Making Up Is Hard To Do....

When I was training as a wardrobe supervisor we only looked at costume. As my career has progressed I have noticed that I needed a little hair and makeup knowledge as well. I was able to pick up wigs on the go but not as yet makeup.... Until now!

 

I took two makeup master classes at The Backstage Center in Essex this week. One was an Introduction to Stage Makeup and the other was Intermediate Theatrical Makeup.

 

I learned so much over these two days! I added to my own personal makeup skills and now have experience with design, ageing makeup, historial makeup and bruise and wounds.

I don`t think I will ever be just a makeup artist but I ave added to my skill set and I think I have added a fun new hobby! What do you think of my results?

 

 

 

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Let's Get Back To Business!

Hello my dears!  Yes, yes, I know it has been a long time.

2013 into the beginning of 2014 was a super busy time for me with my work which put a bit of a dampener on my crafting time.  I had some great experiences but some great challenges as well.....

.... As you might notice above the blog has had a name change.... I can no longer call myself a crafter at sea because I am no longer at sea!  That's right, my land legs have called me home and I am now a land-locked sailor.  I am currently looking to get into the theatre scene here in England.  It's all a bit scary but what I needed to do in life.  It has given me time to craft and catch up the blog though!

I have a few projects on the go right now and I have a few things to catch you guys up on that I worked on but didn't get chance to blog about.  Keep your eyes open in the next few weeks for posts on the following projects:

I finished adding the second layer to my beer cap belt.

My friend had a baby and I made her an embroidered gift.

My friends got married and I made them an embroidered wedding album.

I played around with eco-dying some fabric from natural elements I found on a walk.

I made a necklace organiser for my travels.  It is now going to be very useful at home as well!

I have an embroidery based on a song by The Band Perry... this is still a work in progress....

And finally, I worked on Legally Blonde: The Musical.  It was a very interesting challenge but I made it work!

I am also working on some online courses which I would love to share with you so there is a lot to come!!

Nick N-Nick Nick N-Nick Nick Nick.... Nickelodeon!

I know, I know, I've been missing for a whole week, well it's because we had a Nickelodeon All Access cruise last week on my ship. That means there were costume characters everywhere and slime.... lots and lots of slime!! Here are a few photos I managed to nab while running around after Sponge Bob:

Character Meet & Greets:

Oh! It's Dora!


Fanboy and Chum Chum


Cosmo and Wanda


Geo and Millie


I got my picture with Squidward!

The Sponge Bob Show with Tom Kenny


Patchy The Pirate getting ready for the show


The voices of Patrick and Sponge Bob, Bill & Tom and Andy Pally who writes the music



The cast of the Sponge Bob Show


Tom Kenny, the voice of Sponge Bob - what a lovely man!

Well, those are my Nickelodeon adventures for now, more soon!

Ashamed to Kiss? Certainly Not!!

Remember the show I designed for Theatre Nomad back in August? You can read about it here if you don't!

My friend and the artistic director, Luke Dixon, just sent me photos of the performance of Ashamed to Kiss - they are brilliant! I don't think I need many words here, just enjoy the photos.

Oh, and Happy Winter Solstice, Christmas, Hanukah etc and have a great New Year!!!

Ashamed to Kiss

Oh dear.... Well, things have been a bit busy around here so my blogging has fallen behind... sorry!

But to make up for it here is a little preview of what I have been working on.

I was asked to design the costumes for a production by the English Theatre Company Theatre Nomad. They are doing a 30 minute version of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew called Ashamed to Kiss with three actors. I was given a burlesque/pantomime style brief and got going on ideas:



After the mood boards helped to to solidify my ideas I drew out some designs and sent them to Luke the Artistic Director for approval:



Luke loved them and I got to work on making them. Petruchio (the male character) and Katarina were already cast, Bianca hadn't been found yet so I just worked on the two costumes. As with theatre, Bianca has currently been cut from the production, so only two costumes were eventually produced:



I am very happy with the way the costumes have turned out. I think they look exactly like my designs! Luke is very happy with them as are the actors.

There will be three performances of Ashamed to Kiss in London in February so go take a look if you're in the area... more details soon!

Busy Busy Busy!!

I know, I know, I missed Share the Handmade Love on Wednesday! It's been madness around here. Ever since I got back to my ship it's been non-stop! I've been learning the ropes of working with the Nickelodeon costume characters and doing their slimy laundry (don't ask!) and after only 48 hours on the ship I had my hand up SpongeBob's butt!! I had to fix a snap, ok?!

The Nickelodeon stuff is a lot of fun actually. We have Meet & Greets and breakfasts and live shows. One (with the slime) is a full gameshow in our theatre which the kids love. There's a lot of laundry, but not more than I can handle and it's interesting to look after a different type of costume. That's a new special skill on my resume!!

In other news this week I got my first custom order! I'm very excited to be making a belt for the daughter of my new friend Deezie. They liked the belts in my Etsy store but they were all too big for her daughter, so I'm making her a custom one based on my Rock Belt (see it here). In honour of the occasion, here's one of my other belts!

I wanted to create another belt like my Rock Belt and originally wanted to make something a bit more feminine and floral. I used an old pair of jeans that one of my dancers had left for me and was thinking I would embroider on the denim outside with flowers, vines and butterflies. I tried sketching out some ideas but nothing looked right to me. I then discovered as I cut the waistband off the jeans, that the inside of this pair was lined with a white fabric printed with a floral pattern! I decided to follow this pattern and let the design develop organically, excuse the pun!! I started by hand embroidering over the flower shapes in the print with colours I consider to be floral – more pretty and subdued than vibrant, but bright nonetheless. I considered sewing butterflies and other gardeny items on to the belt but it didn’t feel right. I went for the simple approach and just used the original flowers as the focus. I added green vines to anchor the flowers to something, instead of leaving them floating on the belt. I added green beads to represent leaves and green buttons to continue the natural theme.

This a very feminine piece and will look good with outfits in pastel or pale colours – maybe for a wedding or a garden party?!

This belt is currently available in my Etsy Store here

Mermaid's Revenge Choker and Sponge Bob....

Today's entry is going to be a bit twee!! First off, lets do the good news!

I was rummaging through pieces of coral and shells I had collected in Aruba when I found this. A piece of coral with odd colours that inspired me to do something odd with it. I created the choker band out of pink metallic fabric machine embroidered with a scalloped design. I then played around with pink coated wire and made swirling links to attach the coral to the band. The choker closes with a pearl and loop made from knotted thread.

I think this choker is fit for any rambunctious mermaid making her way in the world!

It is available for sale in my store here.

And now on to the not so good news... depending on how you look at it. I was informed by my office today that I am going to receive additional training in April to work with Nickelodeon Character Costumes... Now in some ways this is a good thing. It is a new skill for me to learn and I will be able to put Nickelodeon on my Resume. However, I fear I will be cleaning kid's puke off Sponge Bob... which is not so good! I didn't sign up for slime and kid's snot, that's for sure. Right now it i probably best to focus on the positive ;-) So yay for new skills! Bring on Dora and Sponge Bob.... where they are going to fit in the dressing room I will never know!!

Oyster Bay Necklace and Relocation??

I found this little shell in Aruba and loved its strange colours. It inspired me to juxtapose materials when making it into the centrepiece of a necklace. I experimented with wire-wrapping, making looped links to hold the shell along with wrapped pearls from Germany in harmonising colours. I then lengthened the necklace with sea grass coloured hemp.

I think this piece is delicate and subtle, emphasising the bold colours of the shell itself. Let me know what you think!

This piece is currently available for sale in my shop here.

On a personal note, I’m thinking about relocating. With my cruise line phasing out my production company I have been looking for a new job, maybe on ships, maybe on land. I’ve applied for a few things back in England but I have a friend in Tennessee who might be able to find me something…. I’d just have to work out work visas and stuff. Anybody have any advice they’d like the share? I’d much appreciate it! - Leave me a comment!

My Boots Are Made For Walking!

Alongside showing you my crafts, I promised I’d write about ship life. My current news is a good example of that. The economy has finally hit my profession. I think I mentioned that I work for a production company, not directly for the cruise line I work on. The cruise line dictates what shows they want us to do… and now they dictate how our cast is made up. My production company is expensive (relatively) so the cruise line has decided to phase out my company in favour of cheaper in-house production. They are also bringing on a new show. This means one of our shows has to go, and also 5 members of my cast have to go too. We have a month left together, then we are cut down from 18 people to 11. It’s going to be interesting rearranging these shows around such a small cast… I’ll keep you posted on how it goes!

On a brighter note, yet another craft to show you!! I found this tutorial on UrbanThreads.com about how to make a pair of boots out of a knit sweater and ballet flats…. I wanna do that!! Instead of a knit sweater I used an old robe made out of fleece, so I had to adapt the process a little.. but here are my knee-high purple plaid boots! I love them and hope you do too!!!

Finally, I was super happy on Sunday to see that my favourite Costume Designer Sandy Powell won an Oscar for The Young Victoria – she’s one of my costume heroes!! Yay for Sandy!!!

Yuletide Greetings to One and All!!

Yuletide Greetings readers!

Today is the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year, a day where we give each other gifts to raise each others spirits in the dark as we look forward to the coming spring!

I thought I’d give you a little update on the Yuletide festivities going on around me right now…

This is the first time I have spent the holidays on the ship; it’s also the firsttime I have spent the holidays away from my family, ever, so this is a very new experience for me. I have heard all about what happens over the holidays on the ship, but never experienced it, and it is an experience!! We are almost at full capacity of guests for the Christmas cruise, which means we have over 2800 guests, 700 of which are children. It is a little hard to see families enjoying the holidays together when we are so far away from ours, but my cast is my family right now and we are having a good time.

I am spending most of my time making and adjusting costumes for the Christmas show we are going to have on Christmas day. We are also going out to villages in Roatan and giving presents to under privileged children tomorrow.

The most fun aspect of Christmas here, however, is Secret Santa! We are giving out five small presents from the 20^th to the 24^th, then we all get together and give one big gift to our Secret Santa person on Christmas day… so far I have been given fruit Tootsies rolls, strawberry Mentos and a Starbucks frappuccino – well done Secret Santa!!

More Christmasy things to follow!!

Have a Happy Holidays!

Bowiegirl1982

Welcome to A Crafter At Sea!

Hello! And welcome to A Crafter At Sea! My name is Bowiegirl1982 and I will be your guide!

Let me give you an idea of what is going on here. I am, by profession, a Wardrobe Supervisor on cruise ships. All my life I have been crafty; I cannot remember a time when I didn’t have a bag of scrap fabric, paint, paper and scissors making anything and everything.

While I’m working I have a bit of down time, which I use to be crafty. It can sometimes be interesting what comes from this as I am in the middle of the ocean and finding the right supplies for what I want to do doesn’t always happen! This contract, however, I have tried to organise my craftiness and have brought some projects with me. Then there are the costume pieces that I make for other people and often for myself for parties along the way. That’s the main thing I will write about here, but I also intend to air my thoughts and other things that interest me.

I am trying to get a small craft business going for when I am off ships. I think I want to have an Etsy storefront that sells my makes and hope to start making my stock during this contract. I have a few ideas for where my business is going to go.

I would like to call it “Lost and Found”. I plan to make jewellery out of old items I find and inspired by things I see while on my travels. I also would like to make deconstructed tshirts – making the old into something new. I plan to spend some time researching all of this during this contract. Then we’ll see where it all goes!

Hopefully I will upload a new blog every week, depending on how busy my work makes me. Currently I am packed and ready to fly out to New York tomorrow to join my new ship on Saturday…. The sea is calling me back again!

I’ll let you know how my travels are going next week!

Bowiegirl1982