Desucon 2013 and ECC qualifiers

Photo: Katariina Ihalainen

It’s been almost two weeks since Desucon, which was held for the fifth time at Sibelius Hall, Lahti. For me it was hands down the best Desucon ever! I competed in EuroCosplay Championships qualifiers as Amira Halgal from Otoyomegatari and placed first, which means that in October I’m going to represent Finland at the finals at London Comic Con!

I’m still slightly confused, but really happy and proud what I managed to achieve. I can only thank the judges, the competition manager and the crew, audience and all the fellow hobbyists at Desucon, who complimented my costume or just wanted to share few words before and after the competition. You have no idea how big impact your words had and still have. Seriously, I’ve been reading Tumblr notes and all sorts of blogs these past few weeks with a tissue box. But the biggest thanks I have to save for Yoki, who was my support, critique source and assistant during the making of the costume and at the competition itself.

In this post I’m going to go through our days at Desucon costume-wise. First I could actually tell what we even wore, since we didn’t reveal the costumes beforehand like we usually do. This was because we decided on some of them only a week before Desucon. In the end we packed six costumes. So six costumes with accesories and amount of stage props, which could easily decorate a small living room and everything should be fitted in one car!

By the way, the photo was taken at a point where we still had my suitcase and one suit bag left. And three human beings. In the end we were able to squeeze everything in with stacking skills trained to perfection with Tetris.

Photo: jesmo

On Friday we recycled Joxter and Muddler from Moomin. We debuted the costumes three years ago at Tracon. For second take at conventions, we didn’t need to do much with them, which was actually one of the reasons we chose them. There was so much going on at the last week that anything more time consuming would’ve been just too stressful. The other reason was that they were a nice pair of costumes just to keep at the closet.

Joxter got a new wig, because I couldn’t find the old one anywhere and Muddler had a facelift for his shoe… socks. Yoki took away the base shoes inside the socks and stuffed them with cotton to make them look and feel softer. And we had to take Muddler’s pants in five centimeters or they would’ve been in Yoki’s ankles if someone had stepped on the tail!

One thing to say about Desucon and our Friday costumes: Finns love Moomins.

On Saturday I was naturally Amira, since the competition was held that day. Yoki wore an original character costume from her story Varjella. The character's name is Kulo Halava.

Yoki chose Kulo, because the costume was really easy to move in and it was made from natural materials, which made it breathable despite all the layers in it. During Saturday I had Yoki as my personal cosplay assistant, which basically meant tying sailor knots on my underwear which were seen briefly on stage, bringing me liquorices and juice when I needed any, checking my costume for photos, setting the stage props before the show and just being there for support. These tasks included running, kneeling and all sorts of activities, which really required a comfortable costume.

In this costume version Kulo is in his youth, which means that for the adult one Yoki will update the outfit by adding embroidery and new props.
 

Photo: Tapio Matikainen

I'm going to make a blog entry about the competition experience as whole, but I might say few words about Amira. With the costume I was able highlight the strong points in my craftsmanship and create something lifelike and true. In all, I’m really happy with the costume and the performance had an impact I wished it to have!

Even if I’m really pleased with the outfit, I’m going to fix and redo some of the accessories, because I want them to be more authentic.

Photo: Matias Tukiainen

One of the six planned costumes dropped out from Sunday, because after placing at the qualifiers I wanted to wear Amira instead and have more pictures taken at the photobooth. The costume I had planned for Sunday was Miss Who, female version of the 11th Doctor. 

Yoki wore battle damaged Sio Imano, who is also character from Varjella. Yoki made the costume last year and debuted it at Tracon. Even if the missing arm gave her trouble during the convention, she survived the con well singlehandedly. Yes, pun intended.

Photo: Yumi

Five year old Desucon was great, even if our schedule was mostly cosplay related. The show competition on Sunday was something to see and it gave me chills and few tears also. The winning performance was just pure gold. Congratulations for all placed competitors and also to fellow contestants from Saturday!

Desucon, thank you!

My Desucon feelings exactly! Photo: Yumi

Bride-to-be

I’m almost there! Kind of… If I mildly understate the amount of stitches that still need to be stitched and the rehearsals to be rehearsed. But nonetheless, I will at least have something on when it’s time to step on stage at Desucon!

Last Sunday I asked Yoki to company me for a small photoshoot trip to our nearby meadow. I thought that having a trial run for Amir’s underclothes wouldn’t be such a bad idea. I also got the opportunity to test how the wig works in action. It was worth the trouble, because now I know that such a heavy wig needs more sturdy fastenings than just regular hairpins. I ordered wig clips and should receive them early next week. The wig problems should be solved with that.

For the photoshoot I was also able to test the make-up for Amir. I tried to keep the look natural and didn’t wear fake lashes. I probably won’t wear them at the competition either, because I’m worried that they might be bit too much with dark contact lenses. But we’ll see about that… quite soon I’m afraid.

The costume itself or the lower layer of it looks good. I’ll probably add some hooks to the shirt so that I won’t be pulling and twitching it after every time I lift my arms. The wig also needs some attention with the fastenings and a lot of hairspray.

Now I think I will take off to our workshop and try to shorten the list of unfinished costume pieces. I have high hopes that today I might be able to finish the jacket, which is the most laborious part of this costume. But also the prettiest one too!

The credit for the photos and big thanks goes to Yoki, who took some really nice shots and has been a great sport during my costume construction!

Until next time!

Jewelry, check!

Finally I have something ready and completed! I was bit skeptical about making anything complex from Fimo, but everything went better than expected. I had few problems on the way. Mostly they were sculpting issues with strange shapes and how to achieve them; from solid chunks or by cutting them with patterns from a sheet of clay.

Next to latex molds I used Fimo itself to make molds for the little trinkets for the amulet and earrings. I baked the molds and let them cool. I used talc as release agent. I took a small piece of Fimo and push it in the mold. With right amount of talc the clay popped out almost by itself. After baking I trimmed the pieces with a exacto knife.

I painted the jewelry pieces with metal paint and used black stain to age them. The wooden pearls I painted with acrylics. Finally I sprayed clear lacquer to finish the surfaces.

 Left: coins with stain

I used jewelry hooks to attach the trinkets. I secured them with epoxy glue which I also used to glue on the red stones. I drilled tiny holes for the coins and used stitching thread to hang them from the amulet.

Keeping busy

The first thing I noticed this morning after logging in on our account was that our reader count had reached 100! Thank you! I hope that you find and will find the content we create interesting and useful! We actually had something planned for this particular event, but the 200 kilometers between me and Yoki somewhat ruined it.  Instead I give you a photo of us in pants Yoki made for her next costume!

Last month was a busy one for me with visiting our brother and his family on the other side of Finland, birthday parties and my other hobby, theater. They consumed more time than I expected and naturally slowed down my progress with Amir. But I had made my timetable rather crazy to ensure that I keep my pace. I’m now back on track and bit ahead. I actually made some stage props for the performance in advance.

I finished the hat with the cloth wrappings. Despite the amount of fabric on the back of the hat, it fits quite nicely without any fastenings.

I also forced myself to work on the undershirt, because the sleeves and front are quite crucial part of the overall look of the costume. I think I managed to replicate the design pretty well even if it always looks bit different in every frame. I’m currently embroidering the collar and the back of the shirt.

I baked some more jewelry. This time it was the bracelets.

I also styled the prettiest wig on Earth! I still need to braid it and add the accessories.

Peek-a-boots!

Few days ago I started to work with Amir’s footwear. I chose leather imitation for the boots. I bought three different colors: dark brown for the base and blue and white for the decorations. The blue was obviously too dark and I wanted the surface to remain textured, so I applied the light blue color on the pleather with a sponge. I used acrylic paint, because in thin layer it will not crack even if the pleather stretches a bit.

The progress itself was rather similar to crafting basic boot covers, but instead of base shoes I destroyed pair of old canvas ballerinas for their rubber soles. The “cover” I sew on a separate insole before gluing the rubber sole on. I also made another insole from thick felt, which is like a hidden heel inside the boot. This I thought to give not only few centimeters of height to match my proportions but also a better posture.

I had some problems with the fit of the boots on the ankles. I almost added zippers, but then I heard Yoki’s voice in my ears: “Authenticity! Remember authenticity!”

Seriously, after Yoki made her original costume design and after we discussed many times about functionality and authenticity, I’ve started to notice that I've been affected by Yoki’s way of thinking. I felt bit brainwashed when I took Amir’s finished underskirt and took apart the waistband, removed the zipper altered the fit more loose and added cord fastening. But I do like the skirt a lot better now and more than anything it resembles the reference pictures in more detail. Again, thanks go to Yoki!

Needless to say, I also skipped the zippers with the boots. It took some trimming and redrawing, but I got the fit and look right after a while.

The biggest problem ended up being the tips of the shoes. I never thought that finding the right shape for them would be the most time consuming part. It took me two evenings to get them right; everything else from patterns to sewing and details were done in one day. I finally sew the tips on yesterday after three different patterns and trials.

I’m quite happy with the results. I’m still going to darken the brown parts with black shoe polish and add the red details on the top of the boot. The next phase with the costume is to embroider the red undersuit and to continue with the jacket.

Journal for time travelling Doctor

When I was wearing my lady Doctor costume at Desucon last month, I got few questions regarding my Tardis journal and its construction. I realized that I had only posted one photo from the journal at its finished state but non from the crafting phase. This goes especially for that sweet girl who demanded me to teach her how the journal is made.

I found quite many tutorials of how to make the journal from binding the book to covering a readymade product. Of course I searched them up after I had almost finished my journal. The basics were the same, but I could have chosen a better material for the covers. I went with basic sheet cotton and it only came to my mind that it would probably not stretch enough to set neatly on all the small gaps and slots on the design when I had glued half of it on. So my journal represents the rugged type with water damages.

If I had read the internet tutorials before hand, I might have used a different material. For example tissue paper with decoupage technique. Just genius!

The base for my journal project was notebook I found from a local bookstore for few euros. With reference pictures of River Song’s journal I cut craft foam according the design and glued the pieces on the book. First I thought of using cardboard, but went with craft foam because it’s lot easier to cut. I added the “bindings” on the back and secured them with fabric before covering the whole thing.

I spread glue-water mixture on the cover and quickly worked the cotton on it. I used the end of my paintbrush to press the fabric on the slots. At this point I realized that I had chosen the wrong material, but decided to keep going as I could try to figure out how to fix the issue later.

After I had brushed glue also on the top of the fabric and the cover had dried, I took an exacto knife and sliced the slots that seemed too shallow. These slits I could easily fade away at the painting phase.

Then I glued the back and the back cover of the book. Before the glue set I made sure I can actually open the journal.

The seam allowances I glued on the inside of the covers. To hide the raw edges I glued the first paper page over the allowances and checking that the book can still be opened afterwards.

For painting the book I used blue, white and grey acrylics. I think I mixed four to five different shades to give the book three dimensional look, because of the shallow parts on the design. I used generous amounts of paint to seal the surface and to give the journal leathery look.

Fimo jewelry with push molds for Amira

With my current project I was faced with a part of costume making, which I didn’t have much experience with and that was jewelry making from polymer clay. I can’t believe what some crafty people can do with that stuff! I’ve only used Fimo one time on the tusk necklace I made for our troll costumes last year and that was basically rolling sausages and baking them.

With my second take with Fimo, I decided that instead of sculpting the pieces one by one I would use molds. I thought that it would be the best way to keep the jewelry identical. The items I made in the first bunch are Amir’s earrings and the coins found on the necklace, hairband and scarf fastener of some sort. The second lot will contain small cone shaped beads, trinkets and a tube like amulet on the long necklace.

I started by sculpting a positive mold for the earrings from air-dry clay. After sculpting I let the mold cure over night. The next day I brushed latex on the mold, let it set and repeated the steps over and over until I was satisfied with the wall thickness of the mold. I should have used gloss or varnish to seal the clay mold, since clay absorbs any moisture and turns soft. When I pulled the clay mold from the latex, I ended up breaking it. Gladly, the mold was as good as it could and I didn’t have to make another one.

For the coin molds I just brushed the latex straight on real coins. I made two sides, naturally.

I used Fimo Soft as the material for the jewelry. After cleaning and drying the molds I softened the clay on my hand, took a suitable piece to fit in the mold and just pressed it in. I placed the mold on the fridge for a while before pulling the piece out. It’s lot easier to get the clay out from the mold in one piece when it has cooled down and stiffened.

I baked the Fimo in 110 Celsius for 30 minutes. After the pieces cooled down I removed any irregularities with exacto knife.

I still need to glue on the loops, drill some holes, wet-sand the edges to get a nice, clean look, paint the pieces and finally glue on the jewels.