| The London researches | Apr. 14th, 2007 @ 02:43 pm |
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Hi all,
finally I have finished my picture and research pages of my London stay. Over 1000 pictures on many, many pages.
Feel free to browse as following....:
British Museum
Lots of Egyptian, Grecian, Near- and far East and a bit of Celtic and European stuff, too. Globe Theatre
In- and exterior and costume exhibit Museum of London
Medieval-, renaissance- and Elizabethan clothing and accessories - oh, and some bits and pieces of my "Phoenix gown" examination on a very own page... Victoria and Albert museum
The marvelous interior if the V&A; Cast courts, with extra page for Beatrice D'Este's tomb; Textiles and laces of various centuries, from Medieval to early Victorian; Indian clothing at the V&A; 1920-modern clothing at V&A with an extra page for Lady Diana's "Elvis" dress; Edwardian clothing at V&A, Victorian clothing at V&A, Regency clothing at V&A, Rococo (subdivided in several pages for Women's clothing, Men's and clerical clothing, Paintings and statues and Interior); Elizabethan lifestyle at the V&A; Renaissance at the V&A Madame Tussaud's
With extra pages for the Pirates wax figures, the Six wives and Henry VIII as well as personae from showbiz and, last not least, history.
I hope my research pages will be interesting to some of you. If you should have questions or comments, don't hesitate to comment on this entry or email me.
Best wishes,
Sabine Current Mood:  bouncy |
| London! | Mar. 29th, 2007 @ 07:00 am |
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Hi all ;-)
So I'm in London now (please see mz other Journal ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) londoncostumesfor further details).
The flight was great, the hotel room is small, but I'm very happy to be here :-)
Just of course that I am not quuite familiar with the english layout of the keyboard- I keep hitting z instead of y and have quite some problems to find some keys. Well, I guess by the time I return to Germany I will have to get used to *that* layout again...
England is so different from Germany. I was surprised that I didn't have to bring my empty small Coke bottles to Recycling; I can simply trow them into a trashcan. If I find one, that is... they're pretty rare here compared to Germany.
I'm much in love with the tube though. Not much has changed in the 20 years since I've been here the last time; except of the constant safety reminders ("Watch your belongings all the time, if you don't, the station might be closed" - well something like that...).
I am still having problems to activate my cepp phone card. I've bought one in Germany with which I can phone to Germany for 7 Pence (~10 cents) per minute, and inside the UK for 15pence (~23Cent). Just to compare; if I would try to call Germany with my German SIM card, I'd pay 99 Cent per minute; and it's about the same price if I use a public phone.
The shop which should activate the card, however, had computer problems yesterday so I will have to try again today to get that thing activated. Grrr.
Today I'll meet with joysdaughter to study the "Phoenix" gown at the Museum of London. I can barely find the words to describe how much I'm looking forward to that. And I have to find an internet cafe that has a card reader so that I can post some pictures to my other journal... this hotel's computer doesn't have that.
I better run now. There's a nice fresh orange juice and a tasty sandwich I bought yesterday waiting in the fridge of my hotel room, waiting to become my breakfast :-)
See (or rather read!) you soon!
Naergi |
| Livejournal for my London travel | Mar. 17th, 2007 @ 12:03 pm |
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Hi all,
I've set up a new Livejournal for my London travels. It's called londoncostumes.
I know, that's probably not the most creative name in the world, but that's what I came up with.
If I get internet access in London, I'll write a diary about my travels in that journal and post pictures given that I can find a card reader.
I have 1 Gig of picture space with the account, so given that I *do* find a card reader, posting should be easy. So far I've posted just the schedule for what I'm planning to do in London.
Feel free to friend that Livejournal if you want to see what I'm planning or - in less than two weeks of time - to see what I'm actually doing there.
Best wishes,
Naergi
Current Mood:  cheerful |
| My cat's been overrun by a car... | Mar. 6th, 2007 @ 01:13 pm |
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Current Mood:  sad |
| Long time no see... | Feb. 18th, 2007 @ 02:13 am |
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Hi all,
I know, I should update more often. In fact, I should read my friends page more often. Sorry, but the last months have been really busy with real life activities... so... here's a small update.
My son, better known to some of you as 'little Balrog', has been in hospital for some days. Turned out he fell on his head in Kindergarten, and *no one there seemed to have noticed* - until he started puking and having headaches. Which is why I brought him to hospital when I picked him up, and it seems that he got himself a cerebral concussion - just great.
Pray tell, why is my son in Kindergarten and why are they paid good money if they don't notice (and obviously don't bother to *ask* a child if it pukes and has headaches!) that it falls down a staircase *in the group room*???
That Kindergarten will have a hard time next week when I get there to ask them about it....
Besides, I've worked on some costumes...
Arya from Eragon!
(more pictures here)
This one was made between christmas and new year's eve at my parent's home. It's my annual christmas gown gift which I made for myself (if you know me, then you'll know that every year I make one costume around that time for myself...).
I've started on another costume:
The black and white striped gown from Sleepy Hollow!
(Progress, three pages currently including an *insane* dye and paint job for the fabric, here)
(and, yes, the friendly little guy in the picture is my aforementioned son)
...and took the task to analyze some costumes from....
The Chronicles of Riddick!
(klick here for this...)
There's also a script comparison between the theatrical version and the director's cut plus a detailed analysis of the 'One step,. one kill' scene on that page.
Why the hell did I analyze those costumes? Because Riddick is an awesome character (and Vin Diesel a wonderful actor), that's all. And if you disagree that Vin Diesel is a wonderful actor, you should take a look at two of his movies: 'Multi-Facial', the first short film which he produced, directed and acted in himself (which got him a role in 'Saving Privatre Ryan' by Spielberg, who saw the short film and got interested in Diesel) and of course 'Find me guilty', his latest movie (in which we see a very hairy Vin!), for which he added 30 pounds to his weight. Reminds me a bit of what DeNiro did for one of his roles...
Ah, and then I saw an exhibit on Leonardo Da Vinci's inventions:
(for more, click here)
...what? That's all? (What, you're not bored yet?)
Yes, but just for the moment. Next week there'll be a bigger update, concerning the b/w striped gown and another costume - the blue wishing gown from 'Phantom of the Opera' - Hamburg musical version - I've made... plus perhaps some more private stuff in a different entry, which will then be friends only, of course.
...and now, I'm off to bed ;-)
Best wishes,
Naergi Current Mood:  busy |
| » My Marie Antoinette costume - and mail problems |
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Hi all!
Most important things first:
I've discovered that my provider's build-in spam filter obviously ate some of my emails. And worse, the *other* provider I have obviously ate some of the emails my inbox says to be sent out.
So if you've sent an email to me in the last, say, three weeks, and / or if you're expecting a reply from me which just didn't arrive... please just resend your mails. Or nudge me in this thread.
In other news, I've gotten totally obsessed with a particular gown and have spent sewing most of it in the last two days...
This here:
is the costume I so fell in love with. It's from the new Marie Antoinette movie and it's commonly known as the 'Blue Tricorn' costume.
And this:
is how far I've come so far with my reproduction of it.
More of the making process can be found on my website at http://www.naergilien.info/ma-lavender/index.htm
As I'm so obsessed with it I think I will have it finished before the weekend ;-)
Comments and suggestions are as always appreciated.
Best wishes,
Naergi
Nov. 28th, 2006 @ 03:42 am
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| » Cranach inspired Elven dress |
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Note:
Currently, my own website is not up and running due to a crashed server which has to be reinstalled. However, I wanted to post this - so here it is ;-)
I must say that I haven't made an Elven dress for almost two years - before that, I've made dozens (see this gallery to see them all).
However, when I was asked to actually design a gown from scratch, and only the main colors - red and gold - were given, I did so.
At the point of time when I started the design I still had much of my Cranach gown in mind, plus I had some fabric remnants from it.
So I designed and made....
I really love the whole concept of the gown - while it is clearly an 'elvish' dress to anyone who has ever seen the movie(s), it's still something 'new' - and for sure better than the 1.000.000 copy of Arwen's Blood red dress... ;-)
I've had a hell of a lot of fun designing and making this gown, and I hope its owner now appreciates it.
Plus, the gown gave me some weird ideas; but this shall be discussed in a different entry....
Hope you like it!
Best wishes,
Naergi
Nov. 11th, 2006 @ 08:48 pm
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| » To Traci (and anyone who's interested) |
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A small explanation in advance for the friends of mine who have no idea what I'm typing about::
Traci (fieryredhead) posted some ebay auction links of hers to her journal; among them this one here:
Mina's red bustle gown
I noticed that the first picture (edited to note: The auction has been edited by now. It now shows Dracula and Mina kissing; but first it used to show the first of the pictures that can be seen here - the one that shows the gown on the dress mannequin) shows the original gown without mentioning it, and for someone who doesn't know this picture from the 'Dracula' book it's not too easy to make out if it's the original gown.
P.S.: By the way, I find it utterly interesting how many hits my homepage all of a sudden has. Traci, if you have anything to tell me, why friendslock the entry if you can tell it right to my face, or are you also one of the disappointing people who need their friends to tell me how 'mean' I am...?
Sep. 20th, 2006 @ 10:26 pm
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| » 'Phantom of the Opera' Wishing gown examination |
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On Thursday, the 7th of September, 2006, I had the great pleasure of being able to examine and take the pattern from an original costume from Hamburg's 'Phantom of the Opera', namely the 'Blue wishing gown' that was worn during 1990/1991 by Renée Knapp.
Picture of one pattern repeat, clicking on it will take you to my home page with the examination results
The gown has been sold in an Ebay auction and has been won by operafantomet, who runs a very nice website on Phantom of the Opera costumes.
I have published my examination results at my homepage at
http://www.naergilien.info/research/Exhibits/phantom/index.htm
I still have more pictures, which I will add during the next days.
Feel free to link to the page (but, please - not the individual images) from whatever forum you see it fit.
Hope you have fun with my examination results!
Best wishes,
Naergi
Sep. 13th, 2006 @ 09:56 am
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| » [Cranach gown] Finished! |
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I actually managed to finish my costume in time!
Hope you enjoyed this project as much as I did :-)
Any comments appreciated!
Best wishes,
Naergi
Sep. 2nd, 2006 @ 09:32 pm
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| » [Cranach gown] Almost finished... |
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I thought I shouldn't leave you in the dark about my progress on the Cranach-gown, after posting my initial planning on it...:
I am still simultaneously working on finishing the sleeves and to make the chemise. Just three more days to go - the whole dress needs to be finished on saturday!
I appreciate any input on my work so far!
Best wishes,
Naergi
Aug. 29th, 2006 @ 10:55 pm
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| » Cranach's Luther - need an idea for sleeves... |
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Anyone having any idea what kind of sleeves would go with this kind of coat?
I can see the top of the sleeve, but I have no idea what the bottom looks like. Are those supposed to be *w-i-d-e* sleeves (as in 'Éowyn wide' - I know the comparison is weird, but still it's the best I can come up with) or are they more 'narrow' (I know they can't be very tight because of the folds that drape on the arm)?
Reason: My father will come with us to the medieval faire I'm visiting on the weekend... and I have decided that he needs a proper costume... and Cranach painted Luther in a likely way, so I thought it would fit ;-) Plus that coat is *very* simple and quick to make...
Any input - especially a picture which would show such a cloak from head to feet - is *very* much appreciated.
Oh, and if *anyone* should know where to get a pattern for that 'hat' he's wearing - I'd almost appreciate *that* even more - otherwise I'll have to try and make my own...
Aug. 29th, 2006 @ 02:33 am
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| » Looking for:Pattern for a simple snood |
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I know that I can figure out how even the most difficult clothing patterns work;but at the moment I'm at a loss (completely!) -perhaps it's because the pattern I'm looking for is so simple?
I'm looking for a simple snood pattern -such as this one:
http://proudmommy.tripod.com/snood.html
But obviously I'm too stupid to figure out how it works.
That pattern piece that's shown there - I just can't figure out how it is supposed to work.
I Know that there must be a banding (going around the head from top to bottom), and then this pattern piece shown there is supposed to be sewn to it.
But how? Is the 'left (straight) side'of that pattern supposed to go to the banding, or is it the 'right (rounded) side'?
And I'm somehow too lazy to just cut a piece of fabric and figure it out by myself...
*is totally embarrassed because she doesn't understand such a simple pattern*...
All other patterns I found on the net are much likely to this one *or* crocheting / knitting patterns, and I can't knit or crochet even just the faintest bit...
Help,anyone?
Aug. 23rd, 2006 @ 12:38 pm
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| » Unnerved; and: the Brustfleck goblin! |
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EDIT (about one hour after this entry was made):
My website is runing again. Jay!
I can't express in words how much I'm unnerved by my server hosting company.
Well, basically it's not *them* I'm unnerved with as they're just resellers of a bigger company, but yet and still it annoys me that my website is still offline, and so, of course, is the german costuming community I'm administrating.
If that particular hosting company wasn't so damn cheap ($2. Per *year*. For my domain name *and* unlimited traffic / webspace! That's something I've so far seen beat by no other company) I would have searched for another a long time ago *grrr*
The problem is that the bigger company (the one of which my hosting company is the reseller) obviously tried to run an update on the server last night - which, of couse, totally screwed the server up.
Since this morning, 08:00 am, their constant reply is: 'It should run any minute' - which only proves that time is relative, as by now it's almost 2:00 pm here in Germany.
Gotta love that...
Sorry, I'm just babbling.
Instead, I should show you a nice picture; my partly decorated Brustfleck for the Cranach-gown:
Even if it's not finshed yet - doesn't it look like a friendly goblin's face? This just dawned me when I turned it around - when embroidering / jeweling it, I always looked at it upside down...
The stones, by the way, are real rosen-cut garnets; partially already set with golden rim-settings. I know that the Cranach paintings show no jewelled Brustflecks and that rim settings may not particularly be historical, but I'm so much in love with the idea to have real garnets on my gown...
Still a lot to embroider, though (whit silver and golden yarn and beading with pearls, of course!); but I guess it's a good start ;-)
Aug. 21st, 2006 @ 01:40 pm
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| » I *so* hate this... |
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...website down. Again. Just as last Monday morning....
Will see how long it will take *this* time to restart the server (and report back here, then).
Aug. 21st, 2006 @ 01:30 am
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| » (No Subject) |
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Aug. 21st, 2006 @ 01:12 am
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| » Cranach-gown: From study to skirt |
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Heiya,
I've finally finished the study and planning and have now started on my Cranach-gown!
This gown has to be finished in two weeks, but I expect it to be finished by the end of next week!
Looking forward to your comments so far and stay tuned for updates ;-)
Best wishes,
Naergi
Aug. 20th, 2006 @ 04:16 am
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| » Server down! |
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Oh joy, oh happiness - at this moment, my hoster's server is down. Again.
For the moment, that means that not only my own website is down, but also the german costuming community Costumekittens,which I am administrating...
Not that this would be the first time... Not that I'm utterly annoyed by this *grrrrrr*
Did I mention that at times I hate my webhoster (which, by the way, is Pan-Connect - and while they are providing a great service, *sometimes* it's really unnerving...?)
I just hope there's a backup for Costumekittens on their server in case they can't just restart it - I haven't made one maually in two weeks... I know, my fault...
Edit:
...4 hours after my entry was made...
Right now, the server is up and running again; seems it just needed a restart. Yay!
Aug. 14th, 2006 @ 06:49 am
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| » It came from the 1971 Sears Catalog! |
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Accidentally, I stumbled over this website, which has scans from the 1971 Sears Catalogue-with comments by the website owner.
So if you have some hours and would like to laugh your ass off at modern opinions about 1971's lifestyle, I recommend reading everything on that page-i just did, and I must say that I didn'tlaugh like this in a long,long time...;-)
Best wshes,
Naergi
Aug. 10th, 2006 @ 06:38 pm
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| » [Balrog]: Bought yourself a friend today...? |
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Today my son, better known to the readers of this journal as 'little Balrog', was the cutest child on earth.
I stood in a shoe shop, looking for shoes (not for myself! I have enough until the end of my life - but he is constantly growing out of his, so...) and that shoe shop happens to have toys, also. Cheap toys which will break after some days, but yet and still, toys, and cheap ones, as I have said.
I think this is mainly a psychological thing:
Women go shopping for shoes with their children (but not necessarily for them...), the children discover the toys, to avoid loud crying and to have more time on selecting shoes, the mother buys one.
Next time mommy and baby pass the shoe shop, the child wants to go inside to look for toys, and the mother will let herself be dragged in to look for shoes, and the game starts anew - and the shop makes loads of money with shoes the mother doesn't need and the toys the children will break within a short amount of time.
Uhm, where was I. Right - looking for shoes, and little Balrog, of course, was standing in front of the shelves with toys, which, interesting enough, are just a yard high and most stuff is piled at the bottom of the shelves.
Suddenly he was tugging my sleeve, presenting an ugly, blinking plastic miniature of a traffic light in one set with two traffic signs and the strangest miniature of a Mercedes SLK convertible I've ever seen - all, of course, in no even remotely correct size dimensions to each other.
"Can I buy this?"
...I so hate if he doesn't express himself correctly...
"Sure you can buy this - as soon as you earn your own money, you can buy as many as you..."
"No, can YOU but that for me?"
Ah, he learned. Yet and still, I don't find it right to buy everything that comes into the way of a child's hands, so....
"No. See, you already got the cake you wanted an hour ago, so..."
I didn't expect to happen what happened *next*. Usually, my son will, without complaining, carry the toy back to the shelf if I say so.
If it's something bigger he *really* wants, he usually asks if he can call grandpa to buy it for him.
In a few rare cases, when he was really tired and smaller, he would cry, but *still* carry the toy back to the shelf without complaining.
So what happened was totally new for me....
*Big brown eyes filling with tears staring up at me...*
"Mommy, please, you must buy that for me! I'll be your very bestest friend forever if you buy that for me, I promise!!!" He exclaimed with the loudest, non-screaming voice I ever heard from him.
People around me dropped their shoes and stared. I just stared at him with an open mouth, then did what almst everyone else did: I laughed till I almost cried.
Still, he was looking at me with that half begging, half desperate look of a child which really, honestly, never ever in his whole life got a toy from his mother (note that there are *still* three giant not yet unpacked boxes from our move which contain such 'never bought toys' ;-) ).
And what did I do? I said (or at least I tried because I was still laughing):
"Son, I'm already your mother, so if you want me as a friend now, I'd be honoured. Let's buy that damned toy, I can't find any shoes for you anyway!"
Isn't it nice? With just a cheap blinking plastic traffic light miniature I have bought myself a lifetime friend.
Plan for tomorrow: Buy all the cheap blinking plastic traffic lights that store has, then look for the nicest young man running around in town and offer him one of them for a lifetime best friendship.
The spare ones are for my own parents, if that with the young man should work :-)
Best wishes,
Naergi
Aug. 9th, 2006 @ 12:41 am
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| » ...why am I not surprised...? |
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 | You scored as Neither. You think neither like a man nor like a woman. What you are you may decide for yourself. Most people will consider you strange, alien, weird or funny. You are probably quite interesting.
Neither | | 93% | Either | | 57% | Female | | 54% | Male | | 50% | </td>
Should you be MALE or FEMALE?*
created with QuizFarm.com |
Aug. 8th, 2006 @ 01:13 pm
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| » [Hardwick] I accepted a dress challenge! |
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(X-post to my own journal, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) dressdiaries and elizabethangarb)
Ladies and Gentlemen,
not without pride I announce that I was challenged to finish a dress until November 15th, 2006.
The dress in question is the one Queen Elizabeth I is wearing in the 'Hardwick' portrait...
and the rules for the challenge are, well, quite tough - even tougher than the timeframe of just three months.
You can read everything about the challenge on my website at
http://www.naergilien.info/hardwick/
So far, I've just written down the rules there and the research page has my initial thoughts on the dress, which I have written down months ago.
Edited to add this, as it doesn't seem clear from my website:
I'm not supposed to finish this entire dress with materials for just 20 Euros.
I can use anything I want from my large, established fabrics- and trims collection, but for anything I do *not* own yet, I must not spend more than 20 Euros ;-)
As I have collected roughly 1200 (=twelve hundred, no typo!) kilograms of fabrics, trims and other embellishments in the last almost thirty years, I'm almost sure that I won't need to buy *anything* to make this dress :-)
Wish me luck for the challenge! For me, it's not about the prize, but about finishing *such* a gown in just three months of time.
I'll keep you all updated here so you don't need to look at my site too often in vain :-)
Best wishes,
Naergi
Aug. 8th, 2006 @ 01:32 am
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