This Monday's blog features the irrepressible Madame Askew, time traveler, tea enthusiast, and proponent of the fine art of tea dueling, where one settles differences with tea and biscuits rather than bullets and guns. She is also known for her clothing construction and corsetry, as Lady in Waiting Fashions. Making her home in Tuscon, Arizona, Madame Askew has wielded her teapots at Wild West Con, AetherFest, and other steampunk conventions.
How would you define/describe yourself?
I think I start from a place of optimism. I always endeavor to find the very best in the people around me, the experiences of my life and the places I visit. I adore people as individuals in the vast myriad of unique ways each person exists. Interacting with people, creating spaces of laughter or inspiration really feeds my soul. My, an extrovert, and it certainly shows! Nothing picks me up after a bad day quite like spending quality times with a friend or group of friends. It’s rare that I want to hide away and hibernate though it does happen.
For all of my love of spending time with people and my excitement for life, I am fundamentally an artist which does mean a great deal of time spent working in a solitary environment. Long ago I had a vocal coach tell me that for some of us to be happy in the world, we would always need to do some type of art, in some manner. I have found this to be very true, and I have been fortunate to have my life filled with both the performing and creative arts, especially in recent years. Not only do I have the opportunity to build costumes and see them grace the bodies of many wonderful people, but I also get to stand before small bands to large crowds of people and entertain them with my merry band of tea drinking fiends.
Given
that I pursue art as well as volunteer in my local community
extensively, I am grateful that a final facet of my character is that I
am what some might charitably call driven and others might describe as a
workaholic. I love doing and filling my life with acts of creativity,
giving and performing. I firmly attribute this to a drama teacher I had
in middle school, Tyrone Wilkerson, who chastised those of us in class
for squandering our time. He gave a compelling and inspiring speech
about filling every moment with something that feeds our brains, our
souls or both. I have tried to live my life with that speech propelling
me forward.
How did you find Steampunk?
Like
many people in our wonderful community, I believe I found Steampunk
long before I found the term. I remember watching the classic Disney
adaptations of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and Journey to the
Center of the Earth with great glee. I loved the aesthetic and the
costumes. I wanted to be in those places. As I was older, I began to
seek out books that captured that same feeling. For quite sometime I had
quite the challenge tracking them down. I didn’t quite know how to
describe them to librarians, and of course, I’m old enough to have lived
before searching by internet was a possibility. It was The Difference
Engine by Sterling and Gibson and then Death of a Necromancer by Martha
Wells that finally introduced me to the term. From there, it was a few
years before I discovered that there was an entire subculture that had
sprung to life. The internet was certainly a boon in that exploration,
often making a community that would have been too far away very
accessible.
Describe one of your creative processes.
For
my costumes, I like to start with a scenario, activity, or destination
that drives the function and then look of the costume. For instance, I
might have a client who wants to be a lady airship captain. Rather than
doing a visual search of modern costumes by other designers – whose work I
love but I never like to emulate too closely – I go to the historical
record of the nineteenth century. I start by doing a visual search of
photographic plates or drawings. In this case, I would start by
searching for female adventurers of the era or female military costumes.
An airship captain, after all, would need to be able to move
practically and efficiently on her ship. The visual search might send me
down the trail of particular historical figures and how they managed to
live and work in their field. Often there will be more pictures and
some historical notes about why they wore this or chose that equipment. I
take all of those details and throw them into the blender of my
imagination, and then add in what I know about the particular character
of my client. From there I often do some sketching to try to capture
what I’m envisioning.
Who or what inspires you?
I
have been incredibly fortunate to meet many amazing humans. These
individuals have inspired me in countless ways, and the list is
extremely long. However, there are several particularly inspirational
figures in my life. My grandfather was an inventor, engineer,
independent thinker, and one of the most genuinely gracious humans I
have known. He taught me how to build things in the workshop, how to
dream about design, and to believe that everything was possible. He also
told me when I was very young to remember that every human was born the
same and that it was our actions that set us apart. My dear mentor,
Carlos Tuttle, in high school provided me with a great deal of life
coaching which I believe saved me from treading down a path of
bitterness and self-serving. When I was distressed that I could never
repay him for his support, he agreed that I should in fact not even
attempt to repay *him* but to pay back my debt by helping others in the
future. My dear Aunt Kristi has forged a life of art and happiness. I
have watched her dedicate herself and find a balance that is true to her
vision even while it may not always be a secure or easy road. She
taught me what it meant to pursue work as an artist. Finally, for this
very short list, my dear teacher, Mrs. Grongberg, showed me the power of
intellectual integrity and words, especially poetry, and opened my mind
to a new way of seeing the world. When life has been difficult, I have
been able to return to those lessons and find some poem that lifts my
soul.
What has been your greatest adventure?
Honestly,
life as a performer. In my early 20s, I gave up pursuing a career
as a performer for a host of reasons that seemed very sensible, wise,
and practical at the time. That decision left a hole in my heart. In
this later phase of my life, I have had the great gift of performing
again, regularly. I am humbled and frequently in awe of that gift. That, of course, has been mostly a metaphysical adventure.
What projects are you working on right now?
Currently,
I am very fortunate to have an extremely full queue of projects for
clients and backers. I’m making a variety of tea duelling sashes for
people I truly adore, several waistcoats for gentlemen who deserve to be
dressed to the absolute nines, and a couple of corsets. I am especially
thrilled about the corsets as one is for a client who has never owned
one before and another is for a friend who has weathered a rough few
months. I may also get to work on a Japanese Steampunk ensemble,
including a corset obi, and I hope a summer weight ensemble for Madame
Askew will soon be in the works. What advice do you have for young Steampunks?
