Part 3: In Which Things Get Better But Not By Much...

I realize that I'm blowing through "the histories" rather quickly and will probably never be able to post as often as I am right now, and I should save these posts for later, yadda, yadda, yadda, but I don't feel like it, so I won't.

That and I'm stuck waiting for a fitting for a project that I would really rather be working on. This is as close as I can get, so I'm gonna take it XD

Sakura-con 2008.

I had been to Con and back again, and I was psyched to go again. I had pretty much never had as good a time ever, so I quickly set about deciding what costumes I would be making for the next year. I went over hundreds of ideas, things far out and impossible, to things that were, frankly, just kind of lame. I always have the tendency to want to make things that are just bigger and better than I really have the time, skill, energy, etc. etc. to make. Of course, in many ways, this is the way that I learn.

The final costumes for S-con '08?

Friday: Typically the first day of con is either for your softest, easiest costume; so as to get you in the convention-mode; or for something that no one will recognize. The year before we had done original characters on the first day. This year, Tobi (my best friend) and I did soft easy characters while Cassi and the rest of the crew did O.C.'s. These are the costumes that I made...

Chase the sheep-Demon! In a long standing tradition of naming Chase after herself, Cassi and Shawna created a character based loosely after Chase; who was, no surprise, a sheep demon. This would forever tie Chase and Sheep in my brain. I don't know why, she's not terribly sheep-like. This costume also started one of my all time favorite traditions; the sacrifice of cute stuffed animals. (As Craig Ferguson would say: "I look forward to your letters). The arms and ears were made out of a small stuffed sheep we named Baa-Sheba. Baa-sheba was our first lesson in 'the cuter the stuffed animal, the more terrifying they are inside out'. It's true. Try it.
This costume was poorly finished, but overall, was actually kind of cool, given the fact that my sewing skills were still sub-par. I still, to this day, love the coat that was a part of this. However, we as a group had not yet mastered the skill of taking pictures to document our triumphs.



Meet Radical Ed and Ein the data dog! These two characters were from an Anime that I had (and still have) not seen. However, I knew the basic gist; Cowboy Bebop is about a group of bounty hunters in space. The Anime is more than famous and there will always be at least one Radical Ed running around every convention. Ed is a super-smart child computer hacker who happens to also be a child-on-the-loose hyperactive nightmare. Ein is a corgi who has been outfitted with super-intelligence. They are both best friends and, sometimes, worst enemies. I had never seen an Ein before at con, so I decided to cosplay him. It was a fun costume (albeit, still cringe-worthy from the perspective of a more skilled eye); and very simple. It was also from the days when we all thought that spray-on hair dye was plenty high-quality, thus the spray-painted appearance of Tobi's hair.
More than anything about these costumes, as they aren't great nor very exciting, the poses were awesome.

 Saturday: This is the main day, meant for the big-name costumes for everyone. In the costume-heaven that is Convention, this is cream of the crop.

These costumes, at the time, were the most bomb things EVAH. Of course, looking back I see mistakes but, all things considered, I'm still pretty impressed with myself. *self-congratulatory pat on the back*.
From left to right: Moogle, Moogle and Chocobo from the Final Fantasy world; Chio-chan from Azumanga Dioh; and King Mickey from Kingdom Hearts.
The Moogles were great fun. Tobi had done a Moogle the year before and Cassi and Shawna wanted to revive the act for this year. Cassi had it great because she could deflect any huggers (and there are a lot of them, Con-people love to hug) onto Shawna. The costumes themselves were comfortable and cute (although we learned the importance of proper head gear). The moogle pompom is usually understated by most cosplayers, but we wanted ours to be noticeable! We used industrial strength wire, to hold a red Styrofoam ball covered in feathers onto a headband. They have a cute bounce and really show off the character. Downside: they act as magnates to anyone with a love of moogles. They also start to really grind into your scalp by the end of the day :S

The chio-chan was not made by me, but Chase was shoved over more times than we could count over the course of the day. It was excellent. Downside: we had to feed her, she couldn't reach her mouth.

King Mickey: I wanted to do this because I was a big Kingdom Hearts fan, (one of the thousands), and I wanted to do something that wasn't seen very often. King Mickey is actually surprisingly awesome, in his few moments and I really wanted to pay homage to the character. The coat was the best part. It looks so much like the one in the game, and I really made it totally blind, with no idea what I was doing. On the downside, the color bled so after a day or so I couldn't wear it anymore. I still need to replace the collar (taps chin). The shorts were a bit of a mess, but it really didn't matter too much. The key was excellent, but kept wanting to fall apart. We hot glued that sucker more times than I can count. It was also my first run it with peace-bonding. At conventions, all weapons or dangerous props have to be 'peace-bonded' to promise you won't kill people with them. At S-con they really manhandled my poor fragile key and broke it to pieces. I'm pretty sure that if it falls apart during the peace-bonding process, it's probably not dangerous...



To this day the chocobo is on of my crowing achievements. It's gone through a lot of re-working and redesigning but the one thing that I really contributed to this costume, which has always remained the same, is that glorious tail. We made it out of an old arm pillow (what are those actually called?), unstuffing it (it had the grossest stuffing ever *gag*), resewing it into a v, and then restuffing it. Then we strung three belts through it to secure it to the waist. It stays up really nicely, and moves around with the slightest hip-movement, something Cassi found out when she revamped the costume. It was a really simple, but very effective conversation from bird-to-person.

This costume also resulted in my absolute favorite costume quote ever. When you dress up in weird costumes and wander around big cities, inevitably, you are going to get some interesting responses. In this case, we were inside Con-space, and there was a mom who had no idea what anything was, who was ushering her son around. When she saw Tobi she smiled and came over as sweetly as possible:
"Honey," she said, "I have no idea what you are...but you are the prettiest chicken I've ever seen!"

 Sunday: This was the day that Tobi and I did original characters. We did Milo and Lachesis from our original story. Basic outline is that Lachesis is a puppet master, and Milo is her human puppet. It's creepy and, we thought, a fun idea to play with.

Weird, right?
Yes, it's weird, but we actually did get a few pictures taken. This was the year that we learned that, if we were going to wear original costumes, you have to make them bizarre and detailed enough to look like they're from something. The Lachesis costume that I wore, was a lot of pieced together, chopped up bits of clothing. I'm told it looked cool. Honestly? I don't remember, and this is the only picture we have. Not exactly the  most detailed picture of my costume. The mask, however, that I made that I wore on the side of my head, was pure awesome, and it still hangs on my wall.
Milo was an adventure in body paint (obviously). This was before we found this amazing stuff called 'sealer'. Believe me, boys and girls of Internet-land, if you're going to paint yourself, USE SEALER. Sealer is this horrible awful stuff that burns and smells and it altogether unpleasant when you first put it on, but after those first few minutes, it keeps your paint on you, and it keeps it off everything else.
Milo would be one of those costumes where sealer would've been a good idea. Milo got all over EVERYTHING. I have Milo paint on costumes that I wasn't even wearing that day. And, as I heard tell, it took days for poor Tobi to wash all that paint off. But then, we have a tradition with Tobi: She will always manage to use underwear on the outside of her clothes for at least one costume a year; and, she will always manage to have tons of body paint.
Overall these costumes were interesting. My method of stringing threaded needles to hang off my finger is still, I think, pretty genius. Although, those boots were murder, and I was about in tears by the end of the day.

Lessons of the year?

1. Use sealer!!!
2. Make an 'idea book' for costume reference. Make a notebook of ideas, reference pictures, and necessary materials. This is KEY for costume and fabric shopping. You have no idea how many times this has saved me from buying something that was actually the totally wrong color for what I needed.
3. Never, NEVER, wear heels to a convention, unless you could go hiking in those babies. Con is spent almost entirely on your feet, and there is a lot of walking involved. The hundreds of cosplayers I have seen (including people in our own group) hobbling along, having a miserable time due to the shoes they wear, is kind of sad. If you don't wear heels often, but the costume requires it, either practice wearing them all day everyday till con; and/or, bring comfortable shoes to slip into.
4. Hair spray-paint is stinky, crunchy and not worth it's cheapness. Time to start dying hair for real, or forking it out for wigs! It's worth it!
5. Stuffed animals are way cheaper (and way more fun) than buying faux fur.
6. next year would be better!




P.S. if you want to see more of this year's pictures. Albeit, there aren't a whole lot more of us, go ahead and look up my old Flickr account. Warning: the costumes herein are painful to the brain.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25210303@N05/page2/



BONUS!:

Meet Phil and Kaja Foglio.
They write and draw Girl Genius, one of my absolute favorite webcomics. It's a Gaslamp Fantasy about Mad Scientists and the world they run (somewhat badly).
Tobi and Cassi had already gotten into Girl Genius by the time we went to this con. They spotted Jagermonsters, and got totally excited when we saw the Girl Genius booth. However, their assistant who was running the show, informed us that though Phil and Kaja lived locally, they wouldn't be able to make it, as one of the children had gotten ill. The Crew was disappointed, but I bought some lab-specs, because they looked cool. I decided that this looked like a really interesting comic to read. On top of that, already having had my brush with celebrity, after running into Gus from Rooster Teeth, I was excited to meet more people who might be potentially cool to meet. On the last day of con, I decided to buy a copy of the comic so I could start reading it. When I did, the assistant asked if I'd like it autographed. I looked up and there they were.

Since this picture was taken I've met Phil and Kaja several times, usually in costume as one of their characters. I'm sure they have no idea who I am, but I've become a huge fan. They're such nice people and the comic is brilliant. Also, Girl Genius fans are some of the coolest people I've ever met. I state this now, because, by next con, Girl Genius will play a significant role.