Re-designed

Wow was I pleased with the second attempt/result.

After hot gluing all of the metal bits in place and covering the wrapped edges so they wouldn't tear me to bits, I followed up with the coins and some cut up mardi gras beads to act as spacers between the coins.

So many coins, so little time...

Then came some darted construction/posterboard paper that came in dual tone gold on one side and silver on the other.

After cutting darts like so I taped them up.

Then prepared them for the daunting task of upholding the crown.

Even here the crown is rather impressive

Ah handy dandy hot glue gun... Where would I be without you in this project?

This felt like it took hours. It probably only took me an hour. Maybe hour and a half.

Despite my rather unexcited facade I am quite ecstatic about the progress I made.

I couldn't get the camera to cooperate. Blech

Update on the Crown

Next up: 

So the crown as I had first made it was a hot mess of oh my god why didn't I double check my references.

I managed to find some really great coins that more or less matched the ones the eternal queen bedecked herself with.

 Blech this crown was terrible and not lasting so long as I had any fingers to bend it to my will!

But before I made that decision I endeavored to get a better idea of what pieces need adjusting and where they would generally go. I believe I used all of my pins to hold them in place.

Once again iphoto does not listen to my wants. Whatever.

On to the updated design!

Slowly Catching

After the necklace came ... MORE NECKLACE.

More generic Joanns beads.

Though those beads were used for another loop that would be a spacer for these round discs that were apparently there. Enjoying life I suspect... Cheeky bastards.

My apologies for the bad rotate. My mac was being hateful as was the Internet. That's what I consider to be the signature piece to the lovely Akasha. Props to the costume designers for providing a potential cover in the off chance of escaping breasts. Though they'd likely work terribly in that regard...

Well Well Well

Sadly I did not keep my own goal of recording the entire process of Akasha nor did I get a chance to snap some awesome photos of the finished product...

This photo is after finishing the belt to an almost 90%. Still needed a few things added.

After the belt I began the often frustrating work of figuring out the main neckpiece with the 7+ panels of a size I couldn't quite comprehend. Gah.

So my neckpieces ended up being much larger and pokier than I had anticipated (note to self when bending wire make sure to use needle nose pliers or some sort of jeweler's tools to provide some measure of comfort)

They're all connected to their neighbors via a very thin (low?) gauge wire found in Joann's Fabrics and Crafts.

I ended up redoing it as they were too spread apart to even show more than the middle three panels.

Silly wire     >>'

I was eventually able to connect them to a memory wire necklace that was first strung with some generic plastic beads also from the aforementioned store of goodies and cheap wonder.

As you can see the necklace parts don't go all the way around because I actually like my hair and don't want it (or my wigs even) to be completely wrecked from all of the knots in the wiring.

Jesus I couldn't look more tired. Yeaaa boy, college does that to ya.

Clearly I'll need to update this particular chunk of the necklace as I had organized the panels in the wrong order and need to fix that gap.

Update on the Belt panel

While I surely don't look too thrilled I was actually quite excited when I finished gluing the pearl pieces onto their foam counterparts.

I'm surprised by how little you can see the black foam edging from far away. Even up close you'd have to be a punk to point it out.

So here it is with the skirt on underneath. I'm pretty happy with the results so far. Just gotta give that belt some extra loving with alternating trapezoidal panel pieces.

I'm whispering loudly while relaxing in chaos

Okay. So I ended up one wasting more money on more fabric for her arm drapes and skirt.

Who knew making a skirt and getting the right draping effect on the armbands would require so much work?!

I feel rather stupid but I finally have that stuff finished.

Lately I've been finishing up the chestpiece,

This is all craft foam, a bit of fabric for backing/providing support and a lot of paint (acrylic, 3-D fabric acrylic, and Rub*n*Buff)

I'm not entirely happy with the "gems" but it's the best I could manage for the time being. I'll definitely be revisiting this costume in the future.

 The belt

Probably made a few too many pieces for the main part of the belt.  But better safe than sorry.

Most of it was attached with super glue. The gems are tiny tiny I believe 7mm Glico rhinestones.


A few parts of the necklace,

and finally getting some of the headdress.

Once again utilizing craft foam, fabric for supporting the foam, and lots of paint.

 I'm waiting on my order of belly dance loose coins (7.50/10 ish with shipping that I bought from an etsy vendor)

and the mother of pearl sheets I also obtained from etsy. So far so good.
EDIT* THEY CAME IN!

If you ever needed mother of pearl veneer sheets then hit up these people - http://www.etsy.com/shop/MorningCalmStore?ref=seller_info

I suggest messaging them if you have need for more than one sheet. They're a little smaller than a piece of paper both length and width wise.

Your best bet in cutting them is probably also scoring it with an exacto knife or something along those lines.

I apparently sucked at this in the beginning so that's what awesome boyfriend is for;

Also for getting General Grievous Masks

Hopefully I'll get most of the costume done before the weekend is over so I can have smoother sailing til April comes around.