The Greater Bay Area Costumers Guild Presents:
Costume Academy 2008

Sunday, March 9th, 2008 - 9:30am-4:30pm
Language Science Institute (LSI), Berkeley, CA

Instructor Bios

Trystan L. Bass

When she was five years old, Trystan loved to dress up in black tights and a trench coat to play Mrs. Peel from "The Avengers." She's been wearing funny clothes ever since. Having learned to sew at her mother's knee, Trystan's dearest hobby has always been creating her own fantasy, gothic, and historical outfits. She has worked Renaissance faires, judged science fiction masquerades, organized countless costumed events, and launched the Greater Bay Area Costumers Guild into cyberspace. Stuff she makes can be seen on www.trystancraft.com.

Aurie Bradley

Aurie Bradley has been researching, designing and sewing costumes since she was 16, when her mother told her she could never find store bought clothes that fit. She has been a member of the GBACG, the Costume Society of America, the Costume Society (of Great Britain), National Civil War Association, the Renaissance Military Society, the Single Action Shooting Society and the SCA. For the past 25 years, she has been involved with the costume departments of the Renaissance Pleasure Faire, the Heart of the Forest Renaissance Faire, and the Dickens Christmas Fair doing everything from teaching classes, approving costumes, sewing costume commissions and running and judging costume competitions. In real life, Aurie works in commercial real estate development. When she is not working or sewing, she is riding her horse in the Oakland hills or dancing with her historical dance troupe.

Bridget Bradley-Scaife

Bridget specializes in patterning and making reproduction clothing for historical reenactment. She started costuming at the age of 12 when she got involved in Renaissance Faires, since then she has expanded her love of costuming to all time periods as well as fantasy. Bridget teaches regularly at Costume College in LA and for the GBACG. She is an active member in the GBACG as the Guild's Web Administrator.

Judith Hollenberger Dunlap

Judith is a long time GBACG member, first time instructor. She enjoys collecting and sewing historical clothing, especially of the Victorian and Belle Epoque eras.

Kathe Gust

After a hiatus of almost 20 years since studying stage costuming at University of Arizona, Kathe converted the spare bedroom back into the 'Sewing Room of Shame' in 2003 inspired by Ngila Dickson's Rohan costumes for Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. She has been costuming steadily ever since, and learning additional skills such as custom leathertooling to add to the authenticity of her work. For an overview of her work please visit Kathe's website at www.celefinniel.webhop.net.

Teresa Liao

Although she learned to sew as soon as she could hold needle and thread as a child, Teresa still feels relatively new to costuming, having made her first stab at a Renaissance gown eight years ago in an attempt to interest her high school English students in the world of Shakespeare. Her costuming interests now mirror her reading interests, with a decided bent towards the historical and an occasional dabble into science fiction and fantasy. Though the hobby has now taken on a life of its own outside the classroom, she still tries to incorporate her creations in the classroom setting, while trying to avoid the inevitable "Can you make my prom dress?" She has reciprocally applied her literary knowledge to the GBACG newsletter Finery for the past three years and looks forward to expanding her teaching role into the realm of costuming.

Lynn McMasters

Taught to sew by her grandmother, mother and aunt at a very early age, Lynn has never stopped; except for short periods of time to indulge in other hobbies (stained glass, woodworking, ceramics, silver jewelry casting and porcelain doll making). Indeed, at one point, she was making a hobby of collecting hobbies. Years ago she started a small business making and selling hand drawn patterns of historical costumes for dolls. In the past decade she has renewed her interest in period costumes and started making period costumes for humans and combined that interest with her computer drafting talent to start a line of historical hat patterns, “…out of a portrait, hat patterns” To view Lynn’s patterns check out www.lynnmcmasters.com. Lynn also loves to instruct others in costume subjects and has done so for GBACG, Costume College in Los Angeles, and several places in her home area of Santa Cruz. Lynn is a Graphic Artist/Scientific Illustrator by profession.

Anna Newman

For the past 10 years, Anna has been passionately devoted to her vintage clothing business, but she has been rescuing needy textiles since her mother first taught her to repair a much beloved Raggedy Ann. While appreciating priceless heirlooms swathed in acid free tissue, Anna prefers to wear her vintage clothing in everyday life, mixing it with contemporary fashion for a unique personal style. She is a trade member of the Vintage Fashion Guild and enjoys working as a costume designer for independent films. When not up to her elbows in suds reviving antique gowns, Anna works for Dreamworks Animation where she pesters the character FX team to get Fiona and the other Shrek women out of those ballet flats and into a decent pair of heels.

Susi Ostlund

Susi Ostlund has worked for Berkeley Rep, ACT, Beach Blanket Babylon and Jessica McClintock.

Kendra Van Cleave

Kendra has been creating historic costumes for over 14 years, with a particular fascination for the 1760-80s, 1870s, and 1910s. With an almost unnatural passion for stripes, she thinks all clothing should include box pleats and massive amounts of piping. She currently serves as Newsletter Editor of the GBACG, teaches at Costume College, and attends historic balls. She is also a participant at the Renaissance faires (Bella Donna Venetian Courtesans) and Dickens Fair (Oliver Twist). Visit her website Demode to see Kendra's costumes and the great costume resources she has available.

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