Since my last post, I have been busy finishing my paper creations and finally making them into patterns and constructing them in Calico. Here are some of the calico toiles, that are currently being constructed.

some progress ... I have now made decisions on final designs and have done patterns for all costumes, now I'm beginning to shape and construct costumes firstly in paper, to play with shapes and structure

I am currently working on my final project for my final year of university. The project is based on the nursery rhyme Three Blind mice, however there is a twist as the costumes will depict the sinister side to the nursery rhyme. Its origins date back to Queen Mary I who once on the throne burnt countless innocent protestant people at the stake. Three of the first men to be burnt at the stake were religious leaders of the time one being the archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer, Nicholas Ridley was a affluent protestant leader and also a supporter of Lady Jane Grey and lastly a Bishop of Worcester Hugh Latimer. This piece for me is my final piece and I want to show off my skills, so I will be printing on to the fabric and adding a touch of fine art to the costumes, the costumes will be sinister and have a ghostly presence to them, they will not be mice like. They will be men and resemble the former people they once were. I will make the material from scraps of other materials left over and the entire costume will be black. Every costume will be made and then distresses, to look as though they are burnt and charred. here are some of my designs.....

Work experience

I have had numerous work experiences, including working on a short film for the BBC It's my Shout! over the summer of 2010 the film was called The trouble with Gran. The experience enabled me to work as part of a crew on set and location. The script had to be broken down and characters had to be broken down as well, the costumes were then sourced for each character and there was a strict budget to which we had to keep. Making notes of what the characters wore in each scene and taking photos to refer to was part of the process. It was imperative to make sure there was continuity throughout the filming process.
I have also worked on a music video for a local band in the R.C.T area, the band indie-go modem had to be styled and some costumes were also sourced. This experience was enjoyable and as part of a team we also had an in put in to the creative ideas involved in the filming. Ideas for the video were taking from personal experiences.
Working with the Royal Welsh Collage of Music and Drama in a small team we created costumes for a production of Mary Stewart, the costume I created was for Elizabeth I. This involved screen printing the fabric before beginning the making process, i attended meetings and script readings along with fittings for the costume.
During the Easter period of 2010 I worked on the costumes for a Mappi Mundae production f Dangerous Liaisons. Mending the costumes that had been touring and reinforcing the stitching. Also, changes had to be made to some of the costumes as during the rehearsals the director wanted to tweak a few costumes.

This summer I had the chance to work as a designer for a R.C.T production of Cinderella I designed costumes for The Fairy Godmother working and walk down, Cinderella's transformation dress along with Ball gown, woodland creatures and chorus costumes for the villagers and ball scene and footmen which included animal heads.

The making of the Goblin

To begin with the body padding had to be made. This was made using wadding, shapes were cut and then sculpted into the correct shape needed. Everything was herringboned down this was then covered by a thin Jersey material and add on parts to look like saggy skin were made again using wadding and bird seeds to give it weight. These were all sewn on. After this the skin was given two coats of latex before the process of making the skin began. The legs were done in a similar way. I used plaster moulds to make small scaly skin like pieces which were then added to the body. After some experimenting , the best outcome for the goblins skin was chosen this included latex and saw dust. The head was first made out of foam and paper to get the correct shape, after the shape had been made and cut out in a thicker foam the head was taped together and padding began on the raised areas of the head. I used tights and wadding to do this making small tube like pieces to raise areas like the eyebrows etc. The skin was then created in the same way. The ears were made from a thin jersey material and skin added to them. The head was then sprayed into using spray paints to darken and lighten areas. The eyes were vacuum foamed and painted in layers before being placed into the head.