Smoke and Mirrors... FOR SALE!!

OK folks, yes, it's true, I have a piece for sale!!  Perfect for those of you who want a dark coloured belt, without too much black...

Smokey gunmetal grey satin, half overlaid with blank Venice lace - look fabulous over colours as the colour shows up the detail in the lace.  Added to that are a series of shop-bought elements with grey crystal rondelles, rivolis, and beads, and some clear rhinestone accents.  To that I have added hematite sequins, silver plated chandelier crystals, hematite seed beads and silver bugle beads, and some old Kuchi coins, scalloped and plain.  Phew!  And for accents on the belt ends, there are a pair of small (for a child, I suspect) solid silver alloy Yemeni bracelets - these are sturdily attached with clear nylon monofilament, and surrounded with silver and hematite beadwork in an Art Deco inspired design.

This beauty is then backed with sturdy denim and plain smooth black polycotton, with a pair of D-rings hidden under the Yemeni bracelets which are used to tie the belt on using any piece of fabric or ribbon you like.  She weighs a nice even 1lb (465g) so sits easily on your hips.

Sizes: belt is 33" long from D-ring to D-ring, can fit any size depending on the space you're happy to have between the D-rings.  Width-wise, this belt comes in at little over 3.5" (around 9cm)

Here's some pictures for drooling over... ;)

With flash

No flash - detail of belt end

Detail of belt end with flash

Coiled and ready to be wrapped around your hips!

Inside of belt, neatly lined in black polycotton, complete with 'Monteith Creations' label!

So... how much for this slice of delicious bling to adorn your hips, and highlight your hipwork as you dance?

Special introductory offer - seeing as it is my first piece ever for sale... only £120 plus p&p!

And how do you get your mitts on this beauty?  Email me at monteith.creations@yahoo.co.uk

Oh, and Kali, my feline quality tester, has had a good look at this one and it has her paw of approval.  She apologises if any of her stray hairs have gotten on the belt!  And neither of us smoke... ;)

Smoke and Mirrors...

Which can be used to describe the art of the magician, or it could be used to describe the new belt I'm currently working on!

Yes, wasn't on my list of things to do as per my last post, but the stuff all came together in my head (I have an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the stuff I have bought for costuming over the years).  Also, I'm waiting on doing a fitting and getting some measurements... so over the weekend, I started work on this...

Smoky gunmetal satin, black Venice lace, shop bought decorative elements repurposed for this belt, and you can see, in the bottom left hand corner, the hint of a pair of Yemeni silver bracelets (too small even for my tiny wrists) which form the main focus of decoration on the ends of this belt.  There's more beading and some super shiny chandelier crystals to be added, then I'll be posting more pics.

And yes, this one's for sale. I have more than enough costuming for myself!!  Full details coming soon... watch this space!!!

Coming soon...

What's up next for Monteith Creations??  Well, I'll be making a start on covering a bra for my lovely troupemate Ali, so I might take some pics of the process for a future blog post - maybe help any of you out there who are struggling to make your own costume bras!!

Of course, if even after me posting a 'how to' blog you're still none the wiser... you can commission me to cover a bra for you!  So if you want to do the fun bit yourself, the decorations, I can do your base on your own bra, and send it back to you.

Or of you want a fully made, ready to go, one of a kind bra made just for you... well, guess what?  I can do that too!! :D

After that, it's a custom headpiece for the lovely BatStork... in a darkly Gothic Victorian strumpet stylee!! ;-)

Keys to the Kingdom of Queen Bee

So, I've been making a lil' something of late...

This one is actually going to be auctioned to raise funds for a lovely dance friend of mine.  As soon as bidding opens, I'll post the link here :)  Go bid on it when it does. She's an awesome gal, and you can read more about why we're raising funds - and donate - here

I call this one... Keys to the Kingdom of Queen Bee.

Here's Queen Bee, in all her glory.  I had to take the photo without flash as this one is very sparkly!!

Here's the Keys to the Kingdom.  Note the one on the left, it has a nifty wee skull motif!

Here she is in all her glory...

And with flash... argh my eyes!!!  The shineys!!!

And here's Kali, my cat.  Kali does quality control, so there may be the odd stray hair from her lovely coat!

Helloo there, interwebnets peoples!!

OK, sooo... not only do I dance/teach/run a troupe/organise events, and have a day job, a family, a boyfriend, a flat and of course a cat, but I also make stuff* for bellydancers, mostly on the Tribal Fusion side of things.

Sometimes it's stuff for myself, or custom made for friends/students, sometimes I just make stuff... whatever the mind/eyes/hands want to make.

And so, I'll post that stuff here.  If you wanna buy it, then you can email me at monteith_creations@yahoo.co.uk

*By "stuff" I mean costuming and jewellery!!