The Gig and The Wig

Dearests,
This week has been taken up with a lot of boring vanilla-life day job tedium, but inbetween the drudge have been two rather pleasant interludes.

First and foremost I performed at Hull's Ringside Review on Saturday night. This was a challenge for me in more ways than I expected! The first big hurdle was getting there - it was my first time driving to a whole other city and my first proper motorway drive (had to go on a tiny bit of motorway when I picked up my car but my Dad supervised me). It was an exhilerating experience (if a little terrifying at times) but I made it there in one piece without incident and even managed to drive back the same night (on empty roads as it was after midnight - bliss!). I made a couple of peppy 80s CDs to keep me alert, energetic and on the ball and it really felt like a bit of an adventure! Definately a hundred times less stressful than taking the coach or train - especially with my huge suitcase!

The second, more unexpected challenge was of a more theatrical nature. I arrived with my music on CD and a spare copy just incase but for some reason the venue's CD player would not accept either of the CDs I had for my Strongwoman act. My Octopus CD played just fine but the others: No way Jose! Anna (Fox - promotor of the night) tried to help me source another copy of my track but it's a fairly unusual one - it's an instrumental recording of "Don't Dilly Dally on the Way" so it was nothing doing. Cut to me sitting in my car rifling through my CD collection looking for something of a similar mood to perform to!

I eventually came up with a nice Charleston with lots of brass. Not a million miles away from my original choice in mood. Unfortunately, by this point the audience were already in and seated so there was no time to try a run through. All I could do was wing it! In the car when I sat and listened I realised that the new track was a little longer than my original choice so I made a mental note to draw the act out a little and also asked Anna to fade the track out if I finished noticeably early. However, when it was time to perform, finishing too early was not a problem. I spent so long hamming it up to fill the extra music that I ended up with the music ending just before I was about to do the final reveal - missing the punchline of the act! Luckily the audience and my fellow performers didn't seem to notice or if they did they didn't mind as the reception I got for it was still very positive. Oddly enough though it did make me consider changing tracks permanently as I really enjoyed doing it to my substitute music!


Me Hamming it up as my Strongwoman (for a little too long!) - photo by Kate Rush


Apart from my minor mishap in the first half, the second half went smoothly and I adored meeting the other performers. Billie Rae was graceful and elegant, Pinny Lace was adorable and natural (and I could not believe how good she was for someone so very new!) and Milan was hilarious and had the most amazing comic timing. All the performers were really friendly and the atmosphere backstage was lovely. Anna herself (along with her maid for the night, Kelly and the compere Neil)ran a really professional night and Anna is one of the most warm and huggable people I have met on the circuit. I am dying to work with the other performers and Anna again - they were all so fun, friendly and talented! Also, on a little aside, Pinny Lace went up for the Delicious Burlesque newcomers competition (heat one was Saturday and the final will be at the show in June) and I know I will be rooting for her from the audience!

The other exciting development has been finally seeing the fruits of my wiggy labours. I received my wigs two weeks ago and since then I have been beavering away with my tailcomb and a can of Tresseme hoping to realise my wig-dreams.


Me in my Jackalope wig - apologies for the lack of makeup and crappy phone photo!


I have not done much in the way of wig styling before – I made an updo hairpiece out of a pony tail one that had got a bit ratty and I put a simple roll into my Octopus wig but I had not attempted to do anything more complicated than that before. However, I have been researching wig styling for months and months – swotting up on tips and technique until I could get my hands on a wig to try it out on.

The style I chose for my Jackalope wig is quite a simple one (especially compared to some of the elaborate, structural styles I have seen people working on on the Cosplay forum) great for a beginner. As it is backcombed and boofy there is less need for precision and accuracy – the messiness of it is pretty forgiving. As a first attempt at proper wig styling I am pretty pleased with it!

If I had to make an estimate I would say I probably spent more than 10 hours backcombing this wig, but what a result! It’s absolutely huge! I had (originally, almost a year ago) wanted to buy a drag queen wig from somewhere like Empress Bianca or Vegas Girl Wigs but I was put off by how expensive they were. Now, having styled my own I can see why the drag wigs cost what they do; it takes a lot of styling time to get a boof that big!

I still have a little to do to the wig, I need to sew in my antlers and rabbit ears (once they are finished) and I want to dress the wig a little more with pine cones, teasels, bulrushes or other similar plant matter. But I will post up another pic when it is done.

At some point I thought about doing a step by step photo blog of how I styled the wig (wig styling resources are few and far between and I thought people might be interested in the process I used to do mine) but as I took the photos on my phone it’s a pain in the bum to upload them so it might have to wait until I have a quiet afternoon with a bit of free time to do it.

Next on the Jackalope list is to carry on felting for my skirt (this is probably going to be the most time consuming part of the costuming process) and to start work customising my bra. Hopefully I will have more to show in a couple of weeks!

‘Til next time
x
Emerald

Forgiven by the Gods of Burlesque?

Dearests,
although (as usual) my vanilla life is plagued with annoyances and setbacks (I won't bore you with the details - it's not that kind of blog!), in regards to burly it seems as though the gods and godessess of the stage have (at least for the moment) forgiven me.

In all, burlesque wise, it hasn't been a bad few days. The big win was getting my money refunded for those wigs (see the previous posts for the whole story). I requested the refund, unsure what the outcome would be but in the end the seller refunded me and now the whole matter is resolved. It was a stressful and frustrating experience from start to finish but as the saying goes, 'All's well that ends well'. I would like to put that money towards an item I want for my Jackalope costume but in reality I may have to hold onto it to pay for something stressful in my vanilla life. I should know in about a week whether the money is needed for that or not. If not I can start steaming ahead with the next phase of the outfit.

At ballet last night it was a very small class (only about six of us) and this meant there was a lot more scope to go over things that were difficult. Also because three of the girls there were quite advanced dancers just taking the class to keep in practice it meant that the teacher made the lesson a little more complicated to keep them interested but she could help the less able students a little more too as there were less of us (me bringing up the rear as usual!). The class was great and I felt really stretched by the end of it. There are still one or two steps in the routine we are working on that I seem to get tangled up in, and I can't balance when performing an arabesque to save my life but I really feel like some of it is sinking in. At the end of the class the teacher even complimented me, saying she could see an improvement with my technique at the barre. I'm not sure if she was being kind and encouraging me because I am one of the weakest students in the class or if I really have improved but I do feel as though I know more what I am doing at the barre now and I get less fuddled. Either way, it felt nice to be praised and I feel like the classes are doing me some good one way or another.

On the wig styling front I am now about half way through the backcombing process. Every evening this week I have promised myself I would come home from my day job and work on it but work has been so busy that I have come home too tired to do much to it. I am hoping that I might get some done on Friday as I have the afternoon off work, but I will blog with photos (if I can figure out how to do it) just as soon as I have finished it. I still need to order some of the ornaments and trinkets that I want to dress the wig with but that will have to wait until I have some cash!

In other, more practical burlesque news, I am performing at the Ringside Review in Hull on Saturday, ran by Anna Fox and starring Billie Rae, Pinny Lace and Milan (and me!)



I am pretty excited about this gig as I have heard so many nice things about the Ringside Review. I am also excited and nervous as this will be my first proper motorway drive and I will be doing it solo! I am a bit scared about going on the motorway and about undertaking such a long drive but it will be worth it in the long run as negotiating busses, coaches and trains with my huge suitcase and box of props makes me flapped and furious! So wish me luck, and assuming I don't die in a twisted heap of metal by the side of the road I'll let you all know how it goes.

'Til next time
x
Emerald

Up to my Ears in Wigs

Dearests,
This is not a real blog post; more just a mini exclamation! It seems I am living any burlesquer’s dream now as I am soon to be up to my ears in wigs! After ordering two lovely replacement wigs last week from Annabelle’s Wigs the person from whom I ordered my original wigs (two months ago tomorrow) has finally contacted me telling me she has ordered my wigs and expects to receive them shortly(!), conveniently ignoring the fact that my email clearly states that I have given up on her service and want a refund instead (something which she says one is entitled to right up until they are shipped from her).
I am going to send her a message explaining that after two months of non-contact I gave up and bought the wigs elsewhere and hopefully get my money back. Keep your fingers crossed for me – otherwise I will have four long blonde wavy wigs when I only needed one and a spare!

‘Til next time,
X
Emerald

Dancing Again...

Dearests,
Two blogs in as many days! Either I have a lot to say for myself or I am using my blog to escape from the banal reality that is my working day! Either way though, here I am!

Last night was ballet. I haven't been for two weeks as last week I had a gig (four acts in one evening!) at the Test Match in West Bridgeford; a private party for the managers of the pub chain, and the week before it was half term. My leg is still a bit painful, although this week it has not been quite as bad and although I have been practicing eleves, releves, and ronde de jambes like there is no tomorrow I felt a little rusty about the finer points of the class.

I was feeling rather tired that evening and I almost cried off in favour of a lazy evening of junk food and films but luckily for me I found the energy to get off my behind and into my dancing shoes. On arrival it turned out that the teacher who had been running the class was now on maternity leave (she had been pretty pregnant when I first started and now, I believe, only has about 9 weeks to go) and another girl who had been assisting her in the class would be teaching. The new teacher is young and pretty and very friendly and approachable and, as much as I liked our original teacher, I was pleased to have a go with her substitute.

The structure of the class was a little different than it has been so far. Instead of doing 20 minutes or so of barre work, 20 minutes of dance and a five minute warm down we did a shorter barre session (about 10 mins or so) and then spent the rest of the class working on a beautiful dance in the centre. I approached the idea of less barre and more centre work with some good humoured trepidation - while the barre work is tricky but within my reach, so far the more complicated steps of choreographed dance confuse me. I don't pick these things up easily and I find that once I fumble on one movement that has a knock on effect on the steps that follow.
So I was not expecting what happened next. I don't know if I was having a good day, if it was that I was stood in a good position to see everything or if it was something to do with the new teacher's style of dance or of explaining the movements but I felt like I picked up the movements with a lot less fuss than usual, and I retained them better than I usually do. The teacher broke the dance down into very small parts and once we had tried each part she added on the next, pausing to make sure everyone was still keeping up. I really enjoyed the dance and I felt that because I was able to pick up the movements at the same sort of rate as the rest of the class (all bar one step that was a little too complicated for me involving going up into a pirouette position twice in quick succession)I could even add some expression and emotion to the dance and really try to perform it rather than just stumbling through the motions as I have been doing so far.

Overall I feel really positive about the new format for the class although next week we are trying a faster dance so ask me in a week if I am still feeling so capable! Also, I feel like something from the classes may be starting to pay off in my burlesque work. When I have been improvising and blocking out movement for my Jackalope and another upcoming act I have in mind I have found myself using some of the body shapes and positions I have learned in class and hopefully this will make the dance elements of these acts a little more graceful and their movements more definite. I want so dearly for my Jackalope and the other acts that follow it to be of a noticably higher standard than the things I have produced before but I know I still have a long way to go before they will be anywhere near the sort of standard I would like them to be. I suppose all I can do is try!

'Til next time
x
Emerald

Getting Back on the Horse (or should that be Jackalope?)

Dearests,
After a very prickly period working on my Jackalope act (see the previous post to see how prickly!) I have dusted myself off and got back on the horse and things seem to be progressing forward, finally.

The big problems I had with this act were the antlers and the wig(s). In the antler situation I did not have the heart in the end to request a refund from the chap who made them – he obviously tried his best. So I went to my sister’s and had a chat with her other half who has a degree in product design. I told him about the prop maker’s idea of moulding some sort of cap to go under the wig which the antlers could be bolted onto. He immediately started Googling and came up with this:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/searchtemplate.asp?criteria=POLYMORPH%20PLASTIC

It’s called Polymorph and if I remember my secondary school DT classes then it’s a low temperature thermoplastic plastic. Meaning it can be moulded when you heat it up in hot water.
The original plan was to make the cap out of this and mould it around my head (!). However, my sister came up with an even smarter idea – to mould a new pair of antlers out of the Polymorph. She kindly went away and knocked me up a small prototype and I was pleasantly surprised. The Polymorph is strong and durable with a tiny bit of flexibility so it isn’t brittle (although it moulds to itself very easily so if an antler did break it would only need heating up a little to repair). It is also unfeasibly light. Sis brought the antler over wrapped in bubble wrap and when she handed it to me I thought she had had a brainstorm and forgot to put the antler inside the wrap! That’s how light it was.

So Sis is now beavering away with her ‘House of Emerald’ project to produce me antlers version 2 (in reality it’s actually version 5, I think, if you count the attempts I made myself with wire and papier mache etc some months ago) and I am optimistic about the results. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

On the wig front there have been mixed results. The woman who I paid to send me the wigs has still not responded to my emails or sent out the wigs so I requested a refund. As I am sure you are not surprised to hear, I have not received that refund and the wigs still have not been sent. At the end of my tether with the whole thing, I decided to open a dispute with Paypal to reclaim my money. Paypal said that because more that 45 days had passed they wouldn’t help me – I was on my own. This was frustrating. For an international service when the seller is a third party middle man between you and another company 45 days is not always going to be long enough to know there is a problem. So I contacted Barclays to ask them to do a Visa Chargeback. They were quite happy to help me until they found out I had paid via Paypal, at which point they said it was not their problem and that Paypal should help me (ha!) but not until they had passed me around and kept me on hold for 25 minutes. I spoke to Trading Standards who said that it was out of their jurisdiction as the site is US based and finally I contacted the Better Business Bureau which is, apparently, the American equivalent of Trading Standards. They are now chasing her up but they may have no luck as one of the posters on the forum who recommended the wig lady told me that since having the baby she has moved and not given a forwarding business address!

So I am a bit stuck with these wigs – people on the forum keep assuring me that she will get round to sending the wigs/refunding me eventually but either way I would never use this seller again. Slow delivery I can just about deal with but neglecting to respond to any correspondence just shows an absolute lack of regard for the customer and makes me fuming!

On a more positive note though, this whole debacle meant I ended up getting the wigs elsewhere and I have been delighted with the product and the service. Even though I had found a couple of US based sites that sold the same wig and would ship to the UK, I decided not to go with them as time has been ticking on while this woman has fannied around. I thought a UK site might speed up the process so I went with www.annabelleswigs.co.uk . I was aware of Annabelle’s from Ministry of Burlesque forum as Claire who runs the site is a poster on MoB so I thought I would give them a try. If nothing else I knew she would be contactable if anything went wrong! I ended up calling the shop as I had a few questions before I bought and I ended up having a lovely chat with Claire and bought two wigs and some weft extensions (the idea being I could use the wefts if I needed to bulk out the wig and I also had a spare that I could use if the original went wrong!). I had them sent to my day job address and, after ordering on Friday, when I came in yesterday they had arrived (I think they came on Monday while I was off).

The wigs are gorgeous quality, they feel so silky and full – I may not even need the extra wefts (though it’s good to have them just in case). So last night I cracked on with styling one for my Jackalope. I have a source photograph of what I want it to look like and a few basic tips I have picked up from trawling Google and Cosplay.com but apart from that I’m on my own. I have wanted to have a go at wig styling for so long now but when I sat with my wig pinned to the stand and my tail comb in hand I have to admit I felt a certain amount of trepidation. It is possible I could be in the process of ruining a perfectly good wig here! On the other hand; nothing ventured, nothing gained, and since I don’t have the opportunity to go on a wig styling course self-taught will have to be the order of the day. The style I have picked for the wig is not something that involves a great deal of advanced technique and as it is a messy style there is plenty of room for mistakes – pinpoint accuracy is not paramount. However, I have been taking it slowly, working on the wig patiently and in very small sections. So far it is taking shape in roughly the way I want it to but I know that the parts at the front on the brow and the sides will be the hardest bit and also the most visible (I started at the bottom-back so that any mistakes I made whilst finding my stroke would be hidden under the rest of the wig!).

So wish me luck with the wig styling! I am taking pictures as I go and I will post them all into the blog with some step by step notes once the piece is finished. I found wig styling tutorials and advice a little thin on the ground so I want to share my experiences and let people know what worked for me and what didn’t. Also, if anyone has any wig styling advice they would like to share with me I will be all ears!

‘Til next time
X
Emerald

Cursed by the gods of Burlesque

Dearests,
I have meant to blog for a while now, even having a couple of false starts, but I have been feeling so foul that all that came out was a self indulgent, emotional rant. No promises that this one will be any better but I do feel I am over the hump thanks to a weekend of fags, wine, bitching and partaying (yes it needed the 'ay') with brilliant burlesque smokers and all round hot-pockets Cherryfox and Daquiri Dusk.

Apart from some absolute crapola going on in mine and (more importantly) my OH's life (mainly involving vanilla jobs and money - too boring for this blog) I seem to have been cursed by the gods of burlesque and whereas traditionally it was first-born sons who bore the brunt, with me it seems my Jackalope is paying the price.

For those of you who don't know me, my Jackalope act has been a daydream for long over a year but in the past few months I have started work on this act in ernest. The music has been selected and edited, the narrative mapped out, the choreography is still in the most tentative stages as my costume will almost definately have a effect on how I can and can't move, but it has definately transitioned from a daydream into a work in progress.

Unfortunately, costume wise, it seems that everything that can go wrong, will go wrong. Firstly I ordered my corset (off the peg but to be customised by my own fair hand) and that arrived in the wrong size. A trot to the post office and a quick email and that was resolved. The very next day I was the proud owner of the correct sized garment - phew! crisis averted. Or so I thought. On the following Saturday another, correctly sized corset arrived! Once again (during the busiest working week I have had in ages) I had to potter off to the post office and return it. I am still waiting for the refund on the second round of postage as the fax machine at the corsetieres seems to be broken and I can't work our scanner at home! Oh the joys of modern technology!

So, that's not so bad. A bit of stomping out to our newly re-vamped to be even more annoying than usual Post Office, but nothing I can't handle. Next there is the issue of my wigs. It's wigs plural as I need to rip wefts out of one to bulk out the other, but essentially it's two of the same wig. I ordered these on the 6th of January. The company that sells them does not ship outside the USA but there is a woman (I am not naming names - it's not that kind of blog post) who will buy them for you and ship them and she is of very high repute on one of the forums I visit. I ordered the wigs and on her site it says the minimum processing time is two weeks. That seems reasonable. So time passes and around a month later I start wondering what the progress is on these wigs. They have to be somewhere en route by now, surely? However the tracker tells me they are 'processing' and the little description below says this means she probably hasn't even received them from the original website. It has now been almost six weeks and it still says 'processing'. On her website it says one should avoid emailling her as she gets a lot of spam. This did not exactly inspire me with confidence but I emailled her anyway. At the time of writing I have received no reply (I emailled on Thursday though so there's still time). When I went back to the forum where I first heard of the service a lot of people informed me that she is very slow and other people said that the original website is slow too. So I have no idea who is at fault there but either way it would have been nice to have been warned how long it might take. I have no idea when these wigs are coming and I'm not sure whether to wait it out incase it's just a few more weeks or to cut my losses, cancel the order and start over with another company (of course risking having the same long wait from them too).

Also - am I being unreasonable to be peeved at this (?): One woman said I should cut the buying service lady some slack as she is a new mother. Now, those who know me know that I view parenthood as a lifestyle choice, ie other people's kids are not my problem, especially if you are running a business. But, lets assume that I didn't view parenthood that way and that I felt that motherhood was the most important thing a woman can do with their life or whatever and trumped anything else one might be up to - I still didn't know that was a factor. Nowhere on this woman's website did it say, 'delivery may be a bit slow because I have not long had a baby'. If it did, and I still went ahead with the order then on my own head be it. Even if she felt it was nobody else's business that she had just had a kid she could have still put a note saying 'due to personal circumstances'. I'm not saying the woman is a sheister or a dodgy dealer I just feel disappointed that it seems to be common knowledge to those that have already used it that the service is slow but she doesn't think to warn new customers of that before they pay their money. So, I am wigless until further notice.

Finally, at the same time I ordered the wigs I commissioned my antlers. I always knew the antler situation was going to be tricky. I found the perfect website that makes costumes for business and sports mascots and they made a whole range of lightweight cold foam latex antlers for costumes. The antlers themselves were not cheap but I could stretch but the shipping was so insanely high as the company are based in Canada and the box would have to be so large. So I shopped around and eventually found a UK based firm that could make them for me. They said that rather than foam latex they had a better material to make them from so, because they are the pros, I went with their recommendation. Their communication was great and I went into great detail about what they were for and how I planned to attach them and I felt really excited to see the finished product. They sent me an email to say they had been shipped last week and I emailled to find out which shipping address they had taken from my Paypal - home or work. Either would be fine but work is easier as there's someone there in the day. It seemed though, that Paypal had other ideas. They gave him, as my preferred delivery address, my old flat that I moved out of in September. Despite the fact that I deleted that address from Paypal when I moved. I went back on to check and it was nowhere on my profile (my other two, work and home were still there). When I emailled Paypal to express my displeasure (putting it politely) they had the cheek to blame Ebay, saying it must be my default there! I found that rather curious considering the antlers weren't purchased through Ebay and every other private OR Ebay transaction I have made through paypal has come to my home or work address!

Ahem. Paypal rant over. So after a lot of chasing around and going to my old flat three times (finding nobody in on each occasion)and an incredibly kind and helpful member of Royal Mail staff (yes, they do exist!) I finally intercepted the package at the sorting office at 8.30am on Saturday morning (after going to bed at 4ish). When I go the antlers home, I was a bit concerned. They look great. The shape is great, they need painting but that's no biggie but they are a lot thicker than I expected and heavy. Too heavy to sew into a wig. Bugger. I have emailled to the chap who made them (actually, I think I may have hurt his feelings - I didn't mean to, he has obviously done his best)to tell him that I don't think they will hold standing still let alone when I am dancing. He has kindly offered to put a support cap made of perspex inside the wig to take their weight.

I am not sure how confident I am that this will work though. Also, it can't be done until the wig comes as it has to be constucted together, and I am nervous about sending the wig away after spending so much time and money on it. The other options are to try and fashion a support myself at home, or to just pony up and buy the Candadian ones (not any time soon, the way my finances are looking), or to go on ebay and buy some real anlters (they are notoriously light) attatched to the skull plate and do it that way. I'm not sure what to try at the moment. I have a bit of thinking time as I can't do anything 'til my wigs come but the whole week of rigmarole has made me seriously consider giving up on this act. I don't really want to shelve it as I have put so much of myself into it and I really feel as though I have to get past it before my mind will let it go and let me work on something else.

So I will press on, and hopefully the end result will be worth the money, time, faff and heartache that has gone into it. Fingers are firmly crossed at this end.

In other news my painful leg is still not right but the ballet is helping and I'm off to the doctors on Thursday so hopefully they can shed some light on it.

'Til next time. TTFN

A pain in the leg

Dearests,

After a fairly shaky start to my endeavours at ballet I decided to put in a little practice at home (using the book I mentioned in my last missive). Boy, did that backfire! Cut to Emerald walking like the Hunchback of Notre Damme, walking around dragging one overly turned out foot because it hurt too much to turn it back in! I was fairly sure that I had been turning out wrong as the part of the leg that hurt was the front of my calf, just by the bone.

By Wednesday (the day of the class) my leg was still very painful and I was considering staying home and licking my wounds. Luckily I plucked up the courage to go to class, planning to sit out anything that hurt too much and it paid off! The stretching at the barre seemed to ease things off a little and by the end of the class my leg felt better than it did before. Not great but definitely better. I also had a quiet word with one of my more experienced classmates. She explained that I had been over ambitious with my turnout. I had started turning correctly from the hips but had then tried to force myself to turn out further from the ankle which had aggrivated the muscle in the front of my calf. Clearly I am just too keen!

The class itself however, sore leg and all, felt so much better than last week. I felt more relaxed at the barre - less focused of my own embarrassment and more in tune with the movements and my body. The floor work, which I had been dreading, felt a hundred times better that night than it had the week before. While I did not float and glide across the floor like some of the more experienced dancers seem to do I felt like I managed to keep up with what I was supposed to be doing and if I made a mistake (which I did. Repeatedly) it was more to do with using the wrong foot or just falling out of step rather than because I hadn't a clue what I was supposed to be doing.

I left the lesson beaming with confidence and exhiliration. I could have happily stayed and danced for another hour. I felt too excited to go to bed when I got home! Of course, a lot of this probably has to do with the endorphins of exercise and so on but it still felt good! I felt as though, perhaps I CAN do this after all. Obviously, I am still one of the weakest (if not THE weakest) in the class and the improvement I noticed in the lesson is more likely a fluke or the result of feeling a little less nervous but if I can do something better once (even if only by fluke), I can do it again.

I am excited for the next class and determined to do better!

'Til the next one,

Emerald
x