Anyway, thought I’d give a little status update on my Anima cosplay, as referenced first here.

Last night I finished the top, which is a Vogue pattern jersey cross-top. I really dislike using Vogue patterns and this gave me a little heartburn, but a few hours of sewing and it’s done and looks great. This weekend I work on the skirt, which will be very simple, and the outfit is done.

I also began the accessories last night. I gold leafed the icon that will hang around my neck in summon form. The rest of the jewelry will be a mix of acrylic stones and sculpey that I’ll paint.

As for the mask and wings, that’s Ger’s project. Pictures speak louder than words on that front:

MY EYES ARE LEDS AND THEY FREAKING GLOW, YOU GUYS.

Here’s what I’m currently working on:

Female!Franken Stein – Soul Eater (homage to Lust chapter -Book of Eibon)* for Anime Boston 2011

Female!Sanji – One Piece (homage to Tranny!Sanji) for Otakon 2010

Planning:

Polignac – Rose of Versailles* for ?? 2011

Steampunk OC* for ?? 2012??

18th century caraco (jacket) for Memorial Day Parade 2011

* = in conjunction with Ikasuze

I’ll post something more pithy soon as I’m keen on sorting my thoughts and plans out~ Time is not my friend this year so I need to be really mindful of it!

Me, I’m working on the easy part of a difficult costume. Cachalot’s doing the really heavy lifting for this, I’m just making the dress:

Spec drawing for Anima/Seymour's mother costume - Otakon 2010

Dress should be done pretty soon and I know Cachalot’s making good progress with the scary monster head. Should be really neat — I’ll get to accompany her awesome Shiva, dual FFX summons at Otakon!

I have neglected to post here lately and I apologize XD Halloween ate up so much of my time — as any good cosplayer knows, it’s basically a great time to test-run stuff for upcoming cons — and now that the flurry of pre-Halloween activity is down, I have time to do other important stuff, like, oh, I dunno, finish the ikasuze! website that I’ve neglected?  It’s going to be awesome once it’s done, we’ll have tons of photos and notes about costumes as well as some tips and how-tos.  But I just need to finish coding the damn thing!  Sorry Cachalot xD

Tasuki’s trenchcoat is an ongoing effort that will take a lot of effort to fine-tune.  But new projects always keep me going and I’m very excited about my 2010 costumes: Temari from Naruto (her ” semi-kimono” or 2nd look) and LeBlanc from Final Fantasy X-2!  I’ve been hitting the gym a lot just to get in better shape for these outfits, especially LeBlanc.

AI YI YI. I’d better keep going with those crunches!!

Final Fantasy VI photoshoot:

More photos at at Flickr.

Halloween 2009:

Annnd commission started for Rapier: Genesis Rhapsodos (Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core)

(okay so it doesn’t look like much yet. Patience! XD)

My Shiva wig extension hair came this weekend from I Kick Shins! I can’t wait to get the wig and get started.

So today over lunch I bought my Shiva wig – or, at least, I bought the materials to make the wig for Shiva.

Most of them.

It’s 1 long blue wig + 13 packs of extensions in 5 colors so far. I still need the foamcore batting for the inside of the braids, as well as blue yarn, which I have been told works well for bulk. I think I have enough extensions to cover all the braids, and if not, well, I’ll have to improvise! I ended up getting 5 different colors of blue/purple because the highlights in Shiva’s wig are various shades of purple and light blue, and I think that looks much more realistic than just straight cobalt blue.

The hair ties and hair rings I will get when I have finished assembling the wig, since I have no idea what I need right now, and how much.

I already have plenty of hot glue and upholstery thread. XDDD

$100 and counting!

Final Fantasy IX/Dissidia: Zidane Tribal’s Mage Mashers

Next up I’ve got to finish my Ryuuseisui for Suboshi and then some sewing to do on Gaara’s coat. I bought all the material for it a couple of weeks ago and have the patterns cut out. I’ve never done a coat before, so there will be lots of trial and error here….

I also have a pretty cool commission in the works: Genesis Rhapsodos’s sword from FFVII: Crisis Core. It looks like I’ll get to play that pretty soon through a series of (un)fortunate circumstances. I lost my Nintendo DS on the plane on vacation, which was a bummer as I was making good progress through The World Ends With You. Instead of replacing the DS, though, since my husband also owns a DS, I’m going to get a PSP instead. We figured it would be better to have two gaming systems instead of both of us having the same thing.

I will miss my DS, though. It was only 2 years old.

My new favorite props medium: PAPERCLAY:
paperclay.com

I like to use Aves Apoxie Paste (basically a kind of stiff liquid epoxy) as a coating over my large props. It comes in two parts like all epoxies, and goes on kind of goopy and viscous. After it dries, it’s a greyish color and feels like plastic. It’s very sandable and durable, and put over a base sculpture, won’t ever come off. The problem is that sometimes this stuff doesn’t work in places that aren’t flat and need to be set on their sides (like a curved sword guard or a bottle) because it runs as it dries so you’ll get drips.

Paperclay solves that.

It’s a paper-fiber based air-drying “clay” that can be shaped and sanded after drying. It sands VERY smooth. I used it over a plastic bottle as a test and it came out very smooth and durable. It also sticks really well. I’ve heard that it cracks if you put too much on, so I haven’t tried to make anything large out of it, just used it as a cover medium. The texture is a little bit wood like, so I think I’ll have to paint a coat of varnish over it to get it to look smooth.

The grey bottle-like thing on the left side of the plastic tubing is covered with Paperclay.

Current projects: Yoko’s rifle from Gurren Lagann still, and also Zidane Tribal’s weapons from Final Fantasy: Dissidia. Dissidia seems all the rage for FF cosplays now – not a surprise since FFXIII STILL has not come out and it’s been like 3 years since it was announced. I look forward to seeing all the early FF cosplays next year from Dissidia anyway. It’s about time we had more Kefka because you can never have too much Kefka.

I am also about to start my Shiva cosplay. I hope to be making her feather fan…thing…this long weekend. >.>

I’m also working on a pretty fun project, Yoko Littner’s rifle from Gurren Lagann, which I TOTALLY should watch because this show seems right up my mecha alley. Except right now I’m busy catching up on Naruto Shippuden and rewatching Gundam Wing, because I think Shane needs to see GW.

Anyway, here’s Yoko with her giant sniper rifle of doom.