I have nothing against Fae characters at Faire. I love the amount of work some of them have put into their characters and garb. Some are astounding.
But we need to have a serious discussion about glitter bombs at Faire. It seems that a significant number of people dressed as Fae took Easter weekend as an opportunity to use glitter bomb eggs. What I'm hearing is that in addition to someone dressed as a Fae bombing Queen Margaret of Scarborough in the face, others were bombed elsewhere including some now irate photographers.
The cast of our faires donate a large chunk of their year to make our faire dream come alive for us.
Photographers spend a lot of time and money getting good photos of us and our faires which theyr share freely.
Glitter is potentially blinding if it gets in the eyes and does enough damage. Glitter inside a camera body or lens is destructive in the extreme.
If you don't want Fae characters to end up being banned from most faires, please talk to anyone you know and stress how bad this is. If a faire gets sued over someone's injury, this could happen. Of course some of the offenders may not have been Fae characters. The ones that were stood out more in people's perception. In Texas this would be considered simple assault so the offender would not only have the faire to deal with, but the courts also.
-I'll get off my soap box now, thanks for listening-
*Sigh*
Unfortunately there are some fey players out there who confuse 'childlike' with 'childish'.
An innocent, childlike wonder of a cute fairy can be conveyed without props like glitter and bubbles (both of which can stain or ruin a gown). I have seen it done.
I also don't think people understand how HARD it is to get glitter out of costumes/garb. I had to spend an hour going over my white vampiretts dresses because one of the girls 'had' to have body glitter on her and everything else. One of our guys had it glued practically into his hair.
I hate glitter.... :-X
It is also hard avoiding the kids who buy 'fairy dust' in those glass wands, they automatically assume everybody wants that krap on them. Our fairies (the professional ones anyway) don't glitter bomb at all because children will copy them and assume that it is acceptable behavior.
Just one thing to add, Dona was right that in TX it can be a simple assault but it someone suffers grievious bodily harm, eye damage, that is considered an aggravated assault and is a felony. Just something more to think about.
Glitter....the Herpes of the craft world! :P
Quote from: Amyj on April 26, 2011, 05:30:56 PM
Glitter....the Herpes of the craft world! :P
:D. And about as hard to get rid of....
Has anyone heard that Queen Margaret is okay? I can't believe someone is stupid enough to pull this kind of stunt.
Quote from: Dinobabe on April 26, 2011, 04:01:02 PM
I hate glitter.... :-X
Right there with you, and for someone to assume its "okay" to do such a thing is completely unprofessional. Fae or not.
Quote from: Merlin the Elder on April 26, 2011, 09:32:20 PM
Has anyone heard that Queen Margaret is okay? I can't believe someone is stupid enough to pull this kind of stunt.
She's fine, Merlin. Luckily not a lot got into her eyes (though some did), and she was pretty upbeat about the whole thing. Though I hear she's joking about what happens when she blows her nose at the moment. ;)
Quote from: lys1022 on April 27, 2011, 09:01:18 AM
Though I hear she's joking about what happens when she blows her nose at the moment. ;)
Hey guys! Look at this.... :o
What a trooper she is! I'm glad to hear that there wasn't any serious damage to her eyes.
Who were the photgraphers that were assaulted? If you track my posts, you will get a good idea of my response if they try that on me.
Stalk well...
The photographer was not someone I personally know. It was at another faire, but a friend of mine said something about the incident. the only thing the incidents had in common was apparently easter weekend.
Glitter Nuked! ...crosses way over the line- http://thelastword.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/05/17/6663502-newt-gingrich-hit-with-glitter?gt1=43001 (http://thelastword.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/05/17/6663502-newt-gingrich-hit-with-glitter?gt1=43001)
Karma can be hell...
There's a fine line between glitter and what some people use that's called shimmer powder. Shimmer powder isn't hard to wash out, and it's quite rare that it does get on my garb. Having said that, glitter bombs, whether used in fun or in any other way can be both dangerous and quite annoying. Hopefully it won't happen again.
Glad no one threw glitter at me at Scarby. My eyesight is bad enough. Any idea how glitter feels under a hard contact lens? Run your fingernail over your eyeball!
Krama nothing that is assualt and if someone does something like that to me they better to ready to pick themself off the ground or if they are smart craw away. Its long past time fools like that learn there is a cost to there foul behavior
Since Easter is during faire season, I think it appropriate to remind everyone that glitter filled Easter eggs are not a good thing to throw at people in the parade or anywhere on the faire grounds.
However, (biodegradable) confetti filled eggs are lots of fun! Just make sure they're dyed with colorfast dyes, so there is no chance of damaging anyone's lovely garb!
Yeah, I saw those, a few of the eggs were broken on the display at Walmart. The confetti is very color intense and bright; I expected pastel for Easter.
I would definately test the dye transfer on it before using it around expensive clothes, by laying some on a paper towel soaked with hot water. There is always a broken egg or two on the display, so it should be easy to get a free sample.
If it's not colorfast, and until it breaks down or is swept up, it can still get on or in clothing (thus dying the cloth through sweat or finding it's way into the washer), and could even transfer to damp leather or feet if someone walks over it later.
Last year at KyHRF the rose sellers were selling roses that you could buy to have them filled with the super fine glitter and bomb your love one with. I flat out told those girls that if they did that around my booth that if any glitter got on the outfits I had displayed for a friend that they would be purchasing said outfits. All 3 had been hand painted and embellished and one was velvet. I had them in my booth because she has a tent and it was raining, plus I stored them in there during the week so they didn't get ruined by the elements.
They got one of the cast members so bad that you couldn't even see any skin just head to toe glitter ( it was her birthday. ), guess it was a good thing she plays a fairy.
If someone did that to me they would regret it in more ways than possible. ::)
those confetti eggs are interesting lol. I shook a package today and the stuff gets in more places than glitter lol.
Oh, wow... I've never even SEEN them for sale! We've always just made our OWN! They're a party favor from Spain called cascarones (they originated in China, though, and traveled quite a ways before making it to Spain, via Italy, possibly with Marco Polo), and it's believed to bring good luck and good fortune to someone if they have one broken over their head. We make them by cracking the small end of the shell, emptying it (reserving the eggs for a cake or something), filling it with tissue paper confetti that we've made with the 3-hole punch, then gluing tissue paper over the open end before painting the shells with enamel paints (like for models). We make sure to let them dry for a week or two before we use them, just to make absolutely sure there can be no color transfer, and then we have fun favoring our friends and family with good luck! :D
Speaking for myself, I would really hate to see the grounds at faire covered with confetti. I know paper's biodegradable but it doesn't dissolve and disappear overnight. If the weather's dry, the confetti may look bright and cheerful the first day or two. But think about after it starts getting walked all over, ground into the dirt, gravel, straw. And then there's the rain. Yep, nothing says 'Good times at faire!' to me like pathways littered with soggy gray scraps of trash.
Quote from: Rani Zemirah on March 23, 2012, 11:23:24 PM
Oh, wow... I've never even SEEN them for sale! We've always just made our OWN! They're a party favor from Spain called cascarones (they originated in China, though, and traveled quite a ways before making it to Spain, via Italy, possibly with Marco Polo), and it's believed to bring good luck and good fortune to someone if they have one broken over their head. We make them by cracking the small end of the shell, emptying it (reserving the eggs for a cake or something), filling it with tissue paper confetti that we've made with the 3-hole punch, then gluing tissue paper over the open end before painting the shells with enamel paints (like for models). We make sure to let them dry for a week or two before we use them, just to make absolutely sure there can be no color transfer, and then we have fun favoring our friends and family with good luck! :D
You can get them at WalMart.
They did switch from the dark red/blue confetti to the pink/ green stuff. The confetti doesn't look like punched paper, instead it looks like some kind of cheap mache paste that was mixed with color, smeared on something, dried and scraped off. I think there would be less color transfer from the contents than from the shells which are still bright, primary colors.
They are sold in egg cartons. but I don't think they are real egg shells. They are advertised on the Walmart site as cascarones.
Quote from: Rowen MacD on March 28, 2012, 12:14:40 PM
Quote from: Rani Zemirah on March 23, 2012, 11:23:24 PM
Oh, wow... I've never even SEEN them for sale! We've always just made our OWN! They're a party favor from Spain called cascarones (they originated in China, though, and traveled quite a ways before making it to Spain, via Italy, possibly with Marco Polo), and it's believed to bring good luck and good fortune to someone if they have one broken over their head. We make them by cracking the small end of the shell, emptying it (reserving the eggs for a cake or something), filling it with tissue paper confetti that we've made with the 3-hole punch, then gluing tissue paper over the open end before painting the shells with enamel paints (like for models). We make sure to let them dry for a week or two before we use them, just to make absolutely sure there can be no color transfer, and then we have fun favoring our friends and family with good luck! :D
You can get them at WalMart.
They did switch from the dark red/blue confetti to the pink/ green stuff. The confetti doesn't look like punched paper, instead it looks like some kind of cheap mache paste that was mixed with color, smeared on something, dried and scraped off. I think there would be less color transfer from the contents than from the shells which are still bright, primary colors.
They are sold in egg cartons. but I don't think they are real egg shells. They are advertised on the Walmart site as cascarones.
Hmmm.... doesn't sound anywhere near as fun or pretty as the hand made ones. Of course, things that have time and effort put into them always seem much more festive to me.
I agree-I've seen some gorgeous examples of the hand made variety that were too pretty to break ^_^. Don't they sometimes fill them with little cut out doll and snowflake shapes?
Quote from: Rowen MacD on March 29, 2012, 08:04:47 AM
I agree-I've seen some gorgeous examples of the hand made variety that were too pretty to break ^_^. Don't they sometimes fill them with little cut out doll and snowflake shapes?
Oh, I haven't seen that before! I would imagine they would have to be tiny to still look like confetti... I can't even imagine! lol I guess I could see using the tiny paper punches for something like that, though. We have a heart shaped punch that we use for making confetti on Valentine's Day, and I could see something that size (about 1/2") fitting in an egg. I've seen them occasionally made out of ostrich eggs, also, and those are pretty huge. They're usually used for something, or someONE, extremely special, though... or presented as a gift.
Now I want to make some Cascarones for Ostara! I think we'll make those instead of Easter eggs this year, and use the eggs for custard filled cream puffs... ;D