Whitby Goth Weekend II

That time of year again - Whitby Goth Weekend! Well, I say again - This was my second WGW as a trader, my first with a stall to myself.

The stock, once again, was mostly steampunk, and it went down really well. By the time Sunday evening rolled around, the table was almost empty. A good thing, you'd think, but now I have to completely restock for my next event, Steampunk Doncaster.

The cincher in that photo (on the lady mannequin to the left) was a collaboration with Amy Randall, costume designer and embroidery superstar. Check out her Facebook page for some very pretty things, including photos of me painted green as the Wicked Witch of the West.

After WGW, I reopened the Etsy shop, starting with the bottle pendants that didn't go to good homes.

Check them out, they were quite popular at Whitby.


Next Event:
STEAMPUNK DONCASTER
21-22 JUNE 2014
Doncaster Deaf Trust

AFWVG - Plague Rat II

This post has been saved in my drafts for far too long, considering that it has been a year since my final deadline. I figured I should just post it.

So, the Plague Rat. Just a generic plague rat here, not Basil, not Sir Edward.

It does have a hint of Captain Maggot in here, with the striped bustle. Must have done that right - people kept asking me if it was a pirate rat. Not quite, but it could have been!

The thing with this design was do give it twists of military and mechanical. The military came in the shape of the top and its high collar (which is very similar to the Knife Thrower jacket I did for my minor project).

The mechanical, however, was much more fun. 'Why mechanical?' I hear you ask.

Why? Because the rats were experimented upon and, if you're throwing a bit of steampunk into something, what says 'experimented upon' more than a mechanical limb?

AFWVG - Doctor Stockill III

It's been a long while since I've mentioned any of my Final Major Project work (in fact, I still have a half-written post on the Plague Rat costume....), but I remembered these this morning.

There is a story behind it, sort of.
I heard from a friend, while working as stage manager for The Ballad of Captain Cook in August, that Stockill had been taken to Newcastle, along with Frankenstein's Monster and a wizard's tower. These were things made by other people in my year at college. Now, I have nothing against the college thinking that my work is good enough to display somewhere, but it would have been nice to know about it at some point which wasn't weeks after the event. I have seen him since, and he is back at the college and mostly undamaged.

One good thing that came out of this, though, is that someone was wonderful enough to take photos, which I then came across on flickr.

And so, here they are!

The next step is to get my damn costumes back from the college and finally manage to do a proper photoshoot.

Anachronism

On Saturday, I had my first stall. Me and Gemma (The Little Blue Gem) collected up our stock and took a trip up to Gateshead for Anachronism Steampunk and Cyberpunk convention. It was the first of these, so the turn out wasn't massive, but that was fine by me! I wouldn't want to jump in with a big event like Whitby Goth Weekend or Leeds Steampunk Market. This was nice, just being able to relax. Nothing too hectic. Some people bought some things, a lot of people made 'ooh, interesting!' noises and my Scavenger mask got a LOT of compliments. 

A few people were interested in commissions, including a klingon. Yes. A klingon. It wasn't that unusual, considering that there were a few Storm Troopers milling around, and a Darth Vader at one point (plus some other characters I couldn't identify with my limited Star Wars knowledge). I am actually rather looking forward to having another stall somewhere, but I will have to take somebody to sit with me, or take a notebook of some kind. Or both. We shall see!

Industrialist

Need some face protection while working in the factory or repairing your airship? Well, the Industrialist is for you! 

This stylish mask would also be a wonderful addition to the battle suits of any of you fine sky pirates.
(Warning: Leather will not protect you from ray guns.)

Now, this one was named by a good friend of mine. The idea behind it was to be more like a worker's mask - nothing fancy, but nice and protective.

Apparently, the idea of having sticky-out guard eyebrows is hilarious. Perhaps it was just that I described the function as 'To stop things falling onto your eyes, I guess.'

Still don't understand that myself, but hey.

It's probably pretty obvious with all the brown and brass, but this little guy is supposed to be over at the steampunk end of the spectrum.

Of course, it could look a bit nifty with some weathered nickel rivets and some black or battered brown for that lovely post-apocalyptic look which I am slowly falling into these days.

Unlike all of my other masks so far most of which I need to finish (I'm looking at you, Famine!), this one has an adjustable strap over the top of the head which makes it sit just nicely on your face and has very little chance of falling off. Also, it looks pretty cool.

Hats could be a problem, though, depending on your type of hat. I'll have to try some.

If for some reason anyone wants one (and I don't see why not - It's my favourite so far), they're for sale over here.

AFWVG - Emily-With-A-Y

I am a horribly neglectful blogger.

The design for Emily-With-A-Y's shift dress to go with the straitjacket. Tattered everything, patches, cogs and (of course) black and white stripes. One thing I forgot to put on the design drawing was the text. The plain side has writing from the book and some copies of a few or the drawings of Leeches and rats.

Not just any insane asylum!" She exclaimed indignantly, as though I had gravely offended her, “Though you certainly do not deserve it. You are a very lucky girl indeed, for you have been assigned a bed in the most progressively innovative, the most morally experimental, the most, ah, the most ingeniously directed medical institution for the mentally ill, led by my own dear son, Doctor Montmorency Stockhill. You are the worthy child, are now an inmate of the Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls.

The cogs on the dress were made in the same way as on the straitjacket, and all the patches/striped parts were sewn on with big red stitches because of that one outfit that EA made.

The sides are pulled in with four fabric straps that are tied at the back. I figured that the Asylum dresses wouldn't be fitted at all, instead being a one-size-fits-all affair. With the straps, it can be pulled in at the waist, giving the dress more shape while still keeping the look of 'it doesn't ft particularly well, really.' I have to thank my tutor for this idea. I was a bit stuck for an idea of how to pull it in, thinking of corset-esque lacing or some buckles like on the straitjacket. We discussed it, and she suggested having straps of the same fabric as the dress instead of more leather, and it was a genius idea.


Then there are the manacles. What kind of asylum inmate doesn't have restraints?

They're just a simple leather wristband with a brass ring popped on there. They're fastened with buckles which, although entirely ineffective for a real mad girl due to the ability to unfasten, they look damn cool like that.



The whole costume, popped on a mannequin, all set up for my degree show. I accidentally managed to find a mannequin that matched the pose of my drawing. It took me a long while to sort the hair out. Stupid small head...

AFWVG - Doctor Stockill II

Another costume (mostly) down and time for another post. The infamous Doctor Stockill is nearing completion, and I am very excited about it.

First up, the coat.
Simple black coat, not particularly fitted. The leather on the arms hold syringes and knives (which I still need to make most of), and straps are trigger-clipped from the D-rings on the back of the shoulders to the back of these arm bands.


I am very much hoping that it does indeed look rather doctory. Black rather than white for this doctor, because, of course, he is a plague doctor. As far as I know, they were all black with pointy faces, right?



Speaking of pointy faces...

There he is with that plague mask and the air tank for it. Luckily for Peter, my model for Doctor S., it's not too heavy.

My favourite thing about this costume is how similar it actually looks to my final design for it. That, and when Peter decided that he would walk through the canteen at college while wearing it. The comments ranged from 'Oh my god...' to 'Holy crap, that's creepy.'

Perfect.

AFWVG - Asylum Straitjacket

The first of the 'clothes' costume parts is pretty much finished - The Asylum Straitjacket.

The design got tweaked a bit during construction - it got mirrored and the 'WVG' on the back decided that it wanted to be in leather.
It felt like I was doing 'real' leatherwork, hitting a lump of shaped metal into the leather to spell out letters instead of just hitting a different lump of metal to put in holes or hammer in rivets. Fun stuff.

Since straitjackets are generally sturdy beasts, I got some denim for this, since it is particularly hardwearing. The denim then got treated to a most lovely tea-bath, but I imagine it was probably less than impressed to be left in a box of cold almost-water overnight. Such are the trials of a straitjacket...

The front and back of said straitjacket. After it was all put together, it was thoroughly distressed (poor thing...) with a bunch of sprays to give it that horrible and grimy look. The most grime is on the elbows and shoulders, since this particular straitjacket ties your hands up on your shoulders instead of around your waist. Why? Because I thought that would be more interesting. And I don't know how to escape from that kind of strait-tying (Unlike the standard way, which I can. How do I even know that? Not a clue.)

Also, having the arms up makes my lovely cog nice and visible. I'm quite proud of that section. It's a lot smaller than on the design, but I like it like this. It's less BAM! STEAMPUNK! than having a massive cog just whacked on there. Yes, I want a bit of steampunk in here, but not that much.
The buckles are rather nice too, I like to think, and they serve the purpose of making the jacket slightly tighter. Just slightly. Maybe I should have put them further apart...
Never mind, eh? It looks good, and that's all that matters. It's not like I'm going to be actually using this to restrain a mad person.
Though, if that event just happens to occur, I'll be more than sorted. It's not too unlikely, actually, with the levels of strangeness people are getting as the deadline gets closer.

And just because, here's a photo of me in my wonderful straitjacket. 

On a sidenote, I now have a real live website! 

Ooooh, exciting.

Only not really.

All my fancy stuff is now hiding at http://infected-illusions.com/, and this blog is over at http://blog.infected-illusions.com/ as well as on blogspot. Go have a look. There are some nice, pretty drawings. And some nice, pretty animations. And some nice, pretty photos.

(...am I selling it yet?)
That's gone now, unfortunately.

AFWVG - Plague Mask II

Updates on Stockill's plague mask!

On the right is the first costruction - craft foam, duct tape and those goggles. That got chopped up to make the pattern for the leather version.

The lenses for those goggles ended up being the lenses in the final version too, but the 'goggle' parts were made from wonderflex. Amazing stuff.

And the (almost) finished version. Veg. tan leather, coloured with antique stain and joined with brass rivets. I'm thinking that it's quite good considering that it's my first leather project. The finished version (which will be photographed eventually) has a few more rivets and has been waxed to give it a nice, almost shiny finish. Somehow, it looks more like 'real' leather to me. Strange, since it is real leather.

Tribal-Steampunk Headdress

Second year costume project based on 'hats'.

The most amazing fake fur, but real little antlers from a deer up in Scotland. Various clock parts salvaged from old mechanisms and beads from all sorts of places. I've got a fossil strung up on the back there too.