So this was the start, in acrylic:

And then I painted the thunder clouds, the pegasus is going to be black

But the pegasus is only in the ground layer. So it looks a bit flat still. As per usual I got some paint from the lightning on my sleeve and smeared it over the sky. I already managed to clean that up. pffffff!

Now this is fun! I used ”auto color correction” on my photo, and this is almost how it’s supposed to look when it is finished!

I’m glad I noticed those white blotches and could remove them, imagine I noticed them only now! Anyway, it’s really funny to see what I had in mind about this painting after the ”auto adjust”! Now I will ahve to wait to really finish it until I am back in America.

Acrylic on Canvas

So I have made two dresses, one marriage dress, one evening gown, and two corsets, and a tiara, and a nice warm clutch coat. I forgot my camera so I don’t have better pictures of the corset for now, but here it is:

The corset is made of white coutil with the same fabric the dress was made of as the top layer. The busk is gold plated, the lace is from England, it’s made by the last factory in England which still makes real cotton lace, made on antique machines, with antique patterns. They were the ones who also made the lace for the recent Royal wedding. But of course my wedding is way more important!

This is the back of the corset:

This is the dress, almost finished. My stand is antique, from 1880, and it is smaller than I am, and shorter too, so the dress hangs a bit loose. I used a vintage vogue pattern from 1953. I first made two toiles, before cutting the actual fabric. The fabric is a creamy white with embroidered vines with leaves and flowers. I brought fresh water pearls from China and I sewed one pearl on every flower. It also should have a petticoat underneath.

Here I am wearing it all! Trying out the snooty fifties model look! The petticoat was surprisingly warm. The gloves are vintage (the something old) The earrings and necklace were gifts from valued friends, (the something new), and I had sewn a blue ribbon bow inside the dress, and a silver coin.

The umbrella is a pagoda umbrella from the excellent Danish designer Lisbeth Dahl, I love the umbrella, and it was particularly appropriate as we got married in Denmark! I am wearing the coat here as well, it is made of a creamy white wool/cashmere blend, and lined with the same fabric as the dress. I did the flowers myself too. I brought the roses from the people at the flower market I have brought my flowers from since I was a student, the ivy (you can’t see it) is an ancient symbol of love, marriage, fidelity and growing together, and it is from my garden. I had three darker pink roses which a friend brought with her, they are a variety called ”Ribe Ruse” or something like that… This is important because we got married in Ribe in Denmark!

We got married in Denmark because the paperwork in the Netherlands made it impossible to get married in my country, and the process was horrendously complicated and we could set no dates aside and it was too problematic to get married in America. Also it took way too long!
In Denmark, EU country, Schengen country, it is very simple to get married. Very simple paperwork, very simple process, and I got in touch with a Danish Wedding planner who made the whole process a wheeze, as well as being very helpful with all the extra arrangements because we had a lot of friends and family coming.

So anybody who wants to get married and has too much hassle with paperwork and silly rules in their own country, or if you just want a beautiful, super romantic destination wedding, contact Rita at Wedding Denmark.

So here are the covers, inside is a little vial where you can put your perfume if you like.

I drew the illustrations directly in the book, in the empty spots.

The fatal perfume is presented!

Inspector Alleyn inspects the body…

So I have been working on making corsets. I am still working on utter perfection though.

So here is my first corset. I’ve been wearing it a lot, and I still like it. I have already worn out one corset lace on this one.
I made it from a pattern, which was published in a dutch magazine, La Gracieuse in 1880, and ”adapted to the modern figure”. Which is where it goes wrong, because I don’t think I have the modern figure. Anyway, while making it I already adapted it a bit, so it’s not exactly following the pattern after all.
It is made of denim (!) not coutil, fused onto the curtain fabric which is the outer layer. It hasn’t stretched yet. It has a wide busk and spring steel bones. Because I happened to have them hanging around.
I still wear it quite often because it is a great corset and makes me a lot more comfortable when I have my moon-time. I think it cuts down on my painkillers by about 50%!
The spring steels make it a bit heavy, but it’s greatest drawback is that it doesn’t allow enough space for my hips and my bum, after a few hours that starts to irritate me.
After making this corset I was hooked and kept dreaming of more.

So then I started experimenting a bit. This is my #3 corset, made of coutil inside and Boutonniere Broche on the outside. So two layers of proper corset material. I have been abusing wearing this corset a lot!
Oh, yes, and I completely forgot to put in a waist tape…
The idea behind this corset is to have more space for my hips and bum (btw, it was not enough) an hourglass waist, and lots of space for my ribs, (actually too much), so I can have full use of my lungs while cycling. Because while you normally don’t notice anything, if you are, for example cycling up against one of these very steep bridges in Amsterdam, you notice you are restricted by a corset.

This corset is made with single 7mm boning which is a bit too light. (#2 was made with single 11mm) One time I was bored and tried my hand at a bit of flossing. All bones are flossed on this corset.

#4 corset turned out to be incredibly wasp waisted, a bit too much really, I don’t waist train. It is more of a waspie, I used a smaller busk, with swarovski crystals in the little nobs, really pretty and very sturdy. It is also the first corset where I made the bias tape myself from the same fabric.

I then made two corsets, at the same time, I call both of them #4, with the same (altered again) pattern. I needed to get rid of that extreme wasp waist. One is at home, made of lovely velvet and coutil, and this one, made of a vintage fabric I have had since I was in high school and never dared to use for anything because I love it! now an underbust corset doesn’t take a lot of fabric so this is the first time I used some of it. I had a busk with gilded hooks and knobs, very pretty, and spring steels next to it for stiffness. The other bones are 11 mm spiral steels. The inside is of white coutil.
I added even more space for hips and bum, and it’s getting to be enough, just a little bit more…

Showing the back to show the nice creme rivets (in a steel lacing bone). And the ribbon, This is the only corset I close with a ribbon instead of a lace, or my favorite: a good looking black nicely woven thin rope from the hardware store.

#5, Black coutil inside and the black boutonniere broche on the outside. this one is supposed to be for comfort, with finally enough hip and bum space (at last!) Double boned with 11mm spring steel, which I think is overdoing it a bit. next time I will use the 7mm spring steel boning. Very nice black powder coated busk, which I again paired with spring steel bones. Forgot the waist tape again! We’ll see how that works out in this very heavily boned corset.

The black busk. I will abuse this one a lot to find out how sturdy that powder coating actually is!

#6. The last one up to date. Back to square one. I took the commercial pattern, and added the needed space for hips and bum. (perfect). It is now a bit too wide in the chest at the back. I do make mock ups, but you only really notice the irritating details after a hours, or even days, of wearing
The fashion fabric was pretty but nasty to work with, very thin, frayed a lot, and as you see it’s rippling! Which makes this corset unacceptable. I might make another one, because I love the fabric (it’s inside out btw, because I liked that even better) and fuse it. I had prepared the strips of fabric to make bias tape, but I wanted it for my trip so made do with commercial bias tape. I always like a black border anyway.
Now this is very nice, very comfortable, but I can’t seem to get rid of the hourglass waist when I really want to make a good fit. I am going to try one more time, to have a fitting Perfect Pattern, with slightly less hourglass effect.,

The back, laced with my favorite lacing: the rope from my hardware store. Dead cheap, and it doesn’t slip when lacing up, and pretty! A bit too short, so I didn’t lace the last rivet. These are burnished brown.

I started off with a beautiful canvas, very good quality solid wood, covered with the best quality linen. The linen is stretched the ”wrong way around”, so the beautiful greyish green natural linen is up front.

This is real quality, this will last!
Now, before you can paint on linen you need to size it, with gesso or acrylic. Of course this means you loose the linen color, and some of the texture. To keep the linen as it is, while still be able to paint on it I sized it with Lascaux imprègne.

To get a start I did a quick line drawing in acrylic. The drawback on this style is that I can’t really make a mistake because I can never get rid of it.

When I am satisfied with the line drawing, and confident it will be a good likeness, with all Dior’s proportions and personality.

Then I put on some basic color, very ”meager” quite thin. This is one type of painting where I want to keep the paint thin, showing lots of handwriting. Again, if I mess up I cannot scrape it off and start afresh. Basically I do give up the advantages of oilpaint.

Painting several more layers actually takes time. I don’t want to mess up by putting too much paint on the canvas, which is só easy to do! Neither do I want to become too fiddly, to precise, which is also much easier to do than keeping it fresh and straightforward.
It’s really difficult to explain, but it is easier to do an over painted, over detailed, over ”photographically-realistic” painting than keeping a grip on yourself and stopping before you get bogged down.
and trust your hand!

Especially the final touches have to be spot on, right color, right place, right thickness.
It’s best not to think too much about it…

The real test of course is when Diors personal attendant gets to see it…

More about that later!

A tantalizing couple of sketches and close-ups….

The cloudy background

Hope you enjoyed!

This is the ”under painting”

The finished portrait