I live in Los Angeles with my wonderful and sexy guitar-wizard of a husband and amazing daughter. I have been in SoCal for most of my life with a brief stint in Vienna, Austria, which I miss terribly. My mother is a professional doll-maker and soft sculpture maker who taught me to sew when I was a child. She started doing craft and ren-faires when I was in grade school and I was bitten by the costume bug. My whole family fell victim to my new passion and I’m sure it was years before they started to look presentable. Now that I’m grown, physically anyway, I still indulge my desire to dress up at faires and on stage. I now costume staged operas and make myself at least one, big dress a year for the SoCal Renaissance Faire.
My real love has always been music which I got from my Father, a talented audio engineer. I have studied and performed opera for most of my life, and have also been in a couple of rock bands in LA, which is awesome! Opera will always be my first love but the personalities of rock musicians are a lot more… well… laid back, shall we say. HA!
My mother is a talented doll and animal artist who taught me to sew when I was a kid. Once I started costuming it was all over for me. I am self taught and have moved from “hey ma, lookit what I made” to wanting more and more accuracy in the historical pieces I make.
My concentration has mostly been on 16c Elizabethan clothing, but I have also explored other areas of 16c clothing, with a sprinkling of 17th-19th centuries. Wherever possible, I also try to make or modify accessories, such as hats, wigs, jewelry, etc.
Costuming Operas gave me the chance to combine all of my great loves into one project. As a singer, I understood what the cast needed. As a historical costumer, I understood how to get a cohesive look on a cast with varying budgets. I started out both singing and costuming productions, but when I was cast in Hansel & Gretel as the Sandman, understudying Gretel AND costuming a triple-cast show, I threw in the towel and would only do one job per show from then on!
I have very simple rules regarding costuming.