Custom Clothing Leotards – Body Painting by Cat

Hand painted Upcyled 2nd hand silk dress occasion/ wedding

April 11, 2014April 12, 2014 by BodypaintingbyCat, posted in Custom Clothing Leotards

July 2013

I’d several occasions this year requiring dresses and not enough budget to buy the few I actually liked – so I decided to make my own. I set a max Ebay bid on a few plain silk dresses of good makes that I knew fitted (mainly Monsoon) and refused to look until after each auction ended. I won 2 – both under £25 for dresses that had cost over £100 new, as each had a small stain that wouldn’t dry clean out.

As an experiment it seemed worth it!

I pinned the dress to a large cardboard box and began slowly outlining then silk-painting an abstract plant design with dandelions in my favourite colours. This took days and killed my bad wrist!

I was a bit annoyed that the intensity of the paints washed out even after fixing – I had to wash it to remove the clear gutta outliner.

But it still looked fab! Its first outing was to Nic & Petes’ wedding, my face body- painter & model combo.

I drove down to my mum’s in Bristol and Laurence collected me on Sat a.m. For the drive down to Falmouth. Traffic (and rain) was so slow we dashed into a supermarket toilet to change (I was fastest!) and made it to the sunning church on the cliff on time.

Without knowing it, Jennie, Helen and myself all matched the bridesmaids colours!

Fab shots by Anthony Greenwood

I didn’t hurl on the reception boat (yay all those years living on one in Hong Kong worked? Though I was queasy in dock). Amazing weekend and congrats to the very happy couple.

The dress I’m still loving – its done my brother in laws wedding and the Gogogorilla’s launch so far!

Fire & Water Glitter Tattoo Decorated Leotards

February 7, 2014February 10, 2014 by BodypaintingbyCat, posted in Clubbing, Custom Clothing Leotards, Dance Costumes MakeUp, Glitter Tattoos, Pole Dancing

March 2012

I have created several leotards for Symone of Pole Paradise HK in the past, as she needs to have fabric protecting her limbs when she is doing hoop acrobatic shows and wanted unique costumes.

She contacted me when I was at home in the UK and asked me to do two, one for her and one for her husband for an upcoming show.

I started Jose’s red tribal flame design with the leotard stretched over my trust shop dummy, but found that awkward to move about and hard to paint on.

I use the bottles and applicators I sell here. Videos of me waffling in so you can literally watch the glue dry…

I then managed to find an inflatable shop dummy to do Symone’s watery design blue leotard on, as of course she was in HK, so couldn’t fill out the leotards as I worked.

It usually takes several layers of glue, dried in between, to create a design sticky enough for the glitter to adhere too. Fabric glue does not work well – it dries too stiff- so I stick to my normal prosthetic adhesive which I knew does NOT wash out if you get it inot clothes, no matter how I try!

I also mainly use my cosmetic glitters from Facade, as I know that the dyes in them won’t leak and run.

Luckily this time the leotards ‘took’ the glue well and I was able to complete them within a week.

I delivered them to Symone when I was over to face paint at the Rugby 7’s.

We met up near the (in?)Famous Hong Kong Lady’s Market (it does have an ‘interesting’ range of men’s underwear!) as I’d had a request from my brother in Barbados for a few knock-off items.

I don’t think I’d ever bought any fakes when I was living in HK, and typically, visiting for a short period so rushing round this time, it turned out there had been a huge police crack-down on fakes and there were few to be found!

The show looks like it went well and as the leotards can be hand-washed (I cool-machine-wash some of my glittered shirts) they can be used many times.

Face & Body Paint at Hong Kong Rugby 7s 2012

February 4, 2014February 7, 2014 by BodypaintingbyCat, posted in animal zoo face paint, Body Paint, Custom Clothing Leotards, Rugby Sevens Face Body paint, Sport Event face painting

March 2012

Yay once again for being booked by the HK Youth Arts Foundation to lead their artist team at this fantastic sporting (and costume) event, the HK Rugby 7’s! It’s an awful lot of work; I have to sort out (via a stock list from them) what to order from UK face & body art suppliers to last the team for the entire 3 day event (and for other events that year), then get it shipped out or packed to go with me.

As soon as I arrive in HK, I have to sort and clean the old kits and refill/ make the new ones. New stencil sets of the main logos and motifs for all the countries and their teams have to be cut for each artist. New photo/ design sheets for each artists and signs the public are made, and a training day is held for the actual painters.

This year they also wanted a workshop for school-kids who would be painting 100’s of other children for a Circus-themed Mardi- Gras event YAF were running later that year. Yuk, clowns, they scare me But the kids did really well.

And of course I was stuffing down as much of my favourite local foods as I could- salty fish-and-pork fried rice, dim sum… I almost cried as my favourite sushi bar had closed though:(

I also had to squeeze in some glitter art on people who couldn’t make it to the stadium early enough to be painted by me before the queuing started – they came to my hotel and I stuck their donations into the charity boxes next day. They wanted to have ‘patches’ of glitter to match their animal themed costumes, on their shoulders and necks and face, mainly – frog, reptile and giraffe I think it was.

Meeting the crew early at the staff entrance to the stadium is always interesting, as there are so many different things to see. This year I saw all the chinese lion/ dragon dance teams setting up. They looked amazing on the pitch for the opening and closing ceremonies.

After the scandal a paper created a couple of years back I have stuck to the promo bodypaint being on a guy or a girl with a top on. This year, last minute, they nabbed me a student of YAf’s called Max who spent a quick hour stood on a chair whilst I did a fast dragon on him. The horns are just folded paper but look effective for a last minute thing! Boy with the dragon tattoo!

Lots of painting…

We painted the usual team faces, mash-ups and pretty/ scary things…

…. but the strangest request I have EVER had goes to this man who got passed along the painters to me! He wanted a Ninja round-housing a boxing dinosaur. I did it!

I finally me Karen Yiu who I have sent some clients to after I left HK as she is based there. She very kindly took me out for dim sum and gave me some amazing moon cakes too! Thank you!

We were allowed to pack away to watch the finals (also because our stands take up prime viewing spots the public needed).

So I finally get to see the costumes. We did NOT paint the smurfs here – note the bad quality paint has just vanished leaving a stain!

And aren’t these carved safety helmets amazing? The Welsh guys had asked the people they were working with (in Africa?) to do them as that’s how local miners etc decorated theirs! Sadly I recognised a lady with the strange spotty sunburn as one of the bunch I had glitter-tattoo’d on Friday night – she forgot the glitter acts like sunblock and got a bit toasted in the rugby stands!

We did well in the media again, lots of filming and a nice big piece in the SCMP, the huge English paper there. Gareth, my avatar from about 4 years ago, finally got to be a published model!

Thanks to everyone for a fab week!

Tantrwm Steampunk Body Paint Glitter Tattoo Film

January 27, 2014January 28, 2014 by BodypaintingbyCat, posted in Body Paint, Custom Clothing Leotards, Glitter Tattoos

Feb 2012

I had seen a stunning piece of film shot about Simon Smith when he bodypainted a female Predator warrior on Mel (my Frost Fae last year), shot by Tantrwm Films.

I commented to them that it was one of the only beautifully shot bits of bodyart I had ever seen – sadly far too often we get portrayed as a bit of a laugh or a silly giggle or a bit rude, at best as fast reportage type stuff. But this was stunning and nicely serious, just perfect.

To my delight the film crew asked if I’d like to create a clip too! Yes please! They planned these as a taster to show backers and companies they hoped to interest in doing a longer film about the UK bodyart industry.

So I drove over to Wales (yes its the opposite coast of the UK, but I got to stay with my mum for the weekend and she got to see Finley), in Feb, to meet them.

A friend of theirs, singer Catryn Southall, had a new album coming out with an ordinary-people-can-be heroes- theme and we’d worked up a vague alt superhero idea. She has an amazing career, check out her site!

Enroute I’d stopped at Facade glitter, who had some new greys, greens and dark green metalli glitters I was keen to try. Luckily Catryn liked the idea of a steamp-punk-cyborg look, so I set to work.

Over big pants and custom-cut bra inserts (made to look like an array of cogs and gears) I brushed a base of metallic powders and mixing liquids with some Kryolan Interferenz.

I then stencilled many areas with a computer-cut large stencil I found on eBay, and some smaller DIY ones I had made.

Finally, using the cosmetic adhesives and bottles I sell here, I did sort of circuit-board freehand glitter tattoos all over her.

It was funny as our nicknames were both ‘Cat’, so whenever the film-man asked 1 of us to move we both did!

Here is their film – I LOVE it, its magical! OOOOOoooooo! Hope they get to do the whole thing!

my terrible snip of the artwork:

Gilgamesh Body Painted Snake Voldemort Dancers Jan 2012

January 27, 2014January 27, 2014 by BodypaintingbyCat, posted in animal zoo face paint, Body Paint, Clubbing, Custom Clothing Leotards, Dance Costumes MakeUp, evening Ball Entertainment, Glitter Tattoos

For the second time I had the interesting booking at Gilgamesh, decorating dancers for the annual party/ show hosted by some online internet gambling sites.

As usual Gilgamesh is a stunning venue in London’s Camden Locks, several floors of luxurious carved extravagant exotica. This year the theme was a sort of evolution for the show, starting with special effects MUA Sammm‘s slimed clay man bursting out of a bubble/ egg latex thing and culminating in my snake dancers.

My brief, again an interesting one, was for ‘sexy snake dancers with Voldemort heads’. Hmm! Samm had created some latex facial bits and we wrapped their long hair in tape to make it look strange too.

All sorts of chaos was going on around us and some of the props looked… interesting…:) His expression cracks me up!

I used mainly Grimas and Diamond FX body paints, with home-made and machine-made-shop-bought flexible stencils.

There were real live snakes dancing with angels too.

There was a hiccup when the show had to be moved from the main stage to downstairs, to a more public stage. This meant dozens of topless acts got sent back up to get on some sort of pasties (nipple covers) as the police/ public passing by could now see in. Luckily Sammm had some spare bits of scaly latex we glued (using the glitter tattoo glue I sell) on to our ladies.

I even had to paint big more obvious pants onto them as G-strings were deemed too skimpy! First time I’ve had to paint knickers on – I usually work on models already IN big pants.

SheRa-Zena leotard Glitter Body Tattoo

January 21, 2014January 21, 2014 by BodypaintingbyCat, posted in Clubbing, Custom Clothing Leotards, Dance Costumes MakeUp, Glitter Tattoos, Pole Dancing

HK March 2011

I was let down by a couple of other models/ shoots that had been ‘booked’ whilst I was in Hong Kong, so my last free day before returning to the UK, I was able to get another leotard glittered for Symone instead. I was contacted by a couple of photographers after I advertised at short notice on Facebook, and they met us at Pole Paradise HK’s studios, where Symone had a gap from lunch until 5-ish between teaching.

She asked for something a bit armour-like and in reds, as she’d already a pinkish and a greenish suit I had decorated for her and wanted to be able to expand the colours/ themes she danced in them.

The leotard was a new type from a new supplier, and was not as thick/ nice fabric as her usual dance-wear. I started gluing; usually it takes 2 or 3 coats of the glue, dried between coats, for the glue to stop sinking into the fabric and actually stay tacky, ready for the glitter, on the surface of the cloth.

1st problem; the glue sort of rolled off this fabric and didn’t want to sink in at all! A lot of fiddling and after a while it mostly started to work as expected.

2nd problem; it would NOT dry. The air con was off, to keep Symone warm, and I was fanning the glue…it took over 40 mins for the 1st coat to dry!

And then I ended up having to do FOUR more coats, with elongated drying times, to get the glue to work!

We had to give up with far less of the costume glued than I had planned, as we were running out of time (Symone had to have the pro final picture shoot before she started teaching her next dance class). Plus I was running out of glue!

Albert of shizznitt.com had once again set up his time-lapse video equipment and was able to stay & talk this time which was lovely.

Anyway I finished glittering etc and Symone joined Kevin for her shoot.

The sword (a big, real, heavy, thing!) was what inspired the design, which Symone decided was a mixture of She-Ra and Xena warrior princess, hence the Shera-Zena title!

Symone had on the tallest heels I have ever seen too, yet still managed to do all sorts of moves and poses on pole and hoop!

This is her She-Ra pose.:)

And this is her finished leotard collection…

Kevin also did some funky editing to stick in different backgrounds….The AMAZING video by Albert is

Back in Hong Kong, March ’11- Step by Step Pheonix glitter tattoo leotard

January 7, 2014January 21, 2014 by BodypaintingbyCat, posted in Custom Clothing Leotards, Glitter Tattoos, Pole Dancing

The HK Youth Arts Foundation kindly once again invited me to be the lead artist/ sole bodypainter for the HK Rugby 7s, and as in 2009 (when I was in NZ) flew me to Hong Kong to take part. And this time put me up in a lovely hotel as well (before I either was living in HK or borrowed a friend’s place to stay).

After 6 hrs on a bus, 13 in a plane and another 90 min bus transfer, I arrived late Tuesday, pigged on my fave sushi, (not the HK delicacy of fish-heads as in the menu below!) stocked up on local essentials like Apple juice with Aloe chunks and crispy egg tarts, and crashed into bed.

I had a free day on Wednesday so arranged to meet up with (and decorate) my friend & glitter muse, Symone of Pole Paradise. I arrived at her studio full of jetlag, but excited to be back in HK – its a lovely city I feel very comfy/ safe in, and if not for the pollution/ the climate’s effect on my toddler, we would have happily kept living there.

Symone asked for a feathery glitter tattoo leotard to perform her aerial silk/ hoop routines in. She had a new white suit on, ready to be glittered, so I started on that as we blathered away at each other catching up on what hadn’t been said in a year of emails & facebook. She also read the article on my glitter work in the Spring Issue of Illusion Magazine, as a lot of that was really about her, although all the photos they used were from newer, then unpublished, shoots of mine (see previous posts on here!).

Albert of shizznitt.com who did the brilliant speeded-up video of me doing a goth necklace body glitter tatt on Symone last year – video here – had to work elsewhere, but set up his camera system and left it to auto-record the process of the peacock glitter leotard.

It was interesting doing a white rather than flesh-tone leotard (is my 1st on white!) as the green crumbs of facepaint I use to tint the glue (which otherwise dries invisible, as it goes clear) showed up darker and darker as it dried.

The design morphed from abstract feathery peacock into a very chinese-paper-cut style pheonix, really. When I had glued (3 layers so it stops soaking into the cloth and stays tacky on the surface) and glittered the front, we stopped for lunch (she ordered in some of my fave fried rice – I MISSED HK food!!!).

As usual we were fitting in with her teaching schedule so had most of the afternoon to paint and shoot the results in, before her evening dance students arrived. I think we did maybe 3 hours work on the glitter, about the normal time….

Darren LeBeuf, the photog who shot the last bodypaint event I did before we left HK (Canadian Chamber of Commerce Northern Lights themed ball) popped in to take pro shots for us.

Albert has done the time-lapse video which I have to share. She honestly is NOT as much of a chatterbox as she looks, we were nattering plus Symone has to run her studio from her mobile whilst we work!

Thanks to Symone, Al, and Darren.

LOVE the music too, Al!

Leaf Pixie/ Earth Elemental Body Glitter Tattoo Shoot Norwich

January 7, 2014January 28, 2014 by BodypaintingbyCat, posted in Custom Clothing Leotards, Glitter Tattoos, PublishedBody Paint, Uncategorized

Another shoot from last year (Nov), with photos embargo’d until now when the March 2011 Issue of Illusion Magazine, which contained them, was published. Been killing me to keep them hidden, loved these!

This was with Hayley Bird again, who was able to fill in when a model cancelled on this shoot at short notice.

Victoria and I had seen each other’s online portfolios and wanted to work together; she had studio access but was keen on an autumnal shoot too. Seeing a it was a chilly November, I thought a glitter tattoo would be best, as clothes can be worn over it so the model could be painted elsewhere (ie in a WARM house), and travel to the shoot/ stay in clothes during the shoot, would be best.

The leaves on her torso too 3 hours; I had already gathered a bunch of real autumn leaves and decorated them with the same glitters. Hayley did her hair and makeup, I added Glitzer glitter gel and a little paint on top.

We met Victoria at Mousehold Woods in Norwich. I slashed up a jumper Hayley didn’t mind being ruined so she had coverage over her back/ sides, then she leapt around (barefoot!) posing in trees, leaf litter, bracken etc.

We surprised a few dog walkers but most of the cyclists completely missed us – not sure why, we had Hayley’s rolling suitcase of clothes etc with us so were fairly obvious!

Just when her toes were about to snap off, we returned to the studio to warm her up and get a different set of shots. I had to leave to go paint faces with a Star Wars club for Children In Need, so had a lovely surprise when the super-fast Victoria sent the Cd the NEXT day!! Wow.

HK Pole Dance Championships

October 2, 2013January 17, 2014 by BodypaintingbyCat, posted in Clubbing, Custom Clothing Leotards, Dance Costumes MakeUp, Glitter Tattoos, Pole Dancing

I have painted and Glitter tattoo’d a lot of Pole Dancers in HK, either to pole dance or exhibit another dance form such as aerial silks, aerial hoop, acrobatics, etc. Its not like you often hear of in the USA and other countries, where its a sleezy men’s club thing; these ladies are true acrobats and some were professional athletes too, and many compete internationally in dance.

So I was lucky enough to be asked to decorate my friend Symone for her entry, and Tessa, another lady I had glittered at the Cancer Charity Ball.

Tessa wanted a UV/ tribal look to go with the wild, african, acrobatic performance she planned. She ultimately won; and I was glad to see they remembered the UV lights for her performance. She looked amazing and is off to represent the EU in the World Championships!

Symone had spent hours sewing 100s of large diamontes etc onto a bra and knickers, so I designed a splattering of shaded pastel glitter spots to match. She won the best costume award and looked amazing as usual!

Symone

Tessa

HK Rugby 7s Day 2&3 Avatar Body Paints

October 2, 2013January 17, 2014 by BodypaintingbyCat, posted in animal zoo face paint, Custom Clothing Leotards, Dance Costumes MakeUp, Face Painting, PublishedBody Paint, Rugby Sevens Face Body paint, Sport Event face painting

March 2010

The usual – I arrived early to start bodypainting my regulars and some new clients who all booked in in advance by email.

They pay a fee directly into the charity box and I have approx 1 hour to decorate them. Chris & co wanted to be RED Avatar aliens this year, with HK white flowers on them to support their country.

Gareth was my blue Avatar; he’d gone all out, dyeing his shoes and shorts blue, and making a leather ‘skirt’.

What was funny was when we were emailing back and forth, I mentioned he’d probably want to make some ethnic leather & feather jewellery to go, and that I had some braided thongs (as in necklaces) I was making for the other avatars if he need them. He thought I meant a butt thong as the aliens wore in the film!

Gareth looked perfect, and was mobbed all day – he said he hardly saw his girlfriend and didn’t want to smoke as he had kids following him in awe. On the plus side he was let into the ‘closed’ South stand as a TV crew there wanted to interview him!

Avatar at HK Rugby 7’s

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