Hello! As I'm the team captain of DIY Raqs, I thought it might make sense to start out this blog by introducing myself. I sell under my stage name auralynne, making flower hairpieces, jewelry, and exotic accessories. In real life, I'm mostly a living room dancer, but I'm constantly making resolutions to become more!
I started belly dancing back in 2003, and by financial necessity made most of my own costumes. I got the idea for my business in 2006. My sister was graduating from highschool, and I wanted to make her something special. I crafted a belt and armbands from sari fabric and made her a matching hairpiece - yarn and cowrie falls attached to a clip with flowers on top. She wore the hairpiece to class and everyone wanted one!
On a whim I made a few more and put them up on ebay. I surprised myself by selling them all. Since then I've made a bunch more hairpieces, custom length tribal flare pants, belts, bras, gloves, and arm cuffs. More recently I've started focusing on jewelry. I love having things that I've made that I can wear with street clothes that say, nope, I'm not normal and I'm loving every second of it!
Here are a few of my current favorite designs:
Bella Rosa was born out of my love affair with the Victorian era. When I discovered that rose cabochons, much like the one in my treasured antique necklace, were available new, I knew I had to design something out of them!
My Dragon Charmer jewelry is still a bit of a work in progress. Those earrings are so bulky! I'm working on some tiny matching "dragon's egg" earrings as a second, smaller option to the ones now.
Well I couldn't do a blog post about myself and not showcase at least one hairpiece! As you can see, I've lately gone more burlesque than tribal. Mmmmmm ostrich plumes!