inspired” art in conjunction with an exhibit of his work at the SAM called “Meet Me at the Center of the Earth”.  I am really excited about this and have become quite a fan of Nick Caves work and those of you who know me can probably see why:

I will keep you posted on how our own Soundsuit inspired art goes.  One of these days I will actually take pictures of my class and how much fun we have for you as well!!

I have also been sewing:

I made this dress by quilting recycled leather,  recycled wool and silk for the bodice with silk organza skirt.  There is a fully boned corset inside and a heavy exposed zipper down the back.

I am also costuming a play for Theater Schmeater here in Seattle.  It is The Twilight Zone 2011.  I am really getting my Mad Men fix off of this one.  It opens on March 18th and it is sure to be a fun time!!  We are doing three episodes:

The Obsolete Man

Time Enough At Last

The Monsters are Due on Maple Street

And it is going to be done pretty much to that late ’50s early ’60 feel even for Obsolete Man which is set in the future.

Stay Tuned!!

SteamCon 2010- I am not a convention virgin any longer

So before we get to SteamCon, mom wants  to see Halloween Pictures.  So drum roll please:

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So this last weekend I attended SteamCon 2010 a convention for Victorian Science Fiction and all things that revolve around this concept from clothing to l.a.r.p. ing* and all thing between.  I went to model in a fashion show for the afternoon tea party, for Tamara Lily and Marie Cooley .  Here is my analysis:

1. us geeks are freaks. 2. really awesome costumes. 3. geeks know how to party… all night long (I think, I went to bed).  4. REALLY AWESOME COSTUMES!

This is what I made for my self to wear. The jacket is an actual Edwardian jacket I just hand stitch some steampunk trinkets to.

Here is AnamoAng the Victorian Cyborg's cheast plate. All recycle leather.

I was in the fashion show both days so did not have a huge amount of time to run around but the Art Exhibit was cool and Mercantile gave me tons of ideas a churnin’.

Here is the reel from the fashion show on FLICKR.

*live action roll play

Halloween 2010- going to be awesome!

I am almost done with the Halloween costumes for this year and I am SUPER excited.  This year is right up there with my bumble bee costume,  my sea creature costume and, well, tweedle dee and dum from last year.  It is my husbands costume that has been my mind bender, but I think I figured it out now… stay tuned.

 

 

Its been a while.

WOW the summer is almost over and I have been sewing up a mad storm… of Other Peoples Projects (OPP)!

Damn I hate when that happens.  I seam to always get OPP bogged down in the summer time.  I recently read this funny little article written by a fellow WordPress blogger Selfish Seamstress in the new Vogue Sewing Mag that deals with how to say NO to these projects which was great advice I should head too.  But with the current economic times I feel gilty not taking gigs, especially the more artistic, better paying ones.

First client De Jour is my friend Fosse Jack (yes a stage name). He and his co-host have monthly cabaret/burlesque/vaudville show at the Rendezvous called The Jack and Wood show.

I also made a dress for my beautiful friend Michelle who was an absolute JOY to work with and the perfect 1950’s style bride… I cannot wait to see pictures.

In other fun news… I will be teaching Fashion Design to middle schoolers for a non-profit called Coyote Central.  It will be Saturday mornings October 16- December 12.  I am SOOO excited to do this kinda thing!!!!

More from the embroidery front.

I have been quite busy this last month- costumes for boylesque, pillows for wThe Wedding Pantry , a bridal shop in LA ….  the pillows are on my ETSY site as well, 60th birthday present for my mom (don’t worry there is no spoilers here).  Fosse Jack (boylesque) is performing tonight at Neighbors– featuring costumes by me.  Doors open at 8:30 and there is a $10.00 cover.

And it continues…. I am starting a wedding dress for my friend Michelle.  It is just a cute 1950’s inspired white silk dupioni with deep teal Mums embroidered on it (not by me).  I think it will be fun… and not to bridaly (ick).  Speaking of Bridal, there are new pillows up on my Etsy site now .  Take a look and enjoy!

PS- I am SOOOO excited about my Moms present…. its gonna be REAL good!  It is hard not to share but seeing as my Mom is like my only loyal fan, it would not be worth spoiling.

Halloween 2009- Par-O-Tweedles in Wonderland

WOW…. can’t believe it has been over a month since posting…. I guess I have been busy.  Saturday we won a couple of prizes for our creativity.  Here is how we spent Halloween 2009:

In the studio with the tweedles… and miss B in the back (my cat Bella).

Now a serious one.

Another Family Photo

Wonderland Family Photo

Par O Tweedles!

Adventures in Wonderland!!

His hair is bigger then mine!!!

I build the tweedle bodies out of foam and hula hoops.  The shirt is just a Kwik Sew 2272, a shirt pattern  that is out of print I use all the time for Dave, my husband (and a really good sport).  I just expanded from the under arm to fit the 90″ circumference of the hula hoop.  I bought sheets at the thrift store for the shirts cause it was going to take six yards and I also bought shoes from the thrift store to paint because it was the cheapest way to go on both accounts.  Foam is expensive so luckily I found a piece in the closest at our office that Dave said I could use ( I still had to buy 1 yard).    The hats I blocked buckram for and built the propeller out of hat wire.  Then I just kept on decorating until we had to put them on for Halloween.  My friend Hannah made her Alice costume under my supervision and she was super excited and impressed with herself when she was done.  We had a tea party  in the afternoon (I could not resist showing up at my favorite tea spot The Tea Cup in costume, and then went out and ate dinner and entered some  Halloween contests that night.  We won two different gift certificats that basically pay for the costumes.  It was awesome!!

The night before I went out and saw some of my costumes in action at a Kiss Tribute concert.  They to were AWESOME!!

Catch me if you can- this costume rocked!!

the safty card is located in the pocket in front of you!

don’t know about this one.

In all her beverage cart glory.

Great flight attendant hair!!

I really like the justapostition of this shot.

I guess Elvis made an appearance.

Here are some stills of the Flight Attendant costume I recently made and posted about here.  It is for a web commercial for Expedia… I don’t know much more about it except that I had a lot of fun doing it and would love more work like this 😉   I guess if this goes over well they will use this character for more of an ad campaign.