Egyptian Mask Thoth

This weekend, we will be away for a mini-vacation to the House on the Rock to spend the weekend there, for the Neil Gaiman "American Gods" event, which is pretty damned awesome, if you ask me! Finally, something fun like this in one of the coolest places in Wisconsin! (if you've never been there, it is definitely worth the trip - just wear comfortable shoes, the place is huge, and crazy, and honestly cannot be described easily...)

They are having a costume contest. So, of course, we're excited.

But, I got even more spazzy last minute yesterday - I decided that Chris needed another outfit to compliment the one he has been planning. And, it involves a huge mask. Of Thoth. The Egyptian God. Out of leather.

Yeah... yeah... it was an insane hope. But, it is nearly completed ;3

That is all leather. The pattern was developed at around 1:30 yesterday afternoon. It was transferred to leather around 2:30. Then, the tooling took until around 4:30 to do. Painting was a huge pain in the butt (pristine white had to stay pristine) and finished around 8:00 last night. Sealed and put together after the paint dried, I finished up around 10:30 last night.

So, as you can see, insane work, but well worth it. I hope Chris likes it - it's now his anniversary present!

Seems like I've killed enough time, my coffee is empty, and I have more work to do on that (and a cloak) before we leave, so wish me luck, and if I don't get to update, I'm sorry! I have no idea if they have internet there ^^

edit @11:56pm

Well, they do have Internet. However, I do not have cell phone service out here, so I cannot bombard you with Twitter updates tomorrow... so sad!

However, I did manage to snap this earlier in the day, the mask completed, and it truly kicks some ass, if I do say so myself! Didn't think I could pull it all off (and with only two burns, a few bruises, and a really sore hand at that!) but it seems to have been a success!

Lily Jewelry

You remember that post, a few back? Where I said I was freaking out over getting inspiration at the weirdest times? Well, here are the results of that burst of inspiration : Lilies!


Each of these lilies are made from leather (and, for a few others, they have accents in snakeskin), off of a pattern that was a *poof* of inspiration, took about five tries to get right, and I've been going crazy with.

So, in some of those pictures, I am wearing a necklace of lilies (one or two) and matching earrings (which I thought I would not do, until my wonderful husband Chris convinced me to try for the heck of it). There are also some hair bits - I only have pictures of the bobby pins, but I've also started putting some on headbands that look really beautiful as well.

I love leather - I have no compunctions about using animal products (although I do understand people who do have an aversion to things of that nature as well) and actually prefer to do so. They are amazing materials, IMO, and too often overlooked in both costume-land and jewelry making. Not to mention, it gives me something more to do with all of the scraps I have left over from corset-work, since some of the leathers I have are just too absolutely beautiful to throw away (beautiful browns, and blues, and an amazing few hides of green doe-suede that I still don't know what else to do with, but I sit and adore whenever I can...)

I'm even contemplating cutting up my super amazing stingray hide to make myself a piece of this jewelry, but I can't quite convince myself to do it (yet), since I'm not sure if I'm ever going to be able to find another one~