More Costume Photos

by Meredith 26. November 2019 08:40

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.

 

It’s Convention Time: OryCon 41

by Meredith 10. November 2019 19:45


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.

OryCon 41 Books

by Meredith 8. November 2019 06:00

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

Time to Prep for Packing!

by Meredith 7. November 2019 11:40


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!

Proofs Required

by Meredith 28. October 2019 18:35

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.

Skeksis Costume is Moving Along

by Meredith 27. October 2019 10:23

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.

Wigging Out

by Meredith 22. October 2019 11:31


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.

One file DONE!

by Meredith 17. October 2019 19:48

I just mailed the OryCon 41 Souvenir Book off for review. Minor tweaks planned for next week, no problem. Now it's time to make dinner, get the kids ready for bed, and get a good night sleep because it's time to start the big beast of a Pocket Program first thing tomorrow morning.

I'm also a big fan of how the layout of my table of contents page turned out. #designnerd

Making Progress

by Meredith 13. October 2019 09:18


A lot of interruptions to progress on the costumes today but Maddie and I got her base skirt done. Our youngest has picked out two costumes that she wants to wear at the convention based on finds from our thrift store shopping. She wants to be a fire elemental (found a pretty sweet skirt that looks like flames) and a black dragon. Goodwill had dragon masks in the Halloween section but they weren't black so Hunter and Ari broke out the paint to make it the right color. They also started patterning some back scales to go with the wings we already had laying around.

Gelflings & Skeksis, Oh My!

by Meredith 12. October 2019 08:09

We've been watching Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance as a family. There is a convention coming up (OryCon 41) and we are inspired to make some costumes so we raided the thrift store and now a Gelfling and a Skeksis are under construction. I'm making a Brea costume for myself) and helping my daughter make Skekso the Emperor. I am on an "upcycle/reuse" mission for costuming so we plan to repurpose as much as we can versus buying new fabric from the store. We'll see how this goes.

About Meredith Cook

Welcome to my repository of creative expression. I'm not a happy camper unless I am making something and over the years I have dabbled in quite a few different kinds of art projects. Some projects come from taking art classes, others are completely hobby driven, and projects like home decor come from a need to customize an item and make it better or unique. The overall theme behind what I do is to learn how to manipulate objects and practice what I know about visual aesthetic and good design. Oh yeah, and to have fun.

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