We have made several gorgeous belly dance sets this year. In the last week two of our customers have shared videos of themselves dancing in the Organic Armor.
First up is Jaydee Amrita Copperfield. She lives in the UK but came to Tribalfest 13 in Sebastopol, CA last month. She had commissioned an Akasha style headdress, armbands and a necklace of skulls like the Hindu goddess Kali wears. She ended up wearing it as a belt which looked great. Here is her fierce and beautiful dance:
“As a tribal Bellydancer I often wear very heavy costuming and head pieces. I found this all too often weighed me down on my performance and restricted my range of movement, even becoming off putting at times. The best thing about Organic Armor’s work is that not only are they beautiful beyond words but they are so light and secure to dance in I forget I am wearing them at all. They are comfortable and my very large headdress is even secure enough to do deep laybacks in without worrying about it falling off or straining my neck for weight. They give an authentic heavy metal look without the weight and strain of genuine metals and the flexibility of the latex allows for a full range of motion. I highly recommend their services!”
The second video comes from Badia of Sacramento, CA. She ordered an egyptian themed set with serpents a few monthes ago. Wearing it, she won 1st Runner-up in the Taksim (improvisation) competition at the Bellydancer of the Universe show in Long Beach, CA.
I love our customers. They are some of the most creative and unusual folks in the world.
We just finished a pair of crowns for two women going to a Haunters Convention. They had this very original idea for a set of characters – twin ghost sisters of the 17th century that cannibalized all of their siblings. Lovely, huh? They wear Marie Antoinette style gowns and crowns decorated with tiny baby faces and skulls. Here’s our assitant Nara wearing one. Very Kali-esque.
Paul really enjoyed sculpting the faces. He tried to capture that weird “little old man” look that some babies have.
In 2 weeks we leave for the northeast, visiting family around New York and New England and wrapping up our trip at the New York Faerie Festival once again. Looking forward to seeing our old friends there. Come visit us, June 27-30 if you are in the area!
LEAF ladies model the new scarab circlet and unicorn circlet
We had a wonderful time last weekend at the Lake Eden Arts Festival. Here are a few pictures from this sweet music fest held at a beautiful summer camp in the Blue Ridge Mountains, not far from our home.
The wind was a little scary at times (booth walls were flapping like crazy) but the rains never amounted to much. They did present us with a lovely rainbow on Saturday afternoon.
Our unicorn horns were popular! We sold out of the small ones. Still have some circlets. I will be posting them, and new rams horns, cernunos antlers, goat horns, faun horns and circlets by this Friday morning.
Cernunnos antlers and skull themed Hathor horns on a pair of lovely revellers
Greenman top hat and rams horns on some young fans
We are headed to the sweetest little music fest in the mountains – the Lake Eden Arts Festival. We took all the items from the online shop with us.
Paul and Nara have been making all kinds of new goodies night and day for weeks. Come visit us in Black Mountain to see them, or check back at the online shop on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Here’s a gorgeous shot of Evie Wolfe in a silver Queen of the Damned headdress. Photo by SJImage and MUA by Elaine Barrow.
The Festival of Legends is a sweet, renaissance flavored, fairy inspired faire in Chapel Hill, NC. In it’s second year, it’s developing a strong fan base. We were unable to attend personally, but our dear Allegra Torres, aka The Chainmail Chick, brough a few of our wares along to show off in her Ribbons and Rivets booth. We also made this glorious Sphinx headdress for one of the performers there.
Paul designed this beautiful belly dance set for a dancer in New York who was inspired by the look HR Giger’s work (as we are). She liked the look of the character of Eve in the Species films so he studied those forms and motifs, refining and combining them. A belly dance costume doesn’t offer a huge surface to work upon so the elements had to represent in an essential way.
He sculpted the pauldons from clay and cast them. The headdress is made to fit over a custom dread fall with a tentacle effect. The shape of the belt and belt exagerate the mechanical parts but emphasize the sexy female form underneath. We are really happy with the results. Our studio neighbor Nic Adams offered to shoot it at the last minue and Incendra Soul lit up the place with it on. Wow.
The spring sale was a rousing success. Thank you to all who purchased new armor from our online shop this month. We’ll have some 2013 inventory in there by the end of April.
We just finished a couple more custom projects. A set of dog armor for Lucky, a lucky collie/lab mix from Chicago. Hopefully we’ll get a photo of him in it soon, but here’s one of just the armor.
Battle gear for a lucky collie/lab
We also just finished a commissioned headdress with a newly sculpted horn shape. Inspired by Egyptian goddesses Isis and Hathor, it’s got the sun disk in the center, embodying the solar energy which is activating all around us right now here in the mountains. Spring is starting to bust out at last!
Winter is dragging along here, cold, wet, gray. But there are signs of spring – daffodils ready to pop, robins in the grass, and a sale in our online shop!
We are still deep into custom projects in the studio but it’s time to get ready to make inventory for summer festivals. In that spirit it’s out with the old to make room for the new!
All of our 2012 stock is on sale today through March 15th. Are you dreaming up costumes for summer festivals and performances? Here’s a chance to get some Organic Armor 10 to 25% off. Take a look and tell your friends.
I have about 20 more items to shoot and list, including some sweet faun horns that have never been listed online before. So check back over the weekend too.
May early spring bless you with new creative ideas and energy!
It’s been almost 2 months since I last posted here. Busy time. The new studio is 95% organized and is definitely functioning well. It’s able to maintain a comfortable temperature, despite many days in the 20′s here. The new work stations are so efficient!
The display area still needs to be set up. I have a vision of a mural on the wall and new display fixtures but that’s gone on hold for a while.
Paul just finished two Egyptian Mina belly dance sets. These sets now include backs on the belts, see in the photo. They are on their way to France and we hope to get some good pictures of them on Pixie and Aude sometime.
Egyptian Mina Belly Dance belt with new back
He’s doing an all serpent version of the design now, for an Australian dancer who loves pythons.
We got a lot of buzz about our unicorn horn on Facebook and elseswhere. Windy from the frozen realms of Canada commissioned it for her appaloosa Hope. Isn’t she a beauty?
Projects in the works include a pair of ocean themed crowns, a unicorn horn for a person, some dog armor and a belly dance set based on Species. That is going to be amazing.
Hope y’all had a good holiday (those of you in the US). We did, though there was a little too much pie involved.
Work on the new studio is progressing. We have all the framing in and some drywall up, insulation in parts, thanks to Jeremy and his crew. Looks like we’ll be back in there by mid December. Yahoo!
Meanwhile in the mini-studio Paul is making a pair of Akasha headdresses, an LED enhanced Ares helmet and a Dejah Thoris circlet and belt. Also in progress: a Loki themed corset and a King of Bourbon Street cowboy hat.
We’ll be sending out our Winter newsletter over the weekend, are you on the mailing list yet? There will be a special offer on holiday gift certificates enclosed. And check out the new listings in the shop – a bunch of colorful faun horns, new Hathor horns and a few other goodies.
