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Joyce
joyeuse13
20 August 2004 @ 01:48 pm
The Perfect Crime  

I have no fingerprints today; my fingertips are all covered in a fine patina of superglue.  If I wanted to rob the Federal Reserve, today would be the day. 

I'm not entirely happy with the Glowing Farthingale of Doom (tm).  It's a lot sloppier than I had envisioned, and I hadn't thought about the fact that the wire is somewhat rigid--so now the whole thing is permanently 3-D and can't be collapsed flat, which means it can't be packed.  I'd planned on wearing this outfit at Fencon, but I can't figure out any way to get it on a plane in this shape.  The wire is flexible, but too much flexing would probably delaminate the glue and would also mean having to re-shape the wire when I unpack it.

I'm going to try to rip the wire off tonight and try some different ideas.  I know I don't want to outline the hoops, as that would require several lengths of wire, and I don't want to do any soldering.  To do the hoops as one continuous piece, I'd have to spiral it, which means where the wire spirals up, I'd still have the rigid problem.  I thought I might only glue it at the top and just let the wire hang free in loops from the waistband.  [info]selenite  suggested anchoring it at the bottom, maybe by threading it through loops.  That's not a bad idea; it would keep it from curling up in the random corskscrews that would surely form from packing the rolled-up wire.  It would mean some actual costume contstruction on-site, but it would sure make the whole thing easier to transport.

It just depends on whether trying to rip off the glued-on wire will rip the ribbons holding the whole thing together. Grosgrain ribbon is sturdy stuff, but so is superglue (as witnessed by my fingertips). It's the classic meeting of irrestistable force and immovable object!

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Comment ça va?: Wired
Dans la bibliothèque: Kushiel's Chosen - Jaqueline Carey
 
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Laura Gallagher[info]celticdragonfly on August 20th, 2004 11:31 am (UTC)
How about this - glue it at the top, twist the two halves of the loop down, like plying yarn, and have something that the tip of the twist connects to - could even be a small black twisttie to hold it down.
Joyce[info]joyeuse13 on August 20th, 2004 11:38 am (UTC)
Hmmm...interesting thought...but I'd have to retwist it every time I put it on.
Laura Gallagher[info]celticdragonfly on August 20th, 2004 11:43 am (UTC)
Every time you disassembled and reassembled it, yes. But it wouldn't be hard to do. It looks like relatively thick stuff, it's not going to need to be that tightly twisted. You can just slide your fingers down it, to make sure you have it evenly divided, and twist from the end, between fingers and thumbs, a few times, and then fasten down the end. Then if you're getting in and out of it without wanting to disassemble the whole thing, you could just leave it fastened down. I think the glowy would look nice that way, too.
Joyce[info]joyeuse13 on August 20th, 2004 11:45 am (UTC)
Might try that...I like the idea of twisties, no sewing needed!
(Anonymous) on August 20th, 2004 01:38 pm (UTC)
(siliconchef) what about 4 rings of wire?
One loop of wire per hoop/loop in the skirt frame.
These would each have their own wiring back to your DC power supply.

This might be a problem if you were expecting to use one giant run of wire hooked to one transformer/battery (in other words, you might have to buy more stuff).

Otherwise you ned to find a way to clip the wire to the frame, then detach it before packing the skirt (fun).
Joyce[info]joyeuse13 on August 20th, 2004 01:49 pm (UTC)
Re: (siliconchef) what about 4 rings of wire?
Yes, 4 lengths of wire means buying more connectors and doing my own soldering. Baby steps, baby steps, this is the first I've worked w/ the stuff, and I want to keep it simple. The whole idea was to use one continuous length of wire w/ one connector.
Andrew Lambdin-Abraham: books[info]kd5mdk on August 20th, 2004 02:14 pm (UTC)
I'll bet someone can manage soldering onsite. It's a scifi convention!
Joyce[info]joyeuse13 on August 20th, 2004 02:34 pm (UTC)
Oh, probably. But I want to enjoy being at the con, not tramp around looking for someone to do something to my costume that I should be able to do myself. Someday I'll learn to solder, but not with two weeks to go.