Hi all!
I know it's been a long time since I updated the blog. Like many of you, it's been a very difficult year and half and other things took priority, but I felt that this update definitely needed to be shared! For the very first time, I've been published!! I'm absolutely thrilled to be in this month's Cosplay Fire Magazine! This is a small publication created by a cosplayer, for cosplayers. It doesn't matter how well known you or your photographer are, you get published! I will definitely be sending them more photos in the future for publishing. This month's issue is titled "Power Up" and it's all about Nintendo Cosplays, so you guessed it! Skull Kid got his very own feature! Please check out the magazine and give it some love! You can purchase the magazine here and you can also follow them on instagram @cosplayfiremagazine.
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Over the course of this pandemic, it's been a great time for me to take a break from Cosplay and work on some personal projects.
While I still have cosplay's coming down the pipe, it was nice to take a break and try my hand at some other stuff. The first one I completed was my own winter jacket. Made completely from wool with a polyester lining. I'm very happy how this one came out, it's nice and warm, and very comfortable! Making time for your hobbies is always super important. Hobbies help us unwind from a long work week, release stress and just get some self satisfaction. Hobbies make us happy!
Right now in this time of self isolation, it's much easier to make time to work on cosplay or other crafts and hobbies since there is so much time spent at home! One major upside to self isolation. When you work full time and don't spend a lot of time at home, it's not as easy. I find the best tricks to making time for my cosplay is scheduling. Set days aside on the calendar so you can really push through some of the bigger aspects of your costume. Or set a few hours aside in a day or a week just so you can get started or make some tweaks. Even when you do have all the time in the world to work on your costumes, it's important to set aside time dedicated to that hobby. That way when things get busy with chores and running errands, or other things "getting in the way", you know you have dedicated, uninterrupted time to work on your cosplay! For those of you who follow me regularly, you know that fabric is my jam, and for those of you who are new to the blog, welcome! and you will learn quickly about my love of using fabric.
There are so many things I could share about using fabric, the types of fabric, sewing techniques, tips and tricks etc, most of which I will probably do a whole series on at a later date, but for this week's blog we'll discuss the basics of fabrics: what kinds there are, what you can use them for. Kinds of fabric & their uses: Special Occasion or Bridal Fabric These are those super shiny, pretty fabrics you find at the back of the store. Lace’s, Satin’s, Shantung, Taffeta, Chiffon, Georgette etc. These are generally found in the bridal section or special occasion fabric because they are used to make ball gowns, wedding dresses and any type of women’s formal wear. Cottons You can find cotton in abundance in the quilting section, but you can also find cotton blends in with broadcloth and even knits. Cotton is a natural fibre that you can use for all sorts of things. It is a highly durable type of fabric. Knits Knit fabric can be made from all different types of synthetic or natural fibres, but they way they are woven together makes them stretchy. Knits are generally used for active wear, and things that would need flexibility. Lace Lace is a very delicate fabric that you would use for details and accents on your clothes. It can be hand stitched or machine manufactured. You can tell lace by it’s intricate details. There are so many other types of fabric out there, but these are the ones you would most likely be using for making clothing! What you can make with fabric: There is a huge list of what you could make with fabric, much too large to list here. But if you can imagine it, you can probably make it from fabric! - Clothing - Cloaks & Capes - Bias tape - Appliques - Boot covers - Mask Covers - Bags I'm sure we are all feeling unsure about things right now as everyone around the world is either starting their social isolation or is slowly coming out of it. The world is a scary place at the moment as we fight an invisible enemy.
Staying home is the best thing you can do for yourself and your loved ones, and I'm sure if you are like me at first you thought "sweet! I'll be home all the time which means I have time for more crafting and video games and fun stuff!" But now that you're home all the time, inundated with news, missing family and friends, you realize how hard it is to actually motivate yourself to do all those things you enjoy in your spare time. I've personally been struggling a lot over the last week and a bit. I started a new costume, but have no drive to work on it. I have photos that I want to edit for my social media channels and have no drive to do that. It's even been extremely hard to start writing blog posts to put up every week. So how do you move past all this? When you're struggling it's time to find new outlets to help release the stress, be kind to yourself and know that it's ok to have an emotional down day if you need it. It's not ok when you start feeling depressed and spending all your time in bed, and that's exactly what we all need to try and avoid. Right now your mental health and your physical health should be your main focus. Keeping a positive attitude, moving your muscles so that you don't succumb to the stress. If you can, get out for a walk everyday (while practicing social distancing), doesn't need to be a long one, but even 20 minutes a day will keep your heart healthy and your muscles limber. Try doing a 15 minute at home workout, all you need is your own body. Dance, sing, play music, read a book, do some gardening, do yoga, meditate, call your loved ones, face time. Even if you are struggling to do the things you normally love (like working on a new costume), do activities that make you feel good in that moment. It's ok to take breaks from your usual hobbies and try something new! But most important in all of this, is looking after yourself. Be kind to yourself. We will all get through this <3 There are so many cool things you can do with foam, and foam is a great tool to start out with if you are making your first set of armour or prop.
There are lots of different kinds of foam, and each of them is good for specific things. The foams that you will most likely use for your cosplays are craft foam, eva foam and clay foam, sometimes even upholstery foam or insulation foam. We will go over each in a bit more detail! Craft foam is super easy to find in dollar stores, craft stores and department stores. It's usually super affordable and generally comes in one or two thicknesses. This is a great starting place if you haven't worked with foam before. It's cheap, easy to find and easy to work with. It absorbs paint well and works with most glues, but you probably won't want to use heat with craft foam as it will melt pretty easily. Craft foam is also great to use as interfacing under layers of fabric to make something stiffer. EVA foam is a much denser foam and works well with heat. It comes in multiple thicknesses and is very durable. You can find this in most craft stores in the states, but in Canada it is easiest to oder online. EVA foam works really great for armour sets and props because of it's durability and flexibility. You can use a dremel on it to get nice fine details carved in, and hold it all together with contact cement. Clay foam is one of the newer forms of foam on the market. It starts out like a putty that you can mold and form, then after it dries it turns into a dense foam. It's a little similar to Crayola model magic in the way that it air dries and becomes a stiff foam, but Clay foam is more durable, and in my opinion much easier to use. Upholstry foam is great for things like making large shoes or gloves. It's soft and pliable so it's easy to move in and comfortable. It does take a lot of cutting to get the shapes just right, but it is definitely worth the work! Insulation foam is a great tool to use for props since it is super sturdy. I think most prop makers started out with this and have since started moving over to EVA foam since there are more choices in density, but this is definitely a good material to try out! It's affordable and easy to come by at any hardware store. Good luck in your prop and costume making endeavours with foam! Worbla is one of the newest craft materials I have had the joy of working with! It's super versatile and easy to use. Great for making props, armour and costume details. It's very durable when it's cool and very flexible when warm.
There are a few different types of worbla and they all have their different uses. I have gotten to use Finest Art, Black Art and Transparent Art. Using the Finest Art or original worbla was definitely the easiest to use. Heats up nice and evenly, molds nicely and is super easy to work with. It has a rougher surface though, so if you want that smooth armour like finish, you will have a lot of sanding to do. And sometimes it's not really worth all the work on it. The last item I made with this was the arm guard for my Evie Frye costume. I ended up covering it with gesso and sanding it with an electric sander, and it still had a rather rough finish. The Black Art takes a little bit longer to warm up and mold making it a little harder to work with, but it has a nice smooth finish to it so you don't need to sand it down. I used this when I made my mask for Skull Kid. Because it was such a large piece it was definitely a two person job to get it to mold to the mask shape properly. The Transparent Art was the hardest to work with. It took a long time to heat, and a lot of effort to get it to take form. We used this for the eyes in Majora's mask. It looked great in the end but it was a lot of effort to work with. So have lots of patience if you are working with this one! There are multiple other types of Worbla as well: Mesh Art, Pearly Art, FlameRed, Crystal Art, Deco Art, Kobracast Art. The pearly art is one of the more used worbla's for nice smooth details. Crystal Art are small jewel like pieces of worbla. I would love to try and use the Kobracast art. It acts as an adhesive so you can attach fabric and appliqués to concave or convex surfaces! I would highly recommend that if you haven't gotten a chance to work with worbla, to get your hands on some and try it out! Check out the amazing resources and tutorials here on worbla.com Have you ever looked at someone else's work and thought...I will never compare, I'll never get to that level? It can be super defeating.
I experienced this for the first time after the craftsmanship contest at Fan Expo Vancouver this year. I don't even know where it really stemmed from, but it just snuck in there and now I'm really trying to figure out where to go with my cosplay. After seeing so many talented cosplayers, and also seeing someone walk around the convention grounds in the cosplay I would like to make for next year, I have been feeling this overwhelming insecure feeling. Like my costume will never measure up or be good enough. It's lead me to think should I really take that particular costume on? Should I be planning costumes that will lead me into the next 5 years? Should I think about taking a long term break? How have you dealt with feelings of insecurity? Fan Expo has definitely had it's ups and downs over the last few years. I feel that this year, the convention has finally gone back to it's roots. It was much better run, more things to see, better layouts in the convention centre and all the events and contests ran like clockwork.
We had such a great time over the weekend, we are still feeling tired and trying to catch up! We went down to the convention on Saturday at 11am, just one hour after opening, and all dressed up raring to go. The line up to get your wrist bands was super long but moved relatively quickly. Once we got in we made a bee-line to visit CG Master's, 9_Flame creations, Miguel Molina and 501 legion to visit our friends. We went and met Levar Burton, such an incredible person. It made our day getting to meet him, and I had brought a photo of him from Weird City for him to sign, which absolutely made his day. At 4pm we took part in the cosplay couple's contest, convincing a couple of our friends to join in as well. It was lots of fun walking across the red carpet and getting in character as the crowd cheered. Right after I took part in my very first pre-judging. I felt pretty good about how it went. I was surprised though that there weren't more questions for me, or that they didn't really want to take a closer look at he costume. I had to tell them they were allowed to get out of their seats to take a look at my seams. We did a bunch of shopping, bringing home a few figures, statues, dioramas, a cutting board, monster box, artwork and drink coasters. We left the con on Saturday at closing, taking back a ton of purchases! On Sunday we came later in the day right before the cosplay craftsmanship contest. My husband did a bit more shopping while I gathered my nerves and got in line for the big show! The amount of talent that was in this contest was nuts! Most of the contestants were in the novice or journeyman category, but I know when I was a novice my costumes weren't nearly as impressive. The craftsmanship contest ran super smoothly. Everyone lined up on time, we made our way to the stage and everything started at 4:30pm sharp. We only had 3 contestants in the master's category, but I felt that there was some excellent competition this year! Even though I didn't come home with a prize or a mention, I certainly learned a lot! It was a fabulous experience! We were so tired from all the fun and excitement that we didn't make it to the final day of con, but we certainly don't feel like we missed out! We are both really looking forward to Expo next year! I am so excited for this year's Fan Expo!
I know I say that every year, but this year I truly am really excited! It's not so much about the celeb guests, or the programming, but I'm truly excited mostly on the cosplay aspect. This will be my second year entering the cosplay contest, first year in the couple's cosplay contest, and I have a good friend who has a booth in artist's alley that I can't wait to help promote! So even though it's my second time entering the cosplay contest at Fan Expo, this is the first year that it is being run by the same rules as the Calgary and Edmonton expo's, which means I have my work cut out for me. This year, it's not a cosplay contest...it's a craftsmanship contest. I've had to create a build book, explaining every detail of how I made my costume along with progress photos and reference. I had to write blurb about myself as a cosplayer that will be read as I walk across the stage. I have to show up at a specific time to a specific booth so that the judges can check out my costume well in advance of the contest. This way they can look at all the seam work, fabric choices, paint work etc. up close. I'm so excited to be able to show off all the hard work I put into this costume, and honestly, when I decided to make this costume I totally had pre-judging in mind! This is also the first contest I've been in where the prize is monetary, which I'm going to be honest, would be amazing to win :D The couple's cosplay contest is going to be just for fun. It's my husband's first time in a cosplay, so I'm excited that he is taking part and we will get to walk the red carpet together. This contest is mostly for fun, as the fans will decide who has the best costume. No pressure, just walk, pose and wait for the cheers. My only worry is that I will have to run off from the contest right at the end so I can make it to my pre-judging time for the craftsmanship contest! Lucky for me, both things are happening in the same area. My talented friend 9flame creations is hosting a table in the artist's alley! She will be selling her monster boxes as well as artwork and jewelry, please go give this talented lady some love! I'm also looking forward to visiting my friends at CG Masters, who I am thrilled to say is a Show Partner this year!! WAY TO GO!! Lastly, I'm looking forward to meeting Levar Burton. There isn't a time I remember in my growing up years that we didn't watch Levar on TV. Whether we were watching Star Trek or Reading Rainbow, he was a big part of my childhood! So as an adult I have to say how thrilled I am to have gotten to work on Weird City which he has a starring role! This is a going to be a good Fan Expo! I can just feel it :D Fan Expo Vancouver is located at the Vancouver Convention Centre from Feb 15 - 17. |
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