what i do at work when left to my own devices...

photoshoot with gnome, thai purple basil, camellia and peek-a-boo chicky...

work and such...

Walkure has been open for a few weeks now. i was so proud of this headpiece, it only weighs about a pound and rests on the singers head by way of a simple headband that is worn more like a tiara so that it doesn't squeeze the ol' gulliver. oh, and it is a millinery wire frame covered in china silk with about 75 yards of organza ribbon draped in loops all over the place. in other news, i ate waaaaaaay too many mini chicken tacos from trader joe's tonite.

a spraying i have been...

and seven hours later i am back at home. this is what i was doing. the masks are worn under the hoods. they are set on baseball caps with shortened brims so that they will not muss the fancy make-up of the performers underneath as they are playing multiple rolls. the masks are latex and started out as purchased "beetlejuice" faces. they were coated in an adhesive called pros~aide which provided a surface which my acrylic paints would adhere to. i sprayed the giant cloak using jaquard's "dyna-flow" and my trusty sometimes tempramental airbrush.
as a reward for my labours, i am going out shoe hunting.

a spraying i will go...

i'm up way too early for a saturday because.........i'm off to work in an hour to airbrush a gynormous cloak to look like the the stony face of a mountain. 6 dancers and one singer fit under it. there will be fun to be had in the costume shop today for sure.
but, before i ventured out, i needed to post these little dolls as seen in the blog of sveta drescher.
very inspiring and beautiful. thanks to Lobster and Swan for posting the link to these lovelies today.

some more bits in action...

here is another little somethin' somethin' that i had to throw together for the Ring. one shot of the "helmet" in the shop right after i had completed it and another shot of it in action on the singer's head. it is made of three millinery wires used as a basic support for the structure and the rest is ridgeline a very light weight plastic boning. the inner headpiece is a padded band with a fine wire halo that is wired to the outer structure. the whole thing only weighs about half a pound.

a teaser...

wrapping up my girl...

i just had to follow up with some finished pictures of Freia. i actually got a little misty when the singer came for the fitting yesterday. it's kinda silly, but such an emotional release to have something work and to have the singer happy and the designer give you a big hug and say in broken english what a good job you've done and acknowledge how hard you've been busting patootie to get his vision right(not just on this particular project, i don't even want to get into the dwarves).

saturday afternoon at the costume shop with Freia

in the interest of personal sanity, i am going to try to avoid too much shop talk here. the exception being my efforts in our production of the Ring Cycle (known in some areas of the costume shop as the "rinse cycle"). this is opera history...it will be truly amazing. people are coming from all over the world to see this Achim Freyer production which will probably be his swan song as he turns 75 next month. i really am so thrilled to be part of this.(even if at times i just want to throw up my hands and be done with it). anyhoo, here are some pics of one of my larger projects, the goddess Freia armature. she is built from foss shape, a thermoplastic sort of felt. basically it looks like thick felt, but i heat it and shape it over a carved bead foam mold using steam and pressure and a lot of patience.i call it steam sculpting. she is about 2/3 complete with the back of her head and the rest of the apples still needing to be pulled from the mold. once those are pulled then i will attatch them to the body. she stands about 8 feet tall and only weighs about 8 pounds. when completed, the singer will stand inside and her head will come out at the center of the armatures apple tray. the singer(brave soul) carries this around a raked stage, steps out of it, throws it down at the base of the rake, picks it up and runs back upstage. it takes a lot of abuse. she will also get painted and have stems attatched to the apples.

work...

work has been...let's say intense. definitely a push.you know, anytime i talk about what i do for a living people invariably say," wow, you are soooooo lucky to do what you do. so creative." and...they are right, but sometimes it sucks and makes my head swim. i have to be creative and dream up costume crap ooops i mean costume awesomeness and answer questions and be organized and composed and resourceful and a leader and to be quite honest i make a lot of things up while i do it. somehow it works. after six years my sham still hasn't been revealed...amazing. i'm whining i know. i AM incredibly blessed to have a full time honest to god gainfully employed career in the arts. someone out there in the cosmos has my back...but sometimes i just want to bake pies dammit(or do i mean throw pies????)!

My masks hit the big time!!!

Mad Gregs - Safe in Sound from Small Form on Vimeo.