For those of you who keep asking me to do makeup tutorials - you are the sweetest! My videocam isn't set up for it yet, but I still want to see you creating, so... I'm holding a makeup photo contest.You do a crazy-awesome look. Go over the top a bit - this is stage makeup  here. Be really, really creative. And take a really good photo. Then send it to me for a chance to win!

Here's a link to an album (below) with a bunch of my favorites from the past (for ideas): ALBUM , and here's a link to my Pinterest Makeup and Hair boards: HAIR PINBOARD and  MAKEUP PINBOARD.

I'd just recommend getting out your makeup, spirit gum, craft gems and bindis and giving it a shot. Make it a party if you have a troupe or a group of crazy friends, and do a photo shoot. I want to see the results. Make it wild. Make it UNIQUE. Use some skills. Don't just do a basic pinup look. Props are good. Do your hair, too.

Send me photos (raven@thegypsykiss.com with the subject line, "Makeup photo contest"  - and the BEST OVERALL PHOTO wins! Headshots, please, so I can see detail. Photos must each be of one person. Prize ($50 store credit) goes to whoever CREATED the look (not necessarily the model). Deadline is 3 weeks from today (April 28th). Also, when ya turn your photos over to me, it will mean that I have the right to use those photos however I wish for marketing, so make sure the photographer knows that!

Feel free to post a few photos of your progress on my page (as long as you clearly state what's going on in the photo) - your makeup and photo shoot party, your bloopers, etc. So ready, set, GO.

Just a quick vid showing this elegant headband, so you can see it from all angles, as it appears when worn.
*Purchase it here: http://www.etsy.com/listing/95644608/teal-magic-headband-1920s-flapper-style 

Planning events is a ton of work - and it's fun, if you're 'that kinda person'. I'll be hosting Tribal Fusion Intensive here in the Twin Cities area. First, it was about realizing that it's not THAT complicated to do it. Then, it was about realizing that although that's true, there are a million details involved, and a lot of trust is placed in the people you work with. It's gonna be a great ride.

Also - I freaking LOVE making promo materials. That is all.

So yeah. I really, really like complex necklaces. I have a lot of trouble selling the ones I make. I usually end up keeping them. But here is one that I forced myself to put in the shop.

Do any other designers have that problem? I'm sure you do.

This one has blue agate slices, a vintage drawer pull back, really yummy brass chains, some weird stone that I love but don't know what it is, a pearl or two, AND TWO LOCKETS. Teeny, tiny lockets, people. I left them empty so you can put something freaking cool in there. Maybe photos of loved ones, or little talisman pictures, or a squashed newt's eye, or something. 

I like to create something that you can finish. You can have your own somethin' somethin' added to the alchemy of it. That makes it  special.

As everyone knows, the 'Rusty Bottlecap' aesthetic that Foolproof Studios, as well as other talented designers, have helped to make hugely popular in tribal fusion circles is not only mindbendingly beautiful, but also ... a little confusing, if you haven't been exposed much to it. Since I live in rural Wisconsin instead of  someplace like the Bay area of San Fran, I see more confusion than most people might. So I'll explain it a bit.

I can't say why others love this aesthetic - it's swept the nation, you can see its magical influence everywhere - but I can say why I love it. 

For me, dance and art has been not only a process, but a rescue. A rescuing of one thirty-something, big-nosed housewife without a college degree, but with a huge desire gnawing at her to learn, learn, and do, do. Art, in the form of costume assemblage, and in the form of dance, has given me  a way to explore the world that I never would have dreamed of before this life change. 

In my early adulthood, I was a mom who, in her superreligious right wing fervor (scary, eh?), felt that watching TV or movies, and reading books that weren't by Christian authors wasn't ok. I was encouraged not to look men in the eye, in case they were tempted (something I still have trouble with - both the looking, and the tempting, I suppose ;)). As you can imagine, those types of weird rules + not much cash equaled a boring and restrictive life. Now, see, I love to learn. And I loooove to socialize. And - yes, right wing Christian males - I LOVE TO THINK. And none of these things was happening. For a woman like me, that's like a quiet but very dangerous Mount Vesuvius building up - for years.

I felt thrown aside, mentally, by the men in my life. I was told I couldn't help in church (which, remember, was my only social life) except for in the nursery. And I mean by several different pastors, in several different churches, along with elders etc. The message was clear: I was unintelligent and unable to 'help' with 'real' stuff.  I was  also, confusingly enough, treated like an ornament - and yet, even doing that was wrong to some of them. After all, dressing up might cause them to sin. I mean, they might see my mascara and nylons and have to go jack off in the church bathroom - and you know, that would have been ALL MY FAULT, right? Fuck that. Ridiculous, now that I've thought it through, but it happens all the time to women, and not just in a few right wing Christian churches, but around the world.

So then I tried to be very androgynous. Hey, I'm flat chested, so it was pretty easy. That way no one had to be jealous, turned on, or.... hey, wait a minute - notice me in any way.  I didn't like that so much. My mother raised me to believe that what I said mattered, and apparently when I didn't cause a ruckus by being female, therefore sexy, (whether the sexiness was intentional or not), I didn't matter at all. The sexuality was the only important thing about me, apparently. Needless to say, I got tired of the whole shebang and got a divorce and left the churches I'd been going to. Best thing I ever did. I was free to be intelligent and to decide exactly how I wanted to look, act, and be. I can't even tell you how great that is without practically having an orgasm. Hey, I'm just kidding - or am I?

What does this have to do with costuming, you might say? Everything. When I see a rusty old piece kind of sitting in the corner of a garage sale, that's me. It might be lovely but forgotten. It might be able to have a very different function than the one everyone thinks of when they see it. It might be dirty, or silly, or even ugly the way it is. The main thing that I think I see is that the people surrounding it don't see its value, its possibilities. And I do. It's like rescuing myself all over again every time.

Do you understand now? I'll bet most of you already did, but it's nice to hear someone say it.

And then, for instance, it might become a medallion, or a drape,  for a belt worn by a belly dancer - worn, for example, around hips that have powered this woman (or man)'s journey through life thus far. Those hips may have cradled babies, been the object of desire, received lots of hugs or sex or even abuse - but now they are the focus of every eye in the room. They move, maybe jingle, and everyone watches. They together are an emblem for self confidence gained through dance, an emblem for the dancer to show the world that they are valuable, fabulous, worthy of utmost attention. They are no longer voiceless or cast aside - the salvation of that little antique piece on the belt, possibly the salvation of the hips they rest on, the person those hips belong to. That's what I feel every time I make a piece of costuming assemblage.

A part of someone's Becoming.