The finished products, done is perfect!

After much ado I've finally gotten some photos of my wings on stage! I'm quite impressed with my cupid wings, they take a lot of abuse on stage but that aluminum sculpture wire is a trooper. Also, discovered plus of my flapping mechanism is that they move when she runs, a whole personality is added. Now that the show is up it's on to the next project. (Hint: It's bustle season)

Cupid telling the audience what's what

They really drape across her body when she lays down.

I'm quite bummed, I worked so hard to mimic the moth the designer liked on the backside of these wings, and the girl barely turns around!!

I just love this photo.

The fly really is quite creepy. Those goggles are made of woven together strips of lighting gel, nugold wire, mason jar lids, and leather with elastic.

I mean...it's a weird opera

Another rare shot of cupid's back

Oh yes, I also made some fast and dirty wings for Mercury's headband. 

I cannot escape wings

This past month I've been tirelessly working on creating some bug wings. Though I have made them in the past, each set came with it's own little aspects. One needed to flutter, the other was a quick change.
Since I had a month to research and create, the patterning was very rushed. I made a  small 1/2 scale mock up of the flutter mechanism, did some research into aluminum sculpture wire, and went about convincing my designer that the "floppy" wings really did need some structure to them. The "moth" wings are made of goose, duck, hen, pheasant, and guinea feathers covering a structure of powernet, buckram, and sculptor wire. All that is then connected to a boned coutil rectangle which rests between the singer's shoulders.
Orpheus in the Underworld opens this Thursday March 6 in the Festival theatre at KCPA.

Hot glue, while terrible for everything else, is wonderful for connecting feathers to powernet.

letting everything settle and cool

The moth body, cleverly hiding the flapping mechanism.

Front view of the wings, when the chain is pulled the wings will flap!

All done! you can see the original sketch between the wings!

The "Fly" which is really more like a flying ant (don't tell a designer they're wrong) is made of stretch, cotton brocade, and velvet for the body, and organza, feather-weight boning, and plastic braid for the wings.

The pieces of the body pre-attatching.

The back of the fly had a bike helmut clasp for easy in and out. 

The front of the fly

Almost done! the wings have black feathers at their base not yet pictured here.