Saturday, February 23, 2013

More jonesing for spring

Today we went to the Northwest Flower and Garden Show and looked at pretty landscaping.

garden show 8

They even had a hobbit hole, and all the plants were native to New Zeland:

garden show 5

There were shiny things:

garden show 11

garden show 20

And art:

garden show 3

garden show 2

garden show 16

They had an activity for the kids, where they had to fnd a coconut hidden in every one of the 25 garden displays.

Some were easily spotted.

garden show 6

Others were camouflaged:

garden show 38

Upon completion of the hunt, the kids were presented with sunflower seedlings.  We're already plotting where they should be planted.

There were several displays I could happily imagine myself relaxing in:

garden show 15

garden show 10

And there was whimsy for all different kinds of folks:

garden show 30

garden show 44

Afterwards, there was tasty brunch at Dahlia Lounge, and now it's cuddle time.


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Thursday, February 21, 2013

New life to old wings

I made these wings over a decade ago for a succubus outfit, and they've been sitting on top of a stack of boxes in the corner of my sewing room for ages.

succubus

wings original

I've been planning on using them with this outfit, but the years haven't been entirely kind and they were starting to come apart in some places.  The framework was still sound, though, so I decided to just recover them in new fabric.  (They were originally done with a pair of queen-sized black pantyhose.)

I had some stretchy velvet left over from a previous project, an opera cape.

wing fabric

And it worked out beautifully on the old framework:

wigs recovered

I'm still going to do something with the tips, maybe sculpt claws out of clay.   The dress will have two sets of grommets for lacing so I can wear the harness underneath, because I always like to make my life more complicated!

The dress body is 90% assembled - there's no good reason why it isn't further along except that I've been lazy.  That will be rectified soon, though.  I promise.



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Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Getting in gear

Here's another style of earrings that I've remade several times, each just a little bit differently, remade again and listed in my Artfire shop:

Steampunk Gear and Golden Pearls Waterfall Earrings





And as an added bonus, some more pearls:

Peach Pearl Knotted Necklace Rope Length with Matching Earrings




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Saturday, February 16, 2013

One for you, two for me

I went to the bead store a few weeks ago, looking for just the right strands to compliment two pieces I've been given.  One was a jade pendant carved in the shape of a dragon that my daughter gave me for Mother's Day last year, and the other a carved vintage sale that my husband got for me for Christmas, in collaboration with his father, who runs estate auctions in New Orleans.  (He also is a wonderful artist - check out some of his work here.)

For the jade piece, I found some jade beads of almost exactly the same shade, as well as some miniscule freshwater disc pearls that had been dyed pale green:


Jade Dragon Necklace by *dbvictoria on deviantART

Here's a closeup of the pendant:

jade dragon necklace closeup

Next, the citrine:

Carved Citrine Pendant Closeup
I got some faceted citrine beads and accented them with rounds of red lava, for color and texture contrast:

Citrine and Lava Beads Closeup


Citrine and Red Lava necklace by *dbvictoria on deviantART

And while I was there I also found some amazingly bright and cheerful orange, yellow, and hot pink pearls, which turned themselves into this:

First Touch of Spring - Orange, Yellow, and Hot Pink Pearl Necklace



Today is bright and sunny and beautiful, if still a bit chilly, so my hankering for springtime is increasing in leaps and bounds.


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Friday, February 15, 2013

And now I'm embellishing the accessories

I'm finally done with the outfit I've been posting about the last few weeks.  Well, almost done.  99% done.  I still have to sew a clip and a couple of hooks on to the scarf, but everything else is done!  (For me)

I had an assortment of old jewelry, bracelet, anklet, and necklace, that I took apart so I could use the bits as decoration.

Blue and Silver Steampunk outfit bits and bobs

Blue and Silver Steampunk outfit bits and bobs

I started out with these cuffs:

Blue and Silver Steampunk outfit cuffs

And added ivory coin pearls and cobalt blue freshwater pearls in between the bells:

Blue and Silver Steampunk outfit cuffs close-up

The cuffs are now closed with laced silver elastic cord, so I don't have to worry about trailing ribbons getting caught on partners' buttons when dancing.

I have a limited number of the coin pearls, so for the cincher I stuck to just the blue pearls:

Blue and Silver Steampunk outfit cincher details

Blue and Silver Steampunk outfit cincher details

I also made a pair of earrings, and then put some of the bells back on the bracelet along with more pearls to make a headpiece, and put together a pair of earrings to match:

Blue and Silver Steampunk Outfit - headpiece and earrings

I'm trying to decide whether I want to do the same embellishment along the top of of the gaiters like I've done on the top of the cincher.  Time will tell.


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Saturday, February 9, 2013

Accessorizing again

This weekend I did a little embellishment on the cuffs I made to match my outfit for the upcoming Steampunk Exhibition Ball.

Here's the outfit again:

blue-silver-steampunk-outfit



And here's the cuffs, now that I've added pearls:


Silver Cuffs by *dbvictoria on deviantART


Next up, pants for the husband.  Yes, he really does need pants.



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