Garters for a prima donna

This is a hint for one of the costumes I'll be making over fall and winter. It's very big and very pink, and that's all I'm going to say for now. I won't really need garters, because they won't show, but I wanted them nevertheless.

Rococo garters are simple to make. There are several examples with embroidered phrases, from poetry to cheeky quotes. I found inspiration in this tutorial and laughed heartily when I found this geeky one. However I sewed the embroidered panel directly on top of the satin band to avoid seams that could unravel easily.

Cotton emrboidery thread and fabric, satin band in polyester, sewing thread in silk.

I had to improvise a little - my embroidery hoop lies waiting for me at my aunt's,
half the country away.

It's a sad thing to confess to, but I'm a sucker for small projects that give instant gratification. This took me a couple of hours, and now they only need a little ironing to get rid of the pin holes left in the fabric, and they're ready to go!

Gjallarstadir Viking Market

I moved into student housing in Oslo a few weeks ago and as chance would have it, the person in charge of the house I live in happens not only to be a fellow viking - he belongs to the same viking group I've just joined. There are vikings popping up everywhere around me, and it's amazing. Yay for friends I won't bore with my talk of VIKINGS!

Gjallarstadir was the most relaxed market I've been to so far. I got to say hello to a few of my new vikings (and then hide from them because they were scary...).

My viking clothes arrived at my new place the day before market. I celebrated the 
end of this painful separation by wearing all. of. the. jewellery.

I'd brought a civilian to the market and we originally planned to leave when it closed around six. But a few minutes before closing time, we happened to meet a few people we sat down with and we ended up not leaving before half past eight, after sharing mead, sausages, stories and I got to pet their dog. I'm a shy person, so whenever I start talking with strangers out of nowhere it's like magic.

A lot of the viking enthusiasts my age come to markets only during opening times, and it's so sad. The viking fun happens when the normal people are gone - the mood at market after closing time is the best thing ever and I can't explain it, it's a thing that has to be experienced.

brb joining the Night's Watch.

Gjallarstadir was the last market for this season and since many of the foreign sellers pack up shop now, I got an enormous sheepskin for 600 NOK. Bargain! I named it Børre and it's super floofy! I just hope it'll stop smelling like sheep so I can stand to snuggle in it. Hopefully I can sleep on it next time I camp at market.

This is my first market where I haven't bought shiny pretties or sewing stuff. This time my loot consists of food and a few rabbit furs from a nice seller. The sausage is hand-made, with moose and deer meat and chantarelles. Heaven. And that piece of meat is dried horsemeat.

In addition I bought some cherry honey for autumn tea and a dried reindeer heart that I gifted to my civilian as thanks for driving me to market. I can't start to say how pleased I am with the fact that I was able to give away a dried heart as heartfelt thanks and not have the recipient freak out. (She's a really cool lady.)

Dwarf lady

In April I had a tiny photoshoot with Sylvilel, one of my roomies. There have been some changes in my costume since December - I donated my armbracers to the cinema because I had a fit of I-HATE-THESE-THINGS-I-MADE... my comfy dwarf-sweater was left with a friend of mine that lives in Oslo and I haven't gotten around to restyling the beard after I rinsed it for glue.

Please ignore the houses in the background and the fact that I am shamefully beardless, and instead feast yer eyes on my beautiful sledgehammer.

I know I am a nightmare to work with because I only stand still like two seconds at a time, and I'm easily distracted by EVERYTHING. Sylvilel is an incredibly patient photographer.

I am very pleased with how the sledgehammer turned out. I lost count over how many times I painted and repainted it, but the time was well spent, it tricked a hobby smith into thinking it was real.

My preciousss.

Valkyrie crown & shield

The headdress has been shaped and painted. Later I'm adding wings and an elastic band around the back so that it'll actually stay on my head. (I'll just cover it with my hair when worn.) I might also redo the bird centrepiece. It was supposed to look like a stylised raven, but I don't know how well that worked out.

The wings were drying while I packed in blind panic the night before leaving.

This is as far as I got on the wings before I had to leave for Oslo and school. I'll finish it in October, I have a week off and I think I'm going home.

The pauldron won't stay on by itself, so I had plans of a belt going over my chest, as well as a few magnets I'll fasten to the armoured bodice. I found a nice belt in my grandparent's basement. It was a bit worn, so I added some eyelets to it. If you're in Norway, stay away from the eyelets at Biltema. It's a reason why they're cheap.

These will be glued to the pauldon where the belt is fastened to it. 

Down south where I live now, I've just barely started on the Valkyrie's shield. So far I've made a paper pattern to follow. The white roll on the picture is a deerskin I got at Borre Vikingmarked - it's going on top of the wood, but before that happens, I'll have to figure out a way to soften it a little.

Oww :(

The woodwork whent swimmingly for about thirty minutes and then everything went all bloody wrong and I barely escaped getting stitches. Never whittle towards yourself. I should know this by now.

(At least a bloody shield is period correct...)

Skulduggery Pleasant & the Requiem Ball Mask

Not lipstick. Fake blood. 

Skulduggery Pleasant is coming to an end soon. I made a mask for the Requiem Ball contest on Facebook. Since the books are fairly gory (seriously, I've had nightmares!) I headed straight for special effects. 

While I wanted a blood-dripping effect, I took inspiration from Sandra Bornholm's fantastic mask. Chrix Design has made a wonderful variation and tutorial on how to use latex and tissue. 

This is how it looks like when it's not on my face.

Meet my leedle friend...

It didn't turn out exactly how I'd envisioned it, but the end result isn't half bad. These pictures were taken right in front of a window because the light was shit everywhere else, so every time someone passed by I had to duck behind the curtains. (In other words, there is a reasonable explanation as to why there is the blood on my curtains...) 

Like the genius I am, I took the pics before reading the contest rules... which stated you were not allowed to submit pictures of the mask on your face. Understandable, because a lot of fans are minors, but come on I am an adult (sorta). I did take pictures of the mask, but I forgot to submit them. So I'll take this as a learning experence. It was fun to do even if I'm still finding bloodspatters everywhere.

Elven crown

Taking pictures two minutes after getting out of bed is a genius idea.

I have no idea what it's called, but anyway, I found this table decoration... thing at Goodwill and have used it as an Elven crown at a few occasions. It's been decorated with some flowers, leaves and string to look more like a crown and less like whatever-it-is.

Victorian Valkyrie

First a little mood music...

The valkyries of Norse mythology were the choosers of the slain, deciding life and death on the battle-field. They brought the dead to Valhalla to become einherjar, or to Freya's hall Folkvangr. Because Freya wasn't only goddess of beauty and fertility, she was also a goddess of war and had the right to half of those slain in battle, and why do people forget this, Freya is badass.

During the Victorian romanticism and national romantic movements the teutonic myths were brought into the spotlight again. Thanks to Wagner, most people associate opera with fat ladies in valkyrie costumes singing impossibly high in German. And that's sorta the kind of costume I want.

Source.

Source.

Bilde @ Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera. Source.

It's interesting to see how the classic design has changed during more than a hundred years. The original Victorian design is fantasy medieval-ish with some Greek influence and has very little to do with the Viking age, so I'm going down the same road without a care for anything period correct. At the same time I'm going to use some period construction and borrow a few things from my viking wardrobe.

This is costume doodle #3 but I'm sure I'll change my mind about the design.

I forgot I was going to add decorations and started painting it a bit early. Oops. 

I've made a few things already. The iron age shoes are finished, and a little while ago I started on a pauldron in foam because I had some foam lying and I desperately needed a pause from wrestling with a pink corset. Whenever I do a project in foam and hot glue, I'm quickly reminded of my love for sewing,

The tree is supposed to be Yggdrasil, but it's based on a design of Telperion of the Silmarillion. Tolkien borrowed a lot from Norse mythology, so it's okay to borrow some things back.

And since it's not supposed to be used until Banzaicon in April,
it's keeping Iron Man company on my chandelier.