28th May 2010: Shoes Finished Working in sections I painted thinned PVA glue onto the shoes and sprinkled silver glitter onto the tacky glue.
Finally I have the Silver Glitter shoes I wanted. These really sparkle like crushed diamonds, I LOVE them! ^_^
28th May 2010: Shoes progress After the Evostick glue dried I added a few layers of tissue and superglue to cover the lines. Then after some smoothing down with files and sandpaper I painted the new toes over with silver enamel paint, which wasnt a bad match but isnt my intended design - I wanted silver glitter shoes. So...
28th May 2010: Shoes progress New round toe shape formed and taped together whilst the Evostick dries.
28th May 2010: Shoes progress I chopped the tips off and cut the soles back to the new shape. The remaining shoe material is left to be bent down and trimmed to form the new toe shape. Then glued with strong Evostick.
28th May 2010: Shoes progress Marked the new shape out onto the soles and made a template so they would both be the same.
28th May 2010: Base shoes These are my base shoes. I think they are too long and pointy, not Florences style, so I decided I would hack them down and round the toes.
27th May 2010: Mawi ring finished Finished painting the ring. gold base coat and rubnbuff metal polish, pearls painted with pearlescent paint.
26th May 2010: Mic stand prop This is my salvaged lampstand. I cleaned it up and made a top part to hold the mic. I bought the mic, it was only 1.99. To make the mic holder I bent a piece of aluminium into a cirle and put a long bolt through it then bent and glued some black plastic card around the inside. Then I cut a piece of plastic tube from an old vacuum cleaner for the mic holder to sit on. I hot glued it all in place and then hot glued the assembled top piece onto the old lampstand. Completed by painting the mic holder to match using acrylic black paint.
Also in the pic - these are the flowers I bought to dress the mic stand..Florence always has flowers.. I shall attatch them at the show cuz I dont want them getting squashed in the car.
26th May 2010: Mawi costume ring progress Ring now Primer coated with white Halfords metal primer aerosol.
26th May 2010: Mawi costume ring Next I strapped the links onto the ring with wire twisted around tight. Then with it clamped in the vice I heated it up with a pencil blowtorch and soldered it all. I imagint this is pretty much how they made the real one. ^_^
Pic shows current state of my ring and the real Mawi one for comparison - Ok no cigar..but its close enough for me. ^_^
Now just need to paint it. ..tommorrow..
26th May 2010: Mawi costume ring progress Worked on my ring today.. Florence has this huge 4 pearl ring. I found out it is made by Mawi, and they are chuffed that Florence has one of their rings.
Obv mine isnt Gold and Pearls..I started with a piece of 20mm copper pipe - just happens to fit nicely around my middle finger. The Mawi catalogue says the Peral claw ring is 18mm deep so thats how big I made mine. Then I cut some more slices out of the pipe and flattened them out into strips. I bent these strips into the links with long pliers.
The pearls are just plastic beads off a toy necklace. The pearl claws I made from plastic.
25th May 2010: dress progress Cutting the shapes out - pic has exagerrated the reflective surface of the fabric ..it doesnt look like baking foil in real life!! It is white streatch fabric with tiny silver shimmery dots.
The sewing machine is having problems sewing the streatch stitch through it though, keeps puckering up. Maybe the tension is wrong, I dunno. I will have to hand sew some of the seams. Hate all the unpicking..takes so much time.
23rd May 2010: Pattern rough under construction Making progress on the dress pattern rough. It has been more difficult to get the shape of my design than I imagined, but finally I have sussed it. The front of the dress is split under the bustline. Two cross over pieces will cover the boobs closely like I wanted leaving the V neck, and the main body will also be close fitting. Having to do a lot of guessing as I go cuz the real material has some streatch whilst the rough doesnt..
Here is a pic of the 'rough' in progres..
23rd May 2010: Mic stand prop ..rescued this lampstand which was being chucked out..looks like I found my Mic stand. :P
Just need to make a piece to go on the top that can hold the mic. Bought a cheapie mic from the pound shop.
12th April 2010: Wig arrived Yep my Florence wig arrived today.. :)
This is the nearest one I could find. Ideally I would like it to have a hint of red. I wonder if it is possible to tint a wig - need to ask the experts...
9th April 2010: Gone Shopping... Today I scoured the market (and its a big market!) for the dress material. Originally I planned to use a lightweight white Satin for the main dress. ..Im so glad Im able to handle the fabric at the market, because none of the satins would drape like I wanted. Instead I found a glitzy fabric which is brilliant white with loads of tiny reflective silver shimmer dots all over. Imediately knew this was the one. Only prob was the price at £10 per metre! Thats the most Ive paid for anything per metre!! Fortunately all I need is one metre.:)
Then I went on the hunt for white Chiffon, plenty of Organza around but no Chiffon!..until the last seller I went to, at last real Chiffon! *sigh of relief* Its so soft and floaty..
I am gonna LOVE wearing this costume, its gonna be so Glam! ^_^
Wig wise though - I completely struck out at the market. :/ Really surprised. There wasnt anything remotely close. So I have ordered the wig online. Tis on its way. ^_^
So excited about this cosplay.
6th April 2010: costume design After a lot of thinking I settled on a design for Florences stage costume. I have made up my own design using elements from the two different costumes she wears in her official music video for 'You Got the Love'
The satin white teddy suit she wears would be a lot harder to pull off as a crossplay so instead I am going with a Satin white mini dress with a Greek style drape to the front, hitched up at the sides. I will add the same shiney sequins/bead detail to the front though. Then onto that I am going to attatch a white chiffon batwing/cape, fixed around the V neckline. There are fleeting glimpses of this second costume seen in the music video.
Finished off with silver glitter heels.
Also need to make my mic stand prop wrapped in flowers.
Here is my design sketch showing how I imagine the stage costume will look.