Dieselpunk “Siri” (crafted from old telephone parts, cords, salvaged bits, fiber optics and old zip ties.) | Image by Dim Horizon Studios
My name is Paige Gardner and I’m an costume builder with a penchant for using salvaged items, thrift store oddments and eccentric resources. I don’t make them for sale or commission. They’re simply art projects that took on a higher profile than I expected. It gives me immense pleasure to work on costume builds – with no idea where the materials are going to come from. It’s like a therapeutic challenge to find the things that can re-worked, recycled, re-purposed into a costuming project.
My costuming specialty is taking existing garments/found items and re-purposing or reconstructing them into stage-worthy costuming, Steampunk gear, masks, art and props with the most basic of tools and elements. I tend to refer to it as “no-sew, low-pro” costuming as I will use safety pins, key rings, wire, grommets, curtain clips, fabric glue and other shortcuts to build costuming. (I don’t know how to sew)
My goal is to encourage folks who want to costume… to make that move, to try their hand at creating some of their own gear or costuming, to give them some confidence that even artistic vision can be realized with a limited skill set and small resources. As a tightly-budgeted and largely skill-free costume builder, I’m excited to discover and share every kind of hack, shortcut and work-around that allows folks like me to pursue big costuming goals!
Costume Artist 