Ghostbusters, Gatsby and Tudors - A Belated Picture Post

After a bit of a hiatus from this blog, thanks to a crazy post-Dragon Con schedule, I'm slowly creeping back out from the piles of sewing.

Of course, I'm throwing myself back in as I type this but in the meantime, here is a heavy smattering of images from the last few months of adventure.

In my Bowie/Ziggy Stardust drag tribute, at Dragon Con 2016

The weekend following our return from Atlanta, I was hitting the stage as Edel Vice, for a vintage burlesque performance at Berlin '32...

 Above photos by Arian Hormozi

 Photo by Mary Anne Butler

The very next day, we wiped away the vampy soot-shaded eyes, blood red lips and soaked up the gin with a hearty breakfast, to attend the Gatsby Summer Afternoon picnic.
There were more gin laced adult beverages, only this time they were a more 'healthful' blend, with lemonade, cucumbers, mint and other refreshing ingredients, plus quite the spread of luscious snacks that everyone contributed...

With my friend Laura, Photo by Laurie Tavan 

 With my friend, Tom LG

I had the pleasure of helping out a friend's daughter this Halloween, by making her very own, close to screen accurate, Ghostbusters uniform!

With the help of Grant Imahara (of Mythbusters fame) building her a scaled down version of the new proton pack, complete with lighting effects, we made this fellow mini Ghostbuster's dream come true.

My continued Holtzmann style over the last few months, at work and at play...

 Heading to the pub...

More on the way soon! After the holiday season is done, I'll be back over at my Austrian Woman blog, sharing some of the historical fashion projects I'm currently working on, so be sure to click on the tabs above to view my various endeavors.
Until then, have a safe an happy holiday season XOXO!

We Return To Our Normal Programming

Whew, what a crazy ride the last few weeks have been!

I apologize for the delay in the post-Dragon Con posts, but I had to hit the ground running as soon as we returned last Tuesday night.
Of course, after the mad rush to finish up all the costumes in time, you'd think I wouldn't want to even look at my sewing machine for at least the next week or two...right?
Because I'm crazy, by Wednesday afternoon I was already swimming through a swath of cobalt blue silk organza. I needed a new dress for the picnic at the Gatsby mansion!
I'll post photos of that over at my 'Austrian Woman' blog.

While I still need time to gather more of the best photos from Dragon Con to share here, I need to at least post a couple for you. Here is photo post #1!

 Can't go without the 'salty parabolas'
Photo by Mary Anne Butler

After acquiring badges, the next logical step is the booze and snack run!

Women of Sci-Fi.

LtoR : River in Star Trek, me as Zev (Lexx Season 1), and Gwen as Xev (Lexx Season 2). Photo by Mary Anne Butler.

Zev and Xev; sexy Cluster Lizards
Photo by Mary Anne Butler
Also; a big awesome shout-out to Pish Posh wigs, for the best lace front wig I've ever had the pleasure of wearing. This was their Farrah in silver, and I had cut and styled it to my needs. Amazing fit and quality, and while the price point is a bit higher than their root brand Epic Cosplay Wigs, it's very much worth it!!

 My two dads; my Princess Aura cosplay with new friends, Trent Thornton and Jay Wright, as Ming The merciless. Our Flash Gordon group grew to epic proportions through the day!
My long luxurious dark hair is the Eros wig, by Epic Cosplay.

Photo by Bill Watters

Me, Laura as General Kala, and Mary Anne as Dale Arden.
Photo by Bill Watters.

In my fun 'super' costume con twist on Holtzmann, goofing off with River as Kaylee.

Holtzmann in cat heaven. I mean look at that...so many CATS! <3

Note the 'super' Screw U cape.
Photo by Garrett Manuel

Stay tuned, more photos are on the way. Including my Marriott carpet/Bowie tribute!
XOXOX

When Life Gives You Lemons....

...grab the Sculpy, 2-part epoxy and paint!
Since my custom metal Screw U pendant won't make it to me in time for Dragon Con (and it's just one of those things, no one's fault), I decided to make a quick stand-in.
It's not going to be fabulous, but it will do for now ;-)

(This is a shot from the underside, hence the screw going in the opposite direction)

After I get the 'U' epoxied to the screw, it will all get a light brushing of deeper metallic gunmetal paint, to age the cracks and crevices a bit more.
I'll post a photo here when it's complete.

***Update***
Here she is, my quickie Screw U pendant!
I still want to take a small file and even out the inside curve of the 'U' a bit, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out all things considered.

Now cross your fingers I finish all the other costume projects for Dragon con. Holy crap, it's in a few days!!

XOXO

Sneak Peek

Many, many thanks to my friend Anders Scot Hudson of Midwick Armory, for getting on board with my crazy ideas. One day I thought out loud, 'what if we made a pair out of EVA foam?'.
He was within earshot, and was all, "Let's do it!". The rest as they say, is history :)
Behold, the Holtzmann proton pistols (or at least one of them, the other needs a bit more paint)...

Made completely from EVA foam and some well-placed LEDs.
This set is pretty darn amazing for a quickie round 1 version, and done in time for a fun, albeit silly, tribute cosplay I have in the works.

I'll post more on this project in the coming days, so stay tuned!
XOXO

Ever Onward

Well today could have gone better...but in happier news this week;
I arrived home after work to find my Soviet era safety goggles had arrived, all the way from the Ukraine, in an unexpectedly speedy ten days. Many thanks to the wonderful seller; darklightscorpion

I'd also found the same yellow polycarbonate replacement lenses on Etsy, via JadedMinx.
(The One Of The Boys muscle tee was found online at Urban Outfitters UK, which is unfortunately sold out.)
This whole combo is what made up the goggles worn by Holtzmann, in the scenes right before and during Patty's delivery of the hearse that would become Ecto-1.

Like Holtzy's, these lenses are slightly convex, and fit perfectly in the vintage goggles. I'll admit I was worried they might not, but I have a way to grind them down a bit if I had to.
All together, the cost of this project came out to under $30 US.

The goggles came with the original box, an extra adjustable nose piece and the original black glass removable lenses.
While it's all in fine condition, I'll be replacing the elastic with the same kind in black.

As a side note, and posting this as reference for a friend; here are some images of the "One Of The Boys" muscle tank by Truly Madly Deeply, worn by Holtzmann. It originally came in ivory, but like hers, I dyed mine that odd faded aqua shade.
The first pic is a good shot of the lettering (made to look as though it was spray painted through a stencil), and the second is reference for placement:

XOXOX

Bust A Move

A playlist for the lab or a night out bustin', inspired by the new team of Ghostbusters:

Meanwhile at work; safety lights are for dudes. Safety tape, however; that can be tastefully decorative!

Screwed Up Screw U

A week or two ago, I placed an order for a 3D printed replica of Holtzmann's amusingly insulting (or not, depending on who's reading it) 'Screw U' pendant.

Well, it arrived in the mail yesterday....yeah, the size is a little off.

Seriously babes, it's like the Flava Flav version...

Here's the pendant after I painted it, and next to my work phone (iPhone 5). I also left a kind note about it with the folks producing these. It's not insanely big, but it's leaning toward Toon Town proportions. I'll still be using it for another top secret-for-now project ;)

I've contacted someone about making me a real one from metal, in a truer size to the original.
I'll keep you guys posted XOXO

The Making Of A Ghostbuster (Cosplay) Continued

FYI, I love gloves.
I happen to have a rather large collection that has grown to somewhat frightening proportions, filling many of my little drawers that could probably be used for better things.
Actually, no. Gloves win.

Since I was old enough to put a ballet tutu on my head and say, "Mom. Mom. Mommy...mommy, mooooom. MOM LOOK!... I'm a lion", I've taken dress-up pretty seriously. By age 10, I considered myself a professional dress-up artist of sorts.
Nothing beat my Gunnie Sax/square dance petticoat bustle combo *with lime green 1960s evening gloves*.
Gloves are serious business, and thanks to a family member with an antique shop during my formative years, I got ALL the awesome estate sale, auction, thrift and garage sale dress-up wardrobe scores to fuel my theatrical comedy antics.
As always, there were random pairs of gloves included. Some quite nice and still residing in my collection today. Unfortunately for the lime green evening gloves, they met their demise at the hands of the neighbor boy and a full glass of grape juice. I think fire was involved, too...it was the 1980s.

In more recent years, when attempting to find the proper gloves to finish an ensemble, I've been able to turn to this vast collection of mine.
But, oh Ghostbusters; why must you thwart my laziness?!!
Thanks to a bit of Googling and digging over at GBfans.com, I was able to nail down exactly the type and brand of gloves worn by these ass-kicking ladies.
They are made by 4th Element, and they are the 3mm Neoprene Dive Gloves.
Changes were made to them for the film; obviously they were clipped into finger-less gloves, and a custom made wrist guard was added. That's at least what I know for now, and better quality images are coming soon to get better details on changes made to them.
No fire, grape juice, or neighbor boys will be utilized...this time.

These dive gloves can be found at http://www.diverightinscuba.com, but also on Amazon.com for a slightly lower price if you do a search there. Though I will warn that they are going fast on Amazon, and are in limited sizes and quantities.
Also; you know when something currently being produced is in high 'cosplay demand', when Ebay turns up zero results. This also happened with a specific style of work gloves that were used with the flight suits in the newer TV series, Battlestar Galactica. I'm glad I snagged a few pairs, those suckers are GONE.

On average these 4th Element dive gloves run about $55 to $65 US per pair currently.
When I get a pair I'll let you guys know how they fit. Going by their size chart, I figure the small will work for me. It's what they had left via Amazon (at the lower price) nearest my size, otherwise I would have gone with X-small. I have about a 7.5" palm circumference, so I fall right in between the two sizes, and they recommend sizing up.

XOXOX!

It's Spelled Holtzmann...

Yup, I apologize for the typos in earlier posts regarding my new favorite Ghostbuster, Dr. Jillian Holtzmann.
When I first began this journey, I only ever saw it spelled with one 'n'. I should have followed my gut and added the extra 'n'.

Anyways...a few updates to share so far; I'm planning on one of two things...
1. Buy 2 of the Red Kap fisher herringbone twill coveralls (#CC16), and bleach the crap out of both to redye them the correct khaki shade. Then I'd use one for parts to build the correct pockets and front neck closure extensions.
2. Buy some herringbone weave cotton twill, dye it, and make the coveralls myself.
I'm leaning toward the bleaching....but we'll see. I CAN sew them from scratch, but do I WANT or NEED to? Hmmmm...

I found even more accurate wire safety glasses...and by more accurate, I mean 99% the EXACT SAME model as Holtzmann's (1% difference is just the green lenses, at left) . They are Cesco 22s and in better condition than a previous pair I found (at right).
The green lenses will get replaced with yellow lenses instead of the found glasses mentioned in previous posts. So, I may have a banged-up-but-a-fun-project pair to sell because of this, and they are also the accurate Cesco 22 model used in the film. Keep an eye on this blog for any future links to auctions or Etsy.
(The lenses on those are clear, there is a bit of rust, the mesh sides are a bit bent and mis-matched slightly).

The 'Screw U' pendant. It's a thing of beautiful science humor that, I think, is lost on many.
Here is my theory: In classic Holtzmann style, it's a reference to the uranium element, with her added random bit of humor. Not only because uranium can indeed screw you, but because she's an awesome weirdo, who takes functional (albeit dangerous) things and makes them altogether better. Or in this case; science made into an honestly amusing statement to the world.
;-)
Anyways...the pendant is available to be 3D printed, and you can have these folks even print it in metal. As a cost-saver for now, I went with the black plastic that I can buff smooth and paint with metallics, until I can get the nicer version made in steel or silver.

And finally, this last one cracks me up realizing the lengths to which I go for costuming/cosplay/tribute projects. I'm still not sure if it's by chance that I stumble onto these things (as if I have a magic cosplay supply-finding magnet somewhere in my body), or if I just like a good treasure hunt, but...
I found Holtzmann's socks.
Her SOCKS, for cryin' out loud. Yes, I'm weird.
The exact pattern and brand, but they're cute!
So, as shameless as it may seem, I actually needed new socks. Seriously; my toes make a break for it in nearly every pair I currently own.
They are made by the brand 'B.ella', the style name is called 'Pamela' and you can get the sage and green polka-dot style here!
Trying to remember if she had on mis-matched socks in this scene, but it's hard to tell. It seems very Holtzmann, and I mix and match daily myself.
***Edited to add; yes she does have different socks on. I only saw it when I finally got to see the below picture in a better resolution. The other is a stripey grey pattern**
With that said; check it out, my Droogies...

P.S. I'm totally buying more of these in the various color combos they are available in.
<3 <3 <3
P.P.S. Because a few of you inquired over at this post; here is a photo of me wearing the same model of glasses Holtzmann wears in the epic battle. They are made by American Optical, and are the AO Safety Eyeglasses, size 48. I purchased them here.
***Be mindful of sizing.*** A 46 is good for smaller faces, while a 50 is good for larger/wider faces. I went with the size 48, and I have about an average width oval shape face.
I'll try to add more/better photos in the coming weeks, of the various styles I'll be working with.