School Crunch -- back in a couple of weeks!

School, whyyyy?!  SO MUCH TO DO! ;A;

I'm in the final 2 weeks before graduating as Costume Design major.  I haven't been able to accomplish much outside of school work in the month of May (Meaning nothing personal), and that realization is a little disenchanting, but nonetheless unavoidable.  I was sick for a good week and a half (Thanks a lot, stomach flu!) as well, so I feel like May has been a bad month so far.  Honestly, until May 29th or so I'll be furiously putting together final projects, papers, presentations, etc.  It's a bit of a pain, but no big deal -- and like I have a choice in the matter!  Just seems like a huge deal, since the student-body atmosphere is very dark and moody -- and it makes me grumpy to hear so many students complaining!  Plus, my anxiety tends to over-blow any small thing into a seemingly larger, more complicated situation.  D: I need to learn to control my stress, and save it for when more appropriate circumstances arise!

Ah well... at least I AM GRADUATING! On to the next big adventure, starting this summer!  I'm at a cross-roads however, to continue my education, or to seek out work for a while, and pay down my loans?  I'll have to decide come June.  I have money saved up for a good while, so I am not stressed about that at all.  Just unsure what my next step will be.

I have made some progress on my Shanoa hip armor (The pieces that hang from either side of the breastplate) and formed them over a curved surface -- the same one we used for Godot's mask.  Now they're just sitting there in a pile, staring at me.  I should be able to work a bit on that this weekend, as they're ready for felting and their leather covers.  (I have some progress pictures)  It's an easier application than the breastplate, so it shouldn't take me more than a couple of hours.  Wonderflex is truly a magical product!

My collar is mostly complete as well (I just have to do a bunch of handwork to finish it), as are my gloves.  I ended up having to order larger black coque (Rooster) feathers for the gloves, and a different elastic for the cross-gartering, but no qualms here!  Gloves and collar need only an hour of work each, tops.  They should look pretty awesome once finished! I'll take pictures of them once they are.

Alas, haven't had time to draft the proper halter pattern for the dress base -- the skirt portion is cut, so I really need to buckle down and finish the top.  I ended up purchasing china silk linings in two different orange variants, a burnt pumpkin and a copper.  Seems like the copper will work out better!

Probably going to have to take a small trip out to Santa Monica between now and June, too. I need to buy a leg.  A... plastic display leg! xD I need something rigid and stable for forming the bottom greaves of Shanoa's armor!  A bit of a pain to drop $20 on one display leg, but who knows... I may need it again later?  Or I could just turn it into a lamp?  Hahaha.  The world of costuming is so weird sometimes.

Hope everyone is doing well!  I hope to get back on track with my crafting asap, and finally get some tutorials up too.

Cheers!

♥ Ely

Castlevania Order of Ecclesia: Shanoa -- Cosplay Update II, Breastplate, Collar & Gloves W.I.P

 

Hey all! Feeling kinda under the weather today as my on and off allergies have been driving me crazy.  It's been so terrible the past couple of days, that I've been feeling like a lump of sick, unable to do anything, sleep at night, etc.  What to do? So, I opted to stay home from school and relax, as my energy levels are near empty and my brainpower is in the negatives.  Meaning, I can't be constructive or productive at all.  So here I am, updating my blog in my pajamas, sipping tea... waiting for the vertigo to stop.  I hope I can recover from this soon.

On the upside, I do have a few small picture updates on my Shanoa costume -- mainly the completed breastplate, and also her fingerless gloves and collar!  Enjoy!

I used masking tape to "mask" (lol) any portions of the breastplate that I didn't want to accidentally glob glue on.  I decided to use E6000 over Barge contact cement to affix the decorative gold pieces because it's a pre-mixed epoxy, and doesn't need to be applied to both surfaces (As my materials are porous) to stick properly.  E6000 is also a flexible epoxy, and given this is going to be worn on my torso, I figured it to be a better bet as I will be moving about quite a bit!

The gluing task was a bit... harrowing, to say the least.  I had to be careful not to apply too much glue to the backing of the design (so that it oozed out from underneath when pressed down) and also couldn't apply too little, as it wouldn't stick down all the way.  I also couldn't bend my design back to apply glue -- the surface wanted to (naturally) buckle and haze as it is a primed and painted leather..

That being said, I applied glue all over the center back of the design, lined it up and pasted 'er down.  I glued the 'arms' of the decor separately, and used a small toothpick to apply to smaller portions of adhesive to the outer areas that needed more glue.  There were a few moments where I thought I had messed up something permanently, but because of the masking (Phew!) all was fine.

After a half an hour of careful gluing the design was set down! I let it cure overnight (24 hours) before I tried the breastplate on, and also performed some minor touch ups.  The outer gold trim was also glued down with E6000, and folded over the edge of the breastplate for a more finished look.  Here are finished pictures of the breastplate! ;D  Really happy to have finished a very difficult piece of this costume with relative ease.  I now must figure out how to attach it to my body, and all signs seem to be pointing to wide strips of Velcro, and a few snaps.  Will be updating on that later on!

I also had the chance draft her gloves and collar.  They are by no means complete, but the gloves are more or less 80% finished.  I just have to affix the elastic cross-gartering across the forearm, and create the feather detail at the elbow.  (I have black rooster feathers coming in the mail!)

For the collar, the bow is more of less complete, but the actual collar itself needs some work. I used darts to cinch it around the neck, but I must do some necessary clipping and tacking down for it to look right.  I tea stained the lace (On both the gloves and collar) for a more antique look.  It'll likely close in the front with a small hook and eye that the bow will hide.  The Venice style laces used were bought in downtown LA for a minimal price, and are pretty antique looking!

Anyhow, that's all for now as I am waiting on a few things to arrive in the mail so that I can keep making progress here.  Thanks for reading. :3!

Cheers and happy costuming,

♥ Elysium

Castlevania Order of Ecclesia: Shanoa -- Cosplay Update I, Breastplate W.I.P

Hello hello! Been really busy again lately -- however, not busy enough to keep me from working on my Shanoa cosplay!  I have around 2 months left to complete this costume, and 100% of the materials I need to craft it.  Pretty excited that it is becoming a reality.

So far, I've hit around $120 for this whole thing, seeing as I opted for Wonderflex, real leather, and a few other minor touches that ran the cost up.  That being said, I had many items of my own to use on this costume (Including handmade lace from the early 1800's) that have just been begging to be stuck on something.  I seem to need a never-ending supply of barge contact cement (Oy, which I've used a lot of already, and will need more of absolutely) and E6000 adhesive for other bits.  The boots that I purchased also contributed to the overall cost, but honestly I wouldn't want to cheap out with my choices, so I'm all right with spending a little extra.

So far, been working away on making the breastplate for Shanoa, because it seems to be the most complicated part of the costume.  I decided to take some creative liberty on the "shape" of it.  What I mean is that I understand that the plate has a very flat shape in the stomach area and over the chest in the official art, but the reality of this on a real body (With curves, I may add) is that it will not sit on, or flatter the female shape at all.  When the artist conceptualized the armor, I'm not really sure if they understood the nature of that.  (Not really their job for them to worry if a design will be made into a costume or not, hahaha!)

Thinking about it, and after researching what others have done with her breastplate, (And not to say anyone is wrong by choosing to do it that way) I decided that it wasn't what I wanted exactly.  I want this to fit me.  I do not want to create bulk, or a thickening of the torso by draping an uncurved plate to a body with form.  Now that I have completed a fair deal of the shaping and finishing on it, I am really happy overall.  Honestly, (My husband pointed this out) once the decor is added, no one will even tell the difference between it being fitted or not.

I have a few progress pictures that I will post!

All of those (blasted) markings pictured here were used to keep the plate symmetrical.  I tell you, figuring this all out took a few days, and at one point I was thinking, "Shit, why am I doing this again!?" xD;  Good thing that it came out right the first go, or I would have probably sprouted my first grey hair!  I used a hair dryer to get the Wonderflex malleable enough to pull it across the dressform, and voila!  Wasn't too difficult to do this.

A few notes -- I used Wonderflex for the base, stretched over my personal dressform (Which is my size), covered the outer area with felt, and then covered that with a medium-weight brown leather.  I did this because the felt (Which is nubby and grabs to adhesive well) bonded with contact cement to the leather hide will help keep it stuck permanently.  Also, it provided a bit of thickness -- because I didn't want the breastplate to look flimsy!

After covering the Wonderflex with felt, and very carefully stretching the leather over it -- I ended up what is pictured on the right.  Anyone who uses contact cement knows the process.  You apply the adhesive to both surfaces, and after 10-12 minutes press the surfaces together for a permanent bond.  It's tedious, and sucks up a lot of time, but it will never come UNSTUCK.  For serious, this shit is really crazy strong, and if you accidentally let the surfaces touch, good luck pulling them apart.  This is why you should always work with small areas as you're gluing.  I should add make sure you work in a well ventilated room -- it goes without saying the fumes are a bit on the toxic side.

Next step -- patterning and figuring out the decorative section of this breastplate.  I hand drafted and figured the proportions on paper, and after doing some (rather badly) cut out tests from interfacing, I was able to finalize the pattern.  It probably took a half hour or so.  I did a paint test on a scrap of leather just to get an idea of how it would look against the surface of the low-sheen brown leather. 

I had been toying with the idea of creating a beveled, raised look for the decor, but wasn't too sure what to do.  I came up with the idea of cutting two identical pieces of the decor (One in vinyl, the outer paint-able surface in leather) and sandwiching the two with some piping in the middle to create raised areas.

With a few corrected flubs, I have to say that I am extremely impressed with how it looks!  The antique gold paint that I used is multifaceted, so it catches the light perfectly, and with a spray resin coating, it looks very metal-like.  Unfortunately though, I ran out of resin spray sealer, so I can't move on from this point (As I need to make an outer trim for the entire breastplate, which needs to be stuck down at the same time as the central piece) until my order for 2 cans comes sometime next week.

Anyways, really enjoying this costume progress, and will update more soon!  I am hoping that once I have the plate done, I can start working on the greaves/knee pieces, and then the rest is all sewing.

Take care, and happy costuming!

♥ Elysium

Commission Project: Pirate England (Hetalia) -- Post-Completion Silliness

Hello everyone!

My husband and I did a quick little 'test fitting' (Even though the measurements are incorrect for his body-type) of the Pirate!England commission, and this is what we ended up with.  Actually fit him better than I expected, though the sleeves are a bit short for him, lol.  It's really nice to see how the whole costume comes together, even without added accessories, sashes, jewelry, etc.

It's official, Spring break is here (March 30th-April 10th), and I couldn't be happier.  I actually started preliminary tests on the armor I need to build for my Shanoa costume, and so far so good.  It's been a bit of a tedious process since I'm forming a flat sheet of Wonderflex over a 3D object (My dress-form) but after a few hours I finally got it to work!  I'll probably spend the rest of my weekend figuring out the correct shape, covering it with leather and figuring out the decorative designs as well.  I plan on documenting my whole working progress, so that I can include more detailed progress shots, and perhaps as an end result, even a detailed tutorial for anyone else considering this cosplay!

Wish me luck, and back to my crafty cave for now.

-- Elysium

Commission Project: Pirate England (Hetalia) -- Update V, Pirate Coat

Arrrrrr(o), everyone!

Quick update -- been trying to get around to posting a few photos of the Pirate!England cosplay that I completed to 100% a few weeks ago.  The jeweled pin shown on the back of the collar can be removed, I just threw it on there 'cause it is kinda cool.  I will likely assemble all pieces that have been created for final photos at a later time!  Overall, really super pleased with the whole costume, but at the same time, so relieved to be finished.  I dedicated at least 80-100 hours on the whole project, learned a lot from it, and am happy to see it off to it's home soon.

Pretty excited to see Raven cosplay in her finished ensemble!  The costume is so rich, so I hope she'll feel amazing wearing it as England, and that it'll help her get into swashbuckling spirit. :3 She will be carting it down here in late June, (Already giggling as I think of customs' reaction.) as she will be coming to visit me, and we will also be attending Anime Expo 2012 together!! Really looking forward to spending time with her and am super excite! I hardly ever look forward to summer... so I am happy to at least have this happening!

In personal stuff, feeling kinda down and dowdy lately.  Just been really struggling with my creativity, even though I am forcing myself into new projects already.  'Suppose a break, or rather, Spring Break (That starts next week), should help a bit.  I literally have 95% of the materials I need to start my own costume (Boots will be arriving today, yippies!) but I haven't had the chance to pattern anything as of yet.  I guess I shouldn't get too down, as it's really not a major life problem.  Just feeling that school has been wearing me out a bit.  Getting back into eating healthy, and exercising has been a struggle to commit to, but I will get into the groove of it pretty soon. :3 And with that, I'm out for now, thanks for reading!

-- Ely

FINIS!

1. Restoration-era coat w/large cuffs, collar & lapels
2. Poet shirt w/lace cuffs
3. Pirate Hat w/feathers, ruffled ribbon & trims
   
4. Gold epaulets w/tassels
5. Lacey cravat