Crafty Tuesday (Talking about Costumes)

Out of the things I planned out for the week, the only things that fell by the wayside were the postcards. I did a test one and didn’t like it so I am doing some more research on them to see where I went off track.

I got the puppet bodies done and have the cloth for the costumes along with how I am going to make the rest of the costumes.

This week is mostly going to be costumes with some postcards sprinkled in.

I have been asked how these costumes come about. It is real simple. Someone comes up with a crazy idea and we execute it. This time we are finally getting around to a costume that we came up with about 7 years ago and a costume that Caroline wants to do. There are complexities to each but over all they are pretty straight forward.

Here is how I go about figuring out what I am doing for a costume. If it is a recreation, which most of mine are, I look at pictures of the outfit I am making. I sort out what is most distinctive about the piece. What has to be there to make everyone say, “Oh, that’s so and so from such and such.” ? Those are the must haves in the costume. After that I look at the details of the outfit and see what I think would add that extra level to the costume. The details really can make or break a good costume.

Color is important too but it can be hard to figure out what color a costume really is because of the lighting. Do you go for the color you think it is or do you go for the color that the garment actually is? I tend to go for a blend of the two. There is also the problem of finding the right fabric once you decide what you are going to do. I am lucky that I have the New York fabric stores to peruse for the perfect fabric but that is a double-edged sword because that can make the garment pretty pricey.

Make-up is another thing to consider. I am a fair make-up artist. I know all the basics and have done foam-rubber latex. I also know my limitations and work within those. Currently I don’t have a life mask that I can use for me or anyone else in the family so I fake my way through things.

Shoes can be a problem. Again I have a number of ways of faking my way through shoes including covers and finding something close that I can change to what I need. Also sometimes finding out what the footwear looks like can be a real pain because there are few to no full-length shots to work from.

I will say that the internet has made it much easier to research costumes and techniques. I can find much more information rather than trying to work off of a few blurry pictures in a Starlog. Also with the ability to freeze-frame and get a clear freeze rather than the jumpy blurry video tape freezes is amazing and very helpful.

As I will do every week, I am opening the floor to questions. So what do you want to know?

I am grateful that I can break things down into smaller pieces.