Mom watched Z last night so we could go out with vatavian, rslatkin, and erikted to see Prince Caspian. I didn't like it quite as much as The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, but then I don't recall liking the book as much either. Reepicheep definitely stole the show, though.

This being a somewhat disjointed and random account of my weekend at Fencon...

First, some words of wisdom:

Children under five, not recommended to eat!
Tapioca ball must chew before swallow!

It was really nice to go to a small regional con and actually get to meet and talk to some of the people I could only admire from afar at a madhouse like DragonCon. (That would be Jim Butcher, his wife Shannon, Heather Alexander, and the Brobdingnagian Bards.) (I was quite taken with Heather Alexander; autographedcat, why don't we book her for GaFilk?) (Not this year, she's busy; I asked.)

Art Show: I sold only one print this year, but at least it was a big one.

The size of my ego: after the Masquerade, a preteen-ish girl came up and asked me for my autograph! My goodness. Then we went party-hopping, with me still in costume, and people kept applauding every time I walked into a room.

I've decided I need to stop competing in the Masquerade and graduate to volunteering, maybe to run a panel, or as a judge or something. If only to keep the ego down to a manageable size.

Wish I'd gotten in more filking. Ditto on sleeping--too bad those two are mutually exclusive! Double ditto on time with friends--to paraphrase mastacool, I saw a lot of people, but didn't manage to spend time with most of them.

Another thought for next year: host a pizza party or something so we can order food in, rather than go through the cat-herding that results from "organizing" a big group to go out for a meal. We did manage one big group dinner and a big group brunch, which was lovely, if hectic.

Thanks to tygerr and cawingcrow for my birthday presents! Note to self: bake something deadly chocolate soonish.

Pictures here!

I'm home! Big, nasty, evil flight delays suck. Luckily, long weekends attending cool cons with friends are the exact opposite of flight delays.

Highlights: playing pattycake with Jim Butcher (in the Jessica Rabbit outfit, of course), Heather Alexander concert and singing at the filk circle, meals out with big mobs of friends, finally meeting the Psychopixie, the black light room party...and winning BEST IN SHOW at the Masquerade!

We checked in to the con around 5 on Friday (which seems to be the secret to not standing in line--Saturday morning we could see the registration lines stretching around the block), then chased around looking for where to check in for the new Friday night costume contest. I'd had an email that said the check-in list would be either at Registration, the Contest Registration table, or in the Costuming Track room, but no follow-up to tell me which of these locations had been selected. Of course it ended up being in the last place we looked. :P

Aaron helped me with costume wrangling, and then we hurried down for the prejudging. On the way, a man dressed as Santa Claus rounded the corner, and I exclaimed, "You can’t be here! I’ve cursed Narnia, so it’s always winter, but never Christmas!" We paused for picture-taking, and he replied, "Yeah, well, shit happens."

The contest itself was the usual hurry-up-and-wait, combined w/ a bunch of conflicting instructions as to where to go and what to do (it's a new contest, so some amount of first year shakedown was to be expected). This was luckily leavened by running into various techops friends backstage, and chatting up the other costumers. As a costume-fabrication-focused event, it was a huge success--it drew what must have been a considerable percentage of the best costumes at the con, and wow, was I outclassed in a big way.

There were two other White Witches, but they'd both opted to do Tilda Swinton's war gown from the new movie, so while they were both great costumes, it wasn't like finding someone in the same dress at the prom! One woman had hand-knitted her "chainmail" gown, and sculpted the icicles on her staff out of hot glue; the other one had an actual chainmail dress weighing 95 pounds--and couldn't sit down in it. Dear god, I'm a costume nut, but some things are too extreme even for me.

There was a lady dressed as the Snow Queen from Hans Christian Anderson--and this is a very important distinction, since if she’d been the White Witch also, not only would we have had the "same-prom-dress" problem, but hers would have been better than mine. So, Snow Queen. Remember that. (You can see it in the top left pic here.)

The prejudging and "official" photography took for-bloody-ever, but the stage portion went much more quickly than the average Masquerade, owing to the absence of skits. They played a single continuous music loop, and the emcees read each contestant’s description of their costume. Ok, I confess to playing to the audience a bit—-when the emcee got to "the wand that turns her enemies to stone," I twirled it around and pointed it at him. (Related tangent: I ran into mastacool backstage, and was complaining about all the hurry-up-and-wait. "I don’t know why I do these contests, I know they’re only going to take up half my night." "Oh, I know you, it’s for the audience." Yeah, got it in one. :D )

Unexpectedly, after reading my brief audience description, they kept going and read all my documentation notes too. I had thought those notes were only for the judges, so once my description was done, I started to leave the stage—and the emcee kept reading! Oops. I wasn’t really listening by that point anyway, since somewhere while turning the emcee to stone, my bloody &*^%$! contact lens had popped out again. The next person on after me was the 95-lb chainmail, followed by a guy in big stompy boots, so I gave it up for lost again, but the backstage staff came to my rescue—stopped the show, got out on stage with a flashlight, and actually found the bloody thing, untrammeled. All blessings on the costume contest backstage staff! (The chainmail lady actually said she saw if pop out, but thought it was a bead or sequin or something off my costume. Aaron, in the audience, said later he knew exactly what had happened when he saw the flashlight.)

The glowing crown, by the way, was a mixed success. It was really cool in dim lighting, but we didn’t get much of that backstage, and what with the hours of hurry-up-and-wait, I ended up turning it off to save the batteries. I turned it back on for the prejudging and the stage presentation, but the lights were so bright I’m not sure anyone saw it. (I had to bend down so the judges could see the wires.) It also shorted out later on that night, so it only glowed when I had my head turned a certain way. I shall have to turn it over to Dr. Lanterman to fix.

There was supposed to be a space set aside after the contest for audience photography, but that too went the way of first-year shakedown, and no one knew quite where to go or what to do. Turns out they’d told all the fan photographers to hang out in the back of the ballroom, but then they told us not to go back there bc the lights didn’t work…then we were supposed to go out on stage, but we got chased away by the techops people setting up for the next event. Finally I just wandered out into the ballroom, found Aaron, saw that the lights were indeed working in the back of the ballroom, and pointed myself at the nearest group of camera-wielding con-goers.

Wow. About forty million people took my picture, from all angles. Flashbulbs everywhere. (One of them was Misty, so you can go see her pictures here!) Since I was blind from lack of contact lens (it was safely stowed away until I could get it properly cleaned), I didn’t mind too much...ok, might as well admit it, I loved it. Attention, attention, give me attention! :D It was like being a rock star--if rock stars wore sparkly white dresses and glow-in-the-dark crowns. (Maybe some of them do? Queen of Narnia might be a good name for a band.)

Because I can never just leave a costume be...there's always something to add, right? Especially EL wire!

I'm not sure yet if this is worthwhile--I do like the way it reflects off the crystals, but it only shows up in very low lighting (which is why the pictures are so grainy), and cons are generally well-lit. Also, the lit up wire makes a very low whine, which is not noticeable on the Unseelie Faerie outfit bc none of it is near my ears--but a whiny crown is going to get kind of annoying. So it may be more trouble than it's worth.

This is the first time I've done an actual character costume. I hadn't really thought about it before, but that does have an effect on people's perceptions--especially if it's a well-known character, and especially a well-known character from a kids' novel.

At first thought, you'd expect children to be somewhat scared of the White Witch, who is, after all, the villain of the story, and a pretty nasty piece of work to boot. Maybe mundane kids--but costume-savvy, con-going fannish children were delighted.

"Look, mom, it's the White Witch!" I heard more than once. Once I figured it out, I started going around asking the kids at the con if they were Sons of Adam or Daughters of Eve. The best answer--"No, I'm a disco queen!"

So, since I need another costuming project like I need a hole in the head, I decided the White Witch's wand (try saying that fast) needed...something. Like...runes! Yeah!

Narnia doesn't have any runes associated with it, and using Tengwar seemed like a copout, so I spent some time yesterday looking for a runic font that would be a) not associated with Tolkien and b) not immediately recognizable as any other alphabet. (Viking runes failed both tests--not only do people recognize them, the ones who do often recognize them as Tolkien's Dwarven runes, which would defeat the whole purpose.) I found the neatest site for runic and fantasy fonts; it unfortunaly seems to go down a lot, but I managed to download a bunch of interesting fonts before losing it.

What I finally settled on was called Avesta, which, it turns out, is the alphabet used to write the ancient scriptures of Zoroastrianism, a religion of 4th century Persia. Well. That's obscure, all right--not many people are likely to recognize it. But, here's the "funny coincidence" part:

"Zoroaster (or Zarathustra) taught that there was only one eternal god: Ahura Mazda, 'the Wise Lord' or 'Lord Wisdom'. Ahura Mazda is wholly wise, good and just, but not all-powerful, because he has an adversary: Angra Mainyu, 'the Evil Spirit'."

Guess what I just re-read at the beginning of the year? Sound familiar, Jaqueline Carey fans?

Oh, what do the runes actually say? (Of course they say something, this is me.) Go see the pictures to find out.

The White Witch is almost done (except for the rest of the ungodly amount of hand sewing I didn't manage to finish at the DCTV weekend). I'm also mostly done with a vaguely gypsy-ish hall costume that involves a lot of ribbons and bells. I'm hoping to enter the White Witch in the masquerade at Concarolinas next month, and I need a presentation!

So I need some suggestions. I managed to turn the Lizgown into a Renaissance superhero, and the Unseelie Faerie sort of stood on her own, but the White Witch needs something. Anyone got any ideas? What kind of background music goes with the Queen of Narnia? I'm specifically not doing Tilda Swinton's costume from the movie, so I may want to keep away from the movie soundtrack. Is there a way to make it funny? This is not really a funny costume, so...is there a way to make it ooh-ahh impressive without being dull?

It's been a busy day with the pictures.

I think this might be finished. I found taller crystals for the crown (at Lowes, of all places, in the lighting section--they're for repairing chandeliers), and also note the "stone" dagger--yet another Party City find,spray-painted silver and with sticky jewels added.

The fur-collared cape is an eBay purchase, and I brushed it all over with glittery fabric paint, which is a great visual effect, but it made the fabric so crunchy it squeaks when I move it. Since I 'm not using the shorter crystals on the crown, I was thinking of sewing some onto the hem of the cape. I bought a lot of them, and it seems a shame not to use them for something.

I tried brushing the hem of the gown with more glitter paint, but the paint itself shows as a grayish shadow on the fabric. So I might have to trim it to hide that mess. Seeing that slight train on the back makes me think I might have to shorten it, too. Dragoncon is not a place you want your hems trailing.

I'd been pondering what to do w/ my hair, but I think leaving it loose is just the thing.

So this looks like it. I think I'll be able to wear it at ConCarolinas next month.

So the last time I posted pictures of the fledgling White Witch project, I got some comments that the crown needed to be taller and spikier. So I played around with a few ideas (don't mind Matilda, she's just the model):

( The original crown )

( A newer, taller, spikier, but somewhat plain crown )

( Upper and Lower Egypt )

I'm not entirely sure I'm happy with this so far. Maybe I'll feel better when I add the fur cape. It's a bad time of year to buy fur in stores, and it's hard to tell the pile of fur on a computer screen. I ordered some white fur from eBay, only to discover that the pile is not as full as I'd been assuming; from too far away it just looks like flat white fabric. So I may have to find something else. Anyone need two yards of white low-pile fur?

I found a site with gorgeous crystal bindi, and I want to order some and experiment. The trick will be to avoid that Indian bride look. I may embellish the gown with crystals or glitter or something, to keep it from looking too bridal as well. I also need to add a silver cord belt to hold the stone dagger. Um. I also also need to figure out how to make the stone dagger. It should look like flint or obsidian, presumably, but I don't know what kinds of materials will look like flint or obsidian, that I can work with easily.

The crown is looking somewhat better. No more White Christ look, but I'm still not entirely sure I'm happy with it. I guess I'm afraid it looks too little-kid-crafty. I'm a also bit worried the wand/staff/scepter thingy looks like a toilet plunger...

I went ahead and bought the wedding gown I found on eBay as a base for the White Witch costume. Tonight I replaced the straps with sheer organza ribbon. It really doesn't need much done to it other than that, but I'm thinking of doing some subtle glittering around the hem. Next step is the mantle; I ordered three yards of white fur off eBay, so I should be able to work on that some time next week.

I started putting the crown together tonight as well. It's about what I had in mind, but I think it still needs something. Spiky bits around the top, maybe. As it is, it makes me look like Christ in a very pristine crown of thorns. Definitely needs something...

On a whim, I went into Party City to see if they had anything shiny/sparkly I could use. On the costume wall I found something called (I'm not making this up) "Big Daddy Cane." It was a long black plastic stick topped with a giant plastic crystal filled with water and silver glitter. Dear god, it was tacky.

It was perfect. I took it home, painted it with three coats of pearly acrylic paint, and voila. The white witch has her wand.

It's amazing how much faster the costuming process goes when I don't have to sew a whole gown from scratch...

It's that time of year again...the costuming bug has bitten joyeuse13.

I've been toying w/ the idea of a White Witch of Narnia costume for a long time...the problem is, everyone and their sister will be doing Narnia costumes this year. Hmm...

I thought I'd start with a basic wedding gown pattern and work up from there. Or even, I thought, go to a thrift shop and just buy a used wedding gown and use it as a blank canvas. I found a plainish one on eBay in my size for $30. The question is, how do I avoid looking like ConBride Barbie (tm)?

There will certainly have to be a fur-trimmed cape or stole or somewhat. I have some wonderful, hard-to-describe stuff I got after Xmas last year to work into a crown; I'm afraid I probably won't be able to pull off the "icicles sprouting from my head" look Tilda Swinton had in the movie, but I'm not sure I really liked that anyway. This will be my own interpretation: I very specifically don't want to do the dress from the movie. I really didn't like that big wide collar-y thing they had on it, and the fabric was not really to my taste either.

What I did like about the movie was the way they extrapolated her wand into a staff. Very cool, that...I need to come up with a good way to create something similar. Note to self: start hitting thrift stores looking for defunct chandeliers. $20 could net me a crateful of crystal drops, if I'm in the right place at the right time. There should also be silver-white makeup, glittery mascara, and...oh, maybe long white gloves, if that doesn't end up looking too bridal again.

One of the characteristics of the White Witch is her height; she's supposed to be over 7' tall. I've seen this done with platform boots (not 7' tall, obviously, but enough height to look unusual), but I'm not sure I could walk in anything that high, nor do I really want to spend money on expensive boots I'd only wear for a costume. The other idea I had grew from the Spooky Horror Puppet Show two years ago: a body puppet on a PVC framework that extends up over the wearer's head. The challenge here (aside from carrying the thing around all day, and not fitting in doorways) would be sculpting a suitably realistic head, since my face would down around the figure's chest. I'm not sure I want to go this route, as it's a lot more work than merely costuming--but damn, it would be cool. I was extremely taken with the puppet I saw at the show; it was the most utterly eerie effect.

And then there's the question of how to keep it clean...

Ideas, ideas...let the brainstorming begin!

To the lady in the row behind me with the talkative child:

Telling me he's four does not excuse him, or you, for ruining the movie for everyone around you with a constant instant replay ("What's that?" "It's a sword." "Who's that?" "It's Father Christmas." "Why's he doing that?" "So they can get away.") If he's too young to keep quiet in a movie theater, he oughtn't to be in one.

Furthermore, this is not the kind of movie to take a four-year-old to. There's violence. There's mayhem. There are monsters. There's an opening sequence where London is bombed. Wolves and lions attack people. There's a bloody pagan sacrifice, for heaven's sake.

(Yes, I know Lewis has gone on record stating that it is, indeed, a Christian allegory...but you know, sacrificial gods were once upon a time a dime a dozen. Christianity has no monopoly on them, or on resurrection, for that matter...and anyone who thinks the Stone Table is a Christian symbol has been tippling too much Communion wine.)

It's a beautiful movie. Not a single detail is left out. A few things have been added, to make some scenes scarier and more immediate--for instance, in the book they escape the Beavers' house with time to spare, not with wolves literally coming through the walls at them. Oh, and Tilda Swinton was simply born to play the White Witch. It's gorgeous and moving and well-nigh perfect, really.

But don't bring your four-year old.