My Complete Gabby Costume
But perhaps I should start out with what was NOT so great. My brother didn't make it this year. He started school the day after the convention, so it was a bit iffy on whether he was going to make it or not. As a result, I didn't send out the money for the tickets until two weeks before the event. The day before the convention, I still hadn't received the tickets... but I was determined to go anyway.
Now, let's move on to what made this convention so great. First, the guests on Sunday, August 26, 2001 were Tsianina Joelson who played Varia, the Amazon leader in season six and Alexandra Tydings, the goddess of love! I was excited to see them, but I still wasn't quite as excited about the guests as the two previous years. The show was over, the convention crowds were getting smaller, and two of the guests -- Claire Stansfield and Alexandra Tydings -- had been to the Cherry Hill convention before. Also, I was still kinda bummed out about the tickets and had no idea if I was going to have to pay a second time when we got there. I needed to do something different this year. Something to put a bit of added excitement back into the convention. I needed... I needed... to dress up! And I don't mean in just a Xena t-shirt. Everybody does that.
Alow me to back up a bit here. Last winter break, I made my first Gabrielle staff. My main goal was just to see if I could do it. It turned out okay, but I knew I could do better. Then over spring break, I made a braided leather headband out of a belt, designed to look like the headband Gabby often wore. My first project over summer break was making Classic Gabby's green top. Love it or hate it, it's part of the outfit that comes to mind when most people think of Xena's spunky blonde sidekick. My second project was to redesign my Gabby staff. Again, the point behind all these projects was just to see if I could do it.
It was two days before the convention. I had a headband, a staff, a green top, and material for a skirt. The main thing that was holding off production of the skirt was that I couldn't find a strip of leather long enough to make the waistband. Also, I wasn't completely thrilled with the color of the material I had found. Once piece was too red, the other, not red enough. In any case, I began to wonder if I could actually pull off a complete Gabrielle costume in time for the convention. I just worked so hard on the rest of it and wanted to show it off for possibly the last convention I'd ever see.
The only problem was, I didn't have any boots and I wasn't going to go dressed as Gabrielle without some kind boots on my feet. So I made myself a promise. If I could find some kind -- any kind -- of boots that might work with my costume when I went to work at Wal-Mart the next day, I would make up a quick skirt the night before the convention and go dressed as Gabrielle.
The next day, I went to work and lo and behold, there they were... a little darker brown than I'd like, but they were plain enough to work. And the best part was... they only cost $15! I suppose it was fate. Then I bought some felt to make a temporary waistband for my skirt... but I had one other problem... After working all summer in Wal-Mart, I was as white as a blind cave salamander -- so I was forced to take drastic measures and purchace a bottle of sunless tan... don't laugh, even the pros use it!
And so, on the day of the convention, I ended up looking like this:
The day of the convention we had a pretty good trip... No phantom traffic jams on the Jersey Turnpike like last year. And we didn't end up finding ourselves lost in Camden either! We only got a little lost when we got to Cherry Hill and went the wrong way on Rt 70.
We got to the Hilton at exactly 1pm and went up to the registration table. I told them that we sent the money, but never got our tickets. The woman asked for the name and then looked through her list. Nope, she couldn't find it. Then she turned back to the first page and there was my name... at the top... penciled in! The seat they gave me was M11. Boy, I just keep moving on up, don't I? Two years ago it was row "S", last year, row "N" and now row "M"! And this year, the Preferred Seating actually ended on row "Q", I think. My parents just got General Admission tickets because they aren't as crazy about getting autographs as I am.
Just then a girl walks up to me, "Wow! That is a really great costume! You mind if I take a picture.
I grinned. "Oh, sure!" I was expecting some people to want to take my picture, but I had just walked in the door.
Then somebody taps me on the shoulder. I turn around to see a girl with long black hair, wearing a red pantsuit, a white blouse, with a chakram hanging from her belt. "Guess who I am," she says.
"Oh! Oh! You're... uhh" Just imagine, I don't get toungetied talking with the actors from the show, but here I am with a fellow fan and my mind just goes completely blank. I'm thinking, I know she's from "The Xena Scrolls" and I know she's Xena's character... but what was her name? What was her name?! Janice or Mel? Shoot! Which one did Gabby play? "You're uhh, uhh..." Gods, I felt like Joxer.
"From the Xena Scrolls," she prompted.
I nodded. "I know... I know you're Xena's character, I just can't remember if it's Janice or Mel..."
"It's Mel."
"Right!" Whew! I hadn't seen that episode in so long!
"So," the girl went on, "Are you going to be in the costume contest?"
"Yep."
"So am I."
Although I still felt a little silly at not remembering if she was Janice or Mel, I also felt exuberated. My third Xena convention and I had finally made real contact with another fan. And all it took was wearing a Gabrielle costume.
I got some scripts that I planned to buy. My favorite episode, "The Quill is Mightier..." (which I snatched up when I first got there), "Eternal Bonds" and "Lyre, Lyre, Hearts on Fire".
I also got issue 22 of the official Xena magazine and photos of Aphrodite and Varia for autographing.
Here are some of the highlights from Sunday, August 26, 2001:
TSIANINA JOELSON (Varia) - Seeing Tsianina in person was... well... the "funnest"!
ALEXANDRA TYDINGS (Aphrodite) - Alex had a blast with the fans and with promoting herself like crazy.
COSTUME CONTEST - Read about all the costumed characters there and my other contacts with fellow fans!
AUTOGRAPHS - See my autographs and some nice closeups of Tsianina and Alexandra taken at the autograph table.
Xena: Warrior Princess and all things Xena herein are (c) 1995-2001 Renaissance Pictures and MCA/Universal. No challenge of ownership to trademarked property is intended or implied.