Thursday, November 29, 2012

Unpublished Instagram Photos.....


 I am in an art show this weekend and the theme is Migration. One idea I was thinking of was to have photos that I took while in motion, using instagram. I immediately deleted each one after using the filters and saving, so the surprise would not be ruined. I since changed my idea for the show so am posting these shots I took on my walk around downtown LA and hike around Hollywood's Griffith Park here:











Sunday, November 11, 2012

Siouxsie Sioux & Robert Smith DIY Halloween Costumes




This halloween, David and I decided to be two of our favorite singers - Siouxsie Sioux (of SIouxsie and the Banshees) and Robert Smith (of The Cure). 


The clothing part was easy - we wore black clothing that we already had (I already had the fishnet shirt and got it at www.WeLoveColors.com). I also threw on my spiky bracelet and a few more snake bracelets for good measure. I used the same black crinoline from my "Black Swan" costume from last year (blog post here.) David had a black velvet blazer and a polka-dot shirt. He has found a $16 cardboard "paper jams" guitar that actually plays and also holds 3 mp3s. He put the CURE and Siouxsie songs onto the guitar.

For the makeup, I watched a few youtube videos but then decided the best way was to try myself. I tried the eyebrows with eyeliner as the videos suggested but they did not look right and it was harder to get them even or get the right texture. Using an angled mac brush and mac matte black eyeshadow, I made the eyebrows much easier and then did the lighter Siouxsie eye, blending white iridescent shadow with some lightly applied black. I put on a little more black eyeliner that usual, some deep lipstick and was good to go.







 



The tricky part was the hair. We originally wanted to be this last year, but the wig we ordered online from amazon for Robert Smith was cheap and looked it and also the hair was impossible to ratt or make it stick up. We threw it in the costume box and forgot about it. After a year of being in the box, smashed into a corner, it was perfect this year when we took it out of the box. 

However I needed a Siouxsie wig and didn't have a year to make it. I bought a very cheap wig on amazon here(http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002NVKG44/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&redirect=true). When it arrived I used hairspray, brushes and combs and even hung it upside down wet. Nothing worked since it is cheap but slippery hair. I realized it was longer than the quintessential Siouxsie so I decided to give it a trim but worried about the hair being too thin. I then decided that instead of throwing away the hair clumps from the trim, I could use them to fill out the wig and make them look ratty. After putting the wig on a mannequin head, I took each clump and put a bunch of glue on the edge to hold each one together and then place them each in the middle of the seam of the wig. The glue worked great to make it stay and give it a boost to make it stick up. If I want to use it again, it is smashed in the costume box so it will look even better next year I suspect! :o) Until next halloween.... jennifer