Garnet Rod + Update

I'm getting very excited. Not only because I'll get to see a bunch of otaku and awesome cosplayers, not only because of all the guests and premiers, but especially because I get to see my friends who I haven't seen in a few months to a year and spend some quality otaku time with them.

Warning: Image Heavy Post After The Jump!! (PC, you've already seen these images on Google+)

Weekend Update

Goose and I worked very hard this weekend, trying to get things done.

First off, we finished making the Sailor Sleeves, which I have lovingly nicknamed "arm tacos" since the fabric is shaped like a taco shell and then filled with a bunch of quilting batting.

On Saturday, I worked alone on them, but the technique I was using wasn't working on the fabric I was using, particularly because the darts wouldn't crease neatly like 100% cotton would.

So that was a day of work that didn't amount to anything.

The next day, Goose joined me and helped me measure out the taco shells based on my, Lira's and Kaye's measurements. Then we cut the quilting batting to shape for each taco shell, stuffed the shells and pinned them together like wontons. Then I sewed them, hoping that they wouldn't twist too much and that the lines would appear properly.

Left to right: Completed arm taco for Akira, stuffed wontons for Lira, shell and stuffing for Kaye

They came out better than my first five or six tries, so hopefully this will be the last time I make anything arm taco-y.

Left to right: Akira, Kaye, Lira (I left extra room for Kaye and Lira to stitch onto the leotards)

Goose finished sanding and painting the Pluto earrings we were working on. He sprayed the fronts with the Cherry Red auto paint. After they dried, there were a few air bubbles, so he sanded the surfaces with very very very fine grit sand paper. Auto paint is awesome, because it dries into a hard layer that sands as well as the resin. So he sprayed a second layer onto the front and after that dried, one on the back to make the color look uniform.

Here are the earrings after drying the second layer. I love the shine that comes off them.

All of the Garnet pieces are done drying, so I'm working on the heart shapes to sand them down to the proper shape. Goose says that he can do measuring and cutting based on measurements and stencils, but he hates freehand work, so I'm working on the shape with a dremel and a respirator since I'm still getting over a chest cold I caught in June. Blech.

While I work on those, Goose is working on making the details for the staff part of the rod.

Our Portal costumes are both ready to go and Goose just needs to fix a small electronic problem in the Portal Gun for that to be ready.

Right now, our only focus is on the rod and it's only time consuming because of the drying times we have to account for the Bondo, primer and paint.

More pictures as we make more and get closer to Otakon!

OH GOD TWO WEEKS

Quick update (pictures from prior hacks will come when I get home):

- Need to finish Azula. This requires a sewing machine. I do not have one. This requires me finding friends with a sewing machine I can borrow (or hours upon hours of hemming by hand, or buying a machine & returning it later). e____e;;
- I have light hazel contacts for Azula that I do not know how to put in properly. After several half-hour attempts (more than that and I'm afraid I'll go blind) and lots of eyejabbing, I'm still not quite there. They do, however, look AWESOME.
- Still to come: one more t-shirt mod, turning an old Threadless t-shirt into an open-shoulder crop top for the Otakon dance.
- I'll be walking in the Sixh. Fashion Show on Friday at 4pm and getting my J-goth on. (I don't even have an inner visual kei/gothic lolita fiend, so this is just going to be slightly bizarre, while interesting.)

If I remotely have the free time, I may make a last-minute run to a hardware store & see what I can improvise in the way of Sailor Saturn's glaive that doesn't look horrendously crafted. I do not want to be one of these...

but add that to a photoshoot on each of the two weekends between now & Otakon, and songs to finish, and the chances of me having the free time to do a glaive looks slim. I'm disappointed in myself. :x

Akira and Kaye's work looks rifucklously amazing so far, and I am EXCITED. Although apprehensive. I have no idea where I'll be this time next year, and while everyone + several other friends are talking about attending Otakon next year since they've gotten excited-by-proxy, I really don't know if I'll be here again. I'm doing it for the experience of enjoying this process with my friends, and getting really swept up by Akira & Kaye's skill and enthusiasm, but I myself am no longer an active anime fan nor much of a con-goer. Still.

...Maybe I'll do NDK next year!

14 More Days Before Otakon!!

I'm getting so psyched, but that also means that there is a lot to do. Goose is working hard on the Garnet Rod. We're making it out of MDF which we were routing out with a Dremel on a plunge router attachment. This was taking a very very very very long time as you can't plunge too deep into the MDF without a lot of resistance and the Dremel would overheat after one pass around the shape. We could only really cut out two and a half pieces a night (since we're working after work). Very slow, considering we need to cut out 15 pieces to make the 3D shape. Then Goose bought a DeWalt Jigsaw. And cut out two big pieces in the matter of minutes. It makes such a difference when you have the proper tools. He was kind of kicking himself. Now we're in the process of gluing them together and need more clamps for all the pieces.

Dry quickly, please!

I finished my Sailor Pluto Wig after much fighting with tangles. There's a reason people don't usually grow their hair that long. I was pretty pleased with how the odango came out. It was a fight with hot glue on the inside. I burned some skin off my fingertips, I'm pretty sure.

So nice and green! I had fun with this wig :D

I finished casting my Pluto earrings. I bought the starter kit Kaye mentions in this post. I made the master out of clay and cast the silicone in an old Motorola cellphone box we had kicking around after sealing all the edges with hot glue. Then cast the earring with the CR-600 Casting Resin after placing a large stud earring I bought from Claire's in the mold. After sanding and trimming the edges when it cured, we sprayed them with filler primer to fill any gaps in the surface. Now we're waiting for them to dry, but then we'll spray them with the dark red auto paint we're also using for the rod details. (I love auto paint. It's so shiny.)

It's a little heavy, but I just need to get used to it.

Also, I finished the tiaras for all of us and Kaye will be casting the gems to attach to them.

They're pretty shiny when you get them in direct light.

I finally got around to finishing the glove piping for each of us as well. I don't know why I was so unmotivated before.

Left to Right: Sailor Saturn (Lira), Sailor Pluto (Akira), Sailor Mars (Kaye), Sailor Moon (Kitaku)

And I finished one of my Sailor Pluto boots yesterday. It slips on like a sock and looks pretty form fitting. I have to figure out how to strap down the boot inside, or maybe just wear some heels.

Need to add traction to the bottoms as well since they're very slippery on the bottoms.

Whew, that was a huge update, but the glove piping and tiaras were done earlier and since Otakon is coming in about two weeks, it really has lit a fire under my ass.

There are still a bunch of things that still need to get done.

I need to finally get those f%$*ing sleeves completed. They fight me. Goose and I need to finish cutting and gluing all our parts so we can sand and paint the thing. I need to finish the other Pluto boot. Then I need to check over Goose's Aperture Scientist costume and my Chell to make sure it'll last another con. I foresee a lot of mending in my future.

Then it's purchasing supplies, packing and driving to Baltimore of a weekend of awesomeness!

Kaye and I still have a bunch of things to do once we get to Baltimore in terms of fitting, sewing and attaching pieces. It's the price we pay for making cosplays 2,000 miles away from each other with two other people who are both not located near either of us. It'll be an interesting and fun night!

Well, hopefully, the next updates I have are more completed parts of the Sailor Senshi!

Contacts Came In!! (Picture, too!)

The mail came in with the colored contacts we bought from Pinky Paradise.
Kaye bought a pair of the Super Pinky Violet and Super Pinky Greens for her various costumes.
I bought a pair of the Super Pinky Wine Red for Pluto and Super Pinky Greens for Athena Glory.
I like how the colors can be subtle but really show up in the light. 
When you use the coupon code HOLLYANN,  you get three free cute animal contact cases and some other free gifts. I'll include pictures of those when I get home today.

In other news, working on the tiaras, sleeves and gloves for Kaye.
Here is one of the bases cut out of .020 brass sheets. I need to engrave the edges and drill the ends to thread the elastic through. Then polish, seal and glue on some soft foam on the underside so it's not right on our head.

Must. Channel. Stoic. Pluto.

Athena's bases are done, but I'm still waiting for our work area to be clean, since paint + dust = FLAIL.
Less than two months to go!

update

Lots of progress today, even after waking up to go to work early :)

I finalized the pattern, cut and sewed the last of the overrobe piece out. I'll post the picture of the insane number of pins I used to keep everything together. I had to sew in psuedo guidelines so I can keep my beading straight, mostly so I know where the real edge of the seam is; so the guide is less than an 1/8" in from the seam, and then the line for the beading is about another half an inch in.

Currently beading the first line of the bottom accent (two lines of beading for both the top and the bottom accents). I need to figure out how this is going to stay attached to the rest of the robe, pattern the embroidery for that and .. keep beading. I'm using size 1 bugle beads in gold that I got in bulk from the NY trip. Just putting it out there right now, it took me the better part of an episode of Numb3rs to get maybe a foot of beading done.

Also, the tabards have lining pinned on and the actual size I want traced on to the lining with fabric markers. I still need to do two more embroidery pieces, interface and iron on the designs before I start beading THAT mess. I have figured out the sizing I need for the "knotted cord" decorations that are going to hang from the belt. I may start patterning that out tomorrow once I get back from my friend's house.

Then it's just the wig and the insane head dress. That's my late June/early July project.

Of the sailor senshi costumes.. it's resin casting, finishing the skirts and getting started on the boot covers. I'm mostly waiting for the sleeves from Akira before I really work on anything else for them. And then wigs. That's going to go with the resin casting time period. I'm mostly trying to get a lot of Tomoyo done before the middle of this month so I can work on Nave's Syaoran costume without panicking and worrying about my own. His is going to be way easier in terms of decorations.

sharpies + ribbon...

... equals Kaye sitting and watching Numb3rs. I have about 101 inches to color for Kitaku's collar.

All of the bow bases are done. I just need to add snaps and tack the tails in place/add stiffener to the chest bows, and snaps to the butt bows. All that's left for my part after adding the ribbon borders on to the collars (Kitaku and Lira's left aside from mine. Akira took hers back to the east) are skirts and.. the weird sleeve things. Then resin bits.

THEN I CAN CONCENTRATE ON THE TSUBASA COSTUMES. And Nave's tetris block costume o_O;;;

Fabric and Shoes (Part II)

Pokoteng Cosplay returns from New York successfully! We obtained fabric for the main parts and bows for FIVE sailor senshi at around 150 dollars total (with excess amounts just in case).

And the fact that I had to go to New York to find 5.5 shoes in the right color and model is just a BIT ridiculous.

FABRIC and shoes (Part I)

T-minus 3 days until Pokoteng (minus 2) does New York City! We're trekking to the second closest large city to us to go fabric hunting for the senshi costumes. Technically speaking, we can go to the closest one, but I've been wanting to go back to the city and wander around for a bit and do touristy things again.

Plus I know where the fashion district is and spotted at least four large stores around there. ZOMG fabric.

Hopefully we will succeed. The Joann's around us doesn't really have a great of a selection of serviceable fabric that has a heavy enough weight and a slight sheen in enough colors. And yes, I've looked at fabric.com already. My experiences with them was either hit-or-miss depending on the costumes. I have a bunch of fabric stockpiled for various costumes, but the one costume that I haven't nailed, either online or in person, is the one right below this post. Hurr. I think I may have finally found the right fabric for the overrobe (technically speaking, I've already found one, but the problem is that I didn't get enough yards *SHAKES FIST*).

The under robe is going to be an adventure for NYC, along with senshi gloves and senshi fabric (Pluto, Mars, Saturn and Moon.)

I just dished out about 60 dollars on 6 yards of 58" wide violet gabardine suiting, 4 yards of olive green cotton blend broad cloth and 4 yards of medium weight white cotton twill. The latter two are the lining and main fabric for Nave's Syaoran Nihon-esque (or is it closer to Shara?) outfit. Thank goodness we don't really need to line his pants with the same fabric.. I'm putting him to work with stamping the fabric with the necessary designs. Oy.

Another item on the list at DSW is a pair of red high heeled pumps. I should get these so I can color match the red of my sailor collar and skirt when we wander to the City. There are two or three pairs that could possibly work.. I just need to test walk and break them in. Oh, oh! A pair of tan character shoes too ._. Akira mentioned a boot cover tutorial for her Pluto costume and how they slip on like socks. This is a brilliant Idea, now that I think about it, especially for women who have HUGE issues finding knee high boots that are remotely serviceable for a costume.

Buying boots and modifying them for every costume you make can get pricey, especially if you have a fondness for costumes like that. And let's face it: a pair of comfortable long boots gets expensive. And fashion designers don't go "HURRR let's keep the cosplayers in mind!" I have dancer calves from so many years en pointe, so most of the boots in my size? Yeah, they don't fit. Either the ankle is too baggy, or I can't even get the zipper 3/4 of the ways up.

So boot covers, over character shoes. This is a good solution. Please insert a sagely nod here.