Post-Con Update

I just wanted to say that as hard as I worked to finish San's costume I did not get it finished for Dragon*Con. However, I am proud to say I have learned a lot about costuming from working on it and I will definitely allow for much more time this coming year to finish my costumes.

As for Con itself, it was a blast as it was last year. Things did get a little out of hand one night, but I came out alive and that's all that matters. Next year I plan on it being better than the last and I will have at least one awesome costume completed!

Nightmares of Cosplay

Wow. I didn't think that things would get so complicated when finishing my mask but they sure did pretty quickly.

Good news was I was able to finish this in about an hour's time. Bad news was it wouldn't dry on its own. I waited a day for it to dry before putting it in front of a fan for a few hours. Eventually it did get there (mostly) and it was time to take it apart. Here comes more bad news.

While trying to remove the silicone I caused two tears. The first one on the back wasn't too bad. That part of the mask you won't see and I'll probably remove. The other part was on the front so that sucked. Tape didn't work to hold it together and I didn't have any super glue. Not even sure if glue would have worked anyways. So, I pressed on and carefully did the last step to make the resin copy. I was successful in mostly eliminating the front tear. The rear one was too bad though so resin seeped out. I ended up ripping apart the craft bandages and silicone to get the resin out. But here's the end result:

What's up with that weird indentation in the front, you say? I guess the key that was right there didn't fit back into the mold and I didn't notice. The shadows make it look much worse than it actually is and I think a little bondo will do the trick. I had to cut most of the back off so this would fit my head. I can see out of it, thankfully but something tells me I won't be wearing it over my face much.

San's Mask Mold and More

At this very moment, I have either ordered or currently have everything I need to finish San's costume! Today, I worked on the silicone mold for her mask and it is currently drying in my bathroom where I chose to work on it.

Here is the mask all ready to go. I had to add a little edge around the bottom of the mask so the silicone wouldn't run off.

...Or so said the instructions I was following. This stuff got everywhere, but that's why I put paper down so nothing would get ruined. This is the first layer of silicone. It was very drippy.

This is the fourth and final layer of silicone with they keys to help hold the mother mold, when I add that. I have to let the silicone cure for six hours so I'll work on it tomorrow after work. With a little luck, I'll be able to make the resin copy tomorrow as well!

I've also made significant progress on my cork dress. I have connected all of the corks vertically for the bottom part of the dress. Next step will be to connect them horizontally so they won't fly around everywhere. I've also finished the halter portion of the dress as well. I still need to work on the top and elastic band but after that, finished! Two weeks left until Con!

Progress Report: San

At the moment, I'm battling the heat from the lack of AC today. It's going to be about 100 degrees tomorrow so hopefully it will be fixed before I get back from adventuring so I can continue my work.

As far as San's costume goes, I've worked on the head band, arm bands, handle for the spear, and the dress. Things are coming along nicely but financial pressures have been hindering my progress a bit. I decided to work on San's top after finishing shredding the bottom of the dress. I did some decent cuts onto the shirt I bought and then proceeded to use bias tape to cover the loose edges. Unfortunately, this did not turn out well. I'm going to need to buy another shirt and start over. That's ok though because I need to buy some shirts for general Con shirts.

Speaking of Con shirts, I have been having trouble finding textile paint so I decided to buy some screen printing ink after doing very light research about it while at Michael's. I had a 40% off coupon so I decided, why not? I'll be putting that to work as soon as I figure out what I want to have on my shirts and, of course, buy the actual shirts.

Supplies

Simple title says it all. I've spent most of my day of today buying things for my costumes. I've made trips all around the surrounding area and have just about everything I need now for San's costume. The only things I'm missing are suede for the shoes, fur, silicone, and resin! I even decided to buy some fabric for Toph's clothes, although I'm still unsure whether or not I'll be dressing as her this year.

Goals for today are to finish drilling my corks, altering this extremely long dress I got for San's outfit, and possibly a little sculpting.

Drilling Progress

Great progress has been made drilling my corks after hours of working. I've got maybe a fourth left to drill, possibly a little more. That's not counting the ones I'll have to drill horizontally though, but I'll worry about that when I get to it.

As for now, I've drawn up a concept for how I want the dress to look and how I'll place some critical corks. I've even found my method for connecting my corks horizontally. It's very tedious though so I'm not sure how well it'll go over when I get to it. I plan on using the constrictor knot to put them together. A couple test of corks look pretty good.

There's also quite a bit of flexibility in the fishing line because of this knot. However, I find the line shifts up and down the cork a lot. I might end up hot glueing part of this so it won't happen, assuming hot glue works well on corks.

Other than this cork dress, little else has been going on with my costumes. San's cosplay is on hold until I can get a hold of some fabric and my resin supplies. Con's coming soon though so I'll be sure to work a lot more on it after I take the GMAT and no longer have to study for that!

Wine Dress

It's been a while since I've worked on anything cosplay/costume related. However, I have still been collecting corks for my dress which I've now officially started working on. Here are my tools of the trade and the fishing line I intend to use to put everything together.

Thankfully I already had all of these tools and was able to borrow the drill from some friends. I picked up the fishing line at Walmart for a cheap price. I checked prices and reviews on a few different kinds of fishing line but this one was the highest rated of the cheapest line.

I've probably put about an hour and a half into drilling and I've not even put a dent in my bag full of corks.

Glad I've still got a couple months.

As far as other cosplay, unless I get on it soon, I'll only be doing one other costume. Money wise, it'd be smarter to do something other than San, but it's the only project I've actually worked on. We'll see how things go through. Time to start scraping together some money for the mold and casting supplies!

Note to Self!

I've decided I will be changing the ears on San's mask to better match the actual movie. I'll be posting a picture as soon as it's done.

Since I'm a big fan of Doctor Who, I just randomly decided to go for a very simple cosplay of tally marks all over my arms. If that means nothing to you, then you need to watch the most recent season of the show. Also I plan on making the eye drive, also from the most recent season, which should be fairly easy.

I'll probably stick to this slightly shiny, black version rather than Madame Kovarian's silvery one. It'll be made out of the resin I'll eventually be buying. I'm going to follow Qarrezel's method for making everything. They do some amazing work and after doing some fiberglass research, decided I don't have the tools to work with that medium.

Mask of the Wolf Girl (Updated)

It's been years since I've sculpted anything so I'm pretty proud at how well this turned out. This is my clay model of San's mask. I've yet to actually make the wearable copy. I'm still devising a way of paying the $65 or so for the materials to finish this. Not really in a big hurry though seeing as I've still got about six months until the convention.

I've not worked on much else since the last update. I have made a list of everything I need for San's and Toph's costumes. Possible goal for tonight is to make the "fangs" for San's necklace and try to find some decently priced faux fur, seeing as I'm going to need a lot of it for her costume.

At this point, I'd like to make an actual model of my head so I can truly make sure everything I make fits. It wouldn't be super difficult but it would take some time to do my whole head and a nice bit of extra money on materials. We'll see. Next few steps here are to start sewing the clothing.

Learning to Sew

Joann's had a pretty good deal on patterns for President's Day weekend that I missed out on, but I took time on my day off to head up to the nearest Joann's to see what they had. I was fortunate enough to come across a pattern that greatly resembles the Battlestar Galactica officer uniform. I went ahead and bought it, leaving the fabric for another day since I couldn't remember the exact color I needed.

The pattern is Burda 7458A, for those interested. I'll need to make some modifications like adding a pocket, having the jacket open on the right instead of the left, having buttons instead of snaps, folding over of the cuffs with lining, and adding the extra material on the shoulders, to name a few. I'll also need to make or purchase the buttons and pins. Can't forget the embroidered Galactica symbol on the left shoulder either. There's a lot of work that'll be needed on this but thankfully the pants do not look too difficult.

Image from Battlestarprops.com

Another thing I had to do today was get a book on sewing! I haven't actually sewn anything before so I headed to the library to check out a book. I ended up going with one from Singer, the makers of my sewing machine. So far I've learned a lot but I'll definitely practice on something simpler before I start on my duty blues!

I've also started a bit on sculpting for my two masks I'm making. I've just put some base clay on the styrofoam head I have. Only reason I'm making a base is so I can make sure that masks will fit my face. The styrofoam head is a bit smaller than my own. As for a finished medium on San's mask, I'm not sure if I'll use fiberglass or stick to resin so I won't have to buy two types of materials. We'll see, it'll be a minute before I'm finished with her mask.

Finally Starting

Welcome all. I'm going to jump right in and say I've finally started to work on my costumes for this year's Dragon*Con 2012! I bought some modeling clay and tools at Michael's and a styrofoam head at our local costume shop Performance Studios. I intend to use this clay for modeling San's mask, necklace, spearhead, earrings, and whatever else I'm forgetting. As of now, I'm even drawing up an idea as to how I want to make her mask. I'm going for the half mask since it's my personal favorite of the two. I'll also be using the clay to model my possible furry mask and some of Toph's accessories. I'll be posting pictures of my progress and sketches as they come. I just decided to do this because I find it cool and informative to see how people make their costumes.

Still taking corks by the way! Thanks all!