Plotting some Steampunk

So, it figures that when I finally get my sewing gumption up again, I end up making myself sick by crawling around on the floor for 9 hours while working on a commission. >.<  The second possible source of my current head cold could be the crew of my beloved Navras, since half the ship was sick during Sci-Fi Expo. (Too bad environmental scrubbers haven't been invented yet.) 
So, while laid up with the con crud and/or sewing crud, I've been pondering the upcoming Steampunk Tea Party, which is being put on by the DFW Costumer's Guild. I learned my lesson last year with the Frontier Days event, and am NOT planning an entirely new gown.  Instead, I'm going to try and make an ensemble around the striped and bronze steampunk skirt that I made last year.  I've been doing some digging, and have come up with a few ideas. First off, the bodice.

 I came across this while I was searching. It's offered by Ageless Patterns, but after reading some of the muss and fuss that people have had trying to finagle the pattern into working, I think I may just draft it from scratch. I love the cross over front and the velvet collar and lapels. I want to make it in a black and gold stripe, which may be difficult to find, but that I know I've seen at one of the Dallas fabric warehouses. 

For the overskirt, I'm going to go for something similar to this.

For this, I'm going with plain black taffeta, with gold on the bottom edge of the pleated trim, and a line of gold ribbon between the skirt and the pleating.

I think these two pieces are doable by March 31st, which is when the event is. :) No giant skirts, no tons of pleating, just a bodice and an overskirt.  Famous last words?

Klingon Prosthetics

I don't think I did any preliminary posts about my Klingon sculpt, so you get to have it all in one post!
I was contacted by my friend Cam, who is the Captain of the USS Summoner in the Fleet 31 roleplay group, and is also a member of the USS Navras, the local (and most awesome) chapter of Starfleet International. He wanted to have a set of Klingon appliances made for Sci-Fi Expo, so I set to work.
I wanted the ridges to be somewhat unique.  All the 'ready made' ridges available online are kind of generic, and I didn't want to use a main character as a reference in case they were too easily recognizable. Luckily, I came across a one shot character named Leskit, whose ridge pattern I really liked, and started to sculpt.

I cast it in Ultra-Cal and then made the final piece out of liquid latex. I also made a nose piece to match, but didn't end up taking any pics of it. :p
The morning of Sci-Fi Expo, I applied the pieces in the hotel room. He had brought a wig, a pair of REALLY busy eyebrows, and a mustache, which we also applied to finish off the look.
I have to say, I am THRILLED with how it all came together. I was really happy with the look of the final pieces, but seeing it all together just made it come alive!  And Cam totally was a Klingon the entire day, even singing in Klingon to the Prop Freaks camera!

Denobulan Officer

I tell you, I could not be happier with how these prosthetics turned out. There were a few minor things I would change, I would love to add a bit more colouring next time, but all in all, I'm quite pleased with the final product. And so was my First Officer, who sported the appliances at Sci-Fi Expo!

Sci-Fi Expo 2012

Sci-Fi Expo!  I'll admit, I had kinda lost my enthusiasm before the con. I had been working to finish a bunch of orders in time, hadn't finished my new Cardassian dress, and just wasn't feeling it.
When the Friday of the con rolled around, I took up an offered sleeper sofa in a hotel right across from the convention centre, and stayed with the First Officer of our ship, the USS Navras, and his fiance. We worked well into the night, finishing up things for our booth inside the convention hall, and getting the jump start on our prosthetics so all we'd have to do the next morning was add the makeup before heading out the door.

Once they were off, I finished my own makeup and made ready for my other appointments. Before the con even started, I had outfitted the Denobulan, a Klingon, a Vulcan, and a Bajoran with prosthetics!  I had one more Bajoran to apply at the con itself, and ended up selling the backup nose that I had made extra and brought with me just in case, so hooray!

 

The con itself was absolutely fabulous. The USS Navras table was in a great location, and we were one of the busiest tables in the entire dealer's room!  We had a great turnout of actual crew members, probably about 25 of us, and people were stopping by to see all the cool Trekkies and pick up business cards and info fliers.  The Captain, First Officer, and myself were all interviewed by both D Magazine and Prop Freaks, and our resident Klingon got to sing his drinking song for the Prop Freaks camera!
I spent most of my day at the Navras table, hanging out with my shipmates and generally having a fantastic time. As such, I couldn't tell you how any of the panels went, how the guests were, or anything like that. But I can tell you that the dealer's room was fantastic, and that I bought a tribble and the Van Gogh painting of the exploding TARDIS.

Here are some more pics from the con!

 After the con was over, the crew headed over to i Fratelli, where we had our anniversary crew dinner. The restaurant was packed, and the room we had reserved was in the back of the restaurant, so we definitely got some choice looks from the other patrons! 

The Captain handed out commendations and promotions, and yours truly was awarded a promotion to Lieutenant Junior Grade, and a Captain's commendation for being generally awesome. A good number of shiny new pips were handed out to the crew, and many of us received commendations and awards, so the room was full of celebratory vibes and good conversation.

So yeah, Sci-Fi Expo turned out to be pretty fantastic, and I'm really looking forward to more Trek shenanigans with the crew when Dallas ComiCon rolls around! Our Captain is trying to cook up something particularly awesome, since one of the special guests is going to be none other than Sir Patrick Stewart. :D What is it? You'll just have to wait and see!

Cement everywhere!

So, I spent the weekend wrestling with the Silurian again. I finally mustered up the courage to start molding the cast, and I worked on that pretty much the entire time.  It was definitely a learning experience, and took a lot more cement than I had anticipated, so I was glad that I had purchased the 100  pound bag instead of one of the smaller containers that you usually find online!  Unfortunately, I was so wrapped up in it (and I was usually covered in cement slurry), that I didn't remember to take pictures of the process.
I cracked open the mold yesterday, and it went pretty well. There seem to be very few air bubbles, but I still have a great deal of clay to clean out of the mold. The front half of the mold did decide that it wanted to be two separate parts instead of one, and cracked down the thinnest part of the cement, where the top of the the center crest  was, but it was a clean break, so it shouldn't be too hard to fix. I kind of figured it might happen, so I wasn't entirely devastated.

I did take a picture after I cracked the mold, so here's a pic of some chaos!

Now to clean out the clay...