Farewell to Gingerbread, Greeter and Sergeant-at-Arms

This is not a post about ballroom dance costumes, but about the loss of the official Made for Movement Greeter and Sergeant-at-Arms, Gingerbread.

Some of you might remember when we got Gingerbread as a puppy, from a rescue shelter in Buffalo Minnesota.  It was during our year in Rogers.  She was a sweet and very energetic ball of fuzz, athletic and wicked smart on her first day with us.  She was always ready for a good game, a ride in the car, or walk to anywhere.

We got her in September, and by December, she had begun to look like a grown up dog, but there was still plenty of puppy mischief.  I will share one story with you.  A few days before Christmas, Zak and I left the house early to run some errands.  We were gone for several hours and the lonely little puppy got bored and decided to have her own holiday party all by herself.  When Zak and I came home, he went ahead of me into the living room.  "Uh-oh," I heard him say.  Ginger had opened at least a dozen gifts, and shredded wrapping paper was knee deep.  I wish we had taken this picture BEFORE we cleaned up the mess.  I think she looks ashamed, don't you?

About this time, people began to comment that she looked a great deal like a trendy breed.  We bought a book about Nova Scotia Duck Tollers, and she certainly appeared to be a pretty good example.  These red, fox-like dogs caper energetically on the shores of lakes, chasing sticks thrown by owners from their hunting blinds.  Ducks descend, drawn hypnotically to the glorious waving flag of a tail, and after the hunter fells his prey, the dog happily retrieves it from the water.  "Tolling" as this activity is called, was in her blood, and sticks were her best friends for life.  She never left the house without one, and was known through out the neighborhood as "the dog that carries the stick with her."

She was never fond of loud noises though, and we wondered she might have been a disappointment to a hunter, and that had been how she ended up at the rescue shelter.

She certainly had the tail and the fun-loving temperament for the job!

By middle age, she was truly a beautiful creature, and might have had a lovely modeling career!

 

According to the age chart in her breed book, at 16, this year on May 24th, she would have been the canine equivalent of 100 years old.  She had slowed considerably, in the last year, walking less and less far on her walks, and losing her hearing almost entirely, and some of her sight.  The grey on her lovely face began to belie her age as well.

Early in the morning on Wednesday the 10th of April, Ginger suffered a vestibular stroke.  At the clinic we were told there was a chance she could recover, and we brought her home, to try to nurse her back to health.  She was at first only able to drink water from our cupped hands, and finally ate some mashed potato from my fingers.  We tried every food imaginable, meat broth, rice, her dog food mashed, baby food chicken and beef, unbelievably expensive food for sick dogs, $10 a pound low salt deli turkey, bread, crackers, you name it, we gave it a go.  Carl even cooked hamburger for her in water, and although she ate a few bites of this and that, her appetite never returned, and she finally refused to eat anything further.

Believing that starving to death could not be a comfortable process, we called MN Pets (a service I highly recommend) who came to our home.  Ginger was always afraid of the vets office, and we wanted her last moments to be in a safe and familiar place with the people who loved her.  A sedative was administered, which put her into a deep sleep.  Then a drug was administered to stop her heart.

For all of you who have known her enthusiastic greetings at my studio door, I thank you for your kindness to her.  It is very empty and quiet here now, and no one takes me out for my walk each day. I really miss her.

White Peach Blooming

All of Leslie's three styles of dance require a separate gown.  She and husband/partner Lee compete in American Smooth, Rhythm, and International Standard Ballroom.  Her Standard and Smooth gowns share floral details.  The Smooth gown has hand made passimentary roses, buds and vines.

 

 

Her Standard gown is a tropical fantasy of vibrantly bright, multicolored 2 dimensional flat blooms drenched in Swarovski sparkle. 

 

 

But her rhythm gown was a simple shape with clean lines and no flowers at all.  Until this week!

 

Leslie and Leland are headed to Amateur Nationals next week, to defend their championship titles.  Lee got a new look for his Smooth dancing earlier this spring, and looks very dapper and chic in his new shawl collar sleeveless jacket. 

 

Thank you Scott Anderson for sharing your photograph!

But Leslie was ready for a new look for the olderst of her gowns, and (following a comment at a recent showcase from coach and judge Mariusz Oslewski) wanted to bring pizazz, focus and color to the elegant, clean shape we originally designed.  I believe there can also be an advantage to visual cohesivness across the range of styles a couple dances, so we made White Peach bloom!

 

 

We gave her right shoulder a beautiful coral and peach toned garden, accented with limey green orchids.  We also created a choker and cuff, to balance the silk grouping on the right shoulder.  And we added just a little Swarovski sparkle to the garden, to help is belong to and blend with the gown.

 

 

We were careful to stay out of the way of her upper left back, where Lee's hand connects with her in hold, and the placing the cuff on the left hand both helped with garment balance, and kept the garden away from wrist connections in their choreography.

We send our best wishes for a joyous and successful competition to Leland and Leslie and appreciate the chance to "dance along." 
 

Thank you Eva Maria!

I am a ballroom dancewear designer by day, but after dinner, I play with beads.  Through my beadwork, I have met a most remarkable woman, Eva Maria Keiser.  She is a beader, designer, and artist extraordinaire, with a phenomenal understanding of three dimensional structural beadwork. Those amazing pieces bannered across the top of her blog are part of her Chess Piece Series, but beyond that they are also vessels! (Go ahead, use thise link and check them out,  I'll wait!) 

She creates astonishing jewelry, which she refers to as "Adornment" that is truely alive in all three dimensions, as these recent pieces attest, something I really admire as a dancewear designer. And if this artistic brilliance were not sufficient, she is also a super blogger, posting daily with tutorials, beautiful beadwork, and introductions to the best beaders in the world.  She knows everybody, and features bead artists and their work in many ways.

One of my favorites among her regular features is her Artist Colorway Series.  She examines an artist's work carefully, and assembles a color plot, which she displays alongside the work.  Today, she is featuring one of my ballgowns and I am so very honored.   I believe that my costume design work and my bead design work are linked, and I really appreciate her recognition of that as well.  Please visit her blog, and check it out!  She featured another of my pieces last year, and I am truely honored.

You can see more of Eva Maria's own breathtaking work in the soon-to-be-published book,
Suzanne Golden Presents: Interviews with 36 Artists Who Innovate with Beads
and read about her personal innovations and style, along with seeing some wonderful eye candy!  I cannot wait for my copy to arrive, and highly recommend this book.

So this little post is a big THANK YOU, to a woman who promotes bead art and artists every day.  Here's to you Eva Maria, for all you do for the world wide bead community.  You are in inspiration to me, my friend.

Ginger for Sharon

 

It has been a while since I have blogged.  Too busy making costumes is an easy excuse to voice, but it happens to be true.  And things that do not have deadlines are harder to find time for than things that must be finished on a specific time line.  So enough with the excuses!  Let me introduce you to Sharon's "Ginger!"

 

Sharon is a new dancer and planned to compete for the first time at the Snow Ball, but an injury side-lined her.  She had a simple shape in mind, when she came to her design meeting, and hoped for a copper color.  I had to do a little hunting, as it is not a typical ballroom color, And found several possible options for her, rangind from bronze, through copper to rust.  Sharon chose a great piece of slinky and a wonderful ombred organza to go with it.  The ombre shifted from the ginger to purple, and we used that purple both on the inner most skirt...

A view from beneath the skirt

And in the glittering rhinestone embellishment...

Embellishment Pattern

 That embellishment design was created from a photo Sharon brought to me of burnished light fixtures in her home.  I had told her the stoning pattern could be anything she liked, and she wanted an all-over texture.  Her photo was inspiring and using a combination of  Siam AB, Red Magma, Crystal Astral Pink, Crystal Copper, and Heliotrope stones, we created this result for her.

Back View

We also made a necklace, earrings and two cuffs in the Siam AB, Heliotrope, and Crystal Astral Pink.

Jewelry

We hope to see Sharon and her new gown in the Twin Cities in the near future! 

 

 

 

 

Susan's Plum,Tangerines, and Cherries

 

I can't wait for you to see the rest of this gown, because many of you might wonder about a combination of plum and tangerine and cerise, but there is a really good reason, and a nice cohesion to this rich, warm gown!

 

So, here is the explanation!  This tropical floral print was brought in by Susan, and it was a great starting point, providing the vibrant and unusual color palette for her new ball gown.  Susan trained as a ballet dancer and came to ballroom later in her career.  From watching her dance just a bit here in my studio in testing her costume, I image she is a beautiful, joyous, powerhouse on the competition floor.   This bold print and it's vibrant colorway seem just perfect for her.

When she arrived for her design meeting, Susan had this piece of fabric and a dark purple piece she thought might be an underskirt that would be visible from beneath the floral print.  I asked her to take the purple piece home.  I really enjoy working with prints, but experience tells me that a busy print requires careful design handling to be successful.  When the entire gown will not be the print, the colors used in conjunction need to be from the middle value range in the print.  Either end of that range (in this case, the white or the purple) is too much contrast, and the print and strong contrasting colors war with each other for focus.   This gown has several textures and details, but they all flow together to create an interesting whole, primarily because of the value choices.  I also find that it possible to use shapes with prints, but they must be similar in feeling, and since this print is very organic, a straight purple line at the hem would have been a clash in intention.  The diagonals, and flowing, color-shifting drape we used, have the same shapes as those in the print, and the dynamics compliment each other nicely.

Susan seems the sort to be a good performer as well, so we created a primary impact point at her face with the jewelry design, using the pale pinks in the Crystal AB Swarovski to exploit the power of contrast as a focusing tool.  I also image her port-de-bras is excellent, and the cuff bracelet will draw attention to beautiful arm use.

 

We also carefully kept the cutting of the fabric to a minimum with the design of the skirt shape, to allow it to be seen without interruption of line by seams any more than necessary.

 

Thank you Susan!  I really enjoyed making this gown and working with your beautiful print, and I love the great action shots Helen sent to me.  You really are a glorious dancer!

 

Terese's Hot Pink Fringe

Therese saw a fringy gown on Dancing With The Stars that she thought she might look good on her body, and visited my studio with a photo.  She had a very specific budget in mind and a wanted a vibrant, fun color, a hot pink.  

Sadly, there is very little vibrantly pink glass in the world, and I could find none of it made up into beaded fringe for purchase .  I did find a few 2" bead droppers in a somewhat bright pink, but attaching individual fringes in the density required did not fit the budget.  Also, the fringe length required was a minimum of 4" and preferably a range from 6" to 12".  Available funding also eliminated the possibility of stringing an entirely beaded fringe gown, so we decided to use rayon fringe, in beautiful, bright Electric Pink. 

One great thing about rayon fringe is that the length can be trimmed to suit the need, so it was possible to give this gown a sort of haircut to achieve nicely flowing and organicaly proportioned lines.  Applying the fringe in diagonals also helped the movement and stretch capabilites of the gown.

Therese is in excellent shape, and chose to leave her arms bare, so we connected her wrists to her body visually with lovely pave cuffs and gave her long earrings to decorate her neck without conflict with the neckline of the gown.

The color suits Therese's personality.  I have a number of clients well past retirement age, and all of them are vibrant individuals, with warm and joyful energy.  I really enjoy the idea that finding things to do that one can be passionate about lengthens and enriches lives, and Therese is living proof of that idea.

The very best thing about this gown is the movement of the fringe and I hope Therese will provide me with an action shot.  OR, maybe, with my fancy-schmancy new camera and improving photo skills, I can take one of my own at the next local event Therese attends.

 
Oh, and a final word, Therese's gown came in more than 20% under her budget limit, which is always news I love to give.  That doesn't happen often, but we do our best to be respectful of each clients cost requirements, and to hand over a final invoice that reflects the estimated cost.  She was pleased, and... she brought a lovely bouquet of bright red carnations.  SO SWEET!  Thank you.  :o)

A Bouquet of Roses for Tracy

This gown was actually begun in 2011, when our client Tracy was headed for the Ohio Star Ball.  Unfortunately, life intervened, and Tracy put the gown on hold for several months while finding a new job.  When she phoned to let us know we could begin again, we were thrilled, both for Tracy, and because this was a gown we were excited to make!

Tracy is a super-organized woman, and when she brings me her inspiration images, they are always in page protectors and  she usually has clear ideas about what she wants.  See???

When I look a this array, I see, shades of pink, floral imagery, and prints, but my eye keeps returning to the upper left image of the cut-metal bowl.  I loved how the graphic repeated and how it referenced "rose" without being specifically detailed.  I also really liked the visual importance of the negative space in recognizing the image.  Tracy is is feminine woman, and although she liked the floral imagery, she did not want silk flowers or anything three-dimensional, or even a print.  She was also interested in clean lines, simple shapes and lots of sparkle  I think there was also a buckled leather cuff with chain that she brought in.  So all these ideas poured into the creative hopper, and out came rhinestoned belts and buckles and a figure-ground reversal floral pattern imagery, to be created in rhinestones on the gown bodice.

I experimented with the graphic in the bowl, but didn't like how it expanded and contracted, so I found another using Google images from Sweet Clip Art that I thought was perfect.  I got permission from the artist who created it, who was very charming and wanted to see what I did with her image when I was finished.

I  blew it up.  I contracted it.  And then I designed vines to go with it, and a rose bud.  The darn bud reminded me of the Hallmark logo a bit, but I found, turned sideways, it was less offensive and so used it careful only on angles.

I find the back very pleasing with it's pretty drape to balance the gentleman's hand on the dancer's left side and provide a bit of softness and movement.  I also like the placement of buckles, two at the front opposite sides, and the one center back.

We also had lots of fun creating the bangle bracelets for this gown, using many different patterns and ideas.

I'm pleased with the end result and I hope Tracy will be too.  She wore it at Minnesota Madness last weekend and I was thrilled to see it (and Tracy!) in action.  It's sophisticated and beautiful, as is she!