Grace | 2008

Grace | Soulfire | 2008

About: Soulfire‘s Grace holds deep meaning for me, specifically because of her dragonfly iconography. Dragonflies are important to my family and I because of a poem someone sent to us after my brother’s passing. When I saw that Grace had a dragonfly tattoo in the same spot as my own, I put her on my short-list of costumes. After meeting Michael Turner at SDCC in 2007 – who was hugely influential to me in my journey into comics – I decided to make the costume as a surprise for the following year. His untimely passing didn’t change my intent, but it did change the costume’s execution. I opted for one of Grace’s somber black dresses rather than one of the more iconic designs.

The dress was crafted using a modified evening gown pattern. After sewing the dress, I painted the intricate cloud pattern onto the fabric, adding a hand-painted dragonfly and gems for detail. Completing the ensemble were golden shoes, an adorned crown made of Wonderflex, and a purple and black wig enhanced with glitter spray.

The most challenging part was creating the wings, which I wanted to resemble flesh and bone. Using thick metal wire, polyester batting, liquid latex, and iridescent cloth, I crafted the wings to attach to a corset under the dress, although it was quite painful to wear – I hadn’t quite figured out the importance of show-floor comfort at that point. Despite the challenges, I felt regal wearing the costume. Visiting the Aspen booth at SDCC was an emotional moment, where the creators and community supported one another in their grief at Turner’s passing.

A new version of Grace remains a bucket-list item for me. Someday I’d love to remake her wings fully extended and shoot on a cliff bluff at sunrise to do her proper justice.

Makeup & Photography: Photos by BlankLogo Photography and Ljinto. Makeup by H Makeup.

Click to expand /view photo credits in the gallery below!