Traveling the Seven Seas... the reason I actually dressed like a fish.
Photo by No Blondes! Photography.
Its starting to become a tradition that I perform in some way, shape, or form at Gaslight Gathering. The last two years my group of lovely ladies from the Calafian Middle Eastern Guild have belly danced. Though this year, since Traveling the Seven Seas was Gaslight's theme, they couldn't find a way to fit belly dancing into the mix. Instead they asked my friend Ace and I to dress up as "sea hags" and tell fortunes. This was a very fun challenge! We kind of played around with the concept and came up with some fun characters.
Mama and her pet fish. We're still trying to think up proper names for these ladies.
Photo by Jerry Abuan.
As is my usual, cheapo way, I am a huge fan of recycling costume pieces. So fish lady is made up of older pieces I made/collected. The vest is my ghwazee I made for last years Gaslight, I simply pinned back the front skirts. The netting was given to me by a friend. Its actually just pinned and tucked around my waist, the shells and such glued onto the front. Yup, still getting mega mileage out of that coin bra I made.
Most of my effort went into the headdress, which I really had fun making.
Close up in progress shot.
If you've been following my blog for a while now, you probably will recognize the base of this headdress... because I've used it many times before in my costumes. What can I say? I'm a one trick pony who loves using this base. Its very versatile. I made the webbed ears and the large crystals are from the center pieces from my wedding.
I hid some of the wires holding it all together with some old earrings I no longer wear. I'm all about the up cycling.
Pearl halo is actually a candle holder/decor from Joann Fabrics. It was on sale. I clipped off the fabric leaves and fixed it to the bun in my hair. The pearls that served as the web spines on my "ears" are also from Joann's 50 cent bin.
A shot of the pearl halo fixed to my head.
Sea Hags workin' hard for the money... actually scones. We worked for scones mostly.
Usually I tend to shy away from extensive make up. Body paint makes my face itch and I end up tracking it everywhere. But since I had be a fish this year, I figured it was a good idea to paint my face. I used water soluble face paints and added the rhinestones to my forehead with spirit gum. It was a long process but it looked great when it was finished. I gave myself purple Cupid's bow lips, unfortunately they faded half way through the day. I'll work on a more permanent lip treatment next time.
Blue face of DOOOOOOM.
Overall, I'm very pleased with how this turned out. I was on a mega tight budget and I managed to put together something pretty fabulous on a dime or two. Ace and I plan on wearing these costumes again for Labyrinth Ball on Friday night. I'll be doing some detailing on it all (distressing the netting and shirt, making a new skirt to read more like a fish tail and in brighter colors, etc. etc) So stay tuned for fish lady 2.0 coming in July!
We tell your fortunes..may not be true but we tell them!
And of course, since it was a steampunk con, I had to wear my Annabelle Leigh Langy outfit. This lady has been getting lots of costume mileage and I'm happy to now be known as "the ferret lady" when I step out at various steampunk events. Jerry Abuaun took a great photo of me and Senor Squeaky-Pants. Thank you, Jerry!
Everyone loves a steampunk ferret!
Now that summer is gearing up (No pun intended with this post) so is my costume/garb making. Be prepared for my LoJ siren costume, some middle eastern garb I've been working on, and progress on a Game of Thrones SCA themed project myself and other costumers in my kingdom are working on.
Cheers!
