Bad Blogger, Great Pictures

First things first, I am so sorry.  I am a bad blogger.  I have been so busy these last three months that I have completely neglected to post.  Shame one me, now slap my wrist and we'll move on.

St. Louis was AWESOME.  I worked with some really amazing women and we didn't even kill each other when our cycles synced, I think we deserve metals.  We built some really amazing things and I think we were all very proud.

Our first projects were for Carmen, however, the first things we really made from scratch were for Sweeney Todd.  We had these really phenomenal fascinators for all the chorus members to wear.  They were for something we ended up calling "the Meat Scene".  We got to play with feathers and netting, which of course was all followed up by photos of us being ridiculous.

My main project for Sweeney was a top hat for Pirelli.  It was a labor of love, especially considering we didn't have a top hat block.  A hat block is a hard shaped piece usually made out of wood which is used to drape the hat's shape .  We had to force the buckrum to take shape without a block.  I think it turned out very nicely and I was quite proud.

Our third show was Cosi Fan Tutti.  It's a Mozart opera and I will say it is a long one.  While I am not the hugest fan of opera in general, Mozart wrote some of my least favorite operas.  It's not that they are not beautiful operas, they are just SO long.  There are two characters who disguise themselves as Albanian suitors and they are quite ridiculous.  I made this fez for one of them.  One of the most interesting parts was implementing a technique called swirling for the velvet.  Using water, steam and a brush, you swirl the velvet to give it a specific direction.  It is most evident on the tip of the fez.

Alice in Wonderland was an imaginative dream of a show to work on there were so many amazing projects to work on.  One of the best was making the Cook's hat.  It needed to be very full and voluminous.  The trick of it was that when I was making the tip of the cap I lined it with two layers of stiff tulle.  This allowed it to be very full without having to be stuffed.

The other project I took real pride in was a hat for the Mock Turtle in Alice.  The performer playing the role was a man named Sean Curran.  He's a phenomenal dancer and was an original member of Stomp.  He was one of the most wonderful performers that I have ever worked with, he was very funny and really appreciated his hat.

My surprise favorite project of the summer was recovering shoes.  I recovered two pairs and walked one of my apprentices through a third.  It was so much fun, which is why I have a great many phots of the projects.

It was a great season and I thoroughly enjoyed all the ladies I worked with, my precious little lambs.  I miss St. Louis, but you can bet that my dearest Deb is so glad to have me back.