Dyed two more colors of wool today. Eventually got a dark brown but it is more red than I would like. I already had a mossy green (I dyed) and a dark emerald green (purchased). I wanted a green color in the middle of these two. Results turned out ok. I used the moss green color mixed with black. I know that black dye separates but I didn't expect it to do it as much as it did. There are streaks of brown in the green. Ah well. Should blend well in the carders though.

With both the dark brown and dark green I had to dye the roving twice. I think it felted the wool slightly. It’s been nearly ten years since I last dyed wool I’m certain there were parts of the process I had forgotten about. Again, ah well. I will just have to try dying more.

What's cooking? Wool! I ran out of brown and need to dye more. I'm hoping for a coffee color, but we will see. It's been over ten years since I've done this. Not bad. I'm going to put a bit more green in next time and try to get another batch a bit darker.

The Masquerade hosts a photo shoot before and after the show. Many thanks to Mana Conrad for taking photos at OryCon 41 and posting them on Flickr to share.

We built a little desk for Arianna and it needed a stool for her to sit on. I found something sturdy at Goodwill that would work with a little TLC. A little disassembly here, some paint there, and we have a winner!

There was no way she could fit in this owl shirt any more. It was so well “loved” with paint and glitter on it from preschool that even if she would have let me donate it, it wouldn’t be accepted. Our solution was to turn it into a throw pillow. The stool ended up being the perfect project for the owl shirt. I just added more paint and glitter to make the preschool additions look more intentional. I then sewed it into a pillow with a bit of padding and trimmed with some scraps of coordinating fabric I had laying around. (She really liked the ruffle that was originally on the stool.)

Hunter cut the legs down to the right height (and repurposed the feet into a second footstool for the craft room!). I painted the whole thing matte black and I think it turned out super cute.

OryCon 41 Nov 8 2019 - Nov 10 2019
Maddie talked me into entering the Masquerade Costume Contest and we won Best in Class (Novice). Woohoo! Ari got to bedazzle everyone as a Fire Elemental and be fierce as a Black Dragon. There was crafting and dance parties and Johann Sebastian Joust. Good times had by all!

See also: "Making Of" Photo Gallery for more pictures of how the costumes were made.

Here they are: the OryCon 41 Souvenir Book and Pocket Program are ready for you to read and enjoy.

Getting closer to being done. That big pile of fabric has been turned into a pile of costumes. Everything is getting matched together with the full outfit to make sure we have all the pieces completed and can make a to-do list for the remaining items. Brea's vest was a bit of a challenge for me. I had some pink fabric on hand that was close in color but not quite. I thought just sewing in the details would be enough but that didn't work out so I pulled out the airbrush. I can count on one hand how often I have used this airbrush. But airbrushing the fabric worked! It was one of those "have faith" processes. OryCon 41, here we come!

Annnnd both proofs are now done. I always want to see a printed copy. There was a miscommunication on the Pocket Program cover alignment. All should be fixed now and we're good to go.

Souvenir Book gave me doubts about color correction around 6am before turning the files into the printer. But then I pulled up old files of past publications and compared them to the printed results. Confidence was reinvigorated and the files were submitted. They turned out perfect. Take that Doubt Demons! Printer was awesome and gave us some extra copies of the cover so we could hand them out as thank you posters.

The Skekso dress now has long sleeves (pretty proud of those) and I made a new collar to fill in the scoop neck. Crazy sequin shoulders are stitched on. And we got really lucky with the cape I bought, the front is magenta but it turns out the reverse side of the fabric is silver. Reverse side up looks fantastic and the magenta shows through a bit as she walks around, reflecting the red of the dress. I stuffed the collar with tulle and just safety pinned it in place. I'll have to figure out how I want to stitch it down.

Adding color to a plain white wig is turning out even better than I had hoped. It's been years since I had bought synthetic and I was super stoked to find they made these ombre colors now. I overbought and now need to come up with a new project or put it up on a Buy Nothing group. I just used slip knots to attach to the netting. To make the braids fuller I used a light colored tulle tucked inside the hair to bulk up the strands. As long as no one looks too closely you can't see it. I matched the braid work to Brea's as best I could. It's not exact but I think close enough people will get the hint. Her ears are needle felted wool that I just sewed right into the wig netting.