Iron Cosplaying at Calgary Expo 2013

After a pretty rough start, I'd have to say that I had an amazing time at Calgary Expo 2013! Got to show off some pretty amazing costumes, got to see some pretty spectacular costumes, and got to see the likes of the Lannisters; Peter Dinklage and Lena Headey, and the great and wonderful Nathan Fillion! 

My Weekend looks at Calgary Expo: Friday, Saturday, Sunday

Friday was a little confusing... For the first time since the 2013 guest announcements I forgot to check the Twitter feed and got completely turned around... Needless to say, I missed the Princess Bride: The Hero, the Villain Panel. The room was full! Apparently I wasn't the only one. I ended up watching it on the Calgary Expo FlipOn channel and learned something heartbreaking... My dearest Westley chews with his mouth open!!! Seriously, other than that, that panel broadcast gave me all the feels. I really wish I could have been there...

Chris Sarandon and Cary Elwes

Friday we also took the opportunity to head on down to the Unicorn, where if you showed up in costume, you would get 25% off you bill... With all the other events going on that night, we were the ONLY ONES in costume... You would *think* that would be awkward, but a lovely couple bought me and Dejathoris a drink so it all was worth it! 

Dejathoris' Friday, Saturday and Sunday

Saturday morning we headed out early. Or at least in my mind what's early for a Saturday. There was an Special Effects panel in the Roatary House that we both wanted to go to.... In all the years I've been going to the Stampede grounds, I have NEVER.NOTICED the Rotary House... That's not weird right? Either way, I was a little disappointed in the panel itself. I think the presenter was more focused on SPFX jobs rather than teaching techniques. Or I misunderstood what the panel was about. The panel was 3/4 of the way through before they even started doing makeup on people, and they weren't really explaining what they were doing. However, got some great recommendations on some books to pick up. 

The day then transitioned into watching the folks battling out where the Coke Stage is in full armor and having lunch. This was one of my favorite add ons. Outdoor entertainment! People/Cosplay watching! Food Trucks! Just delightful! Whilst said people watching, I took a snapshot of what I think was the BEST Link & Zelda all weekend (and there were a LOT people!)

We then headed back to the Roatary House to watch the Iron Costumer competition. We've heard about these before but have been unable to attend. HOWEVER, one team didn't show up, so Dejathoris and I teamed up with this delightful couple in line behind us and put together a team! 

That's a chopstick horn helmet, by the way

The Theme: Time Travel

The "Special Ingredient: Chopsticks

Our Team Name: Tag You're it!

Our Costume: Flava Flav from 1992

Iron Costumer winners 2013

What do you think? We were up against a time travelling alien and a black hole with the Planet Express. Both were also awesome and some how WE WON! 

Our Iron Costumer Prize!

Saturday finished up at the Con by watching the Stargate Panel, in which I've learned that Michael Shanks' ALSO CHEWS WITH HIS MOUTH OPEN and that Richard Dean Anderson really doesn't give a shit. That second part, totally, totally awesome.

Screenshot from the Stargate Panel

Eliza Dushku really knows how to handle a con crowd. She was delightful while still promoting her projects and her social media outlets.  I really loved her panel. Plus, she said "Five by Five" SQUEEEEEEEEEE

Other than the adorable Link and Zelda I posted, my other major fave costume from Saturday would have to be this one: 

The Dread Pirate Roberts!

I was so excited when I saw this guy that I think I ran across the aisles and smacked him on the shoulder... 

There were also some amazing Game of Thrones cosplays... A spectacular Robb Stark/Dany/Melissandre group and a great Dany/Drogo pair. Loved them!!!

Sunday was all about the panels. Other than the fact that I was REALLY excited to show off MY Melissandre on the con floor. We saw the X-Files Panel, where Gillian Anderson raised $800 for a signed script and a kiss. This was just a delightful panel. The whole group of Robert Patick, Mitch Pileggi and Gillian Anderson were so wonderful and chatty.

This lead into the Game of Thrones panel with Lena Heady and Peter Dinklage. There were awesome! And they were not expecting the crowd of people... There was no seating left by the time they started. It was so intense that they requested beer. The highlight would have to be when a fan asked what was going to happen to Joffrey this season and the crowd split into hissing "SPOILERS!" and laughter. Lena handled this beautifully by just saying "That's my son!"

Finally we watched Nathan Fillion's panel. Who was delightful. Between talking about Edmonton and LA, Castle and the Whedonverse, he was just a phenomenal speaker... He also had a twitter challenge that two people in the audience flat.out.ROCKED. 

This sign deserves a stand alone PRO!!!

So overall pros: Almost all the panels I wanted to see were in the Coral (This is a major pro). And because of Princess Bride fiasco, I decided not to go to the other smaller rooms so I didn't have to miss the ones I really wanted to see live. (The rest of this week is going to be dedicated to watching everything on the FlipOn feed!). The use a space was delightful  Having a space outside where people could wander was really needed. I had no desire to fight the shopping crowds in the early Saturday since that was the craziest time of the whole day. It was a little cold and windy, but the space was worth it. The Photo Ops were in a different building and because I wasn't getting any autographs I was able to stay away from those areas. (I now find out that one of the booths I was looking for was in fact, in the autograph section!)

Overall Cons: None of the bank machines worked and sadly most of the food stands in the Corral and area were Cash only. Also, there was no where to just buy/get water. You'd have to wait in a line up 20 minutes long with hungry hungry people when all you wanted was a drink! 

However, there were so many many many improvements over the year before that I can't imagine the Calgary Expo not getting better and better each year! Here's to next year!

As always, more photos as I find them over at the Flickr

Steampunk - Indira

Pure Spec 2011

For Pure Speculation Edmonton (also known as PureSpec) we decided to try our hand at Steampunk. We spent endless hours extending the lengths of our creativity making three individually unique and personally reflective costumes. Since then, we've been able to wear these at several different events and even broadened our Steampunk assortment to include interchangable accessories. I'm going to split them out into three posts as we took lots and lots of pictures of our processes (yet only have one clear shot of each of us?!?!) I'm also going to focus on the original version of our outfits so that I try and stay on track.

Indira AKA Mrs Spiderman @Calgary Expo 2012

This post will probably be updated with better shots as time goes on, but the best place to look is our Flickr account....


What I really wanted to do here was create a cosplay outfit that works with my heritage...  Translation? I wanted to take a Sari and stick a crap ton of gears all over it. We started with coming up with backstories for our characters. Since Steampunk lit is mostly based in Europe and some of the Americas, we decided that Indira was an International Assassin. We made a bunch of weapons hoping that some of them would work with the esthetic.

Flash? What's a flash?

The outfit itself is Sari fabric we picked up at our local shop. We also picked up a complimenting golden orange taffeta fabric to fill out the skirt. Even though it's Sari material, it ended up looking more like a Lengha-styled outfit. Or at least what I think a Lengha would probably look like in the Steamunk timeline. When shopping for Saris, they will usually come with a length of material you can turn into a blouse. This will also have matching border pieces you can use to tie the outfit together. Mine unfortunately didn't have enough border to do all the areas I wanted so I settled on the neckline only.

Over the course of this endeavour, we checked out a lot of con floors selling Steampunk clothes and accessories. Once you check out two or three you will start to see some similar basic stock. You've got to keep an eye our for people that either sell the basic wares, like goggles for $10-$14 that you can then individualize, or people that have already done so but be willing to spend the $$. This is a LOT of detailed work and they do deserve to be compensated for it. We've found quite a few sellers online, but over time many have switched from offering goods direct to the consumer to retailers only (sad panda)... If you find a clearance sale, and you want to build up your steampunk wardrobe, purchase a few right then and there! You will be much happier.

Back on track, while searching through our local thrift stores we came across this really worn our red leather jacket. The colouring was perfect to compliment Indira's outfit. We turned this into a harness and gauntlets. The gauntlets have then the small amount of the excess blouse material added to tie the whole outfit together. One another note, I'd like to point out that gears are really sharp and whenever I forget to wear the gauntlets, I ultimatley get scratched to bits by all the gears all over my outfit.

Here comes the detail work... I purchased some watch parts from a few different Etsy sellers who were selling supplies. I then sorted out all the same size gears and glued one on every.single.flower. I am really proud of this work and if you compliment me while I'm wearing my Indira outfit, that is ALWAYS the first thing to come out of my mouth! This is where the gauntlets protect me the most. From my own skirt. I then hand stitched some chain around the skirt to give it some more dimension. There are two rounds of chain on the skirt itself. Its not something that photographs well, but reads really well in person.

Finally the goggles... I found a pair of ski goggles (what do you expect? It's Calgary). I spray painted the exterior gold. I cut off the band and attached some of the leftover leather from the harness (matchy matchy!)... Then on the goggles piece itself, I used some complimenting lace I cut off from one of my old shirts. I used some Modge Podge and adhered it. The extra "ocular" piece is actually a cut up cap from a creamer container. I then inserted a light inside for some extra dimension. Around the goggles itself I glued some accents: gears, hat pins and the

like. I really loved working on these pieces.Randomly gluing things all over the place was really fun. I wouldn't be surprised if I did this to more things in my home... It's addictive...

I've played around with my makeup each time, but the one things I really like to do is replace the traditional Bindi with a gear. I know that irritates some people but I enjoy it. And at the end of the day, I'm the one wearing it!

I keep searching for more international-inspired Steampunk ideas, so if there are any out there that I've missed I'd love to hear about them!

Cosplay does not equal Consent

So for the normal course of things we're going to keep this blog about how we make the costumes we do... But I'm a little concerned about the number of posts arising on the interwebs about Cosplay = Consent.

We are a group of three very different people that have had very different experiences going to Cons over the past 20+ years. I've watched my friend get attacked by a man wearing a Zapf Brannigan suit while she was wearing the Fifth Element Diva costume going "WHERE ARE THE STONES?!?!" ... We may not have the same experiences but we all have been placed in a situation where we have to clarify that we are not available.

Recently I've been confronted in an online community I frequent about the fact that me wearing my wedding ring is not sign enough that I don't want to be approached. This commenter has flat out said that I should wear a sandwich board over my costume to say that I'm not interested in order to ensure that I do not get approached by unwanted advances.

My husband has been attacked by both men and women over the years because being a male costumer wearing "the outfits that he does" he should obviously not be married.

These experiences prevented us from going out to other cons. Not to only to compete in the Worlds stage of costuming, but because of the world telling us that costuming/cosplay means that we should open to all "experiences".

As a small time costumer, this IS NEVER OK. Those that tell you that cosplay = consent are just flat out wrong. We dress up as people we like on movies and TV and comic books and video games because there's something about the character that we love. There is something inspiring about that person, and the have some iconic look that we want to emulate. It.is.not.for.you. Ever. As much as you would like to think so, you are wrong. And part of this community, I just want to make that clear....

/end rant

ZOMG Preview - Calgary Comic Con 2013

Preface: Last year I wrote a rant about how the Calgary Comic Convention was at risk of turning itself into yet another Trek Con.... Then I went anyways, to go nerd out in from of John Noble and Jasika Nicole like the good little Fringe fan I am (I already am going through withdrawl).... I had a lot of fun, but there were a LOT of problems at CCC throughout the weekend.

Lady GyRox and her crew are on the fence about going again this year, Dejathoris hadn't committed, and I had yet to look at Guavious' work schedule to see if he was even in town that weekend. Basically to sum up, I wasn't really sure I was going to go.

Last Fall they announced Weird Al. And as much as I want to see Weird Al, I'm not paying the amount they are asking for the Stampede Corral. I've yet to pay more than $35 for a concert there so I'm not dropping $72 per person. And my other rational was I didn't justify seeing Spike's (James Marsters) concert last year, I could go without this year.

Then they announced Walking Dead's Norman Reedus, Steven Yuen and Danai Gurira. I love me some Boondock Saints, but I can't actually get myself past the opening credits of the Walking Dead without hiding under a blanket so that wasn't working for me either.

Then they announced most of the X-Files Cast...  Gillian Anderson, Robert Patrick and Mitch Pileggi. All I could think of at this points was Congratulations Calgary Comic Con! You've successfully distanced yourself from becoming a Trek Con! Between this and the Walking Dead I thought that there was enough variety to appeal to a ton of people both local and tourist.

  After that, they announced a nice assortment of artists, they announced Stan Lee, John Carpenter, Lexia Doig, Michael Shanks... Did I mention Terminator panel yet? (With Linda Hamilton???) Oh! Lest I forget his royal Prince Humperdink, Chris Sarandon!!!! Just a lovely batch of guests. My interest was there, I just hadn't bought my tickets yet...

Then this past Monday on my Facebook page I saw a random post by Calgary Expo... BIG ANNOUNCEMENT TOMORROW... I thought about it and decided it could be one of two groups... David Duchovney is missing from the X-Files reunion and there is always the option of the New Star Trek crew making an appearance. After all, this is their bread and butter. I remembered to check their homepage on Tuesday morning in between "working" and I thought I was going to faint.

IT'S THE LANNISTERS!!!!

Immediately sent out emails to Guavious and Dejathoris asking them if they were in. Sent a feeler email to our 'Merican friend The Director to see if he wanted to come up and join the festivities. Haven't you heard? We are working on a Game of Thrones Cosplay Extravaganza!!!! This could be the most amazing thing that we've ever done. I want to tell Cercei how badass she is! I want to tell the Half-Man I love him! I want Cercei to throw a glass of wine and Tyrion to slap someone! I want... I'm not sure what I want because I might actually faint again.

And speaking of the problems from last year, Calgary Expo has done a pretty bang up job on their website explaining all the precautions they are taking to help facilitate an easier experience. I glazed over it earlier but I actually read through the whole thing this morning and I'm taking away some major pros:

1) Cell phone tower! Yay! Last year Lady GyRox and I got separated and couldn't call each other for hell or high water. Did you know that a payphone is now 50 cents? Did you know I don't know ANYONE'S PHONE NUMBERS?!?!

2) Traffic Flow and a shitton of signs! How delightful! But my favorite part of this is there will be NO STOPPING zones! Seriously, we need to implement this in malls, and grocery stores, and EVERYWHERE

3) They are moving around all the photo ops and autographs to a larger area. I'm all in favor of reorganization! I'm pretty familiar with the setup, and from what I'm reading, this could be awesome. I may need to bring non-cosplay shoes though. There is going to be a TON of walking!

Overall, I went from Meh to ZOMG I NEEDZ TO GO! I'm also really stoked because it looks like the whole Costume Guild will be able to go to the whole convention. Unlike last year...

Here's hoping I can find out some more about the evening events... Like if Kirby Krackle will be playing a separate show on the Saturday or Sunday... Inquiring minds want to know!

Pictures mostly from the CalgaryExpo.com,  and KirbyKrackleMusic.com

Calgary Zombie Walk - October 2012

WOW I forgot to post this! This is from the Calgary Zombie Walk... Dejathoris and I didn't take very many pictures so we were waiting for more to show up on the internets before posting... And then I must have forgotten. This could happen sometimes. As always, you can see all our pics on our Flickr! Dejathoris went a Zombie Housewife. Her costume had a lot more details than I can remember so I'm going to ask her to write her own piece.

Our View from the middle of the pack

So... I don't know if you know this about me, but I'm kinda a wuss... I can't watch scary shows or movies unless someone is around so that they can tell me when I can look back at the TV. Suffice to say, I decided that I wanted to participate in the Calgary Zombie Walk this year to see what it was all about!  I did this knowing I would probably run in the opposite direction if I came across someone doing zipperface...(Edit: Dejathoris would distract me by pointing in the other direction)

My excuse was that originally for work this year, we were being challenged to Zombify a non-zombie movie or character. I figured if I was going to make a zombie costume, I would want two uses out of it at least and it's most likely not going to be a con or hallway costume. Dejathoris and I happened to find out about a super sekrit Costume sale happening at the Epcor Centre earlier in the month so we decided to head on downtown to see if we could find any inspiration pieces. Whilst wandering I came across a BRIGHT SHINY GREEN DRESS that actually fit and was long enough that made me think of Tinkerbell.

Adorable Zombie Children

AND THEN I WOULD GET TO WEAR WINGS! As Dejathoris knows, and now you do to, I have a secret obsession with wings. I follow people around at cons that are wearing them, and I stare at them fondly every year in Halloween shops wondering when I would be able to wear some of my own. I've also bought a few in recent years but have yet to wear them. Now, now I have my excuse! And twice no less!

So I pretty much had everything I needed except for wounds. Knowing that I would be wearing the wounds two different times for long periods of time I decided to pre-purchase some wounds rather than make my own from scratch. I found two at the Halloween Shop (one of those temporary Halloween stores). One for my arm and one for my face. As scared as I am about seeing gore on others, I gotta tell ya, I got a little carried away in the gore section of the Halloween Shop. It was such an amazing selection! I basically grabbed one of everything before realizing I should probably control myself... Some of the newer sets come with their own spirit gum and remover and some are just by themselves. But look for quality. Also, look for transparency in the fake skin. The clearer it is, the easier it will be to blend to your own skin tone.

To get the layered effect we used Spirit Gum, a Dark Green Cream makeup, St Ives Clay Mask, and two shades of Bright Green hair spray on top. Oh! And I also used Dark green pixie ears. We adhered the ears on first, then I layered on the dark green cream makeup because it would take forever to set. While that was setting I attached my face wound. Originally I wanted it lower but it would not adhere to my chin. So I kept moving it up until it stuck in place. I then layered on some of the clay mask to add depth. Once that was dry I sprayed the two hairsprays for dimension. Add in the green catseye contacts and that's it!

For the outfit itself, it's the Green dress from the Costume sale plus two sets of green tights. I also cut up a pair of old boots to wear. One set of the tights were for my legs and one for my arms. On the left arm I slit a hole in the tights and attached the arm wound to my skin. This turned out THE BEST. Mostly because I didn't have to use a mirror. Layer on some green "zombie blood" after the same steps from my face and I was pretty much good to go!

I loved how many people were at Calgary Zombie Walk! So many groups and themes. There were a couple other fairies that were too far ahead to get a picture of but we came across some amazing pieces of work. Below is definitely my favorite two pics, the zombie bride and a close up someone got of my makeup!

I Helped Make a Direwolf... What did you do this weekend?

This is where all Direwolves start out...

So Guavious has been wanting to build a Ghost Direwolf for our Game of Thrones cosplay extravaganza for quite some time. There have been two skeletons in my garage for almost 8 months with no progress and with Norwescon coming up I was getting a little worried. So worried that I actually told the Guild  “I’m not getting stuck with this, we’re not doing it”.  However, this weekend, Guavious was finally home and we surprisingly set to work.  The skeleton is made up of central vacuum pipe, spray foam, and chicken wire. Guavious used two types of spray foam, which I refer to as the hard spray foam and the soft spray foam. The hard spray foam was

Framing the wolves

used on the head, but the softer spray foam is what is currently coating the body and the front of the head. It was much more malleable and easier to sew into.  There are piping connectors for the tail and for the head to use as markers. This was done for two reasons. First, so that we could work on the different pieces separately, and second, so that when we are shipping him, he can be in different pieces which reduce the overall fragile state. 

The Wolves taking up space...

Dejathoris salvaged an amazing white fur coat that when draped over Ghost’s form, looked like it would not only cover, but leave enough room for the legs, head, and tail. When Guavious and I started taking it apart we realized that it was sewn in strips about 12” wide, that there was significant grey striping that was more visible now that it was being taken apart, and that the bulk of the coat was liner and filler. Had we used the remaining material, we would have had to cut Ghost down to about half his size.  We did however, keep the large collar which was a solid white and extra fluffy fur in the front of our minds. 

FUR EVERYWHERE!

Setting out to scavenge the city, we found at Wal-Mart of all places these ridiculous decorative mats. They were shaggy and pure white and shed EVERYWHERE. Perfect! Grabbing three, we went home to see what we could do with them. 

 We left the non-slip matting on the bottom to help with gluing onto Ghost’s frame. This helped keep the fur together and also helped with placement. We started with the legs, cutting strips and gluing them on with Elmer’s Spray Adhesive. Elmer’s stated that the product needed an hour to dry, so after all four legs were glued on; we stopped work for an hour. As the products were drying we realized that all the overlap created gaping and did not secure as snug as we wanted, so we decided to hand-stitched all the seams. SEW ALL THE SEAMS! This turned into a much bigger project than expected.  We then used the larger of the mats and lined up the four legs. We cut “X”’s into where the legs lined up, flipped Ghost onto his back and fed the fabric through until it was flush. We wanted the lower and upper pieces of the body to overlap each other so that we could create a layering effect. Build “muscle” and reduce gaps. So the belly piece actually wraps all the way around Ghost to about mid-frame. This was then spray glued again. Due to the large amount of surface space, it held on pretty good. However the front and back of Ghost’s body where there was overlap was then hand-stitched. This helped bulk up his frame some more. 

Layering on the top piece was the easiest. One large piece of mat draped over, glued and then, sewn for good measure.  When then layered over the front of Ghost the white fur collar from the original jacket. This puffed out his chest and allowed for a nice large overlap for where his head would ultimately go. This entire mane had to be hand sewn on. 

While Guavious was doing that, I was busy breaking my sewing machine needles trying to seal the tail. I had to stop and hand-sew. Later I found out from my mother I could have saved myself some work if I only used “Extra Sharp” sewing needles!!! Drat!

Tail!

Now onto the head. We had JUST ENOUGH of the mats to cover the head, so we glued everything on and took a break for it to dry. By this point, I realized that Aleene’s Spray Adhesive not only dried faster, but worked better overall. So I switched to this.  We headed out to Michaels to look for some inspiration pieces for the ears, eyes, and nose. 

Painting the eyes...

We found black clay for the nose, sheets of craft foam for the ears (to hold their shape), and the amazing decorative lights for the eyes.  We painted the eyes with stained glass paint so that the whole effect would be red, rather than only red. This added to the pop factor. Guavious doesn't like the eyes turned on, I think they looks extra cool with them on. It'll be an ongoing debate. 



 

Worst.Direwolf.EVER

Getting back home, we started placing everything and came to the following conclusion: 
This head totally SUCKS!!!!! He looked goofy and like a white-furred Scoobie Doo. Not the look we’re going for. So Guavious ripped all the fur off the head and started over from scratch. 

After re-looking at our inspiration photos, we decided his snout needed to be more prominent and we needed to work with shorter fur on the face. We ran out to Wal-Mart yet again and picked up another mat (after a bunch of failed experiments with other fleeces and furs). We think we have officially ruined the sku-demand in the city of that particular mat. We laid out the mat and took the clippers we normally use on our RL pups and sheered the fur down.  We then wrapped the fur around the face so that it was more conical than cylindrical. This allowed for tapering at the nose and bulk at the back of the head, helping the shape out a ton!

While Guavious was sheering, I was working on the snout details. I had found a latex Werewolf mask at our local Costume Shoppe and decided to paint it white.  The mask was a full face mask with parts that you would actually adhere to your own teeth for full effect. I cut out the nose and both layers of teeth and set to work. Painting around the nose, and the inside of the mouth, everything else became white. I used Folk Art craft paint in white and only needed one layer (and it dried quick).  I then hand stitched the pieces onto the head with polyfill and cardboard stuffed inside to fill it up and add a structured jawline. 

  Guavious then finished up by stitching on the ears and placing the eyes. There’s still some more work left to be done, like the feet and finishing touches, but for the most part, this Direwolf is done!!