One of my favorite parts of Serpent’s Mark was the masquerade. So it was one of the things I wanted to someday represent with photos, too. I made their clothes and masks, and… well, yeah. I previously shared these on Instagram and thought it would be nice to group them here.
* * *
Firal breathed in relief as her escort disappeared among the other dancers. She turned to start back for the banquet when gloved hands folded over her eyes from behind.
“Guess who,” a familiar voice whispered at her ear.
She touched the soft leather gloves and resisted the smile that tugged at her lips. “Ran?”
He chuckled. “Not quite.”
“You dance?”
He stifled a laugh. “Uncivilized as your stories portray my people, having rank among them does bring courtly demands.”
Firal’s eyes narrowed. “What are you doing here?”
“At the moment, I’m enjoying myself.”
“If you’re here because you think I won’t hold my end of our agreement, you don’t need to worry.”
“Full of ourselves, aren’t we?” He twirled her underneath his arm and reeled her in, holding her back to his chest. He squeezed her tight and bowed his head beside her ear. “I’m not here to see you.”
That’s all from this set. There were a few other shots, but I think this gets the idea across.
Now, a bit about the projects. The dress was actually the first thing I ever made for Firal, so it was her only dress for a very long time. I didn’t make her mageling robes until much later!
Daemon’s outfit came much later. The hardest part ended up being the mask, which was made from craft foam and embossed using my Silhouette Cameo 3. I expected the gold lines to be drawn on with the pen that did the embossing, but it didn’t leave any marks at all and I ended up having to hand paint every line. If I ever make it again, I’d like it to be a little more shaped to fit his face. Her mask was much easier, made with dimensional fabric paint hand-painted onto tulle with a fine brush.
His outfit was surprisingly easy, save the frustration of the trim I wanted not coming in gold. I ended up laying it out on foil and hand-painting it with gold acrylic. It’s plain cotton lace, otherwise, but I think it gives the implication of embroidery nicely enough. The jacket pattern is loosely based on an Indian sherwani, made shorter, and I actually used my very old pattern for USMC dress blues as a starting point. The sleeves and collar are incredibly similar, but simplified because I didn’t want to use a lining. I’d originally wanted black dupioni silk for the outfit, but it was outside of my price range, so polyester shantung ended up being the fabric of choice… Sometimes I think about redoing that outfit with the fabric I really wanted, and possibly remaking the dress for Firal.
Maybe something to consider if I ever get that embroidery machine, because I know my hands won’t hold up for doing real embroidery for long!