By Rachel E. Pollock, Costume Crafts Artisan, PlayMakers Repertory Company
Today I’m talking about vegetation, part two! Recall from my last post that we’re working on Into the Woods, and that our Witch’s first look is quite vegetable-covered, which has meant a lot of fascinating craft projects for me and my two colleagues on Team Witch, Denise Chukhina and Sam Kate Toney.
For reference, the design rendering by designer Bill Brewer. Note the beans and the fiddleheads on her!
Here’s a close-up research image of the type of fern we’re trying to replicate for the costume.
Sam Kate took millinery wire and various silk flowers which might be made to look like the fiddlehead. She zigged the wire down the center of the leaves…
…and then spiraled them up! Each fiddlehead has a triangular wire base so that we can stitch it to the gown and control its orientation with respect to the silhouette of the costume.
And here’s our pile of magic beans! These are just segments of Mardi Gras parade throws, merrowed up into bits of synthetic fabric and blasted with a heat gun to shrivel them up all natural-looking.
To hear more from Rachel, check out her blog labricoleuse.livejournal.com
Come see Into the Woods and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at PlayMakers thru December 7. For tickets, call 919.962.PLAY (7529) or visit our website.