Fabrication
Beauty • Special FX • Fabrication • Film • Credits
Hadestown: Teen Edition
A Gathering of Fates & Goddesses
Getting to work on Hadestown - a beautiful and tragic love story, featuring a stunning cast of characters that I love - was such a treat. It allowed me to step out of the world of makeup and level up my skills in design and fabrication. Having had so much fun with the show, I decided to take another trip to the Underworld to visit with The Fates and Persephone.
As a lover of Greek Mythology and especially the story of the characters in Hadestown, I was thrilled to get to work in depth to create the looks for Persephone and The Fates. I have had so many chances to do makeups that tie into nature, and Persephone is no exception. The actor who portrayed Persephone in our production had long, flowing, beautiful hair, and I knew right away that I wanted to give her a braid modeled loosely on the style featured on Rapunzel, in Disney’s Tangled. I knew that I wanted tons of gorgeous flowers and moss flowing through a beautiful, slightly unkempt braid. I also knew that there would need to be a way to change color schemes, and do it quickly as her outfit changes for her time in the Underworld, but also quickly changes back at a certain point as well. I was able to create a unique headpiece for our actor, that employed magnets on the flower clusters, and allowed us to quickly change her flowers as needed, and giving her plenty of time for her quick changes.
The fascinators and combs for The Fates were so much fun to create, and were tailored to each character. I love Halloween, and always have my eye out for fun and unique things during the season. I stumbled across a fabric with coffins during one of my trips to the fabric store, and thought it would be perfect for The Fates. Then I thought about the fact that each of the three have a role in the process of life, and decided to play on those roles, giving them each an individualized look.
Clotho - The Spinner - begins spinning the thread of a person’s life within the womb. I found a gorgeous lace that featured skulls of a few different sizes, and crossbones in between. I paired that with a customized hair comb with four birds, three sitting in wait and the fourth flying off with the gold thread of life in its mouth to signify the creation of the soul, the skeleton and life beginning.
Lachesis - The Alloter - measures the thread of life allotted to a person. In searching the fabric store I found a lace featuring a spider web pattern that stretched and continued across the fabric in beautiful symmetry. The amount of life you have gives you the opportunity to make connections - whether it be love, friendship or acquaintance - which is what drew me to the webs, all the different connections. I paired it with a comb featuring two spools of the gold thread of life, and a needle to take the thread from its begging, and pull it through all the potential connection points, until it reaches the appropriate length.
Atropos - The Inevitable - cuts the thread of life when a person’s time comes to an end. I was so excited to have found a reason to purchase some of that coffin fabric I had stumbled upon. What a prefect fabric to signify the character that ends a person’s life when it is time - a coffin. Something that people see, and immediately connect with death. Of course, since she cuts off the thread of life when it a person’s time to leave the Earth, her comb featured two pairs of scissors to signify the snipping of that fragile thread and sending the soul on to visit Hades.
Wanting to see more of Persephone and The Fates? Click the 🚂🌹❤️🖤 below to step aboard, and get ready to head way down under the ground.
Persephone: Rowan Bishop | @rwnbshp
Clotho: Sadie Knie | @sadieeknie
Lachesis: Faye Muma | @faye.muma
Atropos: Eliza Gray | @waitwhoseliza
Photographer: Shun Powell, Jr. |Shun P Films | @shunpfilms
Makeup: Annaliese Thaney | Shade of Face FX | @shadeoffacefx
Costume Design: Andrea Loss
Say What You Mean
Regal Jungle Collar
We knew right from the start that an overall floral theme was what we were going for - featuring a flower wall, floral masks and something with a very regal feel for our star.
After settling on a color scheme, I set to work selecting floral and foliage for the project. Keeping in mind that the collar would be more regal and masculine I decided to go the tropical route.
The large tropical leaves and bird of paradise command attention, and fit so seamlessly together. The faux wax leaves were a perfect size, shape and color pattern to layer in for the chest plate, as well as the reverse side of of the collar.
Say What You Mean is available for viewing on the film page.
Say What You Mean
Dancing Gardens
Getting to create wearable props is always a blast, but this time - I got to build Dancing Gardens for a collaboration with my friend Xavier.
Featured in the music video for “Say What You Mean”, they were a challenge to make as they had to be light and secure enough to the dancers face to not fly off, while still giving them the visibility to complete their choreography.
Each of the masks was mounted to pair of clear safety glasses with a thin elastic strap around the back to ensure comfort and a secure fit.
The dancers for the music video were able to be fitted into their masks on set, and did such an amazing job of adjusting to their limited visibility. Huge shout out to them for bringing my Dancing Gardens to life.
Daniel Tompkins
Ruins | Death’lin
When my friend, Steven Cleavland, came to me with visions of a nightmarish creature for Daniel Tompkins’ Ruins music video for his new album of the same name I couldn’t turn down the chance to finally build my first full creature suit.
A dark, shadowy creature with arms so long its hands drag on the ground, and a round, terrifying snout that oozes black goo this creature featured 6 separate pieces that all came together to creature a working monster.
Death’lin as I have nicknamed him really took a lot of critical thinking, and trial and error to create. I learned a lot, and now have an entirely new approach to creature building.
Head over to my film page and check out Ruins by Daniel Tompkins!
Stay | Clicker Mask
Inspired by
‘The Last of Us’
Bringing a creature from a video game to life is always a welcome challenge, and this one was no different.
I was asked to be one of two special effects makeup artists on set of a fan created film based in the world of ‘The Last of Us’, a post apocalyptic video game that features nasty fungal zombies. The most evolved form is the Clicker, a zombie human hybrid creature featuring a fungal plated face and split upper jaw. This headpiece was a challenge because it required the actor to be able to see enough to fight another actor, but also not have obvious eye holes, while also being secure enough to maintain its position on the actor’s head.
This film featured a lot of challenging effects from everyone involved. Head over to my film page to view Stay - Inspired by ‘The Last of Us’!
Final neck and accent makeup:
Gemini Tree of Life & Death
Wearable art can be one of the most challenging and entertaining costumes to make. Many factors must be taken into account, and execution must be broken down into a precise process. Attention to movement and detail are also important.
The Gemini Tree of Life & Death was no exception - both challenging and an absolute joy to create. This piece was created to be worn for Hair Affair: Zodiac, a fundraising event, featuring Wisconsin hair salons and schools for Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMOCA).
The piece had to be lightweight, durable and secure to the head while walking down three glass flights of stairs, posing and a cocktail hour that followed the fashion show.
Voodoo Royalty
Costume Pieces
The Voodoo Royalty character featured three fabricated elements to help bring the character to life.
The hat, staff and jacket were all created to give a classic Voodoo Queen feel with a modern flair. The flowers, feathers, moss and other pieces were selected to give a multi faceted look to the costume while maintaining the signature purple color scheme.
All of the pieces that you see fabricated for this project can be recreated, and customized to match the color scheme, and aesthetic of your particular character.