Bellydance Costume

Sometimes I put my beading supplies and skills to work for my bellydance costuming needs -- although I would like to point out right here and now that I did NOT make all of that green seed bead fringe, because I hate doing fringe and that much would take forever and be really boring, since it's just one size and color of bead. No, I totally cheated and bought that stuff pre-made on eBay.

What I did, however, is add some extra fringe made with freshwater pearls, Czech glass beads and Swarovski crystals for extra visual interest. And I raided my chain supply for some nice looking copper chain. As for the pretty copper diamond medallions, those were sent to me by my beading and bellydancing friend SaraBeth. I'm glad I found the perfect project for them!

Someday I'd like to do a really intricate beaded belt and bra set, even though that's not really the fashion for my style of bellydance. I just think it would be awesome to make one. But for now I have a lot of easier dance costume projects in the queue ahead of that idea.

Frankendaisy

Well, it finally happened. I turned into the person who dresses her pets for Halloween. Well, a pet. The only one who really likes wearing clothes. Daisy LOVES dog shirts and sweaters, I think it's because she knows they make her extra cute and people are more likely to fawn over her. She also loves people and is good with little kids, so last night I let her help me hand out candy to the Trick or Treaters.

After seeing Frankenweenie last week, I knew that had to be Daisy's costume. We're pretty sure she has some dachshund in her, she has a more weenie-like build than most corgis and a more narrow face and flatter coat, plus some doxie mannerisms. Plus it would be an easy costume and not too weird and bulky (she may like sweaters, but I don't think she'd do well with one of those costumes that goes over the head, since she has a long neck and big ears).

I lucked out and found a Junior's size grey t-shirt on clearance for $2 at JoAnn's. It was already a pretty good fit on Daisy, just a little too long. So I cut a couple inches off the bottom and then took a little more off the front of the shirt so she wouldn't trip on it. Then I spent 5-10 minutes drawing stitches and patches with a black marker. I wanted to add bolts to her neck but I couldn't find any Frankenstein makeup kits. Still, the t-shirt was good enough. Lots of people recognized what she was supposed to be.

Daisy had a great time making friends with kids, adults, and even one giant werewolf. She was very well-behaved, other than a few times when she decided to start barking at people because they were walking on the other side of the street instead of coming over to us right away. I'd say the night was a success!

Belly Dance Picture!

I'm busy cleaning my bead room/putting together a package of beads for a swap, so instead of something business-related, here's a picture of me dancing! I honestly have no idea what I was doing when this was snapped, but whatever. I still feel pretty ;) This weekend's performance was at Studio 455, where they currently have a display of photos from and related to the All Souls Procession, which was really cool! Behind me there's a picture of a dead, mostly-skeletal animal AND a dead bug being eaten by ants. I really should have taken the opportunity to get super Gothed-up and danced to something really dark and heavy to go with the dead things!

My Dance Life

Since I know that not all of you read my other blog, Confessions of a Dance Pants Addict, I thought I would take a few minutes and update you on my belly dance life -- after all, things get kind of boring around here when I post nothing but Treasuries!

The above photo is from the Healing Through Dance benefit this past weekend. I'm pleased to say that we raised over $600 for the Sessoms family, and Plaza de Anaya allowed us to leave the rack of donated costumes in the store, so that number will probably go up!

Things are going very well in my dance life. I was recently invited to join The Anaya Tribe, Anaya Tribal's new student troupe. It means lots of extra drives up to Tempe and very little free weekend time (because Autumn is the busy season for dancers here, due to the lovely weather), but it also means lots of fun, lots of time with my dance friends, and lots of performance experience! We're performing at a charity thing this Sunday, but our first open-to-the-public performance will be at the Desert Shakedown on October 8th.

And don't forget that I will also be vending my jewelry at the Shakedown! I will have everything that is in my Etsy shop, plus things that I haven't listed yet. I am hoping to have Square set up on my phone so that I can finally accept credit cards, too! But if you can't wait that long for a jewelry fix, please visit Handmade Jewelry by Erthe Fae Designs and do a little shopping. You'll be supporting my costume and workshop addictions!

Oh, and lest you think that Phoenix gets all the belly dance love, I also have a student performance coming up here in Tucson next month! For most of my classmates it will be their first time performing. I'm so excited for them! I wonder if they'll get hooked like I did?

WWWC Costumes: Casual Friday

Chris didn't have a costume yet when we hit WWWC for the first day, so I decided I didn't want to seriously outdress him. As such, I declared it "casual Friday" and put together a cute, simple costume out of every day clothes and steampunk accessories. The cargo pants and aviator cap came from Buffalo Exchange, the lace tanktop and corduroy vest came from Target, the boots were $25 on sale at Charlotte Russe, and of course the stripy socks are from Sock Dreams.

The accessories are what really make it, of course. Brass pins from Creative Etching and Airship Entertainment (aka the Girl Genius store). Awesome goggles from Brute Force Leather. And of course, my necklace, Time's Dead Flowers.
You can find more handmade steampunk jewelry at my shop, Handmade Jewelry by Erthe Fae Designs. I'm catching up on my jewelry-making to-do list, so hopefully I will have new one of a kind necklaces up soon! Yay!

WWWC Costumes: Orientalism

This was my costume for Sunday. I knew I wanted something I could dance in, because I was taking a belly dance workshop, and I also wanted something without too many layers because it was hot and I had offered to help a friend tear down her booth (luckily she got someone bigger, stronger, and less costumed to do it instead). So I decided to emulate some of the Orientalist paintings of the Victorian era, and go as a Victorian perception of a belly dancer, but steampunked! My concept here was that my steampunk persona had recently returned from the Orient and decided that their clothing was much more comfortable and appropriate for the desert than bustle skirts and corsets :) Because my persona is a former saloon girl, she doesn't mind showing a little skin, and she's already been running around an airship in pants, so pantaloons are fine by her.

I put this together out of stuff that I already had on hand, but I like it enough that I'll start buying things specifically for it, to have for the next time I need to be a steampunk. I'd like to get some much poofier pantaloons, preferably made out of something shinier. And maybe replace my entari (the long jacket-y thing) with a more diaphanous one, to be closer to what the painters portrayed. Of course, brown and gold stripes are pretty steampunk and they kept the sun off of me, so who knows. But pantaloons are a must!

The components:

Entari, turkish vest, and pantaloons all purchased from Anaya Tribal, all part of my regular belly dance wardrobe.

Homemade steampunk tribal belt. I started with a woven belt that I bought at a thrift store and added a drape made of chain, chain tassels, and keys, with a huge kuchi pendant thingie front and center.

Unique tribal beetle necklace made by yours truly, AJ of Erthe Fae Designs, with an MZ Glass beetle focal. For some reason, I don't have a steampunk tribal necklace. This must be fixed.

I also made the yarn dreadfalls, which you can barely see in the picture. Some people are of the opinion that steampunks should not wear falls. I am of the opinion that those people should take their costume snobbery back to whatever reenactment group they originally belonged to. Ahem.

The scarf I'm wearing around my head was a few dollars at a cheapy mall store. It's held in place using a flower clip that I bought at the dance studio and a feather fascinator from Kyla's Keepsakes. You should see that thing -- it's got a locket, and leaves, and a vintage button, and a tiny shrew skull!

This was probably the most comfortable costume that I wore all weekend, if you ignore the fact that those dreads weigh a ton, and that I am in fact wearing the scarf to help distribute the weight a bit :)

WWWC Costumes: Formal Steampunk

I'll be doing a series of posts about my WWWC costumes, for several reasons: because I know some of you want to see them, because I want to give shout-outs to the vendors that I got some of my pieces from, and because I want to show that you do not have to be a master seamstress/tailor or have a ton of money to put together a fun costume that will garner you a lot of compliments.

This is what I wore for Friday night's Chrononaut Ball, with performances by The Mission Creeps, The Strand, and Voltaire! It isn't even what I was originally planning to wear, but then I saw the ivory lace skirt in my costume closet and remembered that I wanted to build a costume around it, so I did. That very night. The key to pulling a costume together at the last minute is having a well-stocked closet and a good imagination.

Costume components:

Ivory lace skirt and black strapless top from Buffalo Exchange. I totally recommend resale boutiques and thrift stores to find things that you can wear as-is or easily modify.

Bronze taffeta bustle skirt from Damsel in this Dress. I bought this from Michelle's Etsy store over two years ago and I love it! I met Michelle in person at WWWC and got more great costume pieces from her. I highly recommend this vendor -- she's sweet, talented, and her garments are well-made.

Tatted lace cuffs by TotusMel Tats. Honestly, why would you buy tatted lace from anyone else (unless you managed to score some sweet vintage/antique tatting). Pamela is the best!

Flower, lace, and butterfly hairstick by The Gypsy Kiss. You can't see much of it in this photo, but trust me, it's really pretty! Amy is my go-to girl for tribal and steampunk hair accessories, as well as my primary bindi dealer as well.

Steampunk cameo necklace by yours truly, Handmade Jewelry by Erthe Fae Designs. Of course, you can't really see that either, since my arm is in the way.

Also not visible in the photo: cute lacy black and bronze socks by Sock Dreams and pseudo-Victorian boots from JCPenney. Yeah, that's right, my steampunk boots came from Penney's and I have danced for hours in them at numerous parties and they've still held up. They were $40.

See, with some smart shopping and good luck and an eye for interchangeable items (I've worn everything except for the ivory skirt with other costumes/party outfits), you too can look sharp at a steampunk convention!

Vending! Dancers! A Parade!

Here it is, the result of all of my crazy running around last week... my booth at the Fall Festival! Big props to Evan and Meghan who helped me with set-up and tear-down and were around throughout the day to keep me company.
Meghan was getting ready for her performance when she realized that she'd left her necklace at home. Oh no! What's a girl to do? Naturally, she came over to my booth and asked to borrow a necklace she'd had her eye on. After the show, she decided that said necklace had to be hers, so now Necromancer's Mirror has a new home!

Unfortunately, Meghan was my ONLY customer. Sales were down for everyone. Other than dismal sales, it was a fun event... a beautiful day, lots of my belly dance friends around, live music from the drum circle, and I took a couple of breaks to go watch the dancers on the community stage.
Of course, I had to go see Meghan and my other friends Jacque and Rosemary, performing under the wonderful name Vorpal Shimmy! Meghan and Rosemary did a beautiful sword performance to Endless Reverie by Azam Ali (currently my favorite song), and then all three of them did a very energetic skirt dance to a rap about Ganesh. A lot of my pictures came out blurry because of how fast they were moving, but I think this photo is beautiful.

You'd think that after a busy day of vending on Saturday, I'd spend Sunday relaxing... but then you'd be forgetting that I live in Arizona, and that we cram all of our fun events into the few months when the weather is actually nice! After visiting the MZ Glass Open House (I'll post my glass goodies tomorrow!) and eating a big lunch, I hastily put together a costume and headed downtown to meet a group of Tucson belly dancers for the All Souls Procession. The costume theme was aquatic, and as you can see, I embraced it whole-heartedly. Not only am I wearing water colors, but my belt has shells and my hat and necklace have fish.

The parade was a lot of fun. I've never walked in a parade, let alone danced one. I have no idea how long the Procession was... it didn't feel too long at the time (though my arms sure got tired!), but walking back to the car felt like it was about 100 miles. The parade terminated in a huge finale, complete with fire dancers and stilt walkers and aerial silks performers and live music and did I mention fire? It was hard to see through the crowd, but still very impressive.

And now it's back to life as usual... except that TusCon and workshops with Mahin are this weekend, and next weekend is Phoenix Faerie Festival... I guess busy is the new norm for me!

Colorful Bellydancers

Chris snapped this picture for me at the NY Renaissance Faire. I'm posing with one of the two belly dancers, though I regret to say that I forgot her name. She had a great gypsy persona and I think that her aqua and purple costume really suits her.

I'm pretty sure she was doing gypsy-style belly dance as well, though I'm not very good at identifying the various styles of dance. There were some hand movements that were very different from anything I've seen in tribal or Egyptian, including bringing her fists together and making a chopping motion up her arm -- they really weren't as violent as I made them sound, just very energetic.

As for me, I'm wearing a very orange skirt. When I purchased that Gahwazee vest, I decided that I really needed to wear it with colors other than green -- the orange and yellow paisley pattern gave me a good opportunity to branch out a bit. The orange skirt was a lucky $5 find, and while it's not full and floofy like a good tribal skirt, it did easily fit in my suitcase ;)

BRAS!

Now that I have your attention...

Hello, loyal blog readers! Insert a self-flogging sentence here where I talk about what a horrible blogger I've been and make lousy excuses. Follow that up with a promise to be better.

And now we can move on to bras. I've been wanting to make more belly dance bras. The studio always has cool bras, but they're never my size, and besides, I have needles and thread and coins and beads, I should be able to make my own. If only I wasn't busy trying to finish my BFAC project (more on that tomorrow). But since I don't have any performances coming up any time soon, there's no great rush.

I've had the nude bra for a while, I actually bought it to wear as, you know, a bra, under clothes, like a normal woman, but Tucson is too blasted hot to wear extra padding on my breasts. So I decided to make it into a dance bra. My first thought was to tea dye it, but initial tests quickly showed that the synthetic micro fiber would not hold the dye. So instead I'm going to try to cover it with that pretty brown, white and silver stripey fabric, for an awesome steampunk look. I should even have plenty of fabric to make a belt or maybe even a little panel skirt (I love panel skirts). The only problem is that it's an odd shade of brown and I couldn't find any appropriate trim to match it at JoAnn's. I'll have to shop around.

The other bra is a little more doubtful. I found it at Target for $8. They have the same style in a lot of other beautiful colors, so if it can actually support the weight of embellishments and look decent as a costume, it will be awesome. I'm just not certain if it's sturdy enough or if it will have quite enough coverage. But I would love to have some nice, colorful bras to go with my nice, colorful costumes, instead of sticking to the usual tribal black.

As a side note, there are those among the dance community who find it incredibly tacky and possibly even downright offensive to wear a bra that has not been covered by other fabric (hence my desire to experiment with the nude bra above). I'd like to acknowledge that segment of the dance population, and state that I understand their feelings. However, in my area it's pretty much the norm to take a bra and just add trim and coins and such, without an extra layer of fabric. My compromise is that I will no longer wear a lingerie bra without layering some sort of top over it to conceal the straps. I'm sure that's not good enough for everyone, but it's not my goal in life to please everyone :)

My first (official) solo

The above picture was taken by my friend and classmate Jen. Thank you, Jen!

So, I've danced solos before, for visiting friends and family, and at the Tahoe retreat. But Friday night was my first time performing a solo at an organized event, for a decent-sized audience (actually, the audience was so big that I almost freaked out). Judging by the number of compliments I got afterwards (even from people who don't know me), I'm guessing I did pretty good! I haven't actually watched the video yet, so I don't know for sure. I'm going to bask in the glow of feeling talented before I watch the video and nitpick all the things I did wrong.

I performed to "The Hunt" by Niyaz. The song is about a man who goes out hunting, but everything that he sees reminds him of his beloved, so he can't bring himself to kill anything. It's a favorite song of mine, both because of the meaning and because it's both beautiful and energetic. A lot of fun to dance to.

For my costume, I went with simple and elegant, rather than trying to schlep huge skirts and lots of layers up to Tempe with me. I'm wearing olive green flare-leg pants and tie-back choli, over which I layered a teal shantung silk panel skirt and cropped tie-top/vesty thing (with lovely light olive ties). Of course it's accented with lots of jewelry and hair goodies and the malachite bindi that I made the other day.

I was reasonably nervous, especially since I had to follow up a solo by a well-known local teacher, and dance on an actual stage instead of the floor. But not only did Kim of Plaza de Anaya give me a loving and warm introduction, but several of my friends from my various classes were sitting front and center with big smiles, making lots of noise. Their presence really carried me through those first scary moments until I could lose myself in the music!

I'll post the video when I can, but it's currently on Chris's laptop... which is in Texas with him.

(By the way, I did not end up dancing the drum solo, my classmate Marlene did a wonderful solo performance of it!)

Bellydance Street Team

This is my favorite shot from last night... Chris managed to catch my classmates and I in the middle of an Egyptian 1/2 turn, resulting in beautiful swirling skirts, perfectly posed arms, and everyone looking dramatically off into the crowd. My two lovely and well-dressed classmates who are dancing with me are Meghan and Jen. Shortly after this photo was taken, our teacher Tiffany jumped in. Fun times!

The entire Street Team event was just a lot of fun. We spent about an hour and a half making our way up and down Mill Avenue. It was a Friday night, so there were lots of people out and about, enjoying various restaurants, clubs, and the few shops that were open late. Most of them reacted positively to the experience, though some people seemed annoyed about us taking up sidewalk space, and we actually had a small run-in with some bicycle cops (I didn't hear most of the exchange, but apparently they were just asking us to stick to larger spaces and leave more open sidewalk, which was fine). There were quite a few dancers and musicians, as well as significant others and friends along for the fun, and even a few random people who followed us for a bit (including a couple of steampunks!).

It was a great experience for me, as a student dancer. My classmates and I danced together twice. The rest of the night I spent either watching, or standing in a U Chorus-type formation, doing simple moves to provide a pretty backdrop for the main dancers. I got to deal with the General Public, practice dancing to live music, and deal with the "fun" of realizing that I messed up in the middle of a move, then smiling and making the best of it. I hope to go up to Tempe for another one of these monthly events!

Henna!

Check out my henna faerie! Chris snapped this shot right after she was done, because of course I was silly and got my first henna tattoo in a spot where I couldn't see it. I'm really happy with the design and the placement, so I hope it lasts for a few weeks. It's not as dark as it could be, because I got cold and put a hoodie on over my halter top, and it started pulling the dried paste off. But since I'm so pale, it still shows really well... it's a nice mellow brown-orange.

Chris's Mom is now back in New York, which means life will return to normal until his brother visits next month... and normal life means BEAD TIME! What should I make first?

Another Faire Picture

Just me this time! I was trying to strike a bellydance pose, but my posture is a little weird -- I don't know what is going on with my lower arm, and my chin is oddly tucked. Looks like I forgot to tilt my hips forward, too. Really, all I remembered is to lift my chest ;)

My costume consists of brown cotton gauze bathing-suit-cover-up pants, the adorable cotton striped skirt I picked up at the TEP show, and the awesome super-long halter top that I got at last year's Faire (I like it because it gives the bare belly look, while protecting people from the glaring whiteness of my skin). It's accessorized with my totally sweet new pouchy belt, my favorite old kuchi mirror belt, a zillion bangle bracelets (mostly from World Market), the Talisman of Sultry Undulations, and the hair stuff I talked about yesterday. Oh! And my cute bird ring from my tribal jewelry shopping trip last week. I need to get a good picture of that.

Fun and Sun at Ren Faire!

Here's a picture of me with my awesome mother-in-law Marlyn at the Renaissance Faire! I'm a woodlands belly dancer and she's a mischievous imp -- the horns and ears are from the NY Faire, but the awesome wings were purchased yesterday at our Faire. The skirt and belt are from my closet, we're close enough in size that I was able to help her with an impromptu costume. However, while we were there she picked up a couple of skirts, so she'll have her own costume when we return to the NY Faire in August!

This was my first time doing Tribal buns. I put my hair up in two little buns, wrapped the yarn falls around them once, clipped them into place with little barrettes and then added all of the flowers and sticks I could. I really love this new pair of falls, they're perfectly earthy and have more texture than my green and black pair. I could see myself getting addicted to wearing my hair this way. I just have to remember to sunscreen my scalp...

Yes, as usual I got a little too much sun with my fun! But it was worth it. Mediaeval Baebes were back again, this weekend only! We saw their show, two belly dance/world music troupes, and the falconry show, in between all our shopping. What a great time! The weather was perfect, the performers were all at top form, and the booths were well-stocked with beautiful goodies. And I even got my first henna tattoo! Yay!

Experimentation!

I have a bra that I hate, but because I hate to throw away perfectly good bras (darn things aren't cheap), I decided maybe I could modify it enough to turn it into a steampunk dance bra.

The first step, though, would have to be changing the color. It's that hideous peachy fleshy beige-y tone that only a bra could be. There's no pretending it's any sort of outerwear when it's that color. My first thought was to tea-dye it, and a quick Google search revealed that tea-dyeing is so easy that I really had no excuse not to try it right away. So I brewed up some cheap tea, snipped off part of the bra, and went on my merry way.

Of course, this bra isn't just hideous, it's also synthetic. The tea dyed it, but only to a slightly darker, still fleshy tone. Drat.

I'm now examining my options... I could try dying it with coffee, which supposedly makes a deeper brown. I could try making some Kool-Aid dye (Grape + Orange = brown sludge, right?). I could apparently use Lumiere paints (I found directions for using them to paint/dye bathing suits). I could use Rit dye. I could cover it with more attractive cloth. Or I could say that this is all a lot of work for a bra I don't really like anyway, and go down to Target to buy a white cotton bra that would take better to tea-dyeing.

And that is the story of what I did this weekend. I played with my bra. What did you do?

Long overdue

Halloween is weeks behind us, and I'm just now finally posting an image of the awesome belt that I made for my costume. Keys and tassels and kuchi and chain... so much fun! I'm happy that it actually stayed up while I danced, as it's pretty heavy. Now I need an excuse to wear it again. It's just a little too over-the-top for class.

I'm looking forward to class tonight. I think we're going to finally start learning some intermediate moves. And hopefully my almost-daily zill practice will show. I also think I've finally got the grasp of one move that was stymieing me, which is a good thing since it was this week's homework and I barely got a chance to practice it.

Happy Halloween!

You've waited long enough... Here are the pictures of my tribal-style steampunk costume! Lovingly cobbled together out of things I already had -- I didn't buy anything specifically for this costume -- it's the perfect blending of two costume styles that I truly love.

From top to bottom we have:
-Steampunk feather clip from The Gypsy's Kiss. You may recognize this from my Dancehall Steampunk costume earlier this year.
-Three hairsticks tucked into my bun, sagging a bit because I'd already been dancing when this picture was taken.
-Primitive grey niobium earrings and earcuff from The Beaded Lily.
-My peacock feathers woven necklace. I was going to wear a steampunk necklace that Chris gave me, but it was too long, and this one matched the colors of the costume.
-Vest purchased from Target, upgraded with vintage glass buttons. I wore this last Halloween, too.
-My coin bra, which doesn't jingle much with a vest over it.
-Green lace choli with 3/4-length sleeves, purchased at Plaza de Anaya last week.
-Brass bracelet that Chris gave me for the holidays, awesome coin bracelet that I bought in NYC, and an assortment of rings that I grabbed on my way out the door.
-Tribal steampunk belt. My vest covers it in this picture, so I'll get better pics of it next week. I ended up tying it with some black grosgrain ribbon, and amazingly it stayed up all night.
-Bustle skirt! I'm so happy with how it turned out. There's nothing like wearing a bustle to dance.
-Gradiated sage green harem pants.
-I was wearing my sequined ballet flats, but they're really uncomfortable, so I kicked them off as soon as we arrived.

And here's a back view so that you can see the beautiful gathers on the back of my bustle skirt. Squee!

I hope that everyone has a fun Halloween. I'm spending mine at home with Chris, tidying up the office to make room for our new computers.

Costume complete, but time running short

I'm happy to say that I managed to complete my crazy steampunk belt, which involves one "Abercrombie" brand cloth belt that I bought at a thrift store years ago, copper chain tassles given to me by a former friend, copper chain given to me for my birthday a couple years back, 8 vintage keys purchased from Gem Show, and the HUGE kuchi pendant-y thing given to me by my friend and mentor Helen. I might also add some ribbon to tie it closed, because I don't like the yarn ties it has.

Anyway, my cookies are in the oven, which is why I have a couple of minutes to pop on here and let you all know that I will take many pictures tonight and share them here and all over the Internet tomorrow.

Armed with needle and thread...

Remember when I said that I was hoping to finish the mushroom pixie necklace this week? Yeah, I haven't touched it. When I made that statement, I forgot to take into affect the fact that Halloween is this week. Yesterday I was struck with the desire to make a bustle skirt, so I did. I took scissors, needle and thread to an old skirt of mine and bustled it up. It looks pretty sweet.

Today I had to stitch the elastic straps for my zills, and while I was doing that, I started thinking about Chris's steampunk costume, and how his vest would look a lot better if it had vintage brass buttons instead of cheap-o plastic ones. I'm almost done with that project. Tomorrow's project will be my crazy steampunk belt to go with my bustle skirt.

I swear I'll get some beading done over the weekend!