Living in the Wild, Wild West

Well, the hubby and I went to Teslacon again this year. It's the biggest steampunk convention in the Midwest. Lots of fun times to be had! The theme was the wild west, so there were many western-themed classes and events. The hubby learned how to crack a whip, which pleased him to no end.

Of course, I had to make a couple of new costumes. Duh.
I decided to do fairy costumes this year, so a steampunk fairy was the obvious choice. But I also decided to make a green absinthe fairy since that fits with the general Victorian vibe of steampunk.

The absinthe fairy was a fairly typical construction - new corset top, new green skirt, new green fascinator and new wings. The only thing really interesting is that there are fiber optic cables in the wings that light up. It only shows in dim lighting, though.
The fascinator looks a little weird in this pic. The feathers on the side are blending in a little with part of the wing in the back, making it look like I have something sticking out the side of my head. But I do look suitably drunk!



The steampunk fairy wings were a little more intricate! They are made of cellophane sandwiched between 2 layers of craft foam. Boy, did it take a long time to cut out all of those openings with an x-acto knife!
 




Photos by Realtime Portrait Studios

Here we go steampunking again!

Hubby & I went to Teslacon again in 2014. It's the biggest steampunk convention in the Midwest. And this year we kidnapped convinced one of Tom's friends to come along. Mwah ha ha! Another person brainwashed into the steampunk aesthetic!

Hubby wore the same costumes as last year, but I had to create new ones of course.

(All photos from Realtime Portrait Studios)

Here they are:

This is my stab at ethnic steampunk. The funny thing is that I had everything already except for the brown corset and that was pretty easy to throw together.

This is my pseudo-Japanese demon. I also had everything for this already. I made the horns several years ago out of upholstery foam. The top and obi/sash were from my wa-lolita outfit. Pants are from my Bedouin costume. Why is this steampunk? Beats me. Maybe some Victorian/steampunk travelers encountered the demon in their travels through Asia. But it was fun!
(Those of you who know Japanese costume may notice that the top is folded the wrong direction as if I were dead. I thought that this would be appropriately sinister for a demon.)

This one was the best in my opinion - a broken clockwork doll. The brown corset is the same one from the first pic above. You can't see it, but the fabric pattern of the skirt and the shoulder decoration is little steampunk octopi with gears and top hats! Here's a link to the fabric pattern on Spoonflower. Isn't that adorable?

Here's a close-up of my makeup:

The necklace and earrings are cute little pink octopi. They basically inspired the whole outfit.

Teslacon (part 4): and the rest...

Not gonna talk much on this one.
Just gonna show pretty pics that I took of other people.
(Mostly from Thursday before I got lazy.)

Hubby with a steampunk dalek made mostly from an old washing machine. Note the mustache

A dead barbershop quartet that was serenading in the vending room.

A lovely author named Lisa that we had a nice time talking with.

And finally, a few pics from the Masquerade Ball:

Teslacon (part 3): the male perspective

I thought I'd make a little post about my husband's costumes, even though I didn't make them.

Here's a close-up of my hubby:

Yes, he really is as ornery as he looks! ;)

His character was an airship gambler. That's the steampunk version of a riverboat gambler. So he sewed card suit charms on his hat. The side you can't see has a pair of cards stuck in the hatband that he informs me is called the "dead man's hand". He made the hatband himself (with the help of a friend) out of copper flashing and parts from an old grandfather clock.

Here's the full-length version. The pants and shirts that he wore were all hand made, and the vests and accessories were purchased to go with them.

One day he wanted to have me paint his face for the photo session. The first one went up too far on his forehead and ended up being covered by his hat. The second photo was the final design that he wore.

Teslacon (part 2)

So here are my other costumes from Teslacon. I went very heavy on the red and black because I already had pieces from my Madame Red costume and I re-used my neo-bedouin outfit.

So this is what I wore on Friday:

I wanted a kind of mad scientist/Victorian lady look. I took my Madame Red skirt and built on that. There's a band of plastic test tubes sewn around my hat (which I bought at Naka-Kon because it was the right shade of red!) The test tubes are filled with things that I scrounged from my craft room - pearls, stones, glass micro-beads, metal chains and variegated copper foiling. It got quite a few comments. :)

For the top, I wanted an old-fashioned, asymmetrical labcoat-style closure. You can't see it very well in the photo, but there is a triangular flap that snaps across the shoulder and down to the center front point. But I wanted it to fit with the Victorian bustle. I looked all over for a good pattern and found that I already had one - Truly Victorian's 1883 tail bodice pattern.

 

I had to re-do one of the front panels so that it had the right closure, but otherwise it was perfect!

The fit wasn't so hot because I only had a few days before the convention to get it done.

(How many other costumers are frantically sewing up to the very last second? I see you out there looking guilty!)

Because I was cutting it so close, I didn't make a mock-up.
The sleeves are much too loose as a result. I'll have to redo them. And I think I can finesse the bust area to be a little smoother, too.

It ended up being not quite as "labcoat-y" as I wanted, though. (Yes, I know that's not really a word.)
The water-soluble marker that I used to mark the center line down the front wasn't quite as soluble as advertised. I was left with a faint line down the front.

There was much screaming and gnashing of teeth when I discovered that!
Okay, maybe not so much teeth-gnashing, but there was some throwing and cursing.

I didn't have time to redo the whole thing. (Last minute, remember?)

So I grabbed a bunch of decorative braid that I had left over from a previous costume and used it in a military-style effect to cover the little (giant!) boo-boo. Then I trimmed around the wrists and around the tail.

It turned out all right, I thought. It was very eye-catching among all of the browns and muted colors that are typically used for Steampunk.

And I wore my neo-bedouin outfit on Saturday.

Not going to say much about this one since I've already talked about it in a previous post. I did wrap a different turban to go with the red and black theme this time. Added some beads and a Japanese hair ornament stuck into it, too.

This is me hamming it up for the camera, pretending to be regal and the queen of my alien planet.
:)

Teslacon!

My husband and I went to Teslacon for the first time this year. Teslacon is one of the largest steampunk conventions in the Midwest.


It was fun! But I was so lax in taking photos that I hardly have any. And most of those are from the first day. I'll put some up in a future post.

 

For now, I'll post pics of mine and my hubby's costumes from Thursday (Halloween, as it happens).

Here's what we were walking around in:

 And here's the professional shot (from Realtime Portrait Studios): 

My, aren't we adventurous-looking?

And here's what I wore for the Halloween masquerade ball:

Tres dramatic, no?