Hope's Door

When I performed with the DFW Vagina Monologues in February, Hope's Door was one of our two beneficiaries for which we raised over $900 each. Hope's Door is a shelter for victims of domestic violence.

I frequently get rid of my clothes at clothing swaps but wanted to only donate this time and not bring anything new into the house because we're packing to move soon. I decided to give some things to Hope's Door and on a whim to also hold a clothing drive at my Amtgard park, with which I like to periodically lead events to benefit local charities, such as the food drive we held in November for a local pantry.

A few days later, I overheard coworkers mention getting rid of some clothes and individually asked a few to send them my way for this particular charity. I also posted a flier in the break room and immediately received a few extra donations. One coworker requested further details and is going to talk to her kids' Girl Scout troop about donating items or possibly holding a garage sale and donating its profits to Hope's Door.

I was thrilled with the response and how quickly interest grew and spread from my small plans to others.

One coworker even put together a lovely gift basket to donate for Mother's Day.

I then reached out to Russ of the Circus Freaks to ask if I might set up a box in the lobby of the weekly Open Stage event to collect donations from that group as well. He was on board with the idea, and with less than one day's notice, I received a trunk full of clothes the first night and will have to make a few more trips than I first planned.

I wish there was an easy way to quantitatively report the results of this endeavor, but I don't even own a scale. Instead, I think I'll take pictures and report back in a few weeks.

Here is a little more about Hope's Door from its website:

The mission of Hope's Door is to offer intervention and prevention services to individuals and families affected by domestic violence and to provide education programs that enhance the community's capacity to respond.

Hope's Door is the only organization in Collin County specializing in comprehensive intervention and prevention services for all members of a family affected by domestic violence - from victim to abuser. Hope's Door was established in 1986 as a crisis hotline. Clients were housed in local hotels until the opening of a 21-bed emergency shelter in 1989. Since then, services have expanded to include transitional housing, counseling for adults and children, legal advocacy and services for abusers.

Annually, Hope's Door responds to over 1,900 crisis hotline calls, shelters more than 400 women and children, houses over 50 families in transitional housing and provides counseling and legal advocacy to more than 1,300 survivors.

World Banner Wars

The Kingdom of the Emerald Hills hosted World Banner Wars and Olympiad this year at the Fort Parker Restoration outside Mexia, Texas. It was awesome. Learn more about Amtgard here.

See the full album here.

Radioactive Belly Dance

Oh yeah, I did this thing recently at the new Open Stage location. The stage techs were in a rush and I didn't get a run-through, so I was really upset and thought this was just awful. But I did MUCH better the following Saturday for Dragonmaster, and Amtgard competition, scoring 4.7 out of a possible 5.

Watercolor achievements, now bolder !

I was struck one day by the inspiration to create a piece of very bold heraldry that reflected symbolic elements of my mundane life. The device I chose was a unicorn, but no dull traditional heraldic beast for me, no. It would be a terribly cute unicorn rampant, and to that end I copied the body design of the popular My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic art. The purple mane reflects my own love of recently having purple hair, and the “cutie mark” on the hip is a symbol widely used to represent polyamory: the infinity heart.

I asked myself how I could make this even more flamboyant, and flames was the obvious answer, linking loosely to my fire performances. I chose a sky blue oval field because I rarely see oval fields compared to more common heraldic shapes, sky blue for aesthetic contrast.

Since I’m not entirely open in my personal life, the idea of incorporating such symbolism into very flashy heraldry that would be displayed prominently with the meanings hidden less overtly was very appealing. Imagine these brilliant colors emblazoned on a large shield cover—it’s not a device you’ll soon forget.

I sketched the piece in pencil, viewing the MLP art nearby for reference for the unicorn. I used a light box to transfer the design in ink to watercolor paper and then used watercolor pencils to line and shade everything. I drew a wet paintbrush across each section to smooth and blend the colors and draw pigments into the center. I printed and oval from a computer and used the light box to trace it onto the final piece, cut it out, and repeated the same process to color  the field. I cut the backboard to fit the frame and glued the oval to the board.

Watercolor achievements - part deux

From my last post:

I'm usually pretty down on my 2-D art skills because my sister, by comparison, is SO amazing, but I still like to doodle and sketch a bit from time to time.

And so I found myself one night, shirking the responsibilities of my scheduled time slot for working on other things that needed to be done, instead compelled to sketch a phoenix. I had no references and was so pleased with it that I decided to develop the piece further for an Amtgard competition this weekend.

I used a light box (an overhead projector, to be honest) to trace the major outlines in ink to watercolor paper, including the body, tail, and primary wing tips/long feathers. I used a ruler to fill in the rest of the long wing feathers and then watercolor pencils to line and shade the bird. Then I had the task of filling all the rest of the blank space on the page. Again using watercolor pencils, I gave the bird a glow and an ashen background. I then took a wet paintbrush to each section to blend and smooth the colors, finding this paper MUCH better suited than the card stock on the Egyptian. Duh, Moniqa.

I added more black pencil to the dry paper for contrast and used a pen to finally draw in the inner body feathers/flames and a few outside details. I was lucky enough to find a frame and mat at Goodwill in the colors and size I wanted and will add that photo once I get it.

Watercolor achievements

I'm usually pretty down on my 2-D art skills because my sister, by comparison, is SO amazing, but I still like to doodle and sketch a bit from time to time.

I recently unearthed an unfinished, years-old sketch and went to work on finishing it. I had been inspired by Egyptian art and curves and used no references for the figure, later Googling Egyptian art to draw from for the hair and eye detail. I used a light box to transfer the sketch to ink on sturdier paper. Once that was done, I noticed how far off center the figure was and added a sun to balance it. But I still had a white space on the left to address. I copied some random hieroglyphs, knowing a better artist would do some more research and planning, but I was eager to be done.

before adding water

I used watercolor pencil to line and shade the whole piece and then drew a wet brush over each section to blend and smooth the pencil colors. I learned too late that card stock is not sturdy enough for such an endeavor, so I pressed it as well as I could between my roommates' stack of medical textbooks. I am very pleased with the final results and having trusted my gut in using "maroon" instead of "brown" for the skin and "peach" instead of "yellow" for the background.

I'm headed to the store this evening to choose a mat for a frame I already have and will update to add a picture of the final product.

Dragon banner

This year we've had several banner competitions in Amtgard, in which I haven't yet had the chance to participate. Most of the banners are made by applique, but the process easily frustrates me and I'm not very good at it. So I wanted to try my hand at fabric painting.

The design I chose is my personal heraldry that I designed for use in Amtgard years ago. There isn't much meaning behind it except for pretty colors and shapes I like and am proud to have designed and drawn by myself. Maybe something about strength, power, wisdom, beauty.

I figured I could use acrylic paints for the project, which would be ideal since 1. we have a bunch of acrylics, 2. I didn't want to invest in fabric paints for just one project, and 3. I know how to use acrylics but am awkward with fabric paint. The internet said I could water down acrylics and that they would look best on light-colored fabrics, but my design required a black background, so I resigned myself to applying many layers.

I thought maybe I could use an embroidery hoop, but those flimsy wooden ovals cost much more than I wanted to spend. I found a plastic rectangular frame for the same purpose at a better price. I bought some plain black cotton fabric and stretched and clipped it on. I used a ruler to draw the straight lines in chalk and did the rest freehand, which is tricky.

I watered down acrylics and began painting. Actually, I had to mix up a purple first since we didn't have any. It was not pretty. The green was easy and the silver as well. I worried about the gold, thinking shortly after I began that maybe I should have put down a solid color first, but it ultimately turned out lovely.

I later bought purple and added it on, but it just wasn't showing up against the black. It is astounding just how much paint fabric can absorb, and I applied SO many layers. Growing frustrated with the purple, I mixed in silver and ended up with a cool, sparkly lavender that looked lovely on the black. I don't generally like lavender, but this was a huge improvement over the initial layers.

I thought I might use black paint or fabric pen to outline everything, but my aunt suggested gray to give the shield some "pop" against the black. Having used a silver Sharpie with great success on other very different and unrelated projects, I gave that a try and loved the results, again using a straight edge where needed.

Star Trek arts and crafts and mud

Inspired by a link a friend posted to the cutest ever Disney princess inspired ladies' running outfits, I decided I needed a red Star Trek ladies' tunic dress for running, especially for my Red Shirts team that will be running in the Mud Factor 5K this week.

I've made a t-tunic before, though not well, so I figured this would be easy enough. I first made one with extra fabric I already had to make sure I could do it. I pulled a dress from my closet with the fit I wanted and laid it on the fabric to cut around. I chose a purple stretch jersey fabric, because I like the color and don't like to roll my seams if I don't have to.

I cut out two dress shaped pieces, sewed the top edge of the shoulders together, sewed the sides together, and tried it on. And took in the sides once or twice with )( shaped stitches. Then I hemmed the cap sleeves and put bias tape on the neck hole. It was my first time working with bias tape, and it wasn't awful but I can't say anything better than that. I finally trimmed up and hemmed the bottom edge.

I loved the fit, though it occasionally bunches a bit above my chest near the shoulders. I've worn it several weeks to Amtgard for fighting and find it very comfortable. Standard Amtgard tunics are worn very baggy with the bottom hem approaching the knee and sleeves near the elbows. But I find it too damn hot for that in Texas in August, so I wanted the crop sleeves, snug fit like workout gear, and short hem for ease of movement.

I later bought red jersey fabric (shiny red fabric!) for the Star Trek version. I cut it a bit small, but it stretches, and I like wearing my clothes tight anyway . . . especially for obstacle courses. I actually bothered to fold the edges once and stitched them before sewing it all together; I needed something tougher for the wear and tear to come. I appliqued the insignia on it with spare yellow fabric, which was a nightmare. It ended up with bunchy corners, which is super irritating to look at, but people who don't sew won't know it's not awesome.

Other Mud Factor pics:

Dragon Master fire spinning

Dragon Master is an arts and cultural competition held every 6 months in Amtgard, a medieval combat recreation group. I had about a month's advance notice, and this was my first chance to enter a cultural competition since I got home from Korea. I was really excited to do some fire spinning, but we're in the middle of something like the worst drought ever. Also it's illegal except on private property, so I decided to submit electronically.

I attempted a nighttime fire poi video, but it didn't turn out very well:




Here is what the daytime version looks like:




I'll let you know when I learn my scores. :)

When did you start dancing?

I took ballet and tap when I was 3 or 4, ice skating at 8, jazz at 11, ballet at 12, did colorguard in high school, and tore up the dance floor at every school dance while my peers stood self-consciously to the side.

In the summer of 2005, after my freshman year of college, I saw my first belly dancer at a campfire in New Mexico. The people all around me whispered disparagements regarding her weight and body, but I was enthralled by her skill and presence and made a point of complimenting her when she finished. I thought to myself, "I wanna do that!"

About six months later, I heard about belly dance classes available across the street from campus. Immediately I signed up. I was reeling from a breakup, and this class gave me back a sense of happiness and confidence in myself and my desirability. Cathy Barton taught the class and was a delight to learn from. She taught all her classes choreography, (the amazing Shakira in mine) and even we beginners got to perform at the end of semester hafla!



After that, a tight class schedule and limited income kept me from lessons for four years, but I performed at every campfire I could find a drummer and a few arts competitions hosted by the local medieval recreation group, Amtgard.

In November 2009, I packed up my life to move to South Korea to teach English and put my costumes and scarves into storage, figuring I'd have to wait a year to belly dance. But I was so wrong! On a lark, I Googled "belly dance korea" and found a thriving belly dance community and multitude of teachers in and near Seoul.

My first lesson was with Belynda Azhaar, a darling redhead with an incredible gift for teaching. I learned more about different belly dance styles in my one hour class with her than I ever could have imagined. This was the first class that ever challenged me (Holy crap, zills are hard!) and made my body sore after (because I simply lack any veil experience and arm muscles). And finally, a teacher who would correct me and help me become a better dancer!

I later took an oriental belly dance class at The Well Being Studio in Itaewon but didn't care much for the choreography. I saw the tail end of the tribal class, though, and am dying to go back and give it a shot.

For now, I'm just waiting to sign a contract with a new school and get my first paycheck before I commit to regularly attending lessons. I can't wait!