Art and Rhinos
  • Home
  • About Me
    • Beer
    • Sewing Projects
  • Photography
    • Great Photo Locations
    • Flora and Fauna
    • People and Places
    • Objects and B&W
    • Personal Photo Shoots >
      • Abe Lincoln: Vampire Hunter inspired
      • Aftermath of Donating 13" of hair to Locks of Love
      • Earthy Photo Shoot
      • Phone Camera Filters
      • Poses, Hair and Expressions
      • Victorian - Otto and Victoria
      • Winter Soldier Cosplay
      • Year of Selfies Challenge
  • Writing
    • Short Stories >
      • Banshee
      • Red Paint
    • Poetry >
      • Grounded on the Girl
      • Last Words
      • My World
      • Is it ok?
      • Fireflies
      • Touch
      • Muck
    • Novel
  • Art
  • Rhinos
  • DragonCon
  • Contact Me
  • fun
  • Blog

Loki Dress - Accessories

8/29/2012

0 Comments

 
To complete the Loki Costume I needed a few finishing touches. The main one of course was the Helm.
Picture
Picture
Picture
The Helm is made out of a product called wonderflex. What is wonderflex, you ask?...WONDERFLEX is an extruded thermoplastic composite sheet. It is comprised of a unique synthetic polymer that when heated in the range of 150-170 degrees F (70-80 degrees C), will soften and activate a built in adhesive for molding and forming. A layer of polyester open weave scrim is located on both the top and bottom surface for strength, reinforcement and stability. 
Got that? great, moving on....

Note: I was guided and GREATLY assisted in this project by my wonderful professional seamstress/costumer extraordinaire Regina. She is awesome and this costume would not have happened without her. (Follow her at @Wyldehills on twitter)

We started with the circlet piece that became the base of the helm. I cut two strips measured to fit around my head, heated them in boiling water and then once heated the strips adhered to themselves.
Picture
Picture
I shaped the front to have a little point as a fun accent. Here is a pic of me and Maddie, my Thor "brother" in this costuming adventure.  She too used wonderflex and shaped wings to attach as her interpretation of Thor's helm. Follow her costuming adventure at her blog - Not Another Geek Girl
There's more! -->

Read More
0 Comments

Loki Dress - Pt. 4

8/28/2012

1 Comment

 
Picture
Here's the final post for the Loki Dress itself. Where we last left off I had just cut into the fashion fabric and pinned it together. I had also created the green skirt. And you, of course, remember the Petticoat of Despair.

Well, I sat at my trusty Singer sewing machine (I inherited from my grandfather, I still need to name it...hmm...) and began to sew. I used a needle made for leather and heavier fabrics since the coat material is a leather-ish fabric.

Picture
Picture
Picture
Once sewn together I added the green skirt material to the inside of the collar. To the right, Kami Jacobs is saving my ass by sewing in the zipper. It runs full length of the front of the coat and was totally defeating me. She's a professional and the zipper looks great!

I also added green fabric flair at the shoulder and as a waist band.
Picture
Picture
Picture
To finish the skirt I had to add a zipper (this one was a little easier), add a hook closure in the waist band and hem the skirt.
Picture
My friend - the Serger - sealed the fraying edges of the skirt before hemming.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Put it all together and...
Picture
Picture
Picture
1 Comment

Shirt Alteration

8/27/2012

0 Comments

 
Dragon*Con is only three days away and I've started to pack and gather my things.  While going through my closet I found a Thundercats shirt I bought, it is super comfy but I wasn't thrilled with how it looked = fairly frumpy. A geeky shirt should go to Dragon, but it needed a little adjustment. So, with my new sewing skills, I decided to alter it into something a little more form fitting and fun. While wearing the shirt I pinned it in along my sides, thus marking the new seems.  I then marked where I wanted to trim the sleeves and alter the neck line.  Once trimmed and pinned, I sewed and...voila!
Picture
original shirt
Picture
tailored sides and sleeves
Picture
adjusted neckline
0 Comments

Loki Staff, Loki Walking Stick

8/26/2012

26 Comments

 
Picture
In the process of making a Loki dress, I felt the odd compulsion to accessorize. And when you're talking Loki, what better than the scepter used in the Avengers movie?

I decided I wanted to make the walking stick version of the scepter seen in the German opera house scene. (When Loki is in that scrumptious suit.)

It started with a trip to Lowes (only reason I went to Lowes instead of Home Depot is because Lowes is on my side of the street.) I wandered through with the image of the walking stick on my phone and wondered how I was going to make it happen.

I also decided I wanted to make two sizes, just to see what would work better with the Loki dress. I started with wooden poplar dowels at 1/2", and 1" in diameter.

I knew I wanted to make it glow, so a light source was one the first things I needed to figure out. I wanted to keep the staff compact, so many of the LED ideas were ruled out based on the battery size needed to power them. I settled on flashlights as a compact and easy to deal with light source. The light is already made to be focused in one direction, and a decent amount of lumens can be packed into a small flashlight. Since I'd have to make the walking stick parts fit around the flashlight, I went for the smaller, but still bright lights.

Once I chose to use Flashlights as a light source, I worked to find the fittings that would fit around them. (I wanted to be able to remove the flashlights in order to replace batteries and so that the staff could be broken down into smaller parts.)  I then went back and forth between the plumbing section and the electrical section looking at PVC fittings. The electrical section had better fitting pieces (grey pvc on the right.) The heads of the staff are electrical boxes.

Stone for the Staff

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
One of the parts of the staff that took me the longest to figure out was the blue stone in the center.

I wandered Michaels, JoAnns, Lowes, Walmart, Target, Hobby shops, Etsy, eBay...all looking for the right stone.  To the left is what I ended up bringing home. Let's see, we've got Chandelier replacement crystals, vintage glass stoppers to decanters (my mom sent me these), colored glass beads and squares, Glass containers, bits of safety glass I obtained... um... somewhere... okay, moving on...What worked by far the best was real stone - polished quartz crystal cylinders. They catch the light the best. (where I got the stones? - eBay)
Alright, so I had the parts and to the left you can see how the crystals glow with the light from the flashlights.

The next step was figuring out how to make these parts look less like dowels and electrical PVC fittings and more like an ancient weapon of awesome proportions.

Time to get out the Dremel...

I also got to be fashionable while working on cutting and shaping the PVC in the shed out back...
Picture
Here's my awesome set up in my Loki's Lair...apparently Loki weedeats...and golfs...and uses box fans.

Picture
Picture
Here are the two sets of tops for the walking sticks. Once I was done coating myself in PVC dust (don't worry I had on my PPEs - Personal Protection Equipment) I then glued the pieces together.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Once glued, it was time to spray paint. I started with a dark gunmetal grey and then sprayed a metallic bronze over it, to try for some depth and shadows. It wasn't hugely successful for what I was trying for, but I am still happy with the look. To the left is the smaller walking stick and to the right is the larger.

Picture
Picture
The final piece of the puzzle, since I had acquired clear quartz crystals, was to make them blue. I didn't get a blue LED so I decided to go with a blue gel (filter) made for professional stage lighting. The lovely people at Bay Stage Lighting were incredibly helpful. I secured the squares of blue plastic around the flashlights and Voila-
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Here are a few additional pictures so you can see how it screws together and where the flashlight goes.


I crammed -I mean gently placed- the blue lighting gel (plastic sheet) inside the head of the staff between the crystal and the flashlight. I did not glue it in place in case I ever wanted to use a different color. The gel's are made to take the heat from professional lighting, so I was fairly confident the flashlight wouldn't melt the plastic.

(Below) To secure the crystal in the head of the staff, I took some jewelry wire, wound it around the crystal and secured it through holes I bored in the plastic of the staff head.


Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
26 Comments

Star Wars Dress

8/22/2012

1 Comment

 
Picture
A few months ago my Dragon*Con peeps came across a pic of a beautiful dress made from old Star Wars sheets. Here's the site. The dress is to the left.

We all adored the dress and decided then and there to each make a dress from Star Wars fabric. Each dress is of a different style.  Here is the Saga of my dress...


A Long Time Ago, in a Galaxy just like this one....
Picture
My dress was made from Return of the Jedi sheets. I did a quick mock up of the top of the dress out of muslin and then I moved quickly to cutting into the sheets. I fussy cut to get the parts of the sheet I wanted for the top portion of the dress.

Cause who doesn't want Darth Vader front and center?

Picture
Picture
Picture
Now, since the sheet fabric is a simple cotton, I needed to reinforce it so it would hold up well over the girls, and by the girls I mean my ta-tas.  I cut equal sized pieces of duck cloth and denim, but any thicker, tough fabric will do. (I didn't do this for the skirt, because I wanted the fabric to be light and flow well.)

To the right is the reverse side of the top of the dress, the Duck and the Denim.

Then, it was time to sew...

Picture
Picture

Picture
Picture
Picture
With the top together it was time to make the skirt. I ended up not having wide enough fabric to cut the full length of the skirt, so I added on a red cotton stripe to make the dress as long as preferred.  Again, I went with a circle skirt.

Picture
Picture
Again, my lovely assistant was there to assist in any way...like, getting as much hair on my fabric as possible.

Say Hello to my little friend...the Serger. Sergers are like the NHL enforcers of the sewing machine world.  They make sure the fabric keeps it together, by weaving 4 threads into a strong stitch along the edge of the fabric. This is especially important for fabrics that fray easily like brocades and silks.  It is also a good idea just to finish any edge, so I did so here with the edge of the skirt.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Once the top and the skirt were sewn together I added the red strip to the bottom and the top. All I had left was to add shoulder straps...

Picture
Throw a petticoat underneath the skirt...
Picture
Add in a red belt, red shoes, red hair band, red bangle and red earrings and we are accessorized!
Picture
Picture
Picture
1 Comment

Petticoat of Mild Annoyance

8/7/2012

0 Comments

 
Picture
So, in the process of making a Star Wars dress out of vintage sheet fabric (that process in a post to come) I decided I wanted a petticoat to give the dress some "pouf." I then remembered the last petticoat and momentarily entertained the idea that I had gone insane. "Not at all" the voices in my head answered and I set about to make another petticoat.
But this time I had a different plan of attack.

Picture
First step was to make the base of the petticoat.  I made a simple circle skirt out of muslin.

Next I cut blue, green and tan tulle to the length of the dress.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Oh, here's a pic of my cat helping me.

Me: Sure, show up when this petticoat is relatively easy to make.

Him: I'm Parker, the helpful but shy one. I'm always ready to be of assistance, except, um, last time... I had a thing.

Me: Oh, right, thanks, then where's Sylvana?

Him: Chewing on your other petticoat.

Me: GAA!!!!....

Picture
After cutting the tulle I gathered the ends with a zig-zag stitch, which also made it easier to sew them to the circle skirt.
Picture
And so, about an hour and a half later, here we go.
Picture
Picture
0 Comments

Dragon*Con approach-eth

8/7/2012

0 Comments

 
Not long now, less than a moon's cycle, and it will be time...
0 Comments

    Author

    I'm a zoo keeper. I currently work with Rhinos and it is awesome.

    These are my random observations about the world...and I do mean random.  I write about what catches my interest and my imagination. 

    Just as a note: There is the possibility of the occasional curse word. I will not overuse - but those words have power when carefully placed.

    Archives

    July 2015
    May 2015
    January 2015
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    November 2011
    October 2011

    Categories

    All
    7d
    Avengers Costume
    Cosplay
    Costumes
    Dragon
    Dragoncon
    Dress Form
    Lincoln
    Loki
    Nook
    Once Upon A Time
    Photography
    Rhino
    Sandman
    Sewing
    Shakespeare
    Star Wars
    Thor
    Tolkien
    Vampires

    RSS Feed

To become truly immortal, a work of art must escape all human limits: logic and common sense will only interfere. But once these barriers are broken, it will enter the realms of childhood visions and dreams. ::: Giorgio de Chirico :::