gah.
Guys, not only did I win something for the first time in my life, but I won something totally dope. These hand-crafted beautiful Bilbo buttons, made by Celtic Ruins Costumes and available in their etsy store (along with Thorin’s belt buckle, Fili & Kili’s hairclips, and other all around awesome stuff).
Berg and Nadine are a super talented cosplaying couple who are trying to raise money to finally visit New Zealand - take a look at their stuff and go support them!
Michele Caragher
Embroidered details in Game of Thrones
‘Michele Carragher is a London-based Hand Embroiderer and Illustrator who has been working in costume on film and television productions for over 15 years. She studied Fashion Design at The London College of Fashion, where the course incorporated design, pattern cutting, garment construction, embroidery, millinery and illustration. At the same time she attended a three year evening course in Saddlery at Cordwainers College learning skills in leatherwork.
After leaving college Michele worked in Textile Conservation, repairing and restoring historical textiles for private collectors and museums, specialising in hand embroidery. She then moved into a career in costume for film and television, initially working as a Costume Assistant/Maker on productions such as the BBC’s Our Mutual Friend, ITV’s David Copperfield and Mansfield Park. She soon gravitated towards the decoration and embellishment of costumes, using skills in hand embroidery and surface decoration, taking inspiration from the many historical textiles she had encountered working as a Textile Conservator.
The first production that saw her undertake the role of a Principal Costume Embroiderer was for HBO’s 2005 Emmy Costume award-winning production of Elizabeth 1. Her most recent work has been on HBO’s 2012 Costume award-winning television series Game of Thrones, working on all three seasons.
As a Costume Embroiderer Michele specialises in hand embroidery and surface embellishment, using traditional hand embroidery techniques, smocking, beading and surface decoration. She works directly onto the completed garment or starts with motifs and textures on silk crepeline/organza, which are applied to the costume and then worked into once on the actual garment. She also works on existing machine embroidery designs that are not too dense, adding some hand stitching and beading to give a more authentic, hand-finished look.
Michele finds hand embroidery has more flexibility and diversity than that of embroidery created by machine, as there is a greater variety of thread choice and colours to use. It is also possible to work more easily on garments that are already constructed. However, machine embroidery in combination with hand work can be very useful when completing many repeats by creating light outlines or a less dense machine stitch, work can then be completed by hand and again can be carried out on a finished garment.
Michele is a highly creative Costume Embroiderer, producing original designs as well as working closely to a costume designer’s brief to create their desired look.’
Text and images from http://www.michelecarragherembroidery.com
Look at these lovely ladies rocking some of our apparel! Siffy is the redhead, Lopti is wearing a Loki’s Army tank (go figure). Bonus: The two shirts Siffy is wearing are her own designs! She designs some of our gear, and always does a bang up job. If you can’t tell, the red shirt is everyone’s favorite theoretical physicist playing in a ball pit and yelling “Bazinga”.
FYI, me and the boyfriend have launched our new website! And here we have my sister Siffy and dear friend Lopti modeling some of the shirts for us! They’re so nice.
Modeling some of the designs I’ve done for mygeekery.com
If you didn’t already know, Siffy, Thor, and I are going to DragonCon 2013 as Jedi Disney Princesses. Here’s a “Jedi” version of Kida that siffy sketched for me. I’m so excited to get started! My light saber is already on the way! Here’s where I got mine - http://www.ultrasabers.com/default.asp
BTW - Siffy is going as Ariel and Thor as Jasmine. I can’t wait, guys.
And here’s the 3rd jedi princess! Kida from Atlantis-Lost Empire!
I am hands down most excited about all 3 sisters having combat ready light sabers in their hotel room together. muahahahaha
Ohh that would indeed be fun. I think a nautolan would be a little above my skillset with prosthetics and whatnot, and beyond that, I’m not up on all my SW aquatic races (well. gungan.)…but if you have any ideas, I’d gladly take them. I’ve played with the idea of making her look more alien and feral, giving her some scales, but wasn’t going for a particular race so much as trying to tone down the princessy bit.
The cat’s out of the bag…Georgey, Won-Won, and myself are doing Disney princess jedis for D*C this year. Did this quick design sketch, trying to use Ariel’s color scheme and incorporate some of her elements (the “scales” on the boots, the shell bra look), while still keeping the jedi look. Still working on my other projects in the meantime and as always, wrestling with myself over whether or not to attempt Sif’s new armor. What to do what to do.
OK, cosplay progress update. First off, I’ve started work on the first Master Sword- not sure if this will be mine or Siffy’s. First I used some pics of Link to determine the scale and ratios for the sword for me and Siffy’s height (averaging it together), and created a template on the computer. Printed it out, and traced it onto press board and cardboard. Press board went in the middle, put cardboard on either side. Attached a dowel to the press board (attached it all with spray on adhesive), strengthened the connection with epoxy and hot glue. Cut out the outline for the hilt on cardboard, connected it to the blade/dowel, and covered that with expanding foam so I can carve it down to the right-ish size and shape of the hilt.
All of this will be covered with worbla… and hopefully that works, lol.
Other updates- got my wig in for my Thor cosplay (did I mention I’ve added that to the queue? I did. Thor’s armor from Dark World, gender bent). The wig is from Arda- the Matilda (lace front) in dark ash blonde). I’m in the process of sketching out the armor pattern. There’s no pepakura file for it out right now, that’d I’ve found, so it’ll be a scratch build.
And finally, working on my Jedi/Princess cosplay- I am going with Siffy and Ageekyweasley as Disney Princess + Jedi cosplay. I won’t give away my sisters’ plans, but I’m going as Jasmine- SITH Jasmine, bwuahaha. You can see a kind of concept sketch above. I just ordered my lightsaber this morning (red, staff version- like Darth Maul’s). Next will be buying fabric, woot!
