The Aura-Blog

New Pricing Strategies

2012-01-13T02:41:00.000-08:00

I'm bringing in the new year with some pretty hefty price increases. I've been holding it off for as long as I could, but inevitability has finally caught up.

December of 2011 was a big learning experience for me. Thanks to the Christmas season, and lots of people saving their orders for the beginning of December, I was a busy busy girl that month. So struggling to pay my bills was the last thing I expected. I'd been working around 70 hours a week for the past month, how on earth could I still be running short??

It caused me to really look over my books, and spend several weeks paying attention to which tasks take up the most of my time during the day. I was shocked to find that the administrative portion of my business actually takes quite a bit more time than the actual making of the product.

I've had an inkling that there might be problems with my price formula for a while. It's pretty common, when I'm vending at an event, for one of my fellow vendors to come to my table, look over everything there, and say something like "OMG your stuff is gorgeous!" Then they whisper conspiritorially "But your prices are WAY too low..." And I smile but think "Well yeah, YOU would say that..."

Most of the time I'd rather die than admit to being wrong, but in this case, I must say that they were right!

Thanks to my weeks of research, I've developed a new pricing formula that takes into account the time I spend taking pictures, posting and relisting things, ordering supplies, writing creative descriptions, answering customer questions, bookkeeping, etc (the list goes on and on!). The result is up to a 20% increase in prices. My higher priced items, like costumes and clothing, haven't changed as much, as some of the administrative duties are constant, and not variable.

For me, I'm hoping that the new formula will provide the ability to make "auralynne" my lifetime career, to be able to earn a living at this while working normal hours at least part of the year. I now have an advertising budget, so hopefully that will offer some exposure. :-) For all of you, I'm making a few changes to my products to be sure they will last you a lifetime.

#1: I'm learning how to solder. Years of burning myself with a glue gun has given me a healthy fear of anything with a hot tip, but I'm pretty sure I can do it without too much loss of skin cells. ;-) From now on if it's metal on metal, it will be soldered together and not glued. And with this skill, you can expect some new products that were not possible in the past!

#2: I'm going to experiment with industrial glues until I find one capable of holding up to 5 pounds of pressure. I have to use glue to bond beads to my bone hairsticks. With the current glue I'm using, it's possible to yank the beads out of the hairstick if you pull hard enough. I want to make that an impossibility in the future.

#3: Specials! For all my faithful facebook fans, the new pricing schedule will allow me to run regular sales of up to 20% off! You'll have to keep an eye on my facebook so as not to miss them, however. :-)

#4 New metal colors! Having an advertising budget will hopefully increase my revenue enough to order jewelry supplies directly from the manufacturer, and have some things custom plated just for my shop. I plan to add first antique brass, then copper, then possibly gunmetal.

I've got lots of plans and designs in my head for this upcoming year. I plan to focus on my jewelry, as it's my favorite thing to make. I'm really looking forward to spending it with all of you!

Spotlight: Newport Cliff walk

2011-11-28T02:28:00.000-08:00

Where: Newport, RI

Price: Free!

Distance: 3.5 miles

Strenuous: No - but has a few steps here and there

I love pretty places. So I tend to search them out wherever I go. One of my favorites in the area I am currently living is the Cliff Walk in Newport, Rhode Island.

In the 1800's Newport was the place to be if it was summertime and you were filthy rich. So the shore is lined with what they considered to be summer "cottages" - lavish mansions to the modern eye.

Here is the sea view of the Breakers - probably the most famous Newport Mansion.

I've toured the insides of a few of them. My favorite is the Marble House - the one which I thought contained the most lavish interior. The brightly painted pagoda below is a Chinese Tea House that sits in its back yard.

This is just a small sample of the sights that you can see on the walk. Several of the mansions have lawns that are open to the sidewalk, so they make a great place to stop and rest.

The walk itself is 3.5 miles, and we usually start at the north end. If it's not in season, you can park for free at the beach, and it's just a short trek on the sidewalk to the start of the Cliff Walk. The north half also contains the easiest terrain, so it makes sense to start there.

The coast is typical New England - rocky shallow cliffs with very few beaches. The northern part of the path is all paved, but the southern half contains some spots like the picture below where you need to hop across rocks to reach the next leg of the path.

If it's at all chilly, be sure to dress for cool weather! With the wind and the humidity, it'll feel a lot colder on the beach.

Enjoy!

Circlets!

2011-09-22T03:32:00.000-07:00

Just the other day I was finishing up a smaller necklace set, and I had a random idea. I clipped the necklace together down at the very tip of its chain, and got it to just barely fit on top of my head, circlet style. And I was instantly transported back in time.

I was a very girly girl growing up - my dearest dream was to be a princess, or at least to get to play with her clothes and jewelry. I would have KILLED for some of the stuff I am making today! After my trip to little girl dreamland, I of course had to make some circlets, if only to try them on and glide around the house wearing them...

This one would look totally at home on the head of a neo-victorian bride. I've made lots of colors in this style, and I'll make black too eventually for gothic brides. It matches perfectly with my Bella Rosa necklace set, and if someone so desired, I could make one with skeleton key dangles to match my Secret Garden set instead. Then last but not least, I've some plans to make a set of jewelry that combines roses and peacock feathers that I am oh so anxious to debut... It'll be a perfect match for this circlet as well.

Here's one for moon goddesses, woodland rituals, and midnight magick. I've so far got one made in black, purple, and blue, and I see one in white in the future as well - it'd be perfect to grace the head of a pagan bride.

Circlets are definitely an Elven thing, so I had to make one to match my Elven Enchantment set. I've got just the one in green and silver so far, but custom options are always available. This one also makes me think of woodland magick, and I could see it gracing the head of an elven maiden, or a nymph, or a dryad.

These pieces are just the beginning! I forsee making circlets to match most of my jewelry collections that are medieval, renaissance, fantasy, or pagan-inspired. Keep an eye on my etsy shop for celestial circlets, fairy circlets, dragon circlets, and more!

Wonderland

2011-08-28T03:34:00.000-07:00

I'm a big Tim Burton fan. When I found out he was making a version of Alice in Wonderland, and Johnny Depp was starring in it, I was totally psyched. It's now on the shelf with my "inspiration" movies - which are movies I'll watch over and over again when I'm feeling low on muse and need a boost.

I'm surprised it took me this long to come up with some things along the Wonderland theme, but I think I just wanted to get it perfect!

The set of stripey goodness at left is my first creation along this theme. Garter legs, which attach to my exclusive garter shorts via tabs, and matching elbow length gloves, and a rufflicious bustle skirt in awesome black and white striped fabric. So far I've cut just one of them out. I plan to cut up the rest of the fabric mid September, so if you would like a set made to fit you perfectly, please be sure to visit the clothing section of my website before September 12.

I made that set simply because I liked the fabric. It was my boyfriend who noticed and commented that it looked Alice in Wonderlandish. I agreed, and set out to make more things along this rather fun theme!

I could see Alice wearing a set like this while in the court of the Red Queen. I plan to make a version of it with red crystals also, but I thought the iridescent matched my striped leggings most perfectly.

And it of course has matching hairsticks! The bone twist style is my personal favorite - it holds so well and is so easy to use. They're topped with black cinnabar hearts and cute mismatched key charms.

This one's a past creation. It was one of a kind, but I've included it because I do plan to make more soon. I've been saving fabric scraps from a lot of my rufflicious sets - I think some striped mini top hats would look awesome!

Here is a link to anything I might have currently posted in my etsy shop that I felt deserved a "wonderland" tag.

Thanks for reading!

...But I'm an artist, not a writer!

2011-08-27T04:02:00.000-07:00

Wow - over a year since my last post. I think it suffices to say that I suck at blogging!

I've actually been logging in close to daily and staring at my blogger dashboard thru a very thick plate glass wall of writer's block. It started the last time I talked to my Mom. She's an actual novelist who might be on her way to getting her first novel published. Apparently these days becoming a published author involves a lot of meet, greet, hobnob, and get your name out there before a publisher will consider you. She's been entering contests, and finaling in a lot of them, and thus getting to meet agents and publishers, and she's part of a couple writer's clubs, and she's heard a writer needs to have a website and an established blog.

I'm the internet guru in the family (or at least the closest thing we have to one) so she called me to talk about it. She had just done a workshop on successful blogging, so she had all these grand (and probably correct) ideas on how to get one up and running. She knew I had a blog, and she wanted to do a blog tour, and post on my blog as part of it. I had to sheepishly tell her that my blog probably had very little to offer, as neglected and malnourished as it is.

I told her that I did have the intention of posting every week originally. She replies with wide eyed earnest-ness (yes it was on the phone but my Mom is VERY expressive) "Every week? Oh but you should blog every day!"

Which led to me, logging onto blogger nearly daily, staring at the date of my last post, scratching my head, fidgeting, twiddling my thumbs...

I also checked out a few other etsy sellers blogs. I found one yesterday that I thought was pretty cool - the author was just blogging about her life when she didn't have a new product to share - the things she was doing with her kids, etc. The kinds of things that I haven't blogged about because I think well no one wants to hear about my boring life! But that personal touch on her blog of sharing those kinds of things wasn't boring at all in reality.

So here's my plan - gonna stop putting this blog on a pedestal and trying to make it utterly PERFECT, and just post in it a little more often! It should hopefully be an easier task with thinking of it this way. In real life, I generally don't have a problem talking, the problem is getting me to shut up!

Showcase: Earth Goddess

2010-07-24T17:48:00.000-07:00

I've got a shameless showoff for you this week. :-) I was playing with my mannequin head doll and came up with a rather cute look. Earth tones, cowrie shells, and a bit of decadent black lace. Notice her hair is done with two big buns in the back? You need two pair of hairsticks to do that look - and it's a bit of a challenge to find sticks that coordinate when they're all fancy and beaded.

I chose bone hair sticks - a pair of my ebony and ivory hairsticks, and a pair of sun goddess hairsticks.

The ebony and ivory hairsticks have a coordinating set of jewelry, so I of course had to put those on.

Here's the look from the side with a pair of my cowrie braids. The yarn falls are a preview - I'm planning to start making not-just-yarn falls with bits of lace, ribbon, beads, or whatever strikes my fancy. These were in steampunk tones of black, brown, white and ivory, with black lace.

And the hairsticks up close :-) The yarn wrapped buns are pretty easy and fun to do - thinking about making a tutorial on them... I totally should right?

DIY Jewelry Boxes - for Etsy and artfire jewelry designers

2010-07-21T12:33:00.001-07:00

One of my many passions is making and selling jewelry. Anyone who has tried selling jewelry online knows that it is HARD! Even if you have very unusual product, and even with posting on a "handmade only" website like etsy or artfire, your designs tend to get buried very quickly. I've spent a lot of time reading up on "how to make your jewelry sell online" type blogs. And no, this isn't one of them, cause I haven't figured it out yet!

Have beautiful packaging.
I've seen that advice in several locations. For a long time my jewelry came to the customer carefully wrapped in bubble wrap to ensure that it didn't wrinkle or bend, but no pretty boxes or bows or fluffy cotton - just posterboard and a business card! Recently I decided that it just didn't look like I take pride in my work doing it like that. The truth is, I do, and always have - everything I make is done under painstaking standards of perfection. Trouble is, these standards of perfection stop at my work, and don't extend to things like pretty boxes, clean kitchens, and arriving places promptly on time.

A few days ago I decided that from here forth, every piece of jewelry I make will be shipped in a pretty box. So I set out to make some pretty boxes - all from stuff I had on hand.

You will need:
12 by 12 cardstock (preferably plain white for the box bottoms and pretty patterned for the tops)
scissors, or a paper cutter if you really want to be pro
a flat, thin metal ruler
a glue gun
something for stuffing (I used pillow stuffing I had in my sewing stash)
a printer (to print out my patterns)

Here are links to the patterns, which are jpg's that should print out to the right size (total size of each pattern is 4x10 and 4x8)

8 x 2 x .5 inch box:
Top
Bottom

6 x 2 x .5 inch box:
Top
Bottom

To start, cut your paper into rectangles. Below are diagrams of how to lay these out whether you want all 2 x 8 or a combination of the two.

Cut out the patterns, and lay them over the rectangles. Grey lines in the patterns are where you fold, and black lines are where you cut. Cut out the corners, then snip. Fold as shown in the pictures below. Lay the ruler down and use the edge to guide your folds.

Once you make all the folds, glue first the long sides down, then fold in the tabs and glue the short sides down. Tie with a bow and a business card for the cute look in the last picture!

The 8 by 2 inch boxes are perfect for hairsticks. In the picture is a pair of my peacock decadence hairsticks, available in my shop.

I design long earrings too - and the 6 by 2 inch boxes are the perfect size for them. In the picture you see my copper sunset peacock feather earrings.

If you want to make shorter boxes you could cut the patterns apart and glue them together in the center - as long as you do this with an "outside" and an "inside" piece and they are the same size when you finish it should make a pattern for whatever size you want.

After making these I discovered that the cost to buy the made-in-china version of these boxes was only 30 cents each... So I laughed at my folly and bought some boxes. But I needed these for the orders I shipped in the meantime, and I like having the patterns on hand just in case I ever need some weird sizes of boxes. Still I didn't want the time I spent making the patterns to go to waste, so I posted this tutorial. Hope you found it useful! :-)

Performance Hair: Less is More

2010-07-18T08:30:00.000-07:00

I'm not completely a tribal dancer. Though I like the look of exploding kuchi bits, flowers, and dangling yarn and shells, most of the time I want something a bit more simple.

I love the romance of a simple flower tucked behind the ear. This tutorial covers how to get that look, and have it stay put for a performance. I make flower hair clips in varying sizes that are great for getting this look. The pics below show one of my medium sized pieces.

1. Separate a small section of hair by your face and let it hang toward the front.

2. Separate the hair behind into sections vertically. The top section pull to the side out of the way.

3. Put a ponytail holder in the bottom section.

4. View of the ponytail.

8. Clip your clip to the hair where it lays flat on your head next to the ponytail.

Simple, cute, and oh-so-easy to do!

Shimmy till you drop! (A post on drum circles)

2010-07-03T08:06:00.000-07:00

I'm in a bit of a catch 22. I can't stop dancing! I'm not merely moving to the music, I'm part of it - I even help CREATE it. I hear a trill to my right - and it so perfectly matches the shake of my hips that it seems I must have inspired it. As the sounds around me intensify, my dancing intensifies. Dancer and musicians feed off of eachother, and our energies combine in a beautiful cacophony of sound and movement. I am utterly, completely exhausted, but I can't stop dancing - I'm riding a wave of energy, and I can't stop until it crashes on the shore. Eventually it builds to a drum roll - the end is coming! And it's a chance to shimmy right out of my hip scarf if it isn't tied well enough. The drum roll stops abruptly, I strike a pose, we all clap excitedly, and I grin and run off to find my water bottle and start chugging.

If the above description sounds foreign to you, you've never experienced a drum circle at its best. I tend to search them out wherever I go. As a rule they are attended by little to no dancers - a fact which I find a tragedy! We are so used to dancing to canned music and improvisation is foreign and difficult at first. But a drum circle has the capacity to be one of the most enjoyable and expanding belly dance adventures on the market.

I just went to one last night, so you might say I'm still in the afterglow a bit. I'm lucky enough (for the first time in my life) to have a boyfriend who's actually into this kind of stuff, and while he hadn't been to an actual drum circle, he had done hand drumming with capoeira (brazilian martial arts) a while back. He welcomed the chance to play some drums and watch me belly dance. A couple of his friends came along too - another dancer, and a drummer. Walking down the road on the way, I stood out a bit. One, I was overdressed. I never pass up a chance to wear my fun accessories. Last night it was my moonlit bohemia jewelry set with funky snakeskin pants and a beaded hip belt. And two, I had a water bottle big enough to power one of those outdoor camping showers. I drank three quarters of it before the night was over.

We all had a blast, and the boyfriend is looking forward to the next one. ((Yay!)) I have dreams of starting one of my own eventually, but since leading a drum circle is kind of impossible for a dancer, I'll have to just hunt them down and attend for now. But I'm definitely on a mission to get the word out about drum circles! This post covers the basics.

How to find a good one:

There are several websites that have drum circles posted - drumcircle.net and drummingcircle.com are a couple. The best way to find major established drum circles is to google the name of your nearest big city and the words "drum circle." A search for "drum circle Providence RI" returns information on the drum circle I attended last night in the top few search results. I've also found a few smaller, newer ones on websites like meetup.com.

Check the description of the drum circle to see if it's likely to have good dancing beats. You want one that plays Middle Eastern rhythms if at all possible. While you can pseudo belly dance to African drum beats, I wouldn't recommend an African style drum circle to beginners. If in doubt, send an email to the leader! Most of the drum circles at least have an email link "for more info." Ask if they play Middle Eastern rhythms, and if they welcome dancers.

The Rhythms:

I'm going to cover briefly some of the more commonly used drum circle rhythms, and how to dance to them. I am DEFINITELY not a drummer - though I have a drum, and will attempt to pick out rhythms when I'm too tired to dance. What I attempt to do below is give you an idea of what rhythms to expect to hear and how to make the best of them. Or it helps to know what to request when the drummers turn to you and say "Ok, what do you want us to play?" I'm going to refer to dum's and tek's - that's different sounds a hand drum can make. The dum is what you get when you hit the center of the drum - a low bass-y sound. A tek is a higher pitched sound that comes from hitting closer to the edge of the drum.

Chiftitelli (Shift-uh-tell-ee)

This one is usually played slow. It's a good one to do very slow snakey tribal movements. The last three beats (dum-dum-tek) are good to do some accent moves. I'll also sometimes strike a pose for a second on the last tek for a nice effect. Drummers like to play this one for a long time - they think they're giving us a break! They don't know how strenuous undulations can be...

Saidi/Baladi (Sah-ee-dee/baa-luh-dee)

Here I reveal my total lack of drumming finesse. Saidi and baladi sound nearly identical to me. I think a couple of dum's are switched to tek's in one or the other. Usually they are played close to the same tempo in the drum circles I have attended. This tempo is medium. These are probably the easiest rhythms to dance to - and great to request if you are just starting out with bellydance improv. I generally do traveling moves to these - walks, spins, and some hip drops.

Ayub (Eye-yoob)

This one's my favorite. It's also the hardest to dance to. In most of the circles I've been to they tend to start out medium to slow and build tempo. At the beginning dancing is similar to Saidi or Baladi - traveling or percussion moves. I wind up doing a LOT of shimmy walks at the beginning. As the tempo builds I tend to do a lot of layering - which is where you shimmy, then do other snakey moves with arms or torso or even hips. Eventually it gets so fast that you can't really think of anything that fits other than a shimmy walk. This one's a total workout to dance all the way through!

Most of the time they'll finish off with a drum roll. This is your chance to shake it! Shimmy, do cool arm movements, do a traveling shimmy (the one on tip toes where you move around while shimmying). I always make it my challenge to not stop shimmying till they stop the drum roll. Sometimes I don't quite make it!

Whatever rhythm is playing, the best advice I can give on dancing at a drum circle is, feel the music. The moves you are doing don't have to specifically be belly dance! It is better to dance randomly to the music than to dance precisely in a way that doesn't quite fit. Usually there is a spot to dance outside the circle, and you can do that until you get brave enough to be in the spotlight. Once you feel brave enough though, don't be afraid to jump in there! You'll be more a part of the music if the drummers can see and interact with you.

If you have a drum circle and would be interested in setting it up to attract some belly dancers, the most important thing to do is start learning and playing some Middle Eastern rhythms. The only drum circles I attend repeatedly are the ones who play something belly dance at least part of the time. There are also ways to set up the circle that appeal more to dancers. The best way I've seen is the half circle. Drummers are arranged around half of the room, and the brave dancers can dance closer to the drummers, and the timid ones can hide in the corner. But everyone can still see everyone else for the most part. Most drum circles have the drummers arranged in the obvious circle. Make it large enough for dancers to fit in the center! And make a break or two in the circle so that we can enter and exit when exhaustion strikes. The center of the circle is an informal stage, so we prefer to stretch and guzzle water outside the circle.

If you've never been to a drum circle before, I highly recommend you try it. You just might discover a whole new world of improvisational belly dance! And I believe in taking every chance you can get to shimmy till you drop!

Performance Hair: Buns 101

2010-06-07T13:35:00.000-07:00

Buns are pretty much no brainers. We've been coiling our hair at the backs of our heads ever since Ancient Greece, and most of us have it pretty downpat by now. That bun has also done quite a bit of evolving since Ancient Greece - and there are ways to get the look without the length or the volume. I cover them, as well as the usual style, below.

Basic Bun
The following style is... well, a granny bun, but it won't look like something a granny would wear once you pair it up with hair sticks, yarn falls and flowers.

1. Put hair in a ponytail with a thick hair elastic.

2. Coil in a spiral.

3. Secure with hairsticks, then bobby pins.

Sock Bun:
If you don't quite have the volume or the length for a traditional bun, you can instead try a sock bun. To make a sock bun, you'll need - you guessed it! - a sock. Dig in your mate-less socks drawer till you find one that matches your hair color, and cut a hole in the toe. Start from the top of the sock, and roll it down until you reach the toe. You will wind up with a sock donut. One more thing for your significant other to find laying around and ask "What ON EARTH is this?!"

Instructions start from the ponytail since we pretty much covered that already:

1. Slip your sock donut over your ponytail.	2. Tip your head forward and spread your hair out over the sock.	3. Take a second ponytail holder, and stretch it down around your sock bun.
4. Looks pretty dorky doesn't it?	5. Gather the leftover hair together loosely and coil.	6. Wrap around the sock bun, tuck the end under and secure with hairsticks, then bobby pins.

This style's great if you want a bun that is both neat and bulky. If your hair is kinda short but at least long enough to put it in a ponytail and still have some length it will work for you. You can just sorta wrap the leftover hair around your bun instead to hide the ponytail holder and pin it in place. Use hairspray if you do this!

3: Messy Bun
I >3 this style. It's so cute and practical even for every-day wear. I'll leave down a few tendrils of my hear in front when wearing it casually.

1. Make your bun the same way as a basic, but leave a tail sticking straight up. Experiment with which direction to start coiling to get the right length tail.

2. Let your tail fall to the side in the same direction you were coiling and secure bun with hairsticks and bobby pins.

3. Fan out the tail over the top of your head so that there are tendrils sticking every which way. For performance, use hairspray!

To get a really cool look for performance, you will want to use lots of accessories! The tutorial below shows a style that uses two pair of hairsticks, an embroidered headband, a flower fascinator, and a single thick yarn fall.

1. Start by separating out a bit of hair to hang in front.	2. Twist the hair down. Clip it in place temporarily.	3. Put on your headband. Yes, I hold my hair with my mouth instead of clipping it... >.<
4. This would look cute just to wear out wouldn' t it?	5. Now put all the hair that is behind the headband into a ponytail.	6. Put on your yarn falls. Yarn falls on ponytail holders work best.

7. Make a bun of some sort and secure it with hairsticks, then bobby pins. I chose the messy bun for this style.

8. Clip the flowers to the side of the bun to your hair where it's tight against your head.

As you can see this style looks simply stunning from all angles!

Is your hair too short for any of the bun styles above? If it's at least long enough to put in a ponytail you can get the same look above with a hairpiece. I googled "bun hairpiece" a sec ago and came up with quite a few options - messy looking ones, neat ones, big ones, tiny ones, etc. You can make the same style with a fake bun if your natural locks aren't quite enough.

Credits:
Model is myself. Pics were taken with timed shoot and a tripod on a rainy day, which made the colors kinda dim. Hair accessories and jewelry are also by myself, and available for purchase in my etsy store.

Well that's it till next week, hope you enjoyed! :D

Performance Hair: Wash and Wear (well, almost)

2010-06-03T14:16:00.000-07:00

I'm definitely of the wash and wear mentality when it comes to hairstyles. The fanciest thing you'll ever see on me from day to day is a braid. Usually without a ponytail holder to fit it since I just braid it to get it out of my way temporarily and don't want to interrupt what I'm doing to go get one. And I make and sell hairpieces. Kind of hypocritical of me if you think about it!

I have designed some hairpieces with people just like myself in mind however. I created this post to showcase a few of them. All of the hairpieces you see in the pictures below are attached to a velvet wrapped headband with teeth, to give you the ability to go from plain hair to full and stunning headdress in 5 seconds flat!

Here's one in burgundy. The headband is hidden beneath black and silver sequin trim, and a fluffy ostrich plume gives it a bit of retro flair.

This one's for the tribal faeries, with a beaded centerpiece and intricate leafy dangles.

And here's some sass and sequins, with a glorious jet black beaded forehead drape and a very flamboyant bouquet of feathers behind one ear.

I called this one "Lady in Pink". It's a flowered headband without falls, so it works great with even very short hair.

Here's one for the earthy tribal ladies, in ivory, grey, and black.

If you'd like to see the full line of what I have currently available, check out these two sections of my Etsy shop:

Flowers with yarn falls
Flowers without falls

Performance Hair: Introduction

2010-06-03T13:18:00.000-07:00

I just love getting ready for a performance. Layering on the makeup. Picking out a bindi. Donning that new costume - the one which got its last bead sewn on at approximately 12:47 the previous night. Getting together the props and the necessary items - like water, coverup, and business cards. Then I stop to give myself an appraising glance in the mirror and stare at my bare head in dismay. Yup, I completely forgot about making myself a headdress to match.

Hi, I'm auralynne, real name Kristi, a costume artist who specializes in headdresses for belly dancers. Who winds up dancing bare headed much of the time for lack of memory. I have gotten plenty of chances to play with my headdresses, however, and have come up with some really cool ways to wear them! I am doing a series of blog posts with hair tutorials in hopes that someone with more foresight than myself might look at them before it's time to leave for the restaurant.

Fixing your hair for a dance performance is a bit different than for daily wear. You'll be shimmying, spinning, and shaking, and while you'll be trying to isolate and NOT shake your head, that hairstyle has still gotta hold up to a lot of abuse. These tips are all geared toward belly dancers, and each hairstyle has notes to determine whether it will work with your hair.

You will need:

Ponytail holders that match your hair color, bobby pins, a hair brush, a wall mirror, and a hand held mirror so that you can see the back of your head. A lot of the styles require hairsticks, and most require some kind of hair accent. Since I make hair accents for dancers, these tutorials are a bit biased. ;-)

I plan to release the first actual tutorial next Monday - and it's gonna be on three different styles of buns - how to make them, and how to adorn them. I took a whole bunch of pics to that end - and haven't quite gotten them all made yet, but the pic at left is a preview.

Well sorry to leave you all with nothing but a teaser, but i'll be back Monday with that tutorial.

Till then happy shimmies!

Well here goes nothing!

2010-06-03T12:57:00.000-07:00

So here's my first EVER blog post... I probably am gonna suck at blogging, considering I suck at keeping a diary, at remembering to email people back unless it is customers asking questions, at taking my vitamins, and at just about anything that requires, diligence, perseverance, and memory.

Buuuut here I am anyway, and I do have some seriously good ideas as to what to do with this spot. I've been crafting up a storm lately, and really putting all that I have into getting this business up to full time now that I'm trying to make it my livelihood.

I have about a million ideas, but not a clue in which direction to take them! So I'm trying (really hard) not to do them all at once... I am absolutely sure I want to get into some venues outside belly dancing. Maybe adjust some of my designs slightly to fit other forms of dance, create a wedding line, and some stuff to just wear!

We'll see where that goes. For now I have been playing with fire and glue and feathers... not necessarily together! (THAT would be a stinky mess.) I found this tutorial on how to make fabric roses, and I REALLY like the look of a fabric rose made in pink leopard print satin... Don't have any pics of them yet, cause they aren't anywhere near picture worthy, but maybe next blog!

But here are the feathers anyway... Feathers and Tribal jewelry! I had a rather large collection sitting in my drawer - now I've found a use for it!

If you fall in love they are for sale in my etsy store.

Thanks for reading, and happy dancing!