a costume headgear

ha! guess what i found hidden on top of my storage boxes on the topmost shelf in my store-cum-study :) (yea... we are short of rooms in my condo so the study, my art area, and the store are all in one tiny room) ...

a couple of UFOs! ... lol! sharon of mana moon studios calls these "unfinished objects" :))

this... is in fact, a headgear. hard to believe, but it is... it is the base of a headgear that i made last year. i made 4 of these for a show but in the end we only needed 2 so there are 2 of these bases left.

basically, i "sculpted" these bases with wire and aquarium tubes :) the aquarium tubes give them a bit of "perceived mass" and as you can see i could also decorate the tubes with a sprinkle of sparkles. but to "sculpt" it into the shape i wanted, the tubes needed strength and flexibility... hence the wires inside :)

this is the other UFO, more "finished" than the first one. i have stuck and sewn (with fish string as tread so it can't be seen) a piece of durable plastic sheet behind the base. i wanted to decorate the headgear a little more but i also wanted it to look sort of transparent from far... that's why i thought of plastic sheet as base.

and this is how the finished headgear looks like. from afar, you wouldn't even notice the plastic sheet. i've added some ready-made sequined trains and a centerpiece (which is in fact a christmas tree ornament) to the 'head' part of the headgear. the back celtic-feel designs are made by placing the headgear over the celtic design drawn on paper, and then tracing the design with glue on the plastic sheet, and then patiently sprinkling the sparkles or silver dust over the glue... phew! that was as hard to explain as it was to make! (you can click on the pictures to get a closer look)

the rest of the costume is made up of a leotard, a hipster belt and a choker both used by belly dancers, and a little "wing" which i made from sewing 2 sets of cuffs on a piece of sequined material.

hope you've enjoyed that :) as for the 2 UFOs... well, when we need 4 of those headgears, they'll be there :)))

happy pimping! :)

recycled cereal packets anyone?

mother in law was complaining that baby llara's color pencils were all over the place :) and i just finished a packet of toasted oats from white's ... so where's the connection?

1) toasted oats pack from white's ... empty

2) toasted oats pack disected

3) add a similar size checked material inside toasted oats pack

4) add a zip through the middle

5) make a couple of strips from the same checked material

6) sew strips to top and bottom of the pack to sort of keep it together ...

7) emm... if someone with better sewing skills did this, it will look way better than this :)

8) but no matter ... served it's purpose

9) baby llara's seems to be quite pleased ... mil is too :)

i just wonder how long this impromptu 'pencil case' would last in her little hands ... :)

happy pimping! :))

as i was going through my photo collection ...

i found 3 pictures of a few decorative art pieces that i did a couple of years ago... i had forgotten i took pictures of them :)

this one is a stool that i painted for a friend's little girl. deanna loves barney, so her mom asked me if i could paint a stool for her. i remember asking myza (deanna's mommy) to give me some references to get a sense of barney's (and friends) actions and colors. she passed me some coloring books and this is what i came up with. deanna sits on this stool when she puts on her shoes :)


oh... this second piece i love very much. this is a name card holder so you can imagine the size of this piece. evon's hubby loves old cars. so he recently aquired a car similar to the one on the box (it's an old mini right? i'm quite bad at recognizing cars!) and evon thought that it will be great if i could paint "the car" for him. now... i didn't paint cars! i could only paint flowers!!! anyway, i decided to take up the challenge and see if i could paint a mini... a really mini mini to fit the name card holder. got some automobile magazines, used them as guide and got to work. to my delight, it came out looking like a mini! ha! though this one took me ages to finish, but it was well worth it!

turns out that frankie (evon's hubby) really loved it :) (thank goodness!) he now puts it in "the car" and brings it along to all the old car conventions and stuff like that to show off ... so i am told ;p
i must say that i too am quite proud of it :) oh btw, that's the real registration number of "the car" on the front plate :D


this final piece is a chalk board. it's also in evon's house. this was the piece i remember... where i learnt for the first time, how to use texture paste (if you remember from one of my older post... my lord of the ring inspired cabinet was created using texture paste too). the vegetables and fruits were first moulded using layers upon layers of texture paste before dry brushing the paint on them. i should have taken close ups to show the embossed texture of the vegetables and fruits... but of course i didn't think of doing that a couple of years ago! perhaps i should pay evon a visit and bring my camera along :)))

hmmm... it was nice finding these pictures again :) brings back great memories and smiling faces :)

happy pimping! :)