Items made from costumes or costume materials

At the Xena Convention, as part of the prop and costume presentation, I disparaged Rittenhouse's costume cards as "a costume collector's nightmare" -- and that's because Rittenhouse didn't just make cards out of leftover costume materials, but actually purchased costumes from the It's A Wrap! sales and cut them up to make "collectible" cards like this one:

I do understand their appeal: not every Xena fan wants the responsibility of taking care of a costume (nor the expense, frankly). But for a costume collector, the idea of costumes being cut up into little 1-inch squares is horrific.

In a completely different category are custom made items using leftover materials from costume making -- such materials were auctioned off during the Turners Pacific Renaissance auction in Auckland, back in May 2001. Some really beautiful items in this category are Tedra's custom made Xena-themed books which incorporate materials such as brown leather leftover from making Lucy Lawless' Xena hero costume, or fabric from a late season Gabrielle costume skirt, etc....

As a professional bookbinder, Tedra is able to combine these pieces of costume materials into a coherent design that would make any Xena fan happy. This Xena Journal also incorporates a ring that is part of the Xena brown leathers costume: it connects the shoulder strap into the top of the bodice.

This closeup shot highlights the piece of Xena brown leather costume material and here, Tedra is using it to bring the yin-yang chakram design into focus on the cover of the Journal.

Here is a Gabrielle Journal that uses a small piece of leftover fabric from making a 5th Season Gabrielle skirt. With the raised sais and braided strips as "sai ties", this wonderful journal design is instantly iconic.

Here is a closeup shot of that piece of skirt fabric.

Check out Tedra's site for other custom-made books -- scroll down near the bottom of her "past projects" page for a great collection of Xena-themed projects.

Happy Hunting!