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Star Trek TOS Uniform Redesign

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Throwback to 2016

I’ve always had a thing for redesigning Star Trek costumes, I think because the real ones are quite camp but have a lot of iconic elements. So it’s a lot of fun to play with as a designer. The intention with this redesign was to incorporate contemporary streetwear aesthetics. Something practical, versatile but that still feels like a uniform. It was also fun working with a replica of the velour used in the original series. It’s a textile so deeply stuck in the 60’s, it was a wonderful challenge to try to bring it into the 21st or even 23rd century.

I wish I still fit into that jacket, my chest and shoulders are broader now. Although it’s hard to tell because the jacket was designed to create a square silhouette. I can see where I made mistakes, where my tailoring could have been better. But one would hope to have that kind of perspective nearly four years later. I got a lot of compliments at the convention, including from Troy Baker! People genuinely wanted to wear a jacket like this, which is the best compliment of all as a designer, that it works outside the context of a costume. That’s the beauty of “Cosplay Couture” rather than cosplay, one is about accuracy and attention to detail, this other is about creativity and originality. Both can be equally impressive in their own right. But as a costumer, each allows me to express and explore different facets of my skills.

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Custom Doll: Honey Moonrising

After about three years I finally finished this doll. I was just suddenly hit with inspiration. Her name is Honey Moonrising, she is a 70’s space bounty hunter who has werewolf powers at all times because in space it’s always a full moon.
The costume was based on a rough sketch, then I taped up her body to create the pattern. She is 17″ tall so that presented me with more freedom with the costume, but it was still fiddly. Going with a tight weave cotton and vinyl made the job easier.

More photos below cut Continue reading “Custom Doll: Honey Moonrising”

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The Angel and the Android in the Blinding White City on the Edge of Time

img_20191015_214411This is a concept that I keep returning to in my dreams. It began when I was listening to Lustmord as I travelled through the city at that time of day when it’s so bright everything seems to shimmer. There’s something beautiful yet haunting about it. Horror doesn’t only happen in the dark. I envisioned this utopian city that was for some reason uninhabited. Humanity had reached its peak and then they inexplicably disappeared, leaving only their predecessors and descendants behind. These two in particular are on a journey to find the human race, during which they discover they have a lot in common.

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Doctor Travian’s Supernatural Orphanage

I can’t believe I’ve never posted anything of my namesake on this website before!

Doctor Travian’s Supernatural Orphanage is a project I started about six years ago when I discovered a passion for painting dolls. I was fascinated by the Monster High dolls, at the time I was going through a Universal Horror phase and I was amused at the idea of these monstrous characters marketed to young girls. It inspired me to see where I could take them, how far I could push the concept, at first only visually, but later I developed elaborate backstories for each of my characters.

It is an epistolary tale, told by an urban explorer in the present day piecing together the story of an old abandoned Victorian asylum. It had once held Cordelia Travian as a patient when she was a teenager, her inexplicable connection with the paranormal had led others to deem her insane. Later she would return and purchase the sanatorium and convert it into an orphanage, but what the public never knew was that it was not inhabited by human children. Travian would travel the world researching supernatural beings, and in some cases adopt those found in perilous situations.

I no longer customise dolls but I am still invested in this story and it’s characters, so I plan on continuing the project through writing and illustration. This page will eventually become a directory to additional photos and illustrations.

Below are the core cast of characters: Continue reading “Doctor Travian’s Supernatural Orphanage”