Break time

Paypal takes forever to verify your account. When it "says" 2-3 days. They really mean a week. This is why I have had to try to verify it three times now. I forget to check after the 5th day whether or not two cents was added into my account. So much for the "instant verification" working.

The clay mold of Lock's mask is officially done. We started putting ultra cal on it last night, but the new clay that Monster Makers has, doesn't like the ultracal sticking to it. Eventually, it started sticking but then we were having problems with the burlap. As I ran out of the burlap from MM, I bought a little bit from Joann Fabrics thinking that it would work the same. Burlap is burlap, right? Well, I was wrong. The pieces just wouldn't stick. We had to pull off two burlap pieces soaked in ultracal just because they wouldn't stay on. I think it might have to do with smaller holes in this particular burlap. The burlap from MM has wider holes (if anyone even knows what I'm talking about >.<). So, I just have to make do and work with it. Boyfriend is supposed to be adding more once he gets out of work.

Awww, how cute

I just have to paint the dice and they will be finished. My dress is coming along nicely. All I need is a zipper, now. Though my spool of thread is running out. I hope it doesn't run out before I finish-I have enough things to buy as it is.

I told you before that we already know what we are doing for next years Comic Con. Well, here it is-Sephiroth and Jenova. We already found the most *amazing* tutorial to make wings. It's going to cost a lot of money. But it will be well worth it in the end-as long as it doesn't interfere with this cruise I want to go on!

I won't really be doing any work on the costumes until Sunday. Today and tomorrow I need to get out of the house! I'm kind of sick of being hunched over a sewing machine all day. Tomorrow, I'll be going to the Eastern State Penitientary for their Halloween tour. I know I will get scared, but I'm hoping I see something cool idea-wise.

It's a process

Boyfriend and I have been hard at work with our Halloween costumes. Unfortunately, we didn't buy enough burlap for his Oogie Boogie get-up. We want to double up on the fabric, but I guess he is taller than I thought-or I can't do math. It's probably the latter. I get dumber the longer I am out of school.

Burlap made boyfriend die.

I also started work on my dress. I bought glittery pink fabric for it. I know what she wears isn't glittery, but I wanted to pretty it up a bit. In retrospect, it was probably a bad idea because the fabric I bought just keeps fraying and it's pretty annoying.

My mom is helping me with reading the pattern this time around. So far, I have the top part of the dress (without sleeves done) complete, and it doesn't look terrible. I am a little nervous that I will mess up the sleeves though, because they are supposed to be puffy sleeves. I can't do anything without it getting messed up, so I am just waiting. It will happen soon.

I've also been working on Lock's mask. So far, all that is left is to finish up the teeth and to smooth it out. I just hope that it is going to fit right, since I'm not using an armature. I'll keep my fingers crossed!

It looks pretty good!!



We also made dice for Oogie Boogie. They look really good and I do plan on making a mold so that I can make multiple for other people! It's just something cool to have.

Looking back, all of that doesn't seem like much. It's only four things, really. But it takes up a lot of time! Especially sewing when you don't even know how to use the sewing machine right. (I did learn that there is a button that makes the needle go backwards. This whole time I thought you were just supposed to push it backwards).

I'm hoping that tonight we will finish something. Four costumes need to be made in less than two weeks!!

Half way there

As we speak, Boyfriend is learning the difficulties of working with oven-baked clay. He's trying to make the dice that Oogie Boogie carries around. So we bought some Sculpey (they were the only ones that had the red that we really wanted), and now he is trying to work with it for the first time. It is actually pretty hysterical. It breaks off and doesn't go together as easily as he thought it would so he is kind of complaining. And now all he wants is a rolling pin. I took one part from him just to even it out so that it wasn't all cracked. Had to make his life a little easier.

Anyway, so I peeled the latex off of the mold I made for Shock last night. Originally, the nose was still wet so it was a different color. I got pretty paranoid that it was going to stay like that but after drying more over night it became uniform.

It's not a great picture, kind of makes it look like a blob

I started cutting the eyes out but I'm doing it little by little so that I don't mess up. We took a dremel to Barrel's mask, or rather, Boyfriend did. I just watched. Then we put some more gesso on. It's starting to come together, but we still need to keep sand papering it to even it out. It has to be perfect because that is just the type of people we are.

Last thing, I have this new brilliant idea and I really can't wait to put it up! It kind of combines my love for writing, costume making and living in a fantasy world. It might take a few weeks to finally finish the first segment, but I'm hoping it doesn't because I'm impatient. =) I hope you'll enjoy it when I finally put it up!

And since I am dead, I can take off my head

Last night was more mask work! This time for Halloween costumes, though. I poured the latex into the Shock mold and started work on Lock's clay mold. However, this might be difficult since I no longer have an armature. Even if I order it now, I wouldn't have it before Halloween. So I'm kind of building the mold directly off of my face. I'm not sure how well this process will work but I really have no other ideas. Thus far, it doesn't look too bad. I'll show a picture tomorrow since right now it just looks like a mound of clay.

I also did some work on Barrel's mask. I started putting some gesso on it to help smooth it out, but for the teeth, I need a dremel (according to boyfriend) to help sand them down. Apparently, it would just be easier that way.

I watched Howl's Moving Castle for the billionth time last night. It's such a beautiful movie (book is great, too!) And it gave me an idea: one day I want to make a cosplay of Howl and Sophie! How cute would that be! Of course, Howl will have to have wings and I prefer the yellow dress Sophie wears at the end of the movie. But I think that people may not recognize Sophie then, since it only shows that dress for a few seconds. It really isn't a crazy cosplay idea but I really love the movie.

Finally, I just want to say that I am selling Silent Hill Nurse masks and American Mcgee's Mad Hatter masks. They would both look like the ones that were worn during the con. 

I realize I didn't have any up of the Mad Hatter. This was the final product.

Unpainted, they will both go for $60. This does not include shipping. If you want them painted, it will be $75. If you are interested, email me and we can talk about it. Again, I can do custom work as well but this will be postponed until I obtain an armature.

New ideas already

Oh I wish comic con wasn't over. I wish I could attend another this weekend. But even if there was one, I wouldn't be able to afford it. I spent way too much money on parking let alone all of the souvenirs I bought. But now I can look forward to next year and we already know exactly what we are going to be. I won't share just yet because we are just in the research stage and you never know, something might be too expensive to do so then we couldn't do the whole project.

I've been on the lookout for pictures of us during the con. I've found a few and even managed to find one of the fight scene!

One of my favorites.

Perfect effect.

I'm still on the lookout for more, so I'll keep you posted. =)

As a side note, one of my friends is now interested in me making him a Boba Fett costume. I have to admit there is no way I could probably make it as good as the ones I saw at the con, but maybe I'll try to do it. Anybody else want a mask made? Just ask and we'll discuss it!

I don't even know where to begin

I haven't updated since Comic Con began and thats because it has been nonstop. We were either at the con, driving, working on costumes or sleeping. There literally have been no breaks. And you might wonder, "well what about Sunday? You were only supposed to go for two days." But our costumes were so excellent on Saturday that we got free passes for Sunday!! =D So Sunday we went as our Halloween costumes from last year-Pyramid Head and the Silent Hill nurse.

It was a fantastic weekend. By far, Sunday was the day we were most popular. There was a ring of cameras around us constantly. The most epic moment was a coordinated fight scene between us and three other cosplayers (four later on in the fight). However, I have no pictures of this! If anyone can find anything on the internet of Pyramid head and Nurse battling three other cosplayers dressed in black, please give me the link!
I'll be putting pictures of ourselves up as I find them. As it is, I really only have pictures of other cosplayers. Again, if anyone stumbles across pictures of us, please, please let me know. I'd love to see them.

This is who you should look for:
Friday: Marill and the Ginosaji (spoon killer)
Saturday: American Mcgee's Alice and Mad Hatter
Sunday: Silent Hill's nurse and Pyramid Head

Thank you in advance!

Other things that happened at the con: I met Cary Elwes!! :: swoon :: I got his autograph, too. He was there promoting the final Saw movie. I also met Frank Beddor and visited him each and every day at the con. I absolutely adore his books. Pictures of us should be up on his site at some point. I now have everything I own by him, signed. He is an amazing person! I also met Voltaire and got to see him play. It was the most intimate concert I've ever been to. He interacted with the audience so much, it was fantastic!

I didn't get to any panels this year. The one I really wanted to go to was one about the worlds of Hayao Miyazaki. But we got to the con late and missed it =(

Well anyway, here are a few pics from the con!

My pyramid head killing someone

Me, pyramid head and a cosplayer who loved him =)

I love Ugly Dolls

Pokemon hang out together

My boy and a sexy female Cloud

Attacking with spoons

This was pretty epic.

Frank Beddor and I =)

Just me

My boyfriend =)

Ready or not, here we come!

I can't believe that I got my Marill costume together in time. I am in love with my tail and ears. I don't actually have any pictures for you right now. It was hectic last night and this morning-but I did sleep! Costumes for tomorrow aren't done yet. The latex in the mask mold wasn't even dry yet. So ill have to paint that tonight after the con.

Look for us at the con! We will be waiting around to meet Seth Green, seeing Voltaire, hopefully learning how to survive the zombie apocalypse and meeting Frank Miller as well. The ginosaji (boyfriends costume) will, of course, be pestering people with spoons, while I just stand around looking cute :)

Ill have pictures up tonight or tomorrow hopefully!!

I could have been on TV

My neighbors across the street have had video cameras and crew puttering about their house for the past few days. I finally found out yesterday what it was for. Apparently TLC is coming out with a new show called "Clean Slate." It's similar to Extreme Home Make Over (I love that show). A guy was going around the neighborhood, asking if people would like to stand on the front lawn for the unveiling of the house (this is how I found out what it was for). Unfortunately, I wouldn't be home at the time of the shoot. Oh, well.

Yesterday was hectic. Simple as that. I don't even know if I could form the amount of frustration I had into words. We went to a bunch of different stores looking for leggings for me, an outfit (which I finally found in a swim suit store), and something to use for my Marill tail. Either places didn't have anything, or they were out, or another store carried it. By the time we got back to the house, we needed to get the ultracal off of the clay. The back part came off well enough. Too bad neither one of us thought about the armatures ears or jaw when we set the ultracal in the front part.

Because we couldn't get it off.

We completely destroyed the pan it was in. We heated it so much that a piece of the plaster armature broke off. So boyfriend got the brilliant idea to drill at the armature until we could get it all out. While it seemed like a good idea at the time, when it was 2 am and it still wasn't completely out, I didn't like the idea anymore.

While he was chipping away at the plaster, I was messing with the latex colorants. I've never used them before, and they didn't actually come in just green. So I had to order blue and yellow. I used to much blue at though, because I had to use practically the whole bottle of yellow to get it lighter. Again, practice makes perfect.

I also set to work on his teapot. We bought a cheesy plastic one from Toys R Us but its covered in a bunch of pink hearts. So I had to use sand paper to sand the hearts away.

A little after 2 he got all of the armature out and we set to the excruciating task of removing all of the clay. We melted the clay a little and went after it with damp paper towels, q tips and sponges. We used the clay tools for areas we couldn't reach but it was a tedious process and took 2 hours. When it was all cleaned out to the best of our ability, we duct taped the two pieces together and began dumping the latex in. There were a few holes in the seams of the two pieces where it started seeping out but that eventually stopped. I was dumb and dumped the excess latex out into the crappy pan instead of back into the jar of latex. So a lot of it was wasted. I really need to think things through before I do them.

Well, comic con is tomorrow and neither one of us has a complete outfit yet. The agenda for today? Start and finish work on my ears and tail, find blue leggings and shoes, buy spoons and attach said spoons to a black shirt which we have yet to buy. So yeah, this is going to be another late night probably.

Processing times need to be faster

When you order something online, and select the "3 day shipping" option, wouldn't you think it would come in three days? Three business days, of course. But still, three days. Why would I pay an extra twenty five dollars on shipping if it wasn't going to be here in three days? The woman told me my outfit that I ordered last friday takes about three days to process and then an additional three days to ship. Really? So, I have to add more to my to-do list today since now I have to go and find a replacement outfit. This is something I really don't have time to do, but I can skip sleeping-right?

Well anyway, yesterday was mostly dedicated to finishing my bow. It came out fantastically! I actually used the step by step guide from this helpful website. I stuffed it with cotton so that it would look fluffy, and I made the tails on my own. The skull I attached using string, as I poked a hole through the back of it so I could sew it onto the bow. However, I don't think the string is strong enough so I will be adding a piece of guitar string so that it stays a bit better.

As a side note, I did fail at using the sewing machine again. The bobbin just doesn't like me. Everytime I try to load it, it doesn't work. My mom goes to do it, and it works for her. Go figure. I have to be doing something wrong, but I mirrored the motions exactly! Ah well, it's done with now anyway.

I figured I'd end this one today with something exceptionally cute.

My darling puppy. Her name is Polaris =0)



I think Daedalus had more time

Three days to go, now and of course, I ran out of ultracal last night. Luckily, I have an amazing boyfriend who got his dad to pick some up in the city. Yay! I would not have made that drive by myself. I suck at being a passenger in the city, I always cringe anytime a car gets too close. I shut my eyes most of the time. As if that would stop an accident from happening.

It's still early in the day, and I can't really do much since I have work until four. But I did manage to sculpt out the skull to go on my Alice bow. It looks pretty good, I think.

It's so cute, I want to hug it!

I cut the pieces to start putting the bow together, but I have to use the sewing machine. That is going to be a nightmare. I still haven't mastered it, but practice makes perfect so I guess I'll have to continue to work at it! Last time, I tried making a dress and it just came out all sorts of messed up. Who tries making a dress when they have never even touched a sewing machine before, though? Clearly, I'm nuts.

I went to an ACTUAL costume shop yesterday! Not just one that pops up around Halloween time. It was in Keyport and the women working there were fantastic! They were so friendly and helpful-I can't wait to go back! It was like (here comes the cliche) being a kid in a candy store. I wanted everything. We had to settle on three tubes of cream Mehron makeup and white gloves, though. Can't buy it all! I have never used theatrical make up before but I did my research and found Ben Nye and Mehron were two of the more popular ones. The Costume Shop didn't carry Ben Nye, which is just as well because I know its more expensive. We tested the makeup out later that night and it looks so good! I can't wait to put it to the test on Friday!

Speaking of Friday, Voltaire was just announced as a musical guest! Ooh, I'm excited! I may not know all of his songs, but I love, love what I've heard. Hopefully, I don't get lost trying to find the room he is playing in.

Last thing to add: I called the customer service line for Comic con today. I needed to ask about the weapons policy because it states that no metal is allowed. But we need to bring in spoons. When I asked the woman if spoons were allowed, she got really quiet and then started laughing hysterically. I'm pretty sure I made her day with that question. She said they should be okay and if anyone says anything, say we stole them from the cafeteria. Win! =D

Where does time go?

Four days until comic con and I have nothing complete! Nothing like waiting until the very last minute, even though I tried not to. It probably didn't help that we decided to go on Friday last minute and going on Friday meant another costume for both of us. This all meant that the weekend was very busy!

Well, the Shock mask got completely covered in ultra cal.

Then had to bake it in the oven so that the clay would melt a little bit. The last mask I made had all sorts of clay stuck in nooks and it was a pain in the ass getting it all out. So imagine my surprise when I pried this off of the clay:

The boyfriend is so cute ^.^

And this is what the clay looked like.

It looks pretty good. Sure, the nose melted a little bit into the point, but hey that is ten times better than the last time I did this.

With the mold of Shock's mask done, that freed up the armature to finally begin work on the Mad Hatter! That took up all of Sunday. Literally. From ten am until eleven pm I was at work, molding, shaping and cutting. I panicked in the beginning because I thought it would be too hard for my amateur skills, but once I did the ear, I thought it came out pretty well. After that, everything kind of fell into place. However, I realized that I wouldn't be able to do the other ear without crushing the one I had already done.

I love this!!! =D

So after a lot of molding, I opted to ultra cal one side of the head so that I could work on the other. You can see some of the ultra cal work in the picture and also the deatil of the mouth area. At first, instead of wrinkles on the bottom it looked like more teeth. But after more shaping it started coming together. The picture was taken before I finished up with the mouth, though.

Well, other than all that mask work. Boyfriend helped with some sanding down of Barrel's mask. it got kind of hard because of all of the individual teeth. It took forever to even find some decent sandpaper, too. That's what happens when you have an unorganized garade. Ah well.

The base for my Alice dress came in but alas, it was too big! Again, panic set in but boyfriend was there to come to the rescue. He went right out and found a smaller one. Which means I have part of my dress! Yay!

Still, there is so much more to do. Absolutely nothing is done and I don't even think I have enough ultracal to cover the mask. Needless to say, stress will be running high this week!