Ren fairs and my family

Watching the joust from the royal box

My family loves Ren-fairs and all that type of stuff.  We belong to a local guild of fairies where we go to different ren-fairs and entertain the small children. This is a service we do not get paid to do it.  It is a charity type thing we do.  My daughters and I all go together.  This last one my middle daughter was is so she was not there.  

just a couple that I like their costumes

We go in the costumes I made from A Mid Summer Nights Dream a few years back we just take turns as to who wears which costume.  I also love watching the lion dancers, fire eaters and the jousting this fair had all of the above.This is the lion dancers I video taped them.  I enjoy watching these types of things.  I have watched Lion dancers since I was a little girl going to China Alley in the neighboring town where I grew up.



Watching Fire eaters is also fun.  My middle daughter has a friend from Microneisa that does fire dancing and is a fire-eater as well.  So I was interested in what this one used since each person seems to use something different.

 This is the liquid he uses to spit fire.

Lastly we watched the jousts.  This was an interesting Joust.  One of the competitors was a woman that does not happen to often.

Meet William Shakespeare and the merry people from A Mid summer Nights Dream.  Mustard seed Cobweb and Puck

Me and two of my girls

Since my daughter was home ill we all went with out food for the day so we could bring her home a gift from the fair meet sting.  Me and all my daughters agreed to this.  Things are tight so if we want something extra something has to give so no food to eat but daughter feels loved and  not left out.

A Mid Summer Nights dream

I donated supplies to this play I am not costuming it or anything like that.  But it will be fun to go and watch and see how it differers from the one I did costume.  This one all I did is donate 3 large black garbage bags full of fabric to help with the set and costumes or where ever they needed it.  My middle daughter who played mustard seed last time is not in this play but she did help embellish some of the set pieces ( a big tree I think) and she helped paint the signs for the show that are placed all over town.

Knight in shining Armor

My middle daughter during the summer made this Knight in shining armor for a friend of hers.  We forgot to take photos before she gave it away.  Recently she was given access to this item again.  She was excited that we would now be able to take photos of the item as it had a lot of work involved with making this fairy.  This was probably the most elaborate fairy she and I have made together with over 100's of hours in the making of it.   May not look that way to people looking at.  Usually this would be posted on my daughters blog but she is debating on getting rid of her blog and just joining my blog as a guest blogger.  With school and such and health issues she figures this would be better in the long run.

The box that that was used to house the fairy was found thrift shopping.  The little jar that is tied to the top of the box was purchased at Hobby Lobby.  Originally it had the recipients name in it.  But we did not want to show the name on my blog for privacy reasons.   It is now a very cherished family item.  The inside of the box is set up with grass and fall leaves.

The fairy has some accessories with him.  A sword a shield and a jar of coins and jewels.  The jar was purchased at hobby lobby as was the weapons.  But the weapons originally were necklace charms that we modified for our own ideas.  The jar of gems and coins was made out of and old bracelet that we took the gems out of and added to the jar.  The coins in the jar are actually made out of a dime and a penny that we took a hole punch too to make coins the correct size for a fairy.  Took many hours to make those coins.


The armor was hand made mostly by me and my daughter.  The shoulder armor pieces are two pennies that I hammered into the desired shape on a small metal rod that I used like an anvil.  When I had them to the desired shape I used the same hole punch that i used to make the coins to make the holes to attach it to the chainmaile.  Then added those four coins to the jar of coins too.

The knights hair is a small piece of rabbit fur left over from the costume of Puck from A Mid Summer Nights Dream.

The little bits of fabric used on this Fairy is also scraps from other characters from mid summer night dream.  The cape is from mustard seed and the shinny loin cloth is from moth. There is a little strip of leather she placed over the loin cloth.  She also made a little black bag that was to carry little fairy items what ever they might be.   There is little pieces of twine wrapped around his legs and one has a bone button on one leg as if the fairy had found it and liked it so much added it to his clothing.  The wings are made out of a butterfly that is supposed to be used as a hair clip.  My daughter dismantled it ( removing the clip, antenna, and butterfly body) and reconstructed it to be in the shape she wanted for the fairy.

 

 The helmet I made for the knight.  It is made out of a Jarritos bottle cap.  It was the soda that we had at my daughters 15th birthday party the cap was left over from that party.  I did the same thing to this hat as I did to the pennies.  In that I took a hammer to the cap till it was flat then I made a make shift anvil and shaped the piece to the knights head.  It took about 8 hours to get the shape I wanted.  I sat on the front porch working on this it was fun to do as random people walked past in the middle of the summer they would come over and see what I was making.  The wings are some pieces we found at hobby lobby that are meant to be used for scrape booking but we thought it would be fun to have a Mercury look to the hat especially since the fairy already had wings.  There are little pieces of leather (scrapes from the rabbit fur) tied to threw the  holes I punched into the hat as I did the pennies ( adding the punches to the the jewel jar).

 

My oldest daughter still needs votes for her song if you are interested in voting we would greatly appreciate it please go to this link and vote for her song.  She is ranked 18 and is in risk of not being able to reach her goal of helping raise money for cancer research.  This is very poignant to me today as I found out today that my sister in laws mother in law passed today from cancer.  This nice lady baby sat my children when they were little.  It is scary how many times my family has been touched by cancer and I am sure it will happen many more time s before it is my time to go back to heaven.  Thank you http://songsforlife.org/girl-wanna-china-khoral/

Photos from actual performances...

here is just a sample of the almost 1000 photos I took during the actual performances. The stage had a hazer going so it was more visual than in the tec rehearsals.

Aboveand to the side is the play within the play at the very end.

Above, below and to the side is puck and a few of the fairies the one in orange yellow and red is playing Mustardseed my daughter.  The pink and green fairy is Peasblossom and the dark fairy is Cobwed.  It was a lot of work making these costumes but I really like the way they came out on stage.

For those that do not know i have applied for a job as a stitcher doing sewing professionally for a theater company locally.  I am hoping to get the job but since I am self trained do not know what my chances are.  I hope good as the interview went well.  Wish me luck it means i can stay a full time mom and still earn some money all while working from home.

Tec Rehearsal Mid summer night's dream

 Sneak Peak at the play Mid summer night's Dream and some of the costumes.  Some i made some are from previous years and some are made by other mom's helping with the play this year.  this was during tec rehearsal so not everyone is in full costume or hair and makeup this is just a rough idea.

  Below photo is old costumes from previous years

I did not make these last two costumes they are done my another mom entirely.  But the young man in this photo is such a nce person i wanted to include him here.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Only one cape left for me make and a few other little details dress rehearsal is Friday.  Let the fun begin

Pirates ... Shakespeare ... Comic-Con

My husband and middle daughter went to fanx-comic-con this last week in this post are a few of the outfits they wore.  The first day they both went as Pirates.

It was an easy thing to do.  The Rust colored tunic you see my daughter wearing is a new piece I made a few days ago for the Shakespeare play this year.  She is just breaking it in a few weeks early.  It is a tunic I made for  some of the peasant characters to wear in a Mid Summer Night's dream.

I have actually made four new tunics, four new skirts, three new shirts , three new aprons, 3 new hats, and 3 new shawls so.... and so on in the last week for this years play.  I have made most of these to accommodate the peasants in the play.  We wanted new costumes for that group this year.  I wanted to use solid colors so they would stand out against the brocade of those who are the nobles and merchant class.  I will post more about those costumes later.

The black over skirt she is wearing I made three years back for the play "The Merchant of Venice".  I also made the corset she is wearing four years ago for the play "Much Ado About Nothing".  My husband borrowed some costumes pieces  hat, head scarf, jacket, boots)from a friend and wore some of ours with his outfit.  I made the shirt and vest last year for "Little Woman".  I never posted all the shirts I made or the vests.   I need to get around to that.  The  borrowed items are from a long time family friend who does a ton of costuming for the BYU folk dance team.   But these are their personal costumes and do not belong to BYU.

The glass pearl necklace my daughter is wearing she and I made on the 16th out of three strings of glass pearls that use to belong to my Vavo but were broken and damaged so we re-stung them and made them into one necklace that was a lace choker.  My daughter is so happy to get to wear those beads made her day.

Day two still a pirate theme for the two:

The first day they took off their costumes real soon after getting there like less than an hour.  So they decided to actually wear them on day two my daughter changed hers a little adding a bigger hat and a cape.  The cape is one I made for  the character "Jo" in "Little Woman".  My husband switched to a more pirate like shirt.  Day one was sunny day two overcast thus the color changes in the costumes.
On the second day of comic con there was to be a costume contest.  Sadness my husband and daughter were supposed to be in the costume contest at comic con but they had to turn down the request from the staff members.  Because my daughter had to be at a school choir performance that night by 6:30 and the contest would not start until 5 and that was cutting it too close with the long drive home. It would have been fun to see if one of my costumes could have won. Oh well at least I know they were good enough to be asked to participate in it. They said lots of people stopped them to take photos with them and of them glad they had fun my daughter has had such a rough year health wise this was her reward for when she had 2 report cards in a row with straight A's while going in and out of the hospital. They got the tickets back in February so they did not know there would be a conflict with a school choir performance.

On the last day my husband continued to be  a pirate we have other costumes I think he just liked this one.  My daughter went as the dark fairy cobweb.  She left her wings at home as she was worried with the crowds on the last day they would be mangled.  Now they are home and exhausted from three days of fun.

Puck

I have not quiet finished puck I am making this character a white fur cape to go with the costume and she has a leaf sleeve she wears too.  Her hair will look rumpled for the play.  But it is only partially made at this point in time.  So I will take photos when that part is done and on stage.
 

 I have assembled the rest of the costume for Puck.  I even was able to get some photos of this costume of the girl that is playing that character.  If you follow my blog i wanted all the faerie like people to have something that sparkles on them so when they are on stage they can glitter shimmer and or shine.  Hers is more shimmer and shine but her mask does have a glitter effect to it.  I like the way the mask horns and crown all worked together real well.  It was fun making the cast members lips match their costumes.  Originally the director wanted the faces painted for the faerie realm but I really did not want to deal with that much face painting it takes a long time to paint that many faces plus it never look is exactly the same from one day to the next.   I like the masks it is fast, easy and looks the same each day.

My middle daughter helped Puck put on the sleeve as I was chasing other costume things down. Little did my daughter know she put it on Puck upside down I will correct that for the play.  I also may move it to one leg instead of one arm.

The Donkey "Bottom" is all done

 

I finished the Donkey costume  for the play.  It is not a full costume as it is to be removed and put on, on stage.  So it needs to be easy to put on and take off.  I thought it needed hooves for added benefit and to show that the donkey could not do anything for himself. So it has hooves that I made from ice-cream buckets that I

• one cut apart
• Then duct taped back together
•  then paper mached over that
•  then spayed with black enamel spray paint
•  punched holes in the hooves
•  and hand sewed to some tubes I made for sleeves that have elastic at the wrists and at the biceps.

  I did not have  a pattern so I made it up as I went along. 
 

Two tails made from imitation yak fur also no pattern just figured it out as I went long Just as I did the hooves.

The hood part is made from a part of a pattern for a rabbit another part made from a pattern for a kangaroo and yet another section made from a costume for a jester.   Then of course there is my modifications to make them work together and my additions to the patterns.  So it is not a pattern you can buy any where.  So I have the character Puck left to do then I think I am done for  awhile with the costumes for the play.  As the rest are our old costumes that the school owns we will use.  I also have to make a Gibson Girl costume for this daughter for her play Our town that she is in.  I also am testing  pattern for someone on ravelry but can not tell you what it is as that part is a secret.  I also have to get a cross stitch done in the next four days for a customer.  The shirt and pants you see in these photos are not part of the costume that is just a pirate shirt my daughter put on too have a shirt similar to those the boys may wear and those are just scrub pants.  She was a good sport for taking these photos as my other daughter would have none of it.

Queen Titania

I made the queen to represent water both in winter and summer.  She is supposed to sparkle like ice and waves cracking yet have a cool color.  I think I achieved my goal.  If you notice her dress is different than the other fairies  a square hem line on the shirt tunic.   Yet she has the same type of corset and a similar type of peplum with a wavy edge.

I have made her to look like our old and new fairy costumes combined so that the two on stage make since.   Yet she is different  in that she has coins and beads dangling from her dress and long sleeves I also added her peplum to her corset instead of her tunic.
Her corset is supposed to sparkle a lot on stage when we have the disco ball going and spotlights.

Her skirt is made of lame as is the lining of the tunic.   The tunic overlay is sheer blue fabric with silver painted details on it.
We have three levels of fairies the queen then her consorts the costumes I just made then the servants or peasant fairies which are wearing our old costumes.
This corset caused me considerable grief I never like working with confetti fabric unless the fabric is several years old and the glue totally dried up and not gummy.  I also I made the mistake of using stretch fabric both on the front and back of the corset with interfacing the confetti fabric cannot take the stretch and rips when the corset is  tightened so we have to leave it loose.    When we do this play again in four years I will probably be reworking/remaking this corset.

The wings you see depicted in these photos are owned by the school we have used them in the past.