Author: ccmurphydesigns

Ms Murphy never wanted to grow up and stop playing so it seemed natural that she kept making costumes and wings and such. She liked to ask herself who she wanted to be each day when she woke up and got dressed. She won First Place in the Dragon Con After Dark Contest in 2011 for a Doctor Who Cabaret group as well as a few minor awards in the Dragon Con Yule Ball Costume Contest. Outside of Dragon Con she won the Best in Show award at the ACT Costume Drama Fashion Show 2018.

Color Me Goodwill 2022

So the Graces creative team will be creating for Color me Goodwill this year. We are so excited to get together and create again. We got the color Blue. Black was our first choice but it got axed because of background issues which is fair. White Also got axed out of “colors”. So here we are with blue which will still be super fun. We have a lovely line up up Models started with Savanah Mease, Credella Credle and Noora Vi. I don’t want to give too much away yet other than our excitement bringing this together.

Unfortunately Due to Covid this Project was Cancelled a week before presentation.

ananda fashion show film& fashion

So, the day after the 4th ananda fashion show. What can I say, it really came together, all the teams pulled their best effort forward. My support team of Katie, Tena, and Alex were amazing. We had some new fresh faced designers like Kristie Furches.  We also were wowed to the designs of Rachel Stack, Betsy Puckett and Royal Peasantry. I did a dress as well. 🙂  We had Photographers Scott Duncan, Elliot Schwartz and Duncan Chaboudy to capture the event. And the prodigious talents of DJ Brett Rock to rock us though out. And our beautiful, powerful and generally amazing models. This years charity was Humble Hairdressers https://www.humblehairdressers.com/, check out their mission and please help them out. And to everyone, Thank You

Film & Fashion: September 22nd 2019, In Walk Order

1

Team Theme –   Alice in Wonderland 

Stylists- Mason Zimmer, Alyson Branch, Chloe Conner, Daria Blake, Sarah Barnwell

Designer – Betsy Puckett

Make Up – Sydney Blair

Models –Payton Turner, Daria Blake, Leah Haire, Kayla Morgan, Betsy Puckett

2

Team Theme –  Studio 54 (the documentary) 

Stylists- Katya Meier-Young, Kim Stipanovich, Kendall Huffman, Sarah Austin

Designer –  Claudia Guerreiro & Kristi Furches

Make Up –  Maggie & Kristi Furches

Models – Norit Elliot, Aleen Dailey, Anala St.Germaine, Emily Neas, Rachel Sweet 

 Jeweler: Kristi Furches

3

Team Theme – Labyrinth

Stylists- Charlotte Murphy, Sara Ashlee Mclelland, Michele Travis, Tanya Fuentes

Make up – Tia Hixon

Designer- Rachel Stack & Charlotte Murphy

Models – Amy Briggs, Robbie The Zilla Thing, Shelby Lynn, Sasha-Renee Daniels,  

4

Team Theme – Alien Vs Predator 

Stylists – Savannah Walchie, Meg Spencer, Samira Salameh

Designer & Jewelry : Goodwill finds!

Make Up: TEAM effort, sfx style makeup

Models – Shari Brown,  Macie Janney,  Rachel Kennedy,  Sepe WIlliams

5

Team Theme –  Mad Max

Stylists- Shane Boone, Jordann Mcgovney, Alex Elkins, Moiria Ziolkowski, Ari O’Donnell, Macie Janney

Designer – Royal Peasantry 

Make Up – Sydney Blair

Models – Ivy Hawkins, Luna, Maggie Boyle, Taylor Barely

 

 

The Graces, Dragon Con Exhibit Prep 2019

So for those of you who haven’t done this I feel that its a monster trying to break down the how and why you do it. Also many of these forms are not set up for group projects (eye rolling). Currently I am having problems with the costuming site but hopefully it will clear up soon. This Year I am bringing my own mannequin. Not going through that craziness form last year no sir.

Charlotte Murphy, Susan Sertain, Hannah Wood

Charlotte Cat Murphy, Studio Vonceil, Trollbinde Jewelry

Mab la Fey

2019

Please describe this costume: *

In 400 characters of less

This piece is a group compilation made for the ACT Costume Drama in the category of Artistic License. It had to pertain in some way to art. We chose the artist Brian Froud as our inspiration. Brian is a contemporary fey artist; his work includes concept art for the Dark Crystal and Labyrinth. It is meant to evoke a organic living quality.

About the work: *

Max 900 characters, please.

We wanted the piece to have layers, texture and to be organic.   The necklace and waist piece are layers of 400 hand riveted and painted metal leaves and small creatures. The bodice and skirt are made from upcycled cloth predominately, some dyed and all embellished with hand stitched strips of cloth and lace. Including part of a quote from Brian Froud

“Perhaps all women are part faerie, for what woman can deny her faerie blood when the portals to her own land are open; when the full moon sings its insistent song; when sorrow and passion and rage pulse through her body at moon times. This is why women are the chosen ones of Faerie, pat of the vibrant, fluid, emotional soul of the world…”

The head piece contains both natural and artificial materials including seed pods and has a metal base so the hand sculpted & adorned mask can attach to it with magnets for easy removal.

Interesting fact about the costume: *

The Piece won Best in Category (Artistic License) at the ACT Costume Drama July 2019, has been on display at the Bellagio and Sugar Britches.

Tell us about the costumer that designed and built the costume: *

Hannah owns Trollbinde Jewelry and travels to festivals presenting her work. Susan worked in theater and won several award at the ACT Costume Drama and owns Studio Vonceil. Charlotte won Best in Show at ACT Costume Drama 2018 and First Place in the After Dark Contest in 2011.

At what URL may fans see more of your work?:

https://www.trollbinde.com/

https://studiovonceil.com/

https://ccmurphydesigns.com/

https://www.citizen-times.com/picture-gallery/news/local/2019/07/07/costume-drama-fashion-show-2019/1667350001/?fbclid=IwAR0XRfZKSoCUBrPRCWUwDSC0LbK0CFPpyq5a5eD_nmM-2_83RBRdGkmZ0Do

Video prep Costume Drama 2019

So as part of the Costume Drama we have to record a video speaking about our work and concept. Scary stuff. Here is a bit of our words.

~~~~~

Why a team?

Our team The Graces –  goddesses of charm, beauty, nature, human creativity, and fertility, together known as the Graces.  Part of the retinue of Aphrodite.

I paint the Spirit and Soul of what I see. – Brian Froud

Artist

To find an artist that represented the story we wanted tell with our piece was quite a endeavor. A story of summer nights and the embodiment of the forest as a magical being. Once we realized Brian Froud was our artist everything fell into place. His work has everything we were looking for depth of layers, texture and a otherworldly quality creating a reflective pool from which inspiration wells.

 Work Notes

  • Hand Stitching
  • Dying
  • Hand painting metal
  • Bringing old and new together

Perhaps all women are part faerie, for what woman can deny her faerie blood when the portals to her own land are open; when the full moon sings its insistent song; when sorrow and passion and rage pulse through her body at moon times. This is why women are the chosen ones of Faerie, pat of the vibrant, fluid, emotional soul of the world… – Brian Froud

Key Concept Points

  • Depth of layers
  • the piece as a living object
  • Organic
  • Light withing the dark
  • Summer night
  • Texture
  • The forest as a living being

Costume Drama prep 2019

So the application is not out, we don’t know if we are going to get in,  but we have a team.firefly8The team consists of Susan Sertain a renowned costume maker in her own right and previous Owner of the Costume Shoppe. And Hanna Wood of Black Black Moon fabulous jewelry designer. We are so excite shooting around ideas and feeding off each other. Wish us luck and keep a eye out for updates.

Dragon Con post op

Dragon Con was amazing as always. Despite a very bumpy beginning which included car trouble, hotel room cancellation, and miscommunication with the Costuming Track. In the end everything turned out fine but there was some WTF moments.

The Costuming Exibit

Doing the exhibit for the costuming track was a interesting experience.  Most of the exhibit is set up Thursday and it gets taken down Monday. Due to that and other factors i ended up schlepping around the dress and the dress form for a few hours. I was dressed as bellhop Bart from Dirk Gently and the time but I feet like I came off more harried costumer. I made a extra piece for Hikari which was a variant of a Netsuke and a Inro. It was fun to make and I felt complemented the piece well. It used a combination of old and new computer parts and was adorned with some trinkets and gems.

For the Villain Vogue Fashion Show

I repaired gear works and a small part of the form its self of the headpiece for Maleficent and hand painted a golden accent along the horn. I softened the ruff on the inside with a strip of velvet and added copper painted wood tines. Updated the staff again as I lost another topper last year. ( two glass globes down ) I made this piece really tall so I need to be careful when going through doorways.  Going with a spindle topper made for me by William Cook and steaming it up. This makes the staff supper tall. I also added wrist cuffs to the outfit which were simple and fun. Diablo was a skeleton raven from the Halloween section. I gave him a brass base and hand painted the gold trim, figured  out what made the most sense for him gear wise and applied the gears and wire.

All in all I would do both of these events again next year.

Dragon Con Prep

This year for Dragon Con I am not adding any new from scratch a new costumes. I have found it hard to transition from the Costume Drama Fashion Show into Dragon Con costuming though this might have to do with the current project ideas we have which are…bombastic.  I will be adding an up-cycled costume from the show Dirk Gently which should be fun and I get to distress it which I have not done much.

However I am doing two new things involving costuming this year. First I am entering the Villain Vogue Fashion Show for the fist time. I will be taking my Steam Maleficent costume which was originally part of a larger group but most of said group will not be attending this year. 😦  Perhaps one year if we can get the group together again we could enter the Costuming Contest together. Anyway, I am doing a update to her staff as the globe I used last year shattered on a doorway when I was distracted. I am pretty excited about my update but I am going to keep it under wraps for now. Also I am taking a look at the costume and seeing if there is anything else that can or should be done to add more …oomph?

The second thing I am doing is entering the Costuming exhibit with my piece Hikari. It will be up over the duration of the weekend which is pretty exciting. For this I ordered business cards and and taking a little look at the costume. I am considering making a Inro for it. Obviously both of these things are exciting and I feel a bit awed at the moment but also a bit battling my inner demons over being ” good enough” stupid brain.

2018 Photo Shoot, Inside Out Dress

Yesterday we had a lovely photo shoot with photographer Myriah Wood. We were photographing my design from the Costume Drama fashion show, and using our model Tristin Vitriol and make up artist Megan Ray.  As it had been storming all week there was some nervousness about  rain so we needed an inside/ outside location.  Additionally the location I had previously scouted out and thought abandoned, suddenly seemed not so abandoned after all. We were gifted the use of the lovely historic home of Lori and Bob Harrison in Flat Rock for our shooting location. Our day Started at 1 pm and went through to 7:30, and was  both exhilarating and tiring. My thanks to this amazing team, and being awesome.

UPDATE! You can find the photo shoot in this magazine, a ten page spread! ElEGANT November 2018 Issue 16

 

38488664_10100294699088058_1448027839931613184_n

Behind the scene shoots. All amazing