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Because we are now at T minus one month, and I haven't actually written anything about what I'm doing! I decided to try and focus on easier stuff for this year, particularly easier stuff I wouldn't melt into a puddle in. This somehow turned into 'kickass ladies plus Ieyasu' but I'm okay with that.

-Jean Grey/Phoenix (X-Men) - this is mostly a fix-up job on an older costume - turns out metallic spandex is really sensitive and prone to damage. I'm mostly done with the touch-ups, and hopefully I can finish the last little bits (recurling the wig, new sash pin) this weekend

-Yagen Toushirou-inspired bikini (Touken Ranbu) - because Labor Day in Atlanta calls for some poolside action. This one is done.

-Sharak Sanzo (Saiyuki) - I've wanted to cosplay her since she first showed up in the manga, and now that the new anime is airing, it seemed like a good time to finally do it. All the sewing is done, so I'm on to accessories, which are mostly simple aside from the sutra.

-Lup (The Adventure Zone) - soooo I haven't actually started this yet, but, uh, advantages of podcast as a medium? No canon character appearance! I do need to get started on this this weekend, though.

-The Brand (Saga) - Also not started, though this is mostly a bought cosplay, and is also the one most likely to get cut for time. We'll see.

-Ieyasu Tokugawa (Sengoku Basara) - Another touch-up costume. I've got most of the changes and fixes made, but I still need to remake the neck guard, having thrown the previous one together the day before the con.

Think I'm in pretty good shape over all, but we'll see.

Katsucon is less than a month away! Which means I'm into 'panic' territory, but to a significantly smaller degree than previous years, because I am doing a lot less than in previous years, and am already well on my way working on it. Two and a half new costumes - it was going to be three and a half, but it turned out someone else was already doing Impa for the Ocarina of Time group, so I shelved that for now. The two and half new ones are Katakura Kojuro from Sengoku Basara, Gakuen Basara flavor; Homestuck AU of a cyberpunk AU of Hijikata Toshizo from Peacemaker Kurogane; and remaking some parts of Yamatonokami Yasusada from Touken Ranbu (which is the half - I have a wearable outfit for him already, it's just being made better). And it's been good to play around with a bunch of new techniques without the pressure of having SO MUCH stuff to do.

Kojuro is the simplest of these, because it's mostly pre-bought components. I'm doing some wig styling, too, but the real challenge will be make-up, because I'm still not much past 'generally passable' and I'd like to work on that more. Gotta do lots of practice...

Toshi has had the bulk of major new experimenting - mostly in the robot-arm, which I'm doing out of eva foam and thermoplastics, but I also had to reweft a wig to get the high ponytail, and this is what I was building my own screenprinting frame for. Lots of discussion on the arm to come, though not tonight. (and lest I forget, art is a commission from the fantastic [Bad username or site: roachpatrol @ tumblr.com"])

Yasusada has some foamwork as well - I'm making a new chestplate, because the one I've been using is actually from a different costume, and is both too big and has the wrong details for this one. The other new stuff is actually going old-school - I'm remaking the arm-guards in sheepskin leather with gold leaf for the crests, and I'm experimenting with traditional Japanese stencil-dyeing techniques and indigo dye to remake the haori. Exciting, if slightly messy!

Each one of these things will probably get it's own post, because I can talk forever about this stuff *g* Hopefully with a bunch of photos, though my documenting is far from thorough

X-Factor belt insignia mold! Not actually the only thing I did today, but the only thing I managed to get a picture of. Other things that got worked on:

First layer of resin on Magneto’s helm

Put the collar on Illyana’s dress

Straightened + trimmed Illyana wig

Coat of wood filler on my worbla arm cuff

Got the X-details and cuff zippers onto ‘Star

BOUGHT THINGS ONLINE (lightsaber parts, teflon presser foot to do the topstitching on ‘Star nicely)

Tomorrow is MORE RESIN, the last bit of hand sewing on Illyana, and starting in on Aradia.

So I've been posting all my cosplay stuff to tumblr, which has a slightly wider audience for it, but would people be interested in me cross-posting my personal photos/WIP stuff/tutorials? I think I can jimmy IFTT into it.

So, Cos & Effect is kind of a tiny con here in Vancouver (where we now have three summer cons because of... a lot of stupidity). It's technically a costuming/alternative fashion con rather than an anime con, and I feel like this year they really set out to prove that - three guests of honor who are well known cosplayers (one of whom does costuming as a business), and the costuming designer for the last three Stargate series; amazing prizes for the costume contest; and a ton of costuming panels of all levels. I went to ten different panels over the last three days and enjoyed all of them, where I'm usually lucky to find one or two that look even vaguely appealing at a con.

One of the themes that seemed to resonate through a lot of the panels (and that I've also seen in some of the costuming community here on tumblr) is the idea of cosplaying for you. That it should be about you feeling comfortable (okay, except maybe the deliberate sacrifices we sometimes make in suffering for our art *g*), and good about yourself, and happy in your costume - not about arbitrary standards of comparison, or tearing each other down.

And for myself, I ended up thinking a lot about the idea of mastery and growing in skill as a costumer. I've been doing this for... at least ten years now, which is a really goddamn long time, and I've definitely learned a lot over that time, but I'm not at the level I'd like to be at, or the level I think I could be at. It's a problem with seeing the details as I progress, or in patience, maybe, and it crops up other places too - my writing and coding in particular stand out as things that suffer from it. Writing doesn't get finished, or doesn't get explored as thoroughly as an idea deserves. Code either has bugs someone else has to catch, or I get frustrated and give up.

They had a Costuming Guest Q&A panel, so I took the opportunity to ask, basically, 'what general advice would you give for moving from intermediate level cosplay to mastery?' And I felt like the answers were good, and all very true:

-practice, practice, practice
-have patience
-give yourself enough time
-...but set some deadlines, because they force you to innovate
-accept that sometimes you're going to have to start over

Definitely things for me to think about as I start in planning for Teslacon and next year. My particular mix of brain chemistry is probably playing in to some of these problems, too, but that's a different dimension to work on

I started documenting my cosplay stuff on Tumblr because of the ease of posting short posts and mixed media posts (text and pictures, for example). And then I started actually writing about costumes and costume-making and it basically turns into GIANT ESSAYS and then I think I am maybe missing the point of Tumblr.

(do I have a thousand-word draft of working with plastics saved to finish off at some point? Yes I do.)

So I made a cosplay tumblr so I can stop spamming the shit out of Plurk and my blog with WIP photos and ramblings and tutorial links. Is there any interest in me setting up a syndicated feed account for it on DW, for non-tumblr users?

Mostly reposting photos here for the dubious benefit of people who didn't witness them via plurk or my IRC spamming. Juubei's shirt is almost done - I ended up going with version 2, aka Useless Buckles, and, well, the Useless Buckles are about all that need to be done now. And some inside finishing. I also styled my wig for Gintoki, and a friend's wig for Sakura (the Getbackers one). Gin looks great, Sakura could use a little more volume but I'm not sure how to achieve that. I've also been working on Those Damned Bells to little success because epoxy is full of failure. Also, shopping for jingle bells when you have a migraine? Hell.

( go go mediocre cellphone photos )

Oh hello. I kind of vanished there for a bit, didn't I? August was pure madness - new job, new game, two cons for which I did WAY TOO MUCH OF THE SEWING WORK FOR. Flakefriends are not getting free labor from me again after this year. I wasn't posting much because I think it would have just been like the work 'fuck' in h1 like three hundred times. It was rough going but the end result was pretty awesome.

Anime Evolution 2010
Kumoricon 2010

Kumoricon photos will be on my own gallery eventually - still trying to figure out a Gallery2 upload module for Linux that works, as the F-Spot one just....crashes F-Spot with no errors. AE was way too hot and I didn't do much con stuff, but I got in for free for helping with an event so it was fine anyway. Kumoricon was loads of fun, even if the drive was waaaay too long. But it was really awesome to meet some net people IRL.

Bought stuff at both the cons (of course) - two Bleach doujin and the Color Bleach English release at AE, and then at Kumoricon I bought a pile of Peacemaker Kurogane manga and....a sexy anime lady bodypillow. Mostly because it was the Major and she is awesome. Also she doesn't have the 'no means yes' face that most of those pillows have, though she does have Masamune Shirow's strange boob drawing habits.

Since getting home, I have mostly been getting caught up on gaming stuff and getting used to more hours at work, and trying to get the house cleaned up so it looks like humans live here. This involved a $180 ~IKEA adventure~ today, but I finally have space for all my books and don't have to store costumes in plastic bags on the floor. Still a long way to go, but it's a start!

Finally! For those interested in browsing on their own, the main gallery starts here, Turks photoshoot stuff starts here, and Bleach stuff starts here.

Going to go ahead and embed some of my favs, too - just a warning that it'll be image-heavy. I know some of the resized versions are a little artifact-y, but the page links have the big version too.

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