made by Julianne

6

mardi gras mambo

14 February 2010 by Julianne

Although I grew up in New Orleans, I’ve never costumed for parades before. Since this is my boyfriend’s first Mardi Gras we decided to go all out for the full experience.

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I call Jason’s costume the Psychedelic Dream Coat, and mine is Rainbow Peacock. As soon as we saw this amazing rainbow tinsel eyelash fabric we had these costumes in our minds. I can’t wait to see them under the lights of the Sensatron 5000 at Burning Man!

Jason designed his ringmaster jacket and I made it, working in all his requests. It fits him like a glove (I had a blast measuring him) and looks amazing. Since he’s always warm, the interior is just a thin lining, and the trim is violet stretch velvet. I also made his red velvet pirate pants for the SF Decompression, and I have a matching bodysuit.

I wanted to have a little cape to be warm and snuggly in the frigid Nevada nights, so mine is lined with fleece. It can be worn many different ways so it will be just as great for dancing in the streets as for cruising around the playa in the art car. The velvet plackets at the arm holes keep them from opening up when I don’t want them to, and I made some fingerless gloves that I wore with green fringed arm warmers from my 2009 BM costumes. The cape looks great with all of my bodysuits!

Although these costumes are made in time for Mardi Gras, we also had Burning Man in mind when we designed them. When we first found the rainbow tinsel at Lincoln Fabrics we thought it would be too MOOPy, but changed our minds after testing the fabric in the Fashion District. Plus, we figured that the fabric would get all its MOOP out at Mardi Gras, making it safe for Black Rock City.

Mardi Gras masks often have fabulous feathers, but as we are both vegetarians and feathers are against Burning Man’s MOOP policy, we decided to find an animal and environmentally friendly alternative. My peacock feathers are made on recycled cardboard bases that were first painted in the Rainbow Peacock theme, then embellished with scraps of fabric, jewels, and shiny pieces of trash (the translucent green stars are from a plastic cup and the violet paper ribbon is from a bow I found on the street). Since they are mounted on spiraled pipe cleaners they move with me, similar to real feathers.

Best part about the mask? I can wear it over my glasses!

2

etched rocket necklace

30 December 2009 by Julianne

This weekend was my boyfriend’s big birthday and I wanted to make him something really special. We had a pretty magical moment involving a 40′ tall rocket at Burning Man, so rockets are a significant motif in our relationship.

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The pendant is made out of a penny that was flattened by a souvenir machine, and then the image (it was a penguin) that was stamped on it got ground off by my jeweler friend. Next I etched the penny, treating it just like any other (tiny) copper plate. I used a red stop-out ground, did the outline first, then the body, then the little flames shooting out the back. I went with an asphaltum ground for the back.

I couldn’t resist adding something mushy to the back of the pendant.

I tried printing the plate, but because of the slight curve of the penny the print didn’t come out at all. But the ink did add a great patina to the penny, and I was able to get some decent rubbings with thin paper and a hard lead.

I used an old penny with a high copper:zinc ratio and then sealed the pendant, so it won’t oxidize out of control. Then I went old school with a friendship-bracelet style necklace, so the whole thing is handmade. Unfortunately I did not take into account how much bigger his man-neck is than mine, so I have to make him a longer necklace. I put it in a little drawstring pouch that smells mysteriously good.

My man doesn’t wear jewelry, but I really wanted to make this for him. It was so hard to keep this a secret! I had it for 3 weeks before giving it to him. I was going to wait until we got to the Grand Canyon on his birthday, but instead I gave it to him the night before. It just felt like the right moment, and he was pretty excited.

OK, that was staged, but you get the idea.

0

FUNGITRON

30 December 2009 by Julianne

So I came up with this idea on the looong drive back from Burning Man (2,500 miles=lots of time to think). Fungitron debuted at Halloween but its real venue is Burning Man, with a planned appearance at Mardi Gras along the way.

These Smurfs and I danced in the street to the Fraggle Rock theme song.

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I wore it to Voodoo Fest during the day, which was awesome! People kept coming up to me to pose for pictures; I was the unofficial mascot of a music/head shop called The Mushroom; at the Gogol Bordello show I really stood out and was easy to spot on the jumbotron, as well as by the band! Also I was interviewed for a spot on Fuse TV, which was pretty cool.

The bodysuit is silver sequins lined with nude spandex. I added silver rick-rack and some rhinestones for extra pizzazz. The hood is not attached to the suit.

The cap is paper mache! The white spot are cut out of milk cartons and actually cover little bowls, which eventually will have LEDs in them. For Halloween I put in glow sticks, so I really stood out at the festival and on Frenchman Street later that night.