Latex Mask Making: WIP

I did these a while ago, but haven't documented the actual latexing process yet. I'll add that later.

Now first, I have the head already molded. I did this with Monster Clay, sold from the Monster Makers. Don't use any old clay, it has to be a specific oil-based consistency. I'll post more about this process later when I recover the pictures. it requires a lot of heating, mixing, waiting, and very patient molding. This is my finished product. Luckily since the mask I'm making is extremely simple, it wasn't too altogether difficult, far less than my next mask will be.

First you have to make a "Wall". It needs to be halfway across the head, following the natural line of the head (so, halfway on the top of the head, and then around the back of the ears). This is a special water-based clay that's a totally different consistency than the monster-clay. Use a clay cutter (it's a length of string and two wood handles, to the left of the clay there). Cut the clay in longer, thinner pieces, and make it about an inch thick.

Make sure that the wall has these little knobs on them, they help the mold fit together later.

Now mold the back of the head. This is done with Ultra-cal, a relative to cement and equally finicky. It's horrible. Do Not Mix Much. It starts out too wet to use, then there is a two second period where it is perfect, then it becomes hard as a rock. Mix less than a pint full at any given time. Also the amount of water-to-ultra-cal ratio is extremely finite, I continued trading off adding ultra-cal and water between long periods of seeing if it would dry. The first couple layers will be extremely rough. Avoid using the ultra-cal when it's too think and globby on the first couple layers in order to avoid air bubbles. This is one of those processes that takes a few masks to perfect.

I mixed the ultra-cal in a large bucket like this, but in retrospect I wasted a lot of my materials because I poured too much and it dried. I would suggest getting a smaller mixing bowl to use (one that you don't care about, mind you). It's better to have to wait between batches than waste money because you mixed too much and it hardened. This is one those, long-periods-of-boredom-off-set-by-moments-of-sheer-panic, type processes.

Then we remove the wall, and place a few strips of clay on the mold wall (as seen in the picture above). Also cover the mold wall in Vaseline to help aid in the separation. Next time I might try putting Vaseline on the whole head mold as well. Now you can start making the front half, just the same as you did the last. It's also a good idea to occasionally lay down a layer of burlap between the mold layers, as it reinforces it. Do this similar to how you would do Paper Mache, dip strips of burlap in the Ultra-cal and cover the mold with it. This should ideally be done as the outermost layer of the mold as well.

Now, after drying, Separate! The layers dry pretty fast, so you can do this quite soon. The minute the walls get hot, you can pull them apart. Now, this is my first mold, so I messed up in several places. I think I made the ridge between the halves too high and it made it harder to separate them, and it messed with the structural integrity, and part of it cracked (bad news bears). Now, separating these halves is (pardon my french), a real bitch. The back half came off quite easily, (as the manual said it would) but the front half, no matter how hard I tried, would just not come off. At one point I literally had it on the ground, my feet pressed up against the edges, yanking on it. I finally had to pry it off with a hammer and chisel, which is no good because it damaged both the inside of the mold, and my mold-head itself. It was terribly frustrating, and required a fair amount of cursing, yelling and jumping on things.

But eventually it did come off. I though I would be relieved, but I was really just too tired. The two mold halves are united by a thin layer of latex between them, and then strapped together.

This is the inside! I had a few air bubbles in the mold that left little pockets that I had to fix it with a thin layer of Ultra-Cal just in the holes. This is not really an ideal situation, so next time I will definitely be more careful in the molding process.  

After I finish Latexing and painting the thing, I will post the process. Then, next, now that I've more or less learned the ins and outs I plan to make and Ood costume for Emerald City Comicon 2012. Whoo! Should be exciting (if not, slightly, intimidating).

Quick Post: WIP pictures

ARGH. Haven't posted on here in a while, not because I haven't been doing anything but because I've been incredibly busy!
FIGURES.

But I'm trying to do some housekeeping and this is a part of that. So check off on more notch on my list-oft-things-I'm-a-loser-for-not-doing-sooner.

This is mostly picture heavy and probably not of any concern to people other than me but regardless I need to post the pictures so I can clear them off my computer, haha.


I've been working on and off on a cosplay of Agatha from Girl Genius (obviously one of my favorite comics ever). Now, some of you more anal retentive readers might be thinking "But wait! We've already seen the Agatha costume. She's cheating!"
Well, no. Actually. You haven't.

We made an Agatha costume for Chase a few years back based on the paper-doll Agatha design that turned out so-so. But now, I've obsessively begun work on this:

Drawn and designed by team Folio and therefore not my property. Go check out the comic for the full plot arc!!!

That's right. Cinderella Agatha from the most-excellent Cinderella side-story featured in Girl Genius a few years back. I fell in love with this dress ages ago and have finally decided to take it on. Needless to say I'm stoked.

First things first we need a hoop skirt. I have one already but it was tiny, and pretty busted up. It was also not something that I should really cut into, which is something I need to do so I can create the window in the front of the skirt. I considered making a hoop skirt (which is easier than it sounds) like a good little costumer, but I found this one online for FAR cheaper than I could've bought all the materials.

This picture doesn't do the size justice (my room makes it looks smaller), it's pretty friggin' big. I actually have a big croline petty skirt that makes it even bigger and rounder (not pictured).

I'm also in the process of making the corset (My First Ever!) Whee!
First off I have my nice fabric which I got stupid cheap. Then the busk, which gives the corset body, and then the pattern pieces, which I altered for the shape I'm trying to get.

My pretty corset exterior!

My horrible ironing board. Trying to iron out the fabric on this sucker was a nightmare. I've been petitioning for a new ironing board for ages.

Cutting out the pieces! I used an altered Butterick pattern. It worked great!

I was working furiously on this for a while but had to take a break so I could work on the multitude of other projects I got going. Hopefully I can get working on it again.
I'll post more pictures as I take them!

Of Thesises (Thesi?) and Minions!

Been working all week on a friends art college/thesis/web show thingamithing.
I've mentioned Blush Corp a few times in these posts but now that I've actually started working on it, its time to start talking about it!
(which also trumpets the first time we're going to be talking about current costume work in this stupid thing). Sweetness!

So, Blush Corp was created by my friend Cassi and a couple of her minions (read: Friends) while they were hanging down in Portland. Essentially, from what I understand, they all dressed up as kooky, dorky villains and ran around disrupting typical Portlandian life. If such a thing is possible.

Quickly the whole thing evolved in a rather brilliant little story about a group of villains who band together for the sake of greater good. Led by Lady Blush, her three minions, Subtlety, Retna Burn and Corporal Cunudrum act as essentially "Anti-villains"; people working for the forces of good, through the forces of evil. (if that makes any sense).

Basically, they're anti-villains. They do (conceptually) good things, in really dirty ways. For example: Those kids not eating their veggies? Take their favorite junk foods, bring them to life, make them giant and let them ravage major cities. Kids will realize that only the veggies are safe!

Cassi is putting together a short series of interactive sketches for her thesis project and has brought me in as a minion. So yesterday we ran around like mad chickens to value village and acquired all we needed for the adjustments to the costumes. Although the Blush Corp costumes have already been established, Cassi wanted to re-design some of the costumes before the show.

Today Tobi and I (mostly Tobi) worked on the new Subtlety costume! Which is really adorable, and I'm loving how it's turning out.
Subtlety is based around Tobi's basic personality. Essentially Subtlety is the essence of...well...non-subtlety. She wears bright colors, underwear on the outside, and carries around her weapon/best friend Sizzles, the happy frying pan.

This is Subtlety as she was in the original design. The green stripe tights are a commonality between all the minions. Most of the SHAPE of the original costume is still present in the redesign, particularly since we found keeping the underwear on the outside really important to her costume as it represents a lot of her personality. Subtlety, if all the minions represented ages, would be the five-year old. (Retna is about 10; Corporal is  a grumpy verge-of-puberty 13)

This was my contribution to the discussion of Subtlety's redesign. Cassi and I talked about having her be leaning more towards the yellow end of the spectrum. I, being unable to quickly and effectively draw out what I'm talking about (being Disgraphic), I made this quick mashup of images to get across what I was thinking.

And this is the final product that Cassi drew out. You can see the original HERE on Cassi's blog. But clearly awesome. Subtlety is now primarily yellow based colors (green, orange and pure yellow), and absolutely BEDECKED in bells (which I LOVE)
We aren't QUITE able to bring the whole picture to life in such a short amount of time, primarily the shoes as we have neither the time nor the budget to get our hands on those beauteous high tops.

Wait! It's TUTORIAL TIME:
Dying shoes 101: 
Grade: Easy Pie

Sometimes it's really hard to find shoes that are the color you need them to be. For example, the above high tops only come in very basic converse colors (red, white and black). And I have to admit, I'm not a huge fan of boot covers. They tend to be made out of thin fabric and they LOOK it. It's really hard to make boot covers out of fabric that actually looks like something a shoe would be made out of. So sometimes, it's just better to dye.

Side note: Don't PAINT them. We have tried it and it usually results in splotchy coloring or shoe shrinkage/stiffness. Not awesome.

Sometime I'll do a better tutorial of the actual dying process, but for now you just have to put up with the basics here.

Take a good brand of dye. (by 'good' I mean not something that shows happy 5 year olds at a tye-dye party. Don't judge books by the cover, but you can totally be dye-judgemental. If it looks professional, it probably is, more or less).

Put it in a nice bucket or basin of warm/hot water. Make it hot, but not so hot that you can't keep your hands in it. The bucket needs to be big enough to fit the shoes, but don't overfill it with water, or you risk washing out the color too much (literally).

Now: the shoes need to be something that will take dye. Usually you can feel if a fabric is dyeable. If it feels fibrous it will probably dye. It its more slick or rubbery (even if it's cloth) it might not dye well. If you want to dye shoes, best to stick with canvas.

Alright, now dunk 'em! Pull them out every so often to check the progress. Swill the water through the shoe, and try and give everything an even current. When they are the appropriate color, pull them out and put them somewhere easy to dry! Tada! Easy.



BACK TO THE TOPIC:
So today Tobi and I got together and began work on Subtlety. The Primary focus was getting the underwear painted and the shoes dyed. The shoes were easy. We used straight 'yellow' Tulip dye (not my favorite brand but good for really primary colors) on the shoes and laces and they came out a great color after a bit of washing through the dye.

The bra and underwear were bought super cheap at Walmart (read: Den of Evil) and amazingly already pretty good shades of yellow. We wanted something pretty conservative in shape. The last thing you need is some sexy underwear on the outside. Not hot in the slightest.
All we had to do was add the red polka dots.

First we put a trash bag over my trusty dress form Betty, and put the bra over it. Then we took a piece of thick card stock paper and cut a circle in it as a stencil, (I advise always working with stencils when fabric painting. No matter how steady your hand is, once it's on there it's not coming off). Then Tobi went to work! (It's a one man job).

We used Tulip "Soft" fabric paint. Always try and get stuff that's not gonna be stiff and crackly, particularly on stretchy fabric like a sports bra.  Again, Tulip isn't my favorite brand, and it looked too hot pink rather than red, but it appears to have dried alright.

There it is all finished! Looks pretty good!

Now, that was the easy part. The Underwear is a little more...bizarre...
For starters. What do you put it on? You want to stretch it out about as much as it will be when worn so that the dots (or whatever) don't look bizarre later. But, unlike with the bra, you can't just stick it on the dress form. So...our solution?

Andy the Panda Bear. Wrapped in a garbage sack. Provided we kept his feet inside the underwear, it was approximately the right shape and there weren't any wrinkles in it. We tried his head (seen above) but it wasn't big enough XD

Slightly awkward looking (okay, super terrible, bizarre looking), but worked pretty darn well! The number one thing about costuming is thinking outside of the box. Things are never only useful for the reason they were made for. That applies (quite clearly) to every facet of costuming.

Here's the circle pattern we made. For a second time I bring up the importance of using a stencil. It's much easier/faster/more reliable. Just make sure it's movable enough to fit the contours of the garment, but not too thin, so the paint doesn't leak through.

Now it's drying overnight and we should have a full set of polka dot underwear by tomorrow! Hurrah!


Also today: Cassi wanted Corporal to wear a pair of green Bermuda shorts with yellow accents. We couldn't find anything sufficiently colored, but we did find a pair of white shorts with yellow stripes on them. Since green and yellow are a close enough color, I figured we could dye the shorts green and the yellow would come through the dye.
Here's the result! I'm quite happy with it.

Turned out pretty good! The shorts could be more vibrant, but I think the tights makes up for the lack of blinding green.

More pictures as it happens!

Not Dead

Just awfully close

Working on the last day of Finals, thus I haven't posted in a while.
Plus lots of stuff that I can't talk about on the blog *sigh* figures I'd start all these super secret projects right as I started blogging. XD

I should be back next week with either a tutorial or some Blush Corp news!

ECCC 2011 Con Report

Oh man. So here it all is! Emerald City Comicon 2011.
My oldest brother Josh gave me tickets to Comicon for Christmas (indulging my fangirly nature that he so often, and loudly, disapproves of). I was super excited but, admittedly, I wasn't as over the top anxious as I usually am for my normal conventions for two reasons.

1. I had never been to an actual "comicon" before, despite the fact that most of my interests lie in a comicon world over an anime world.

2. Comicon has the least helpful website EVER. Most conventions have a really detailed list of the events, all the people showing there, and a forum for con-goers to discuss the events and what they are excited for. ECCC? No such thing. Not only do they not have a discussion forum for Noobs like me to figure out how/when/where to do things, but they also have little/no information about the event itself! No schedule, no map, not even information about how and when to get badges! I wasn't even sure if they gave badges until I saw that certain resturaunts were giving badge-wearers discounts.

Regardless, Tobi and I had a killer time. Despite all the poor information, it almost made it more exciting to show up and see what was happening.

Friday

So, we showed up with no real idea what this was all going to be about. For starters, at anime conventions, you're lucky if you get through the badge line in under four hours. So I had us show up right at the time that the line opened (12:00) so that we could try and be in the convention by the time the doors opened (2:00).
Little did I know that it would take all of fifteen minutes to get our badges (TOPS). So we ended up waiting in a huge impatient mob outside the exhibition hall for two hours waiting for the con to open the doors, which they did about ten minutes late, much to our chagrin.

Tobi and I got to the point where we were pretty sure that we were in a time vortex and we would never leave that room again, trapped forever.

Actually though, we met some really nice people in line. Being unsure as to what the con atmosphere was, we dressed up really simply for the first day, doing a female take on Bill and Ted from Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey. Not many people recognized us, but a few guys in line were really excited to see the costume. One in particular was a really sweet older chubby guy (who called himself the Time Lord, as he had two badges and claimed to have been here already (He was being funny, not crazy, I think he was holding the second badge for somebody)). He complimented our costumes and held our place in line when Tobi and I ran off excitedly to get this picture:

Which was awesome. To say the least. 

 We also noticed that there is a muuuuch higher percentage of guys at these cons. Actually the differences between a comicon and an anime-con are pretty funny.

Anime convention: Populated by loud, screechy pre-teens and/or people who act like preteens.

Comicon: Populated by older guys. Many of which are either nerds, or comic book artists that are looking for their big break

Anime: There is NO SUCH THING AS PERSONAL SPACE. You leave con actually somewhat confused as to why random strangers aren't hugging/glomping/tackling/otherwise abusing your personal bubble.

Comicon: There is at least a four radius around everyone, regardless of crowdedness. Even at the really popular panels people will choose to sit further back rather than sit next to a stranger. It's actually super funny.

Anime: Everyone is dressed up. Nobody appreciates the costumes unless they are high quality.

Comicon: Only a select few are dressed up and, while most of the costumes are brilliant, everyone gets props just for dressing up.

So on the first day, while not everyone realized what we were, those that did were highly congratulatory. We also got to go see Wil Wheaton's Awesome Hour; which was, obviously, Awesome.

Ladies and Gentlemen! Wil Wheaton! Every bit as geeky and snarky as one would hope him to be. Tobi and I were only a few rows away from him and it was awesome. I'm not a big one for fawning over celebrities but I have to admit it was kinda of cool getting to see him in person. He did a couple readings and answered questions. We got to see evil Wil Wheaton emerge and abuse the audience, and we got to see Wil Wheaton get so disturbed by a question that he refused to even answer (Someone asked how the cast dealt with what a 'Gary Sue' Picard was. Wil asked what a 'Gary Sue' was, and the girl made a twilight reference. He ended it right there. Rejecting the question and moving on. "DID YOU SERIOUSLY JUST COMPARE NEXT GEN TO TWILIGHT???)
It was, seriously, awesome.

We also just had a great time chillin at the convention center. We knew it from Sakura-con and it was great to be back. It was weird how much friendlier the staff was at this convention. Their renown for being irritable during Sakura-con. But then, when you compare the hyper-activity of a large scale anime convention to the relative social neurosis of a smaller scale comic book convention, can you really blame them?

We did have one Anime moment with Hentai Boba Fett...

Tobi was very disappointed in him.

Saturday

Saturday was a lot busier. Friday was pretty quiet and pretty barren, but Saturday, being the day that all the big celebrities come out of hiding, was the day that most everyone showed up. There were also a lot more costumes, but still far less than normally seen at the conventions I'm used to.

Tobi and I pulled out the old favorites of Riddler and Two Face. But unlike at Kumori-con, this time we had LOTS of Bat to abuse. XD

Tobi and I were really excited to see an Adam West Batman running around. There were plenty of New age batmen but no good-old-my-momma-made-this-suit-for-me Batmen. Granted he was a Fatman, but he was such a sweet, adorable one (besides...it was Adam West Batman. Fatman or no, it really doesn't matter). He was a super nice guy.

Tobi was really excited to see Cthulu. Even if she can't pronounce it's name.
This costume was a really simple, jersey knit costume but it looks really good. I wish I'd though to ask her about where she got the eyes, they're perfect. I love that she used glue on nails on the head as scales XD

And of course, the ever popular Sand people. There were four or five of these guys running around and they were AWESOME.

I've had a thing for the Rocketeer since I was just a munchkin. (I'm a Hobbit now, of course).
Seeing this guy literally sent me into a fangirly tailspin. He was so PERFECT. I wanted to pick him up under my arm and take him home XD

Then of course there was this guy. By far the most intimidating Batman we saw all weekend.
Seriously guys. Don't mess with the Bat.

Of course there were also all the panels that we went to. We don't usually go to many panels at conventions, because they usually aren't all that worth seeing, but here there was a good mix of awesome celebrities doing great panels and some good down-time in between. Overall it was a really relaxing but interesting convention.

Of course we went and saw the Guild panel. How could we not?
These guys were awesome together, and it was great to see their real personalities come out. Felicia Day, who usually plays a quiet, nerdy, soft girl; was kind of ditsy and clearly in command of the group (although in a really sweet-hearted way). Amy Okuda was quiet and self-effacing, and Wil Wheaton was, well, Wil Wheaton.
They had some awesome stories and it was really cool to hear them talk about becoming successful from a little hard work and intuition. They still film in Felicia's garage, and they still work unpaid (although the profits from the series has begun to change that) and look at them! Who doesn't know who Felicia Day is???
Awesome people.
Actually, funnily enough, we accidentally bumped into Felicia Day crossing the crosswalk on the way home. I didn't really notice until after she passed us and Tobi was too dumbstruck to tell me. *headshake*
But you know? She's really short. Like...me short.
If she had been taller, I probably would've realized it.
Who'da thunk?

And of course the wonderful William Shatner who was every bit as charming, adorable, funny, and red-faced as I'd hoped he'd be. Granted, Shatner is Shatner, but he really is amazing with fans.
He also had some amazingly hilarious long, drawn-out stories. Including his intense lobbying for Captain Kirk's final words. After years and years of announcing "Captain on the bridge" he had really tried to get the director to allow Kirk to die saying "Bridge on the Captain." But alas, no.

Sunday

Sunday was probably one of the best days I've had at a con ever.
Seriously.
Best. Ever.

We didn't really do all that much. It was still kind of crowded and there weren't all that many events that we wanted to go to. We were wearing what I assumed would be low-key costumes.
Really it was all the un-expectation that made this day rock.

First off.
I love Doctor Who. I haven't gotten to watch a whole lot of it, but it has made it's way into my list of favorite sci-fi's out there. One of my favorite episodes? Empty Child.
This episode, for those un-initiated among you, is famous among Doctor who-ites for it's sheer creepiness. The Doctor and Rose go to WWII London and encounter a small child in a gas mask that wanders around London and creepily demands it's "mummy". It's feared by all the urchins of London and is essentially this terrifying monster creature. But underneath it all it's still a scared little boy, which is what makes it so very creepy.
What's more? If it touches you, you turn into one of him. Proven by the herds of Gas-mask zombies that are present at the end of the episodes.

I won't spoil the ending but it's a great episode and pretty famous among Who-ites. So Tobi and I (and Livi who couldn't be at this con, unfortunately) have been planning to make a total flash mob of Empty-Children, but Tobi and I decided to take the costumes for a test run at ECCC

Man oh, man.

The reception we got...

Tobi was my Nanny, and I was a little boy. We walked around Con holding hands, Tobi was strict, slow and upright, and I lagged back behind her, slouching and twitching as we wandered around whispering "Mummy? Are you my mummy? Moooooommmy? Please mummy, I'm scared of the bombs..."

Everywhere we went there were people screaming, running away or begging us for pictures. People would ask for a picture and then panic mid-picture as we "mummy'd" them. (which resulted in some awesome terrified pictures, let me tell you). Big men would demand that we stay away or they would cry (Several of them ran away). and one great fan gleefully informed us that that specific episode terrified her friend to tears and was totally sending a picture of us to her.

PLEASE NOTE: This amazing picture was taken by Laura Anglin on Flickr. Please see the original HERE and favorite it. We couldn't get any good pictures of us in these costumes thanks to their only being two of us. She took an amazing picture and I super appreciate it. Please give her all respects!

PLEASE NOTE: This was also not taken by me for the same reasons. Again, super awesome picture was taken by LJinto. Please go favorite it on Flickr right here. What a super shot!

It was a super fun day. And we got a lot of really amazing reactions to the costumes. I officially love ECCC and am totally going back!

We also attended several panels, kind of offhandedly and had a great time at all of them. First we went to a DarkHorse panel where Felicia Day was talking about the Guild Comics and the creators of Axe Cop showed up. The seven year old from whom Axe Cop's brilliance comes had a bucket of candy that he was force feeding to the crowd and the other panelists. Tobi managed to secure a piece and a signature for Chase.

They were so cute together.
It was Malachai's birthday and we all sung to him and everybody had a great time. We bumped into Ethan later on at the pizza shop and complimented him on how adorable his brother was and how much we loved the comic. It was a great time.

And of course Brent Spiner Aka Data. We popped into his panel about halfway through (alas, because it sounded awesome). What we caught was really funny, positive and genuine. The best part about this whole convention was how real everybody was. You know, by the by, Spiner does an incredible impression of Patrick Stewart. He played out an entire crank call to the set of Big Bang Theory in the voice of Patrick Stewart. Thoroughly hilarious.

Just for bonus!

We really fought for this picture.
We wanted a GO TO YOUR ROOM picture soooo bad, but, of course, Sunday was the only day that there weren't 40 thousand Doctors running around. Finally this girl obliged us.

Actually, I think this guy might be genuinely scare of us.
Which is awesome. XD

LESSONS?

ECCC COMICON IS AWESOME

A quick note about Emerald City Comicon 2011

Got home from Emerald City Comicon! I had an amazing time, and I met lots of really wonderful people. This was probably one of the best cons I've had in a while. Not only were the guests people that I knew (Felicia Day, Brent Spiner, Wil Wheaton, William Shatner...So on) but everyone was very congenial and nice. There weren't too many people dressed up, but everyone was really excited to see us. The last day there, Sunday, Tobi and I dressed up as the Empty Child gas mask zombies. I didn't think we'd have too many people who knew what we were but MAN OH MAN. I don't think we've ever had such an amazing reaction to a single costume EVER.

It was killer fun. I don't get to be creepy very often and the Empty Child costume was fabulous for scaring people out there wits. We made several people run away, including several large men, and many more people, who asked to have their picture taken with us, were barely able to hold out for the picture as we twitched and stared and "Mummy"d them. It was fantastic. Some of my favorite reactions: One girl walked up to us and was like "Are you guys...?" Any time people looked like they recognized us, we'd start going through the whole routine, twitching and mummying. (Which we were doing anyway as we walked around, hand in hand. She was my nanny and I was the little boy. She was slow and upright creepy, and I was hunched and twitchy). She freaked out for a moment and then asked for a picture, proclaiming that that episode freaks her friend out to no end and that she was totally sending her a picture. XD
There were also several large men who declared themselves not above running away if we came any closer as they took the picture. Also, people who would say "mummy" after we walked passed, only to panic when we turned around and focused on them, which we inevitably did.


I'll post pictures soon. I'm absolutely exhausted and sore from the whole deal, but it was way fun. I'll post the details but needless to say it includes lots of fun, creepiness, Felicia Day encounters, and AXE COP. yay!

And so it goes...K-con 2010.

Oh dear, oh dear. It's been about a week since I posted last, and here I thought I was going to finish this post last week and start talking serious business by now. But, I got somewhat busy (haha?).

Truth be told, I haven't been doing much in the way of costuming specifically, but I have been working on several projects (most of which I actually can't discuss at this point, but I'm sure will be explained in great detail as time goes on). These project are rather large creative dealo's that I'm rather quite excited about, and, again, I can't talk about.

So pretty much everything I've been funneling all of my time and energy into for the last few weeks is not discussable. So...for all intents and purposes, I've just been really lazy.
But I haven't.

What I CAN talk about is the few costumes that I've been too busy to work on much; Cassi's thesis which I've been helping out with somewhat (but, apologies to Cassi, I've been so busy with so many things I haven't been able to be 100% there all the time to help. But! hopefully you know you can always bug me about stuff you need done.), Cassi is doing a play based of several original characters that, with any luck, will eventually become an awesome web series, and I've been helping her develop some of the ideas, although I can't take any real credit at all. Mom's been somewhat sick, nothing too serious, as far as we know, but it's also kept me busy. Homework, as always. And! (drum roll please!) Emerald City Comicon has creeped up behind me! It's next weekend and I've gotten so swamped I didn't realize it was so soon until yesterday! I'm super pumped. I had been poking away at a couple costumes, (mystery men, Empty Child, Clue, Candyland) that might potentially wear, but I've been so busy with other work I didn't get any of them finished, which is alright. So, I will be seen as an Empty Child from Doctor Who; possibly a masky from Marble Hornets (fast and easy costume for sure); and Two Face, as will be seen below.


Warning: This might be another really long post. Consider yourselves duly-warned.

In 2010, Kumori-con rolled back around. With the amazing time we'd had the previous year with the awesome Dating Game, the whole Girl Genius crew and the smaller atmosphere of the con. We were all ready and raring to go. Furthermore, and, super exciting to me, the Oregon Girl Genius group invited our crew to join in a variety show they were putting together; Girl Genius style.
Awesomesauce.
We already had a girl genius costume in the works, so we were super pumped to join in the fun. The downside was, Phil and Kaja Folio, who are a large part of our Kumori-con experience, weren't present for 2010's festivities. They were too busy in Australia winning themselves the Hugo Award for the second time in a row. Ah, well. We'd muddle along somehow XD

Saturday

Although the Girl Genius show was on Sunday Morning, we wanted to wear our big deal cosplays that day; so we decided that we would wear Girl Genius out and about on Saturday, again on Sunday Morning, and then head back to the apartment and make the switch. Cassi and Tobi opted out of making Girl Genius costumes for the sake of time, funds and sanity, and ended up wearing original costumes (the same, ironically, that are being used for Cassi's thesis). You'll see these when I post the thesis pictures in (when is that again?)...whenever that is. I didn't work on the original designs in the slightest so I won't post them here. If you want images, check out Cassi's blog on my toolbar.

Meet the Jager girls! Caberet singers and henchwomen of the great Mama Gkika, they dress up as Jagermonsters to entertain the humans of Mama Gkika's bar. These costumes were a HECK of a lot of fun and something I had been wanting to put together for ages. I can't take any credit at all for Shawna's outfit (the blue girl) but I worked on Chase's green jager and my pink one. I also did all three hats which was some of the most fun I've had in a long time.
These girls are fun because they are really only minor characters, with a very short, bit part, but they are pretty well loved by fans and have gotten to be well known, (as has Mama Gkika herself). However, I'd never seen anyone do these three before and I was determined to do them as canon as possible. I loved how happy the Girl Genius people were with how we looked. I still see flaws (as I always will) but I was proud of these, particularly Chase's uniform, which I would kill to be able to wear. I wish Phil and Kaja could've been there for us to show off to, but, alas, they were not.
Girl genius is always a really hard series to cosplay not only because Phil has an infamous inconsistency with minor details on certain characters (including these three, who's costumes changed multiple times within the same comic page); but also because in the grand scheme of the costume, they are quite detailed. The thigh-high, pink gators on the pink Girl was one of the unluckily of challenges for me. They didn't seem like details that would be so troublesome, but they were. Finally I essentially made boot covers, with a flare at the top, lined with several layers of crosshatched wire to keep the shape. This is another something I might do a tutorial on.
Chase coat was awesome. I finished it in a single day when I was really "in the zone" and I love it. The hats were really just an experiment in something I had never done before. My and Chase's hats were painstakingly re-covered hats (that I might also do a tutorial on). Shawna's shako was way more interesting. I took a normal top hat, cut out the top, and then built a huge cage structure that was covered in fabric. It was awesome. I almost liked it better without the fabric and just the cage.

This was the costume I had the most trouble with out of all of them. I loved the base coat that I had for her, but it was unfortunately suede leather, which is an absolute beast to sew. Particularly since most of these details had to be hand stitched. For the buttons I was literally beating the needle through with a small hammer. Not fun.
The other thing was that the pink costume has a weird structure to the coat that is cute in comic form, but in no way attractive on a real human being (highlights the gut, not good on anyone, particularly on me). So I had to refit the coat structure multiple times to get it to look right at all. It still fit a little oddly, and was always riding up, but it worked out alright. My favorite element was the old Science fair medal that I used as the medal she wears in the centre of her coat. MAD SCIENCE!

This is Molly. She is an amazingly sweethearted lady. Everybody in this group is awesome. Katrina, who I sadly don't have a picture with, who more or less leads the group, was so encouraging and complimentary. Molly pictured above as Mama Gkika is a total sweetie and an amazing fan. Her Mama Gkika is always just about spot on. For the show, structured as a variety show at Mama Gkika's bar, Shawna, Chase and I performed two Polka's done Girl Genius style, re-writing the lyrics and doing a small degree of dancing as we saw fit. It was a total riot. I don't know that we were any good, but we had fun anyway. The only downside was the poor Shawna had hurt her ankle rather badly the day before and we had to change up the choreography last-minute to account for her gimpy leg. But all in all, it was a really fun time.

Sunday



This was a strange day of crossover grouping. This was also the day of my all-time-absolute-favorite-dream costume ever:

 

Meet Two-face. Or, as we referred to her all day: Big Bad Harv.
Tobi and I have a deep and endless love of bad, campy, awful movies. I mean, terrible. Right up there at the top of the list? Batman Forever, starring a drugged out Nicole Kidman; Val Kilmer playing Batman's lips; and a horribly amazing duo of Tommy Lee Jones and Jim Carrey as Two Face and the Riddler respectively. 
Not only is this movie over the top, horrifically campy, and needlessly neon; it was also some of the worst acting I've seen in my life. Seriously, go rent it. It's terrible. 
With our deep love of cheese, Tobi and I obviously, instantly, fell head over heels in love with Batman Forever; and the fact that Tobi is already scarily-like Jim Carrey; what better costume could we do?
We had been planning these costumes for ages, and I finally felt confident enough that we could pull them off. And indeed, I believe we did. 
My Two-face, being a woman, was a lot of fun to interpret from Tommy Lee Jones's animal-print festooned villain. I wanted to keep the basic color scheme and look of the costume but in a more feminine, and interesting way. (This might become yet another tutorial). I found all the elements of a three piece suit, re-sewed the ugly portions, and decorated to my heart's delight. It was excellent. 

Two-Face and Riddles frolic off towards trouble!
These two are so fun. XD

This is a nice shot of the back of the Riddler coat. The coat was more last minute than the rest of the suit. Because the Riddler suit could be more or less taken directly from the movie (there's not all that much fanicfying you can do to a catsuit) the coat was the only part of the suit that wasn't set in stone. We tried to use a pre-existing blazer but it didn't dye well (it ended up being Chase's jager coat from the day before) so we just ended up making this one from scratch. This was really the first year we embraced pattern using, rather than making or altering everything just out of trial and error. The coat was a simplicity pattern that we put together and then altered a bit to make it fit the Riddler style. Tobi wasn't totally satisfied with it, but I think it looks pretty good.



I love this picture. So cute! haha.

Mike did he own version of the Joker for this year, making a sort of Riot-gear Joker. There was a lot of really cool detail work in his suit and he sure looked the part. We got a lot of great pictures of these three Gothamites.





These two are such funny characters. In many respects they totally hate each other. In others, they are best friends. I had fun stealing Tobi's cane and using it as a face divider throughout the day. This was just a cute picture of us goofing off.
The cane is made out of a long PVC pipe that Tobi's dad melted into a rough question mark shape. It wasn't exactly what I was imagining, and it's still a little rough. I'd like to make a new one at some point in the future, but this one is pretty good for the time being.





Before we blow up the courthouse, we have to FLIP FOR IT FIRST.
It's the law.
I got the coin off of Ebay, as a movie memorabilia cast of the coin from Dark Knight. It was pretty cheap and pretty legit. I was afraid that it would be too light, or not coin-y enough, but it was all in all very realistic. However, and I knew this before I bought it, it doesn't have the damaged side that makes two-face's coin his coin. Actually destroying it was really fun. At first I tried to go at it by hitting it with the wrong side of a hammer, making dents and chips in the surface, but it wasn't giving me realistic enough scratches. Eventually I ended up taking it to a rough patch of concrete and rubbing it against the ground with my show, which quickly gave the 'wrong' side a nice battered appearance. Then I took a small scented candle and held the coin over it to get that nice smoky, burnt look. Since you can't actually burn the coin, I dropped several matches into the candle, which produced enough smoke to darken the coin. It all looked really good!



The whole trio all together!
Tobi's Riddler costume was the first time we had made a catsuit, (another tutorial!) and it was a bit of an adventure. Just finding the right colored fabric was a bit of a chore (luckily we ended up finding it at Costume and Display, although it was a bit pricey). We managed to put together the catsuit without too much trouble until we got to the arms. For some reason, the second arm was really difficult to fit correctly, and (also for no apparent reason) the shoulders seemed to have shrunk. It all ended up coming together and fitting alright, but the shoulders are pretty tight on Tobi. In the future we'll have to be careful not to repeat whatever mistake we made in that area.
The Question marks were painstakingly painted on over the course of weeks with fabric paint...which we then failed to properly heat seal and they all ended up washing out. -_________-
However, between what was left of the paint and some dynamic Sharpie action, we got the question marks put on and everything turned out all right.

Downside of twoface?
I can't drink water. This is bad because that costume is toasty. I ended up fashioning a funnel that I could get water into my mouth with, but it was a real pain.

The face is made out of a latex mask, that i cut down to my face shape and then re-latexed some of the structure of. After all that, there were several layers of paint involved (although you can't see much of the texturing in the pictures) and then it was all latexed onto my face. The result was a really cool mask, and the inability to move my face much at all. In the future, when I have money and some mad skill, I want to make a face mold for me and others in my group so I can actually make actual fitted latex masks, but for the time being, this is what I have to work with. The mask really did work out well, but it's very hard to really express much, or drink water, or eat. It was a struggle XD.



WEIRDEST CROSSOVER EVER:
Chase and Tobi made a modern Princess Peach costume, which turned out really cute. It was simple, but really adorable on her. Although this picture makes no sense, I really like it.

Monday

Cassi loves being a Moogle. Or a chocobo. Or really anything cute. Consequently, she begged us to do a 'herd of moogles' for this years convention. At first we weren't going to, and then it just sort of...happened.

This si what happened. Basically we became an entire Moogle culture, complete with subcultures. We had a flouncy girly-girl, the science Moogle, the Wanna-be Moogle, the Nerd, the Wankster, and the Moogle Hunter. All in one beautiful package.
I loved this costume.
Not only did I get to be a total wankster all day, but it was also surprisingly comfortable. Albeit, mind-numbingly hot. I don't have many pictures of this day, (I think Cassi has them all?) but I love the ones we do have. I had a big pair of jeans, that I sagged around all day, with three successive pairs of boxers that were sagged underneath the pants. I had those big plastic shoes, and the wife beater under a poof-daddy jacket. The best part was the Hat. We took a wankster hat and removed the skull symbol that was sewn to it. Then Cassi made some iron-on pictures of a Wankster Moogle that we then stitched onto the hat. I was also able to attach the ball directly to the hat, which meant that, unlike the other moogle balls, which have to be strapped on with several headbands, mine was really easy to take off.
Mike's head was too big for a moogle ball XD, so we ended up floofing his hair and having me carry around his 'stolen' moogle ball all day, which was pretty funny.

Cassi was the fluffy, girly moogle. We took and old wedding dress and shredded it, adding wings to the straps and putting a mess of tulle under it to get it the shape that it had. It was super adorable, and Cassi spent the whole day being prissy. I think we joked around that she was my moogle's hot girl-friend.

Chase was sort of the sciency/airship moogle. She's always so cute. This shirt was a real find and it looked great on Chase. The downside was, we didn't want to sew the wings directly to the shirt in case she wanted to actually wear it in the future. I could've removed the wings, but the fabric was such that the stitching would always show. So we ended up making a wind halter that held her wing on, sort of like a backpack.

This year was a lot of fun in a lot of ways. We actually were smart enough to go around and photoshoot our costumes  outside of the conspace; the costumes were much better than they had been in the past, and everybody seemed really excited about what we were doing. There was also a great sense of involvement in the convention, thanks to the Girl Genius fans who are always so gracious in letting us chill with them. This was one of the best cons I have gone to. I don't know when I'll be going back, thanks to changing locations, and Cassi graduating from her college, but I hope it's soon, and, for sure, I will definitely, eventually, be back.

LESSONS?
1. Take the time before and during con to walk around outside of Conspace. Not only is it just fun to see people react to our costumes, but you can find some really awesome spots to take pictures in.
2. Get involved! Find fans that are interested in the same thing as you and do something together! That's what con is really all about, is it not?
3. Take costumes for a test run, particularly if they are something you've never tried before, like masks or bodysuits. It's really useful to already know how to move in the costume before you actually get down to the Convention, and you my find some way of improving it that you hadn't even thought of while it was on the dress form!
4. (Tobi will kill me for this) PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT YOU PUT ON YOUR FACE! Oh, poor Tobi. We were going to put her mask on with spirit gum, so we didn't need to strap it on her face, and it would get the same look that Jim Carrey had in the movie. But, while she was getting in costume, Shawna, Chase, and I had already left for the Girl Genius show. When she arrived she was not in her costume, but rather in the Riddler Footy Pajama's I had made her for her previous birthday! When I asked her why she wasn't in costume, she said that the Spirit gum had burned her face, and that it seemed she was allergic. After that whole debacle, she hadn't had time to get ready. We have since discovered that had happened wasn't that she had put on spirit gum, and it had burned, but rather she had mistaken it for spirit gum remover which does burn when applied, particularly when you put on as much as she had. I can't laugh at her too much, the bottles do look strikingly similar, but seriously; You can really do some damage if you put the wrong thing on. Check and double check what you are applying to your skin. It is meant to go on skin? Is it meant to go on in great quantities? And, always, always check several days before hand to make sure that you aren't allergic to any paint or adhesives, so that you have time to make a plan B.
5. Costumes are made for cheating. They don't have to necessarily work like real clothes. If you need to line your hat with something soft and fuzzy so that the wire Moogle ball doesn't drill through your skull, do so!
6. Doing original versions of canon character, particularly well known ones, is always fun, and a lot of the time, really well received! But, it also means that you have to go above and beyond by making the costume something even more special.
NEXT YEAR? BETTER!


So! This wraps up our blast from the past, and we should be moving into current projects! (finally!)
If I ever don't have anything exciting going on, or am working on projects that I can't talk about (as looks to be more and more the case) I'll try and post some tutorials or discussions of costumes I've done or costumes I hope to make.
Hopefully this blog is interesting and useful to somebody out there in cyberville. Cheers!