Warning: Image heavy post to follow, for as promised – my tribal fusion bellydance belt!

TA-DA!

Now, as to how I made it, it wouldn’t have been possible without a belt base I got from my friend Tamsin. I have a tendency to be very matchy-matchy-monochrome, while Tribal Fusion’s ethos tends to let a plethora of colours coexist—and somehow, they don’t end up clashing. Problem is, I can’t do this without it being forced upon me. Starting with the belt base from Tamsin helped greatly. The base itself is the multi-coloured band with a stretch velvet backing; it already had the little knobbly bits and the coins at the bottom.

The colours within it are some I would never have used/put together, but it also has several of my “dance colours”: specific pinks, blues, and greens.

Next on the belt came danglies! I was very methodical about these, spacing them evenly. Out of the six specific danglies on my belt, two are pendants from Tamsin (she’s my tribal costuming guru) and the other four are diamonds of steel chainmail (what, you thought something I touched would get away without maille on it?). I’m hoping the steel gets dull and/or rusts eventually, because that’ll give it an additional texture.

A “traditional” tribal fusion belt (as traditional as they get) wouldn’t be complete without yarn swag. I used a combination of thick/thin yarn that was frogged from a charity shop scarf and a dark pink wavy yarn that I’d previously used for a hat. I put two just-past-kneelength swags in the front, and then a bustly-type puff at the back. I also stuck some chain scraps in with the front swags.

Here’s the secret about my danglies and yarn, though—as a Poor Postgrad, I wanted my belt to be as multi-functional as possible. As yarn swags’ colours can dominate a costume (particularly if you choose ridiculously bright like me), I didn’t want my swags to be permanent. Thus multifunctional here means being able to switch things out. I did this by putting keyrings on the inside of the belt! However, I didn’t sew the keyrings directly to the belt – I was worried that would be too weak. Instead, I placed a piece of felt over them and  sewed around the outside and inside upper half of the rings, then put a few large “holding” stitches that looped all the way around the keyrings. Then, every swag and dangly was put on a small ring and hooked onto the keyring, like so:

Instachange!

Another common item on tribal fusion belts are medallions, usually at the front and placed over the hipbones to accentuate movement. For this reason, it’s especially good for them to be big and bright. On my belt, the placement wasn’t difficult to find—the base ends and stretch velvet begins exactly where my hipbones are. I was actually spoiled for choice, as I’d received two lovely and large beaded medallions from Tamsin—but I’d also been talked into making prototype chainmail medallions by my lovely tribal fusion teacher, Laura Monteith of Sarasvati.

It took me about two and a half hours for one, plus the time sewing it onto the base (felt covered in green stretch velvet), and I really wanted to use the final pair! Thus, I took a page out of Mardi Love of The Indigo’s book and put my maille medallions over my hipbones—and then put the ones from Tamsin on the back! These were all safety-pinned in, so I can move them about and switch them up at my leisure.

Next time, permanent additions to the belt base!

Tags: bellydance,maille,tribal fusion
Categories: projects
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Well! Ravelympics is half over, and life has since intervened and given me very little time to knit. However! After a couple tries, the Bishops are created, and Pawns are nearly done!

For some reason even though both of these are simpler designs than the King and Queen they took much longer, being ripped out several times. I still haven’t figured out a proper base that will let them stand, either. After this, the Rook and the Knight remain. The latter will be definitely the most difficult piece, both to create and just to knit—I’m envisioning lots of shaping. The Rook may also prove difficult, as I’d really like to create a square tower. If that doesn’t pan out, it’ll be a round one with crenellations, but here’s hoping.

In other crafts, I’ve been costuming like CRAZY. That would be some of above-mentioned the life intervening—there’s a tribal b-dance performance in three weeks, and I’m making most of my costume from bits and bobs. I’m retrofitting a pair of trousers, revamping a drape, bustling a skirt, figuring out a headdress*, and making a belt. Next week sometime I’ll post exactly how I went about making it, but until then, look at the pretty hip-medallions I chainmailled this weekend!

The one on the left is the “raw” product, while the other is sewn onto a circle made of felt and covered with green stretch velvet. Nice, solid, and just stiff enough that the maille and the circle don’t go floppy. Thinking of branching out into peacock-coloured medallions, and am making a pair of the basic ones for my awesome teacher!

And that’s it for now; Lysse-bird out.

* I’ve got a headdress!**

** Please ignore the inside joke.

Tags: bellydance,knit,maille,ravelympics
Categories: knit, maille
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YAY RAVELYMPICS!

I have a confession to make. I didn’t have the wherewithal to withstand a lack of fiberwork in my life—so on Friday I started asphyxiation from the anticraft. I managed to finish one motif before Ravelympics cast-on, and thus can put it away (without worrying it will fall apart) for the next few weeks.

Shiny crochet thread!

But on to Ravelympics! The first “event” I’m competing in is Designer Original Dance, where one must knit or crochet a design sample (but not necessarily write or edit the pattern). What am I designing? A chess set!

The King and Queen

My inspiration was the fact that I could only find a few chess sets on Ravelry (and only one knittable, the others being crochet), and I didn’t really like the designs. I became a bit of a chess set snob when working years ago at the swordshop (we sold chess sets, too), and thus decided to throw together a design of my own. So far only the king is finished, and the queen is halfway there. The rook should be easy, the knight should make me kill things, and I’m not quite sure what’s going to happen with the pawn. Or the bishop.

If I finish my other Ravelympics events, I might have to redevelop this into a Chinese chess set. They have CANNON.

And on that note, so long and Happy Chinese New Year!

Categories: crochet, knit, projects
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I’m not knitting anything currently, and it’s driving me absolutely mad. I can’t even cast on, because I don’t want to start anything until this next weekend. Why? Because it’s

RAVELYMPICS!

Ravelympics began two years ago (during the last Summer Olympics) as a Big To-Do on Ravelry. Coinciding with the Olympics, there’s different “events”, each representing a fiberworking goal.  I haven’t decided yet exactly which events I’m going to participate in, so I can’t give you an idea of what my updates will look like. I’m definitely going to try my hand at designing something for the first time, and might be knitting a hat, shawl, and/or socks. And I’d feel a bit silly if I didn’t do something toylike, as I started learning more knitting techniques simply because I love amigurumi.

However, I have the conundrum as to when I shall actually begin the Ravelympics. Cast-on is not allowed until the Olympics Opening Ceremony (and to win an event, you must be finished with it by the end of the closing ceremony). But since I’m a landmass and pond away from Toronto, the Opening Ceremony doesn’t start here until 2am on Saturday. I don’t do well with all-nighters. I’d go to bed early and get up early, but I’ve a dance performance that Friday. Alas!

Well, we shall see how this turns out. Will be blogging about the Ravelympics throughout the month. Until then!

Categories: Arts, knit
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Whoo. After that long post on BD, felt like I also owed a quick seperate post on the other things this blog deals with: actual crafting, and academia. On the crafting side, I’ve two things soon to come. First is my first home-made BD costume, finished last week. Secondly,  and currently “on the needles”, is a knitted bag made with my first hand-spun yarn (it will potentially be felted). Also, the Ravelympics are coming up, which means I’ll be knitting like a crazy person, and hopefully blogging about it.

Finally, a few knitting links. There are two sites that I can’t recommend enough. The first is KnittngHelp, which not only has instructions and illustrations for pretty much all the basic stitches, increases, decreases, and styles of knitting, but has VIDEOS. Wonderfully clear VIDEOS!!! The second (which is linked to at the side) is ravelry, which is a marketplace/database/social networking site for knitting, crocheting, spinning, and other fibre art. You can keep track of your yarn, projects, needles, and hooks, organize a queue of projects you want to do (and buy a lot of the patterns and yarn for them!), and wander about favouriting projects and patterns like a crazy person. Oh, and chat about knitting and your other passions in the internal groups. Which sometimes do secret exchanges. SO MUCH FUN. You have to sign up and wait for an invite to join, but it is TOTALLY WORTH IT.

That’s it. Lysse-bird out.

Tags: knit,maintenance,projects
Categories: knit, maintenance
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I spend far too much time lurking on Bhuz. This is mostly because I have always loved costumiery and atypical/ahistorical clothing (see my doctoral thesis subject!). Thus  I really (REALLY) enjoy wandering about the costuming pages, seeing what the wonderful ladies are working on, getting inspired for costumes I’ll probably never make, and just gleeing over pretty shinies.

But one thing I’ve noticed –and find upsetting—is that there’s a lot of crankiness towards tribal fusion dancers (and, occasionally, ATS/ITS women). Now, I’m sure if I were visiting a board dominated by tribal dancers of all stripes, there would be annoyance expressed towards more traditional bellydance styles. But what I find worrisome is the antagonistic divide that I see developing (has developed?) between Egyptian bellydance and tribal fusion bellydance—and that TF is often said not to be bellydance.

What, then, is bellydance?

I don’t have an answer for that yet. But I think it’s an important question to ask. What I find alarming in these discussion on TF, however, is what I’m going to dub “stylistic blinders”. Note above that I mentioned Egyptian BD and TFBD specifically. ATS/ITS is usually given a “pass” as still be part of bellydance, though “very different from tradition” (aside, the one beledi workshop I took made me think that ATS/ITS is simply structuring movements and adopting the attitude already in beledi—not directly, but it had the same “feel”). Meanwhile, the anti-fusion discussions tend to come from a strictly Egyptian BD outlook. But what about Lebanese and Turkish?

Lebanese and Turkish style BD are the ancestors of American Cabaret—which some people classify as “Vintage Orientale”, for some reason. As if calling a bellydance style “American” makes it dirty or inauthentic. On the other hand, to me “Vintage Orientale” sounds old-fashioned and has that potentially-hazardous term “oriental” in it. AmCab itself was the foundation of Bal-Anat, the grandmother troupe of ATS/ITS. Tribal Fusion, by using movements from ATS/ITS while breaking its codification, returns to the soloist and group traditions of Bal-Anat and AmCab. While Modern Egyptian BD has drawn influences from non-Arabic dance forms such as ballet (for arms) and jazz (for steps, leaps, and other stylizations), Tribal Fusion has replaced these with flamenco (for arms) and hip-hop (for steps, leaps, and other stylizations). Tribal Fusion is the natural grandchild of AmCab via the ATS/ITS tradition.

The second argument I hear often against Tribal Fusion is that “Arabs don’t like it”. I prefer to here this as “people from the Lands of Dance don’t like it”, simply because who is Arabic is quite a difficult question. Turkish people, for example, are usually not classified as Arabic—but Turkey is certainly one of the Lands of Dance! The Lands of Dance are usually considered to be (first) Egypt, then Turkey, followed by many other regions around the Mediterranean and Northern Africa. But anyone who denies that bellydance is now global would be a bit of an idiot, and many countries outside of the Lands of Dance have long traditions of bellydance. Thus we have AmCab and tribal from the USA; thus Russian bellydancers have their own distinctiveness.

Mind you, I firmly believe that fusion dancers should be grounded in a more “classical” form of BD, be it Egyptian, Turkish, Lebanese, or AmCab, and should also occasionally take workshops in more folkloric styles. Such is simply part of being an educated dancer.

But no one style is better, regardless of origin or history. Bellydancers pride themselves on being welcoming to women of all sizes. We shouldn’t draw divisions amongst ourselves based on differences, be it size or style. Why can’t we all just get along?

Now, mind you, these are all just my basic observations, and I hope that I’ll get comments. Regardless, I’m already brainstorming on the Issue of Authenticity.

But for now, that’s the lysse-bird out.

Tags: academic,bellydance
Categories: Arts
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I have two very good excuses for disappearing off the blogosphere in the past few months. Firstly, I was in fact working feverishly on a crafty-type project, but it was a gift—thus, no blogging (but more on that!). Secondly, I caught a case of “Hallo, I’m Typhoid Mary,” which began with a supposed-but-untested case of the H1N1 and followed by a lovely viral infection. What I hope is the death throes of my bout of illness was the most severe case of strep throat I’ve ever had—I’m still finishing up my pills, which are the same size (though not shape) as the painkillers we used to give to horses. HORSES, PEOPLE.

So what was I working on so feverishly amidst my fevers? Why, a Christmas nativity—but not the one posted previously! Although it’s the same pattern, it was a different set, to the detriment of my mother’s set. However, it was her idea, so she wasn’t allowed to complain. You see, my sister-type-friend Katze got married two days after Christmas, and I believe in giving heirloom-type-gifts for weddings (fun fact: Katze is one of the few people who calls me Lysse all the time. Thus, her parents, in-laws, sister, and husband all know me as Lysse. I’m not sure any of them know my full name…). Lo, so the stars aligned: Christmas wedding + heirloom = Nativity! I was working on it feverishly until the week of Christmas, and still bear the brand-new callouses to prove it. At one point I was knitting so much that I put a hole in my finger. The crease at my joint couldn’t take the pressure anymore (literally), and split through the first layer. I slapped a bandage on it and soldiered onward.

And thus came to be the Wedding Nativity.

Now I have to finish Mum’s for NEXT year.

Note: Nativity pattern is “Christmas Crib” from Jean Greenhowe’s Christmas Special book, available from several online retailers.

Tags: knit,nativity
Categories: knit, maintenance
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…as much as that sounds like fun. Rather, I’ve just been ULTRA MEGA UBER BUSY (EXTREME!!!), and thus have not had much time to think on the arts OR academia. For those curious, the latter is keeping me the busiest, but the former has, in fact, been getting some attention despite the academic madness in my life.

So this is just a quick note. As it’s never too early to start thinking about NaNoWriMo, which I will of course be blogging about, I have been thinking on a naming scheme for secondary and tertiary characters. I’m trying to decide on alphabetical (Amos nodded at Beatrice, who blushed and looked away. But Carter could see her rosy cheeks clearly, and new he’d have to tell Dana all about it in the evening…) or most-recent-name from the Spam filter (I’d write a sample, but I thought of this right after I cleared out my Spam). Any thoughts or comments?

In other news, does anyone know how to do footnotes in WordPress?

Tags: NaNoWriMo,writing
Categories: creative writing, uncategorized
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I actually went to some of the smaller Fringe shows this year! The first on my to-see list was The Legend of Kaulula’au, written by Keali’iwahine Hokoana and performed by Moses Goods III. However, I know I’m far too biased to give it a proper review, as part of my family lives in Hawai’i (my heart’s home) and it hit my soul with the first blast of the conch shell, which I haven’t heard since my grandfather’s funeral. However, I think I can say without too much nostalgic colouration that it was very well done. It could have gone wrong if the right person hadn’t performed it, but Moses Goods made the legend come alive—and at the same time, made me feel like I was sitting on the shores of Maui listening to a local storyteller.

My next show was the Princess Cabaret. It was, as the review said, well-done, funny, cheeky and sassy. The songs were mostly well-sung and amusing in and of themselves, and the re-characterization of the Disney Princesses was hilarious. My favourite moment, hands-down, was when Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), woken into the 21st century, takes one look around the modern streets, and shrieks, “A darkie! Walking around like he owns the place!” However, I felt a little twinge knowing that there’s still places in the world where such statements would be considered “acceptable speech”—and that is so far away from funny that it makes me feel a little sick. Because of this, it only beat the Segway/segue joke because, well, that’s a little dated. My one wish for the show, however, is that it had some sort of overarching plot to connect the vignettes together, as they grew increasingly random as the show went on, with a skit dropped here and there that seemed to call for something overarching. The ending would have been a lot more satisfying that way, too.

Following this (the same day, even) was a one-and-a-half hour version of Hamlet by Two-Day Productions from St Andrews “in the style of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells”. Let me warn you, first, that my two BIG THINGS when it comes to theatre are costuming and stage combat, having a background in both. I was expecting something far more steampunk than it was, but the costuming was interesting at least. I was a bit distracted by Ophelia’s busk, which looked more like a proper underwear corset, and with the rest of her outfit made her look a little too crazy to begin with. I loved Gertrude’s long skirt, fitted shirt and lady’s-style riding jacket, however, and Laertes’s coat, which was a green frock coat that seemed to have words printed over it. The acting was generally what is to be expected at a young-university level, though Hamlet’s portrayer was excellent (particularly with the almost manic mood changes). Ophelia was also good at the crazy, and Gertrude did quite well with both distress and dying. Conversely, I couldn’t stand it when Polonius was on stage: I was glad when he died simply so I wouldn’t have to watch that actor any more. It seemed like he was phoning it in—though I think he just wasn’t very good. The final fight scene was excellent. Flynning, yes, and the kills weren’t quite convincing (though that may be because I was in the front row), but the choreography was active and well-executed.

“The Magic Flute” by Shadwell Opera from Cambridge was a highlight! I had never seen it before, despite the fact that I grew up with the soundtrack and story. Their costuming choices were interesting and a little cheesy, but every single voice was spectacular. Extra praise goes to the Queen of the Night, who (according to her bio in the bulletin), did not have a major background in opera. Papageno and Papagena were hilarious, Monostatos was the villain you wanted to hate (he got “boos” instead of cheers at the end—that’s how good he was at making us at him), Pamina was sweet and melancholy, Tamino was a love-struck hero. The text was in English, but that made one of the plot points extra delightful: in a rather pared-down set, there was no tree for Papageno to hang himself from, so they wrote the available hatrack into the libretto. The only low point, sadly, came at the end, and left a bit of a foul taste in the mouth. The final celebration scene appeared more like an orgy (though props to the guy in drag!), and Tamino/Pamina’s kiss went on for a little too long. And in a small venue, it was very obvious that there was tongue. It wasn’t appropriate for the work, and mildly disrespectful to the audience as well.

The highest point of my festival, however, was Tao. It was so amazing, in fact, that I saw it once on my own, and went back with some friends. The first time, I left the theatre practically floating from glee. The next, I couldn’t stop smiling. In fact, I bought the DVD, and I think I’ll go watch this, as Tao is the final show in my Fringe list. Don’t take my word on how fun Tao was, though—this entry is over, so check out their website and watch the intro video! And then, of course, tell me what you think.

Categories: uncategorized
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Following off of yesterday, I didn’t just go to talks and signings at the Book Festival. I also went to three workshops: on fantasy, on writing for teens, and on graphic novels.

I’m afraid to say that the one on fantasy was mildly disappointing. It was more of a “basics of writing” with fantasy overlaid on top, and I didn’t learn too much. What I did learn, however, was excellent, and I really wish that it had been more of that. The most helpful bit (as I’m planning on writing a steampunk novel for next NaNoWriMo) was on ‘tech level’. That is, it should be established early within the context of the novel. If you’ve got swords within the first ten pages, don’t save the zeppelins for a hundred pages in, or else your reader will be quite thrown.

I honestly don’t remember too much about “Writing Graphic Novels”, other than the fact that it was fun. The presenter also really drove home the point of choosing the moments of your story to illustrate, to choose the ones that really move it forward. He had as look at this by handing out pages with nine panels on them, and then having us scribble-illustrate the most important plot moments from one of three movies: Jaws, The Wizard of Oz, or Star Wars. It was HARD! He also discussed panel transitions, and all of these together really hit home. Of course, now I feel like I have to rewrite the series that I’ve been slowly illustrating…

Finally, the workshop for teenage stories was helpful mostly because of the writing exercises we did. The presenter was really intent on getting us into the shoes of a teenage protagonist, so we practiced creating one and wrote a few things in their voice—the hardest of which was describing yourself (the author) through the character’s eyes. And then we went on an adjective-free adventure, and I nearly died. Those latter four words, by the way? Typical of “teenage” writing. Hyperbole is important—“teenage” voices often resonant when they look at the world through a dichotomy of “it was the most awesome/awful thing ever!” Luckily, my Californian roots lead me to write like that anyway. I mean, totally.

Overall, three books reached the forefront of recommendations. Stephen King’s On Writing was highly recommended by both the fantasy and the teenage-writing presenters, and as I’ve been intending to read it anyway, I need to pick it up. Conversely, Scott McCloud’s writings was recommended by the graphic novel presenter and came up in the Ian Rankin/Neil Gaiman talk. Finally, Writing for Comics by Alan Moore was recommended by Mark Millar, and referenced by Neil Gaiman (who never read the book, having received the advice straight from Mr. Moore’s lips).

Overall, this year at the Book Festival really felt like the Year of the Graphic Novel Comic Book.

Geez, I hate the term “graphic novel”. It sounds so pretentious. It’s a comic, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Hmph.

Tags: books,comics,festival,writing
Categories: creative writing
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