Long time no see, intertubeland! I haven't updated for at least two weeks, have I? Whoops, my bad.
Well, I have much news for you follower-types. I have been working on my leatherwork like freaking crazy for the past two months, and I'm nearly done with both Teutonic Knight Prussia's suit of armor, and Ancient Rome's breastplate. I really just have three more bracers left to create, as far as I know: two for Ancient Scandinavia, one for Ancient Magyar. Rome's medallions are next on my list, followed by the two belts that rest on the bottom of the breastplate near the piece we affectionately call the "Crotch Protector."
I'll put a tutorial on basic leatherworking here once I can use the camera. Heck, I might make a whole new post just for talking about that breastplate. I remade the entire thing, and it is fantabulous, if I do say so myself.
Now that I know how to work with leather, I started asking around to see if anyone worked with plate metal. As it turns out, a friend or two of mine does work with plate, and is willing to teach me. Soon, I'll be making my own suits of steel armor just for the heck of it.
...That's pretty cool, I think.
I got purple contacts for Austria (and by extension, my planned Norway and Finland cosplays) and they look really cool! For those of you who are interested, I got a pair of quality colored contacts from this site, http://www.youknowit.com/ , for about $25. Their selection is fairly good, but for the random colors you just have to have but can't find, there's also this site: http://www.cosplaylab.com/proshop/cosmeticlens.asp . They sell every natural and slightly unnatural eye color under the sun, every pair for just $35. While the first site doesn't require a prescription, the second site does, even for lenses without a prescription. Beautify your eyes for the cost of a wig! Correctly-colored eyes really brings life to an already good cosplay.
Next up is the Terminator eye I'm slowly assembling. I still need to head to Axman (or is it Axeman? I don't remember) to pick up a switch and a battery case that can hold 2 AA batteries. That's right, after blowing up one LED with a 9v battery, I discovered that LEDs can run off of 2 AA batteries. My next step, after grabbing the switch and case, is to go out and find a skull mask and a ping pong ball.
I will try to put in a tutorial here after I have all the pieces and, once again, have the use of a camera.
Mafimano's cosplay is very nearly done, he just needs his hair curl (a la weft and sewing) and a cigar to wave around like a rich hitman. I also still need to spray paint his Nerf pistol (still, Inanity, still?) and attach a red feather to his black fedora. I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to do that. He's got his black suit with red shirt and thin black tie, his black leather gloves he's borrowing for me (I'm confused as to how they can fit him, since his hands are twice the size of mine, but hey, I won't ask questions if it works), and I taught him simple cosplay makeup.
Guys, do not be ashamed of wearing light costume makeup to a convention. You actually look more professional, and less blotchy and oily, especially in photographs. It's like being in a theatre production: even the men wear some makeup.
I bought about 60% of my fabric last Monday, and I managed to save almost $40 on polar fleece by picking it up during a 50% off sale at Hancock Fabrics. It's more navy than slate, but it looks very nice against the blue and brown of my tunic fabric. I also picked up a cloak pattern while I was there, and the tissue is now all over my living room floor. Washing the fabric was interesting as well; I was given two old bedsheets to use however I wanted, and I decided to try to make my Teutonic Knight cloak and Rome's under-manskirt out of it. It has a few blotches on it, but I can just cut around those, right? I bleached the crap out of that thing, and still, these little orange stains persist. As soon as the pattern is all cut out, I'll have to pin it down to these sheets and make sure I'm not going to have to buy a million more yards of white fabric for my cloak.
Tip for buying fabric: bring tons of reference pictures to make sure you are getting exactly the color you want.
A friend of mine from Anime Detour 2010 found me on Skype yesterday to tell me he's making me a 4 foot broadsword and several knives for my cosplays. I found it quite comical when he asked "How long do you want these knives? Is two feet long enough?" I nearly died, because seriously, the man cosplays scary Sweden without even needing to try, and he's so freaking nice! But two foot knives? My mouth flapped open and closed a few times, and then I said "...Anywhere between 6 and 8 inches is plenty long, thank you" because I try not to be a jerk. >>;
Anyways, he's letting me paint them, too, so i can put pretty little details onto the hilt all I want! I'll be using Cynical Pie's tutorial here: http://cynicalpie.blogspot.com/2010/07/pen-is-mightier-than-sword.html to try to make my paint job look as professional as hers.
Tomorrow, my amazing friend Paige (whom I commissioned my Austria maid dress from) will be coming to my house to help me pick out some overcoat fabric for Magyar and also help me cut everything out. Then on Wednesday, my wonderful grandmother (who's helped me on every other cosplay, it seems) will be helping me sew everything. I'm going to try to run over to Tandy Leather Factory on Thursday and do all of my leather painting/staining/sheening that day, and then do acrylics on Friday morning. If all goes as planned, I will be done with all of my cosplays by the pool party on Saturday, save for minor painting and a few props.
And really? The only thing I'm worried about is boots. Maybe I'll go diagram those suckers out today. Right after I carve some leather medallions and finish those lower breastplate belts.
And find that darn camera to make some tutorials.
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