Jenny Brent Costume Productions

31/08/2024

Hitting the road, off to a gig…the ‘Damsels In Distress’ Dragon costumes all safely packaged in bespoke travel bags, designed and made by Jenny Brent Costume Productions.

15/08/2024

So great to see these wonderful comic Seagulls out and about recently, I remade a batch of the Seagulls bodies last year to replenish the flock with.

05/07/2024

Saw this article which gives helpful guidance on what to expect when approaching a costume commission.

Recently someone commissioned me to make a set of costumes for their show, they sent me the designs and some basic measurements and I made the toile up ready for the fitting. To save money they asked to do the first fitting without me and send photos of any changes that they needed which I wasn’t ...

08/06/2024

The Composter rocking it at Hellens Garden Festival today, delighting, amazing and astounding the visitors in the grounds of the beautiful Manor House. People love the spectacle, the foolery, and to get up close and take a really good look at the many details embedded in the costume.
Costume by Jenny Brent Costume Productions for The Desperate Men

12/05/2024

steaming regally as performing at this week. I worked many hidden features into the costume and this effect is just one of them. I think it looks fantastic!

05/05/2024

A few pics from yesterday’s first outing, showing The Composter in his natural element engaging with audiences at Wye Valley River Festival. With The Desperate Men, Richard Headon and Shirley Pegna.
Costume by Jenny Brent Costume Productions.

04/05/2024

Today The Composter had risen at Wye Valley River Festival, and I’m finally able to reveal this eco warrior who is part superhero , part compost and part worm. So proud of this mega-make which I’ve been privileged to create for and in collaboration with Richard Headon of The Desperate Men, who is now bringing the character to life with his eccentric and funny performances, and Shirley Pegna who’s built a fantastic soundscape to accompany the act.

04/05/2024

Today The Desperate Men’s The Composter has risen at the Wye Valley River Festival. So proud of this mega make it’s been my good fortune to create, with all sorts of complexities to wrestle with and now the joy of seeing it come to life with the fantastically funny performances given by Richard Headon, soundscape by Shirley Pegna. Catch it at the festival over this weekend and next.

27/04/2024

The Composter is Rising! After two months of dreams, research, designing, gestation, a complicated and brain teasing make, try outs, fittings, adjustments, hard graft, intense creativity and fun…rehearsals, technical rehearsals, and first interactions with the unsuspecting public happened this week. The finishing touches are almost complete and finally The Composter will rise from the heap next weekend on Saturday 4th May for his big launch at the Wye Valley River Festival, performed by Richard Headon of The Desperate Men. The Composter is performing various dates during the festival, check the programme for details. See you there - I can’t wait!

05/04/2024

I made a load of leaves out of leather scraps which I freehand embroidered, and today I spent some time working into them with paint to break them down and make them look more organic. These are the first few, but there are a lot more! I was pretty pleased with how they turned out.
They’ll be part of The Composter character costume that I’m working on right now, for The Desperate Men and Wye Valley River Festival

30/03/2024

The Composter costume shaping up with Richard Headon of The Desperate Men looking impressive at a fitting recently. I’m currently engaged in working compost elements into the pieces that will make up the finished costume.
A Co-creation with The Desperate Men and Wye Valley River Festival

28/03/2024

Some lovely results from my session hand dying with self made vegetable dyes. It’s exciting because you can never be completely sure what you’ll end up with. I’ll use the fabrics in different ways throughout the costume.

With The Desperate Men and Wye Valley River Festival

26/03/2024

Having made a number of natural dyes I’m having a big dying session today. I’ll be working with this basket of scoured (or prewashed) scraps of linen, canvas, hessian and calico, as well as larger pieces. First all the fabrics needs to be treated with a mordant to fix the dyes so I’m experimenting with alum, salt and vinegar as mordants.
With The Desperate Men and Wye Valley River Festival

19/03/2024

The Rise of The Composter!

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=902587731659435&id=100057246498749&mibextid=WC7FNe

The Composter-Origin Story Part 2
See them rise at The Wye Valley River Festival May 4th-6th & 11th & 12th
Artwork- Hugh Clifford
Story -Richard Headon
Emerging costume -Jenny Brent Costume Productions
Sound track-Shirley Pegna
Smoke Machine -Stuck in post Brexit customs

17/03/2024

The first step to make the character is to focus on the base shape, patterning and building the ‘under armour’. Once I was happy with the torso shape I draped on the stand to start the process of patterning the upper part of the costume, creating blocks to turn into patterns for the jacket and left sleeve. Figuring out the worm arm took a couple of goes as the first prototype with boning didn’t work out, I discovered a less structured form worked better and so I made adjustments to that and to the sizing to make it bigger for the second attempt, and I’m happy now with how it’s working out - next stages to follow.

15/03/2024

The Composter back story developed by Richard Headon has been a huge inspiration for my design of the character. I love that he fell into his compost bin and got stuck in a compost underworld! So after various iterations I designed a character who emerges part superhero, part compost, and part worm! Now I’m working towards realising this vision.
A co-creation with The Desperate Men and the Wye Valley River Festival

14/03/2024

A bit of The Composter back story…watch out for more episodes from The Desperate Men

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10161058513022492&id=605967491

The Composter our new superhero show begins of course with
The Origin Story
Part 1
Artwork Hugh Clifford
Story Richard Headon

13/03/2024

Started making natural dyes to use in The Composter process. Seeing how much my dye spoon stands out in our collection makes me think the turmeric dye is going to be amazing!
A costume commission from Wye Valley River Festival and The Desperate Men.

08/03/2024

I’ve been creating a mound of materials that I can delve into in the creation of The Composter. As an act focussing on compost and sustainability we want to nurture these ideas in the make. So I’m interested in using natural materials like hessian, sacking, leather scraps, wool, fleece and felt, canvas, cotton, linen, other natural, recycled, reused and waste materials, as well as found objects and natural dyes. It’s very exciting to be reinventing such an eclectic collection. I’ll just have to avoid falling in and getting digested by the heap!
A co-creation with Richard Headon and Shirley Pagna of The Desperate Men and Wye Valley River Festival

29/01/2024

I’m delighted and excited to be embarking on a very unusual costume commission with the ever inventive The Desperate Men, in collaboration with Wye Valley River Festival. It’s not every day I go rummaging in my kitchen compost for inspiration! Currently in the R&D process, so watch this space!

24/12/2023

As we come towards the end of another busy and productive year, I wish you all a very happy festive season, Christmas and New Year!
Photo credit Fair Play Comedy, Fool's Paradise Ltd, costume Jenny Brent Costume Productions

30/06/2023

22/06/2023

The Fair Play Gnomes, made by Jenny Brent Costume Productions, featured in this year’s Glastonbury Festival programme 🤩

20/03/2023

Throwback to 2021 when the studio was full of signature wine coloured quilted linen and I was making a batch of these under armour-coats for the recent Disney Willow sequel starring Warwick Davies. It’s great to see images of them in action popping up - and the breakdown artists have done a great job.
Costume design by Sarah Young. With Midnight Costume Services

20/03/2023

Back in 2021 I made a batch of these soldier’s under armour for the DisneyPlus Willow series. A pattern matching challenge with all the quilt lines. They looked great after the breakdown artists had a go at them too.
Costume design by Sarah Young. With Midnight Costume Services

08/03/2023

Throwback Thursday, colour popping Hostess suits for Red Herring Productions back in the Autumn, made for three very funny women. Happy International Women’s Day!

07/09/2022

Work in progress for the Red Herring Host jackets, semi constructed last week.

18/07/2022

Not costume but…what a great project to get involved with.

Reclaim the Void was born from Ngalia elders in Leonora, Western Australia, expressing their pain and grief at ‘those gaping mining holes left all over our country’. The idea was conceived to symbolically ‘seal’ one of the holes with an artwork expressing the story of country.
The vision is to cover a mining pit with a large-scale ‘dot’ artwork made up of thousands of handmade circular rag-rugs woven from discarded fabric. Woven by people from all walks of life and backgrounds, the rugs will be joined together into a giant textile artwork which shows an overall pattern that carries the story of the Tjukurrpa of the country on which the pit is situated.
Reclaim the Void is a bold cross-cultural project. It seeks to raise awareness of the story of country and its importance in Aboriginal culture in both its physical and spiritual dimensions. We invite you to join us.
📷Reclaim the void concept image utilising artwork from original painting Tui by Dolly Walker, used with permission.

14/07/2022

When a lovely studio neighbour pops in with a surprise ice lolly - step away from the sea of white!

04/06/2022

This week spent time making two retro “bike panniers” - actually cunningly disguised speaker housing- for Fair Play’s new tandem act Wheezy Riders. I hope they took sandwiches!
theatre