I get excited when I find a new source of materials or information for cosplay, so here is a short list of some that I've found recently.
Reynold's Advanced Materials - These guys just opened up a store in the Boston area, which I plan on checking out. They have basically everything you would ever need to cast anything. If you live near a store, they also have classes.
Simply Spray Fabric Paint - The website isn't so great, but I'm trying to focus on the product. I found out about this through a cosplay forum. A girl used it to paint an intricate plaid pattern on a dress, and it looked great. It doesn't get stiff or anything, and goes on like spraypaint. You can buy it in stores... I just saw some in Joanns recently.
Volara Foam, Conductive Foam - These foams are supposedly alternatives to "fun foam" or craft foam for forming armour. Apparently they respond well to heated shaping and are pretty durable. One is closed cell and the other appears to be open celled. I was recommended these materials by others who have used it.
Friendly Plastic Pellets - This is an alternative resource for Friendly Plastic pellets, which might be a little less expensive than cosplaysupplies.com.
Electrique Boutique - This isn't for construction, but this place has a large assortment of different shoes that might be useful, and their prices are good. You can get a pair of boots for about $25, brand new, which is good in my book.
Hope you guys can find these links useful. ^_^
Showing posts with label materials. Show all posts
Showing posts with label materials. Show all posts
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
More Costumes; More Sword Changes
As is typical, the idea and process for creating the Suigintou sword has changed yet again.
I spent hours with my dad (definitely a two-person job) creating a blade out of foam to cover in plastic, and it was just not working out. We got stuck trying to make the difficult angles in the blade, and worried how the plastic would adhere if we couldn't get the foam perfectly smooth.
It was all blowing up and we were at a standstill for a while.
I finally came the conclusion that I should just make the blade out of wood/MDF and deal with the consequences should there be any. That way, the sword would look the way I wanted it to. I will take it to Anime Boston and hope no one thinks it's dangerous (it certainly will not be). If they do, I'll just leave it at security, pick it up at the end of the day, and go on without it. But at least I will have a sword the way I want it to look for other cons and photo shoots.
That seemed more important, in the end, than a particular cons potential rules, particularly when I'm not being entered in any formal competitions.
In the realm of more costumes... MORE COSTUMES. I will be making myself another costume for Anime Boston to wear to the formal ball, which will be Gwendolyn's ball gown from Odin Sphere. I bought all the fabric for it this weekend and I'm really excited about it.
I also bought fabric for my friend Mike's costume, who will be going to AB as Ashitaka from Princess Mononoke. It's a pretty simple costume, which are some of the most fun to do, because every detail is important. I got great fabric for the hood and burlap to make him some shoe covers. He's (supposedly) taking care of his own sword and (maybe) bow.
I'll be working on 4 costumes - the two mentioned above, Suigintou, and the Urd commission - over the next month leading up to AB. Spring break is definitely my friend this year (first week of march). I'll be posting all kinds of photos over the coming weeks, including of sword construction.
This is the fun part!
I spent hours with my dad (definitely a two-person job) creating a blade out of foam to cover in plastic, and it was just not working out. We got stuck trying to make the difficult angles in the blade, and worried how the plastic would adhere if we couldn't get the foam perfectly smooth.
It was all blowing up and we were at a standstill for a while.I finally came the conclusion that I should just make the blade out of wood/MDF and deal with the consequences should there be any. That way, the sword would look the way I wanted it to. I will take it to Anime Boston and hope no one thinks it's dangerous (it certainly will not be). If they do, I'll just leave it at security, pick it up at the end of the day, and go on without it. But at least I will have a sword the way I want it to look for other cons and photo shoots.
That seemed more important, in the end, than a particular cons potential rules, particularly when I'm not being entered in any formal competitions.In the realm of more costumes... MORE COSTUMES. I will be making myself another costume for Anime Boston to wear to the formal ball, which will be Gwendolyn's ball gown from Odin Sphere. I bought all the fabric for it this weekend and I'm really excited about it.
I also bought fabric for my friend Mike's costume, who will be going to AB as Ashitaka from Princess Mononoke. It's a pretty simple costume, which are some of the most fun to do, because every detail is important. I got great fabric for the hood and burlap to make him some shoe covers. He's (supposedly) taking care of his own sword and (maybe) bow.
I'll be working on 4 costumes - the two mentioned above, Suigintou, and the Urd commission - over the next month leading up to AB. Spring break is definitely my friend this year (first week of march). I'll be posting all kinds of photos over the coming weeks, including of sword construction.
This is the fun part!
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Slow progress...
Well, I did get SOME things done over the holiday. The sword is about 1/3 of the way done. I don't have any photos yet, but I should have some when the process is a bit further along. It's just as well, so that you can see where it's all going.
After much planning and discussion, the original plan was sort of thrown out, or at least modified. No more "sandwich". Now, the main part of the handle has been made out of a baseball bat, and the wings were cut out of MDF (medium density fiberboard; available at any home improvement place). I put wooden dowels into the foam for the blade for structure and support, and the bottom end of the dowel will be put through the handle several inches.
The next steps are to carve and cover the blade, and dremel the design into the wing section. I will do those some time in the next several weeks, when I have access to the tools and space at home again.
I also spent about 2 hours simply detangling the wig. What an annoying process. When I next work on the sword, I'll work on the styling of the wig more as well. I got a curling iron with adjustable temperature which I'm hoping will help solve the problems I've been having with it.
In Gwendolyn and general construction news, I FINALLY got a shipment of Wonderflex in the mail, and will be playing with it this weekend with my heatgun. I'll also be experimenting with various combinations of craft foam, polystyrene, hot glue, and the heat gun to see what comes from it. I'll post my results next week.
If you are looking for Wonderflex, I got mine from Mainstage Theatre Supply, where I got a full sheet for around $30 shipped, MUCH cheaper than cosplaysupply.com's $70ish dollar charge for a sheet. (EDIT: I have reason to suspect that Mainstage, while nice people, do not have a website that is as secure as it should be for credit cards. Please use caution when using your card over the internet. I recommend trying to phone in your order and/or paying with a different method.) I will probably still end up ordering Friendly Plastic from them, though, unless I find it somewhere else. I'm thinking about ordering some Fosshape as well... but more on that another time.
After much planning and discussion, the original plan was sort of thrown out, or at least modified. No more "sandwich". Now, the main part of the handle has been made out of a baseball bat, and the wings were cut out of MDF (medium density fiberboard; available at any home improvement place). I put wooden dowels into the foam for the blade for structure and support, and the bottom end of the dowel will be put through the handle several inches.
The next steps are to carve and cover the blade, and dremel the design into the wing section. I will do those some time in the next several weeks, when I have access to the tools and space at home again.
I also spent about 2 hours simply detangling the wig. What an annoying process. When I next work on the sword, I'll work on the styling of the wig more as well. I got a curling iron with adjustable temperature which I'm hoping will help solve the problems I've been having with it.
In Gwendolyn and general construction news, I FINALLY got a shipment of Wonderflex in the mail, and will be playing with it this weekend with my heatgun. I'll also be experimenting with various combinations of craft foam, polystyrene, hot glue, and the heat gun to see what comes from it. I'll post my results next week.
If you are looking for Wonderflex, I got mine from Mainstage Theatre Supply, where I got a full sheet for around $30 shipped, MUCH cheaper than cosplaysupply.com's $70ish dollar charge for a sheet. (EDIT: I have reason to suspect that Mainstage, while nice people, do not have a website that is as secure as it should be for credit cards. Please use caution when using your card over the internet. I recommend trying to phone in your order and/or paying with a different method.) I will probably still end up ordering Friendly Plastic from them, though, unless I find it somewhere else. I'm thinking about ordering some Fosshape as well... but more on that another time.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
More Wonderflex and Feathers
So,
I tried to place an order for some Wonderflex and Friendly Plastic via cosplaysupplies.com, as I had mentioned in a previous post. Their methods are a little strange over there and they confirm your order via email before letting you actually place it. The reply to my order was that they were "having some trouble with their Wonderflex supplier" and therefore I can't place an order with them at this time.
All of this ended up being a blessing in disguise, as it were, because I have found other sources of Wonderflex that are far less expensive than cosplaysupplies.com.
Cosworx has Wonderflex, but their supply is apparently out at the moment. But when it's in, it sells for $30 for a big sheet, which is much less expensive than cosplaysupplies.com. I have also found a theatre supply company that sells it. I'm going to try to buy from one of these two places.
I would like to say that I still think cosplaysupplies.com is a great site and has a lot to offer, especially hard to find things like shoe-making supplies. I just won't be buying my Wonderflex from them, is all. Unless these other things fall through.
I have been doing a lot of research for supply resources, namely for plastics, armour, and feathers. I will need a lot of feathers for my Gwendolyn costume, and I was able to find a promising website or two. At Rainbow Feathers, they will custom dye feathers for you. This seems to be the way to go for this project. Their prices also seem pretty reasonable. I found a couple of other feather websites, but other than Rainbow, the only other one that seemed worth looking into was Lamplight Feathers. They seem to have a bunch of different items at a decent price.
I tried to place an order for some Wonderflex and Friendly Plastic via cosplaysupplies.com, as I had mentioned in a previous post. Their methods are a little strange over there and they confirm your order via email before letting you actually place it. The reply to my order was that they were "having some trouble with their Wonderflex supplier" and therefore I can't place an order with them at this time.
All of this ended up being a blessing in disguise, as it were, because I have found other sources of Wonderflex that are far less expensive than cosplaysupplies.com.
Cosworx has Wonderflex, but their supply is apparently out at the moment. But when it's in, it sells for $30 for a big sheet, which is much less expensive than cosplaysupplies.com. I have also found a theatre supply company that sells it. I'm going to try to buy from one of these two places.
I would like to say that I still think cosplaysupplies.com is a great site and has a lot to offer, especially hard to find things like shoe-making supplies. I just won't be buying my Wonderflex from them, is all. Unless these other things fall through.
I have been doing a lot of research for supply resources, namely for plastics, armour, and feathers. I will need a lot of feathers for my Gwendolyn costume, and I was able to find a promising website or two. At Rainbow Feathers, they will custom dye feathers for you. This seems to be the way to go for this project. Their prices also seem pretty reasonable. I found a couple of other feather websites, but other than Rainbow, the only other one that seemed worth looking into was Lamplight Feathers. They seem to have a bunch of different items at a decent price.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Wonderflex and Friendly Plastic
I've been reading up on this newfangled Wonderflex and its friend Friendly Plastic.
I've been searching for something to make, at the very least, the calf armour for Gwendolyn, and potentially any and all armour for Oswald, if my boyfriend decides to go as him. Both are from Odin Sphere:
After reading the FAQs and tutorials for using Wonderflex and Friendly Plastic, I feel confident enough that this could be a good solution for making armour and maybe even weapons. I am going to order a small sheet of Wonderflex and a small container of Friendly Plastic to experiment with.
I am also going to pick up some Bondo, because (1) I have never used it before, heard some mixed opinions, and want to see what it can do, and (2) I wouldn't use gesso as suggested in the Wonderflex FAQ because there is no way that will not come off in chunks.
Once I get the materials and play around with them, I'll post my results with photos.
Links:
Wonderflex, Fosshape, and Friendly Plastic Purchase Page
Wonderflex and Friendly Plastic Tutorial/FAQ
Wonderflex FAQ
I've been searching for something to make, at the very least, the calf armour for Gwendolyn, and potentially any and all armour for Oswald, if my boyfriend decides to go as him. Both are from Odin Sphere:
After reading the FAQs and tutorials for using Wonderflex and Friendly Plastic, I feel confident enough that this could be a good solution for making armour and maybe even weapons. I am going to order a small sheet of Wonderflex and a small container of Friendly Plastic to experiment with.
I am also going to pick up some Bondo, because (1) I have never used it before, heard some mixed opinions, and want to see what it can do, and (2) I wouldn't use gesso as suggested in the Wonderflex FAQ because there is no way that will not come off in chunks.
Once I get the materials and play around with them, I'll post my results with photos.
Links:
Wonderflex, Fosshape, and Friendly Plastic Purchase Page
Wonderflex and Friendly Plastic Tutorial/FAQ
Wonderflex FAQ
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
