Never a Dull Moment: Cinderella sparkles

I realize it has been a long time since I last posted anything. Honestly I have been so busy with a large number of projects that I have not had a lot of time.
Last year I took a tambour embroidery class with Robert Haven of the Bead Embroidery and Design studio, and since then (no pun intended) I have been hooked on this beautiful art form.
The same ballet company who contacted me last year, requested headpieces for their Cinderella ballet this time. I went to work collecting beads, sequins and lots of crystals.
The ballet's designer C.R. had sent me a very helpful set of fabric swatches and some photographs of the tutus so I had a bit more to work on this time.

I created an elaborate tiara for Cinderella to wear to the ball all done in gold and crystal aurora borealis (AB) crystals. I drew a crescent moon and used gold foiled lace flowers to create the base for the stars.

Moon and Star gold foiled lace appliques for Cinderella tiara

The lace was appliqued onto stretched tutu net, so that I could later trim away as much of the support fabric as possible. I also hand-dyed some of the same laces that I used in the seasons Fairies tiaras to use as trim on Cinderellas tiara, so that there was some continuity between the headpieces.

Moon and Stars for Cinderella tiara with crystal AB and rose crystal centers

In the ballet Cinderella, there are four fairies, one for each season Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn. Often the costumes are done in "seasonal" colors: white, pale blue for winter, pastels for spring, brighter colors for summer and reds, browns and oranges for autumn.

For this ballet, the designer choose various shades of pink for each season. At first that was a bit of a challenge but I decided to use similar botanical elements: Dogwood, Mountain Ash, and Oak leaves plus flowers to symbolize the seasons. I drew patterns for each tiara onto grid paper and repeated the branch and leaf structure for each tiara base.
After much searching I also found some beautiful laces, which I hand dyed and then tinted to act as my tiara bases. To give them a metallic look, I applied gold or silver foil to the laces and appliqued them onto tutu net.

Spring tiara and Cinderella's stars with beads and sequins

For Winter, I used mostly mountain ash and dogwood branches with clusters of berries. The outlines were done in silver thread and I used tiny silver lined bugle beads, seed beads and little pink iris sequins.

Winter fairy tiara base

Once the beads and sequins had been tamboured onto the lace back ground, I glued the crystals onto the shapes.

Adding crystals to Fairy Winter's tiara base

Fairy Winter in pale pink lace, silver beads and pink iris sequins

For Spring, I again used Dog Wood and Mountain ash but this time added leaves and flowers and some tulips.

Spring fairy tiara base, gold foiled lace ready for embroidery

The embroidery was done in green bugle and seed beads, gold thread, orchid pink cup sequins and various shades of pink Swarovski crystals. Some of the flower centers were made with Lochrosen crystals.

Fairy Spring tiara, with orchid and emerald sequins, green seed beads and Swarovski and Precosia crystals

The Summer fairy tiara again had the basic branch structure but now it had Morning glory vines, and bright flowers. I did not use any greens for the leaves but instead used golds and reds. Fairy Summer had two attendants, so I created smaller versions of the principles tiara.

Fairy summer attendant tiara base.

Fairy Summer attendant


Fairy Summer tiara in fuschia, red and gold sequins, beads and fire opal Swarovski crystals

Finally Fairy Autumn, had leaves and branches and three large Aster's in gold, cranberry, burgundy sequins and silver lined brown bugle beads. Rose, silk and antique pink crystals were later added.

Fairy Autumn tiara with vintage gelatin sequins

The beautiful cranberry sequins were vintage gelatin sequins purchased from Berger beads in Los Angeles. Normally I try not to use this type of sequins since they are unstable and can melt with warm water but since this was for a headpieces and the color was perfect, I was able to use them.

I also made a hat with matching mask for the Jester. For this I used Fosshape, a thermoplastic fleece-like fabric which shrinks and firms up when steamed. First I made a base, tines which I wired to help keep its' shape and then covered the hat with fabric.

Fosshape 600 hat base and Fosshape 300 mask

I made a silicone mold from a vintage button and used Friendly plastic pellets to cast the center jewel, which I then painted gold and added Swarovski crystals to. Finally I made "bells" using pompom trim and sequins.

For the mask I used Fosshape 300, a lighter weight version, and molded it over a foam head. My daughter painted a pattern of diamonds on paper with acrylic paints, and my husband spray panted the mask with gold paint. I then assembled the mask and decorated it with sequins and Swarovski crystals. Everything was packed up and shipped off.