darizardcosplay

[darizardcosplay]

So, what if I randomly decide to make fairy wings for a costume party? So far, sharpie marker and clear vinyl. Haven't decided exactly how to attach these to my back yet, and need more glitter....but this for now!

[darizardcosplay]

Selfie: Sitting in the Westin lobby after a day at PAX East! I was Kairi today. Not that many people were dressed up, but I did see a few other Kingdom Hearts cosplayers 😄

This was my first time at PAX and it was overwhelming but super fun! I played a bunch of demos, got some swag (

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Katsucon roundup post! I don't have like any actual photos to post this year cause Katsucon 2017 ended up being drunken-Kingdom-Hearts-cosplay con and I never managed to snag someone to take pics of any of my outfits. Instead, have dumb Kairi selfies, and the reason why I don't have any decent pics--hey, you can sort of see my out fit in the mirror of that one? I also took a photo as Aqua with some cute Birth by Sleep cosplayers on Saturday! You can see my new shoulder armor in that picture, most of which I cast the night before leaving for the con, but it turned out pretty good. Also we discovered on Saturday night that one of my guy friends looks better in my cosplay than I do...I don't know how to feel about that (but if anyone snapped a pic of male-Aqua send it my way, lol.) Lastly, I finally got around to beating Kingdom Hearts: 0.2 A Fragmentary Passage! The final boss on proud mode must have killed me like 15 times but i persevered and cried like a baby throughout the whole ending cause HD Destiny Islands kills me. Now I really might have to make customized-outfit Aqua for the next con I go to? I will never be free of this cosplay.

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There's a big snowstorm today so I got to "work from home" and the quotes around that mean of course that I'm cutting wigs and not doing my actual work. Here's my new Kairi wig! I started with an Arda Buttercup Silky wig in Vermillion, because it comes with a part in the right place for KH2 Kairi's hair. I cut in bangs and a ton of layers with scissors and a razor comb. Took about an hour. Not quite sure what I'm doing with wigs still, but I think it came out alright.

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Here’s some progress shots I snapped during my armor making adventures! I’ve gotten into molding making and resin casting in the past couple of years, and though materials are more expensive the end result is 100x better than craft foam. Way less time consuming too! I made this in probably 2 total work hours over one (distracted) weekend. 

In case anyone wants to follow along, the exact materials I used: 

Soft sculpting clay for the master, Rebound 25 brush-on silicone for the mold, Gypsona plaster bandages for the mold support and Smooth-Cast semi-rigid urethane plastic for the finished piece. 

Everything I used for this I got at Reynolds Advanced Materials, and their website has much better tutorials for everything than a total noob like me could ever make! So aside from the pictures this won’t be a very detailed post, haha.

Anyway, I sculpted the shoulder armor in clay using my old craft foam piece as a base, and then covered it with 4 layers of the silicone mold material. That was the most time consuming part of the project, since the silicone needed about an hour to cure for each layer, but I’d finished it all up by dinner time Saturday. In the morning I covered the mold, which is too thin to hold it’s own shape, with plaster bandages and went off to the supermarket to get food for a Super Bowl party. By the time we got back (like ~45 minutes later...) the plaster support was done so it was ready to use!

I didn’t take pictures of this process, but the plastic I cast into this mold is a fast-curing material meant for roto-casting. This means you basically swirl the curing resin around the mold till it hardens enough to hold the shape, which was about 5 minutes. I did three layers, all tinted black, for the test cast I’m holding. I might actually do two for the next piece to make it lighter.

This Smooth-cast material is great for armor! I de-molded this sometime during the first half of the Super Bowl and since I’m a Pats fan I spent a lot of time throwing it angrily at walls and chewing on it anxiously, but it’s pretty much indestructible. I really hope I can finish up the shoes I’m planning to make out of this material for Katsucon because they will be 100% cartwheel proof which is the true goal of this costume remake. 

[darizardcosplay]

Well, it’s been a couple weeks since the time I swore I was gonna start this Aqua-remake project and I'm starting to doubt that I can finish it for Katsucon. I hardly got anything done this past weekend cause of sportsball-related anxiousness, didn’t sleep Sunday night and passed out early yesterday...also my real work project is wrapping up the exact same week as Katsu and I have to stay late and scramble to get all my experiments done since I’m taking two days off. But enough excuses.

I did get a test run on the shoulder armor done, and it came out great! So even if I don’t finish it all I wanna show off a bit. I’m using my old armor, picture above, as a base. I originally made it in the spring of 2011, and have worn it a few times since then, so it had 5 years of damage and I wanted something sturdier.

[darizardcosplay]

High quality shots are <3

[darizardcosplay]

So, my PS4 with Kingdom Hearts II.8 (Argh that inconsistent numbering system x_x) was supposed to get here today buuuuuut it’s not on my porch. So I guess I’ll have to be productive instead? Dammit. Well, welcome to the first installment of my cosplay blog since last year! I haven’t made any new costumes since I was Kairi last Katsucon, and this year I’m mainly gonna be helping some friends make Yuri on Ice outfits, so I’m just gonna remake Aqua for myself and call it II.8 upgraded Aqua.

How do I make picture on left look more like picture on right? Ehhh remake absolutely everything I guess. I had a Joanns coupon and bought 2 yards of that Yaya Han official-cosplay stretch pleather, so I’m going to redo the shorts and thigh highs with that. I’m also planning to use that material for the top, since the one I made last time is super thick--it’s a layer of upholstery pleather plus a twill corset, and all that extra material added to my waist cancels out any effect from the corset. Sadness. I also want to use the stretch stuff for the bra cups, so I can get rid of that unsightly seam.

If I finish that I also realllly want to re-do my armor in a nicer material, so I plan on making silicone molds of my old armour and casting new pieces. That’s a dream goal at this point though! (Especially since that PS4 is gonna get here eventually....and I bought Bloodborne too! ^.^)

[darizardcosplay]

HELLBOY IN HELL has ended.

Thank you Mike Mignola. Thank you Dave Stewart.

It was beautiful.

[darizardcosplay]

Rebloging cause I need something to wear to an outdoor music thing and not turn into a lobster (my people!) I bought a bunch of atheleticish fabric that was apparently American apparel leftovers, so yeah maybe I'll try and make this?

[darizardcosplay]

End result of all that work--finished costume! yay!

My cosplay of Kairi from Kingdom Hearts 2! I wore this to Katsucon 2016 and took some pictures outside last weekend.

Keep reading

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Rebloggin' cause I'm just about finished! I'll get some better pics at Katsucon cause now I have to pack.

Finished most of Kairi cosplay last night, now just 1.5 work days left ‘til I’m on my way to Baltimore and #katsucon!!!

[darizardcosplay]

Things I’ve been gradually working on: Kairi’s thalassa shell Wayfinder/good luck charm!

I made a master shell out of sculpy clay (they are fictional but I tried to make them look more like real scallop shells!)

Then I made molds and cast copies out of epoxy resin.

I drilled holes in the sides for the wire loops to go through, and also made a quick little gold crown for the center. The face was drawn on with prismacolors. Now I just have to drill a hole in the top so I can put a cord through and carry it around Katsucon more easily :)

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I also painted some shoes today! They’re just normal canvas high tops and aren’t comically large enough to be true Kingdom Hearts shoes, but ehhh I sprung for new shoes so I can wear ‘em around outside of cosplay and I want them to actually fit ;)

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Here is the finished outer part of Kairi’s dress! It’s constructed from two layers of pink corduroy, three big zippers and 8 grommets. Rest of progress pics below!

(Errrrrggghhhh....Sorry, that’s my football feels showing. Need to think about happy video games and going to Katsucon to make me feel less bleeeerrrrrgh.)

So, the material I was doing all the sewing and fitting of in my last post was the lining, and it was sewing onto the back of the zippers now I just pinned the front material in place over the lining and top-stitched it all! I’m sure this is against some rule of sewing, but it was the only way I could think of to get the zippers lined up right, and it looks fine.

I checked the fit again, and then put little pins where the grommets are going to be. It’s a little loose around the hips, so I might take the sides in a bit after I add the white layer...The dress is too open in the front to stay up by itself, so I think I need to attach the halter strap and hood to this layer, and just have the white front as its own top.

[darizardcosplay]

Also: looks like I have a few new followers, so hi! Glad you can join me on this fun cosplay adventure. Today I hope to finish Kairis dress, and paint some shoes!

:D

[darizardcosplay]

Quick update since I didn’t get much else done this week: Shortening the zippers on my dress! Obviously I wasn’t going to find the exact right size for a project like this, so I’m really glad I found this tutorial. I ended up borrowing some wire end cutters to cut off the extra zipper teeth, and used those jewelry pliers to take the stops off and squeeze them back on. It left me with a huge pile of tiny metal scraps and really sore hands, but now I have perfectly sized zippers.