Sunday, August 17, 2014

Many Months Of Costume Creativity

To say we've been "busy" is an understatement!

Our last entry was in November.  We were getting ready for Portland Festival Ballet's production of "The Nutcracker".  Performances ran through Christmas Eve, and after a brief "exhale" over winter break, we went to work on the next project: 

Portland Festival Ballet's spring production of "Alice In Wonderland", a brand new production with all new costumes, sets and props. And so we began . . .

The red bengaline fabric in the workroom beckoned. The fabric was chosen to make a set of corps costumes. Red bodices to be paired with red tulle romantic skirts. These would also be the Courtier costumes for the Red Queen's court. Cutting began on December 28th, and on January 14th the red Venice lace to embellish the bodices arrived.

 
To keep costs down, we added our own beads and crystals to the lace to create a beautiful embellishment.  This takes time, so work on these began well in advance of the production. Some of the work was done by us and some was handed off to volunteers who like to do hand beading.
 
 
Glass bugle beads are hand sewn to the lace that shimmer under the stage lights. This bodice is ready for Swarovski crystals to be added for more intensity and sparkle.
 
 
The end result complete with Swarovski crystal crown!
 
The red romantic costume is an example of one design done for "Alice".  We had the daunting task of coming up with 30 different costume designs.  This included 21 single character costumes and 9 designs for corps costumes that included teacups, playing cards, meadow sprites, mushrooms, tears, courtiers, and flowers.
 

We received a very nice shout out from Dasa Obereigner and the Portland Tribune. Follow the links to articles about our costume work.  A huge thank you to our faithful and hard working volunteers!