to move up and down
the start of ECCC preparations
for emerald city comic-con this year, A’s decided to be Kid Flash from young justice. I actually have been trying to encourage him to stick with just modifying Speedy - I’m doing a lot of traveling and running around this month, leaving me with less time than originally planned to get much done.
more than that though, while I think A has the perfect kid flash personality, i’m having a hard time wrapping my mind around how to clothe a sensory-aware child in what is most likely going to have to be a jumpsuit. this is a potentially huge issue, with bathroom complaints being the least of the worries. A’s never had to wear so much as overalls, so the idea of an entirely unified piece could be a long process to adjust to (and I don’t really have time for that). I’m just not sure of any other way to get the spiked seamline alone KF’s hipbones, unless I overlap some black fabric over the seams or something…
I’m also unsure about the headpiece, because i dont want to over-interface it to keep it stable, and have it look like a store-bought puffy costume situation. A has a difficult time with masks - I can’t see, it’s poking my eyes, it’s too stiff, its too soft, it’s pretty endless. getting him to wear the mask long enough for Speedy’s photoshoot was a small miracle and honestly, it’s not completely his fault. There’s just not a lot of options for kids that look good & work well, other than leather. the boys’ mom & I have discussed adjusting A to things on his face with weighted bean bags and watersoaked towels, with the hope to eventually make a mold of his eyes/forehead. it would make things so much easier, mask-wise, but the idea of molding any child’s face, let alone a kid who can hardly handle a haircut (you’re cutting me! it hurts!) is just a bit far-reaching I think.
I’ll have to experiment, I guess, because A is pretty adamant on being KF. hopefully the excitement over being Wally will make him more open to trying new things… like with Robin & the tights.
I am, however, pretty stoked about the boots we purchased for A to adjust to back in November. They have a bit of a cowboy boot heel to them, which required a lot of explaining (even boys wear cowboy boots etc), but as far as comfort and walking, A’s adjusted to them pretty well. I’m glad I started that months ago, though it’s been a month or so since the last time I had him in them. Hopefully they still fit.
I haven’t really talked to Lo about ECCC yet, mostly because I would really like him to stay as Astro Boy, since I didn’t get a chance to really complete all the things I had planned for it (namely, the arm laser gun and a better headpiece), but I have the distinct feeling that because one twin is getting a new costume, the other will want one also… bad news with only a few weeks to make clothes, haha. looks like I won’t be convincing him that he’s basically Damian Wayne (but i really want to).
open to suggestions! >_>
remember when i numbered posts
okay so i’m really sick of how disorganized flickr & other image engines can be, especially when it comes to finding photos of yourself at a convention. especially when your cosplay is a character who’s cosplayed a zillion times and looks like you in every tiny thumbnail because everyone’s pretty consistent when creating her costume (harley what). especially even MORE when that cosplay is a character who is well known to a certain extent, but whose name is frequently misspelled or assumed to be another character (harlequin anyone), thereby ruining chances of finding all the awesome photos that fantastic people take of you.
it also sucks when you have a convention that’s tagged with a million different things- for example, san diego comiccon has like 10, misspells not included: SDCC, SDCC2011, SDCCsaturday, sandiegocomiccon, sandiegocomicon, sandiegocomiccon2011, on and on. and not every one tags their photos individually (or tags them at ALL) because let’s face it, that’s a gigantic pain in the ass.
and we can’t forget about the person (ME sadly) that takes a zillion photos that sit in Aperture/Light Room and never see the internet at all, because some of us (ME) can’t be bothered to find the patience to edit and process hundreds of photos (which raises the question, why do you bother taking them at all, Aidan? and I DONT KNOW OKAY).
so i decided that in hopes of finding at least SOME images, maybe if i made a card to hand out to people as they take my photo, some people would actually take the time out of their day post-con to email the photo(s) they took to me. even if it’s just one or two people it’ll still be worth it to me (i’m greedy for pictures always, sad story), so i present to you my cosplay business card (good lord):
there are a lot of problems with this. one, handing out a card while in a group photo is kind of ridiculous, especially if we’re surrounded by a lot of different people (the harley meet-up for example). also the logistics of carrying around a stack of cards… PLUS, people will lose the card, not bother at all, forget which costume i was (hopefully i’ll write little notes or maybe a sticker for the back so they remember what i looked like), etc. i’m hoping that if nothing else, it’ll be a social experiment i can laugh about. i don’t want it to come off as pretentious or “do this or else” etc, but i know that when i’m given business cards & notices from photographers, i usually email them asking for my photo and they’re like SURE SURE (except for that one guy who backhandedly tried to charge me for photos, yeah ccimages i’m looking at you, but that’s another story). so anyway i’m kind of hopeful that it’ll work out the other way around.
we’ll see i guess!! might experiment with this at ECCC at the end of march if we end up pulling out Harley & Ivy. I need to have a hand-writing adventure………whee!
some in progress shots for the nerfpunk costume.
i actually had photos of all my steps and patterns to make a more proper in-progress post, a la the Nightwing costume when this blog was initially started (oh best intentions), but my cellphone updated incorrectly and lost all my photos. of COURSE despite having a great dSLR camera & various lenses i obviously opted to use my cellphone for image taking instead. the same thing happened with Little Red as well as Speedy & Astro Boy.
So the gun I chose has orange/red stripes down part of the body, which is basically what i based the entirety of my design on (i’m consistent at least). Originally the costume was going to have a vest over the top that connected to the bustle & holster. It was going to be made out of two layers of that transparent red vinyl, with the wide lime green fishnet in between. The top layer of vinyl was going to be cut away in parts to make a pattern. I made the initial pattern but did not have time to complete the actual vest.
I basically really enjoyed the idea of making a garment with the intent to be garish, over the top, way too complicated and busy and a complete EYESORE. i wanted to take advantage of that completely!
Just realised I never got around to posting any photos of my nerfpunk costume from Steamcon here in Seattle way back in October. I’m very good at keeping up with things that relate to myself and only myself, aren’t I?
the intent behind nerfpunk, in case you haven’t been following along or just plain forgot cuz it’s been months (that’s more likely i’m sure), is to flip around the expectations of steampunk. A “typical” steampunk garment utilizes a weapon that they assemble to match the costume; typically, this is a nerf gun. The idea of nerfpunk was to reverse it - pick the gun and make the costume match it. That means no modding of the gun was allowed! I kind of cheated, in that I waited until they released their new little discs because I liked the colour scheme better… but it’s still heinously garish.
things i like:
• the sleeves. i spent most of my time on them (even more than the corset, which is kind of tragic really) because I wanted them to have a stupid number of layers. friendly mockery ;)
• the idea of the vinyl gun holster. it was made like 20 minutes before we hopped on the bus to the hotel so it’s not stable and I’d like to expand on it further.
I have some in progress shots that I’ll post after this. Mostly this costume was, unfortunately, more of an afterthought than I really wanted. I had way too many other costumes to prioritize (in that they were being made for a)children and b)people that are not myself), which left me little more than a week or so to create something from the sketches I’d been working on for months. I’d really like to go back into this costume with the intent to make it more than just some piecemeal assembly of ideas, but you know. when have i ever done that?
(the other nerfpunker in the photos is my friend Melinda! she makes amazing costumes AND she won an award for this one in the bathing suit contest!)
new business cards arrived :)
they’re from MOO and are their curved edge business cards. they’re a bit less subdued in actuality, which is a little bright so my next order will tone them down a bit. the paper is this soft matte, it’s very nice. i actively hate anything glossy so that was a big sell.
i think i still owe this blog a few updates. i’m not sure i want to post anything about Lo’s Astro Boy because i havent been able to get a good photoshoot of him (I wasn’t around on Halloween), so I just have some in-progress shots.
definitely have some stuff about Nerfpunk to post.
and a few other things… i have this week off so we’ll see :)
That’s awesome! The YJ speedy costume is adorable :) I think I understand what you’re saying, and I sort of did that too.
A’s Speedy costume was based mostly on Teen Titans Year One Speedy, because it was his current favourite comic. TTY1 Speedy’s hat was something of a marvel, in that it seemed to be able to make a variety of shapes possible:
(i mean really. top right, what IS THAT?)
Might as well continue the backwards catching up with some shots of the Little Red Riding Hood costume I made for my 2 year old goddaughter, Sierra.
The struggle with this costume was creating it without any fittings, as she lives across the country from me & I get to see her just once a year. I just HAD to make everything with various wovens I spent a few months collecting, which made the fitting margin a bit smaller than if I had chosen knits… but I think it turned out pretty well.
the dress actually has a lot of details, the photos of which i lost when my phone decided to be a loser and update wrong (and it’s also my fault for being lazy and not using my camera). The skirt has three layers of fabric with two layers of gathered tulle in between (for comfort, because that shit’s so itchy come on), and the topmost layer is more like a pinafore, tying up in the back.
I also included a wolf paw in her basket.. which was a bit hard to make toddler friendly…but bread&cheese is just so boring.
Mini photoshoot of A & his Speedy costume.
Things I have issues with:
• The boots. The ones I made were too hard for him to get on and hurt his ankles (remember the sensory challenges I wrote about with making his Robin costume here) and so I had to resort to fluffy fat fleece things that separated at the ankle so he could put them on and off without discomfort. They work well for him - he loves them - but I’m disappointed in my execution. For ECCC, I’ve purchased a pair of girls’ (shhhh) boots to spray-paint yellow and I’m going to begin training him on wearing them now. Haha.
• The collar still flaps upward… should have tacked that.
• The hat is actually backwards.. I accidentally placed the spikes on the back part of it instead of the front. Before an actual photoshoot I’m going to take it apart and reassemble it properly.
HE loves it, which is the important part, so there’s that.
I’ll post a break down of my process soon; I lost a lot of my progress images from all of my costumes, so I’ve been trying to gather them back from people I sent them to along the way.
Just wanted to give you a preview of the updates I have coming up soon. You know. After October ends and I can take a breath again.
Quiet Hands
what the fuck kind of person holds someone else’s body without their permission?
I mean, I know. I know. My mother used to pin me to the floor, face-down, for hours. But it’s still gross to read. Let the woman flap her fucking hands. You got a problem with her flapping hands? Go hang yourself. Her hands are hers.
I think it’s really interesting (also sad, evidently) to hear feedback from people now that they’re old enough to comment on their childhoods and the various tactics used to “control” and “direct” ASD behaviours. It puts an entirely different perspective on whether the standards by which we raise these kids are actually accomplishing anything other than making them “look normal” for our own benefit and not necessarily theirs. With the best of intentions, but.
I mean. It can’t be so black and white, of course, but I think it’s really great that we’re finally hearing more commentary on the matter aside from “Studies show….” Maybe from it, we’ll be able to figure out a better way of teaching.
behold: the worst photo i will ever put on this blog
I just can’t be bothered to pull out my camera for one picture.. yay windows phone!
But lets talk about how Astro Boy’s going to have a glowing reactor!
It’s a bit thick.. I might want to pad out Lo’s chest with some foam or something so it’s doesn’t appear as bulky, but I probably won’t do that for Halloween due to time constraints. I still want to pad his forearms and perhaps make the laser his hand turns into, but we’ll see. All three of those things might become adjustments for ECCC.
(It’s pinned onto the shirt, which is stuffed in a pillow)
020: Rambling
i’m having difficulty deciding on how historically accurate i want the nerfpunk piece to be, and how much leeway I want to give myself to have something finished soon.
i’m thinking that i might make a simpler version for steam-con and then, perhaps, modify or recreate it into something more complicated and time consuming, because the ideas that i have are just not coming together fast enough for a convention in like, two weeks. and i don’t want to rush myself, either, since i want this to be a piece i can use in my portfolio, instead of everything else i’ve done this year, which has been on barely-attainable deadlines.
a simpler version would be more steampunk and less victorian, just by nature of the fact i could stop working on a collapsible bustle and all the other framework i’ll need underneath the garment, and focus on the the visual layer. Reuse old corsets and things like that.
Ugh.
Just got back from a trip to NYC though - got lots of new fabrics to explore with!
this is the fabric i got earlier..the colours match! it’s just my bad camera phone…
will post in progress photos soon :) and i will have an update on the Halloween commissions soon, I promise.
OH GOD. So much truth, I can’t even deal with it.
ok the watch thing i just-
five and nine FIVE AND NINE
all of this
especially 21 rn
I finally put pants in the wash that I’d had out for about a month1 AND 5
1 AND 5
1 AND 5 FOREVER
(Source: better-thanheaven, via endquestionmark)
