My final project in my fall design class. We were allowed to choose any project we wished to design. The Tempest has been one of my dream projects for quite some time. I never had a solid idea of what I would do if handed the play, but the strange fantastic Shakespearean play has always fascinated me. Here is small handful of costumes from that project.

My main influence on this particular piece was Art Nouveau. The movement itself is very lovely, fantastic, and surreal that it captured the essence of this play. Digging around in the Art Nouveau world, I found what attracted me most wasn't so much the prints of Alphonse Mucha, but the strange yet lovely pieces of jewelry, sculpture, and architecture that filled this period.

Like with A Midsummer Night Dream, The Tempest can be considered a "frilly fairy" play, full of flowing chiffon and glitter. Though that can be a lovely look, I wanted to go for a more surreal artistic look, especially with Ariel. The air spirit's look is completely based of a strange dragon fly brooch I found. Caliban look can be found in a Tiffany's stain-glass lamp of a catfish. Prospero's staff was once a fire place poker.

Overall I was very pleased with the strange look of the fantasy creatures and I felt the watercolors gave the show a lovely sun faded look, as if they were all living on a sunny island.