December 31, 2016

Year of Cosplay 2016

Good evening everyone!

Once again we're standing where this year ends and the next one begins. Every new year I feel like time rolls by quicker than the last one and I guess soon enough I'll be that grumpy old man wondering where my youth went, lol! Oh well, before I get stuck in an age crisis and overthink things I want to get this post started, boyah!

As is tradition in this blog, I'll start by listing all the conventions that I attended during 2016:

Närcon Vinter - Linköping, Sweden
Cosvision - Hämeenlinna, Finland
Kummacon - Oulu, Finland
Närcon - Linköping, Sweden
Oulun Animeseminaari - Oulu, Finland
Kitacon - Kemi, Finland
Skecon - Skellefteå, Sweden

Yep, that's 7 conventions and thus exactly the same amount as on the previous year. From these 3 cons, possibly 4 (in "north standards"), can be considered local events. Lately I just haven't prioritized attending as many cons as possible and, besides, my economical situation doesn't really afford it anyway. Also, it might just be me getting older but I'm not as excited about attending cons as I used to be back when I started – it feels like I've already seen it and want something new and refreshing. :/ I guess it's time to look into cons abroad to get that convention flame to ignite again... who's with me?

I also feel bad about how little I've cosplayed this year and yeah, it totally shows because I barely have any new photoshoot pictures or new costumes for this past year. I'm kinda stuck in a cosplay rut and have been so for a while; it doesn't help either that I just simply don't have enough space, nor money, to make anything new, inspiring and challenging – hence why I've mostly been either recycling old costumes or making simpler new ones for the past couple years. I'm disappointed in myself but I can't affect my current situation right now; everybody knows what it's like to be a poor student with no job.
When it comes to actually cosplaying at conventions I've lately often been hit by a case of "can't be bothered" or "too anxious" once I'm at the con, which makes me end up just going casual instead. I wish I wouldn't feel this way because I still love cosplaying but, err, some demons in my head are (still) eating away at me and I can't control them as well as I'd like to. I do wish that things will get better soon and that I'll regain my self-confidence.

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Honestly, I tried to do some kind of yearly compilation photo of the cosplays that I've worn over the year and... it pooped. I just don't have any good enough photos to showcase because yeah, most are of the "proof that I'm wearing a costume at the con" sort à la selfie. ^^"

Here's a little list of what I wore at the cons I attended this year:

Närcon Vinter: I recycled Battousai version Kenshin Himura (Rurouni Kenshin) on Friday and on Saturday I debuted Kashuu Kiyomitsu's uchiban outfit from the popular Touken Ranbu. Kashuu was not 100% done because I was missing the earrings but I didn't let that stop me because it's such a small detail.
Cosvision: Debuted my Darkrai gijinka from Pokémon on Saturday. This one I even managed to photoshoot and I'm pleased with the outcome. On Sunday I was supposed to cosplay Hatori Sohma (Fruits Basket) but on the morning I felt ill and passed on it.
Kummacon: I only went there on a quick visit on the late hours of Friday and thus didn't cosplay.
Närcon: On Thursday I didn't cosplay. On Friday I debuted my Lugia gijinka (Pokémon) and I'm totally not happy with it because it was a rushed closet cosplay and I didn't have time to make the accessories for it that I wanted. I don't think anyone recognized what I was supposed to be, lol. I didn't wear Lugia for long and spent most of the day out of cosplay. On Saturday afternoon I reused Ibuki from Hakuouki Reimeiroku and during the late hours I changed cosplay into Greece from Hetalia.
Oulun Animeseminaari: No cosplay.
Kitacon: I finally debuted Hatori Sohma. Went to change into cosplay somewhere during the afternoon.
Skecon: I didn't cosplay on neither Friday nor Sunday because I was working at the convention. On Saturday evening/night I did reuse Kashuu's uchiban version, still missing the earrings though.

My favorite conventions for the year would be Närcon and Närcon Vinter, followed by Skecon. Both Närcons were a lot of fun because I went there in good company and just genuinely had a blast and enjoyed the atmosphere of a big convention. Skecon was another working experience for me and also a great last con to end the year with my best friends; it's such a comfy small con that I keep revisiting every year! Cosvision though was a huuuuuuge disappointment and not worth the money; it's a shame because the first one was so good and promising and then, err, what the fuck happened? -.- It was a mess and I just... can't.

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I don't have so much more to add. This year has been rather... unimpressive and lackluster. I have started work on some cooler cosplays and some others have been finished, but not debuted yet, so it's not a total failure of a year. Of course I've also had a lot of quality time with my cosplay friends but the cosplay front has been so dry that I'm ashamed. *sob* I hope that next year will remedy this and that I get to create some really cool stuff! Keeping my thumbs and toes up!

Lastly, let me thank all my friends and everyone else follows this blog of mine I hope you all will continue to stay around!

Bye bye & Happy New Year 2017!

December 26, 2016

Blog 5-year birthday GIVEAWAY WINNER

Hello people!

Some of you might remember that originally this 5-year birthday giveaway was supposed to last a bit longer (until 5th January) but some things came in the way and changed my original plans and I thus decided to change the end date to 25th December instead, which was yesterday. Thank you for your understanding ~

Now let's get to the results! 
I just want to clarify first how the winner was chosen. I used a random number generator online to determine the winner. The first number that I got on the generator was the winning one and I matched it up with who posted the comment of the same number on the giveaway entry post.

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Aaaaaand here's the screenshot of what the random generator gods said:



Number 2 is... 
*~* Sacchan *~*

Congratulations!
I will contact you soon about the prize ~

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Thank you to everyone who participated! 
More giveaways will be held in the future so hold on, there will be more chances to win free cosplay-related items!
~ Shiro Samurai out.

December 20, 2016

Lens review: I.Fairy Venus Red

Whooosh ~

Today I will review a beautiful red circle lens called I.Fairy Venus Red. These lenses have a gorgeous and detailed whirly print that looks Victorian-esque and mystical. It's a really pretty lens, in my opinion. ^_^

Let's go!



Base curve: 8.6 mm
Diameter: 16.2 mm
Water content: 55%
Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)



This is a really big lens with a detailed intricate swirly print that is reminiscent of the Victorian period. It's one of my favorite circle lens designs and it goes really well for any darker fashion styles – think goths, Visual Kei etc. ^^ The lens itself is a bit darker in tone and the red color, although an unnatural color in itself, isn't actually overwhelming; I think the black swirls soften the impact of the red. The I.Fairy Venus series have a really noticeable thick limbal ring and even though it's not a solid black it still gives a big impact – in the case of these red lenses the limbal ring is a darker red, mixed with black details.

One lens in. Notice the enlargement.
These cover my real eye color well enough and blends surprisingly naturally at the center, meaning that my light blue-gray eyes don't clash horribly with the red. The red shade is pleasant and actually doesn't appear as freaky or unnatural as one might expect from a red lens. Of course it's still not natural-looking enough to pass as a daily lens but it's definitely a fun pair for alternative fashion fans and those who like to stand out.

The comfort is below average. I had some trouble with the right lens because it kept feeling scratchy even after reinserting it a couple times. These lenses made my eyes tear up and I kept crying for at around 10 minutes before my eyes got used to these lenses not so good. :| My eyes were really watery. I can wear them for around 3 hours before I start to feel the first signs of dryness. My estimate is that I could wear these anywhere around 2-4 hours, possibly 5 hours if I used eyedrops.

Lens photos below!
All photos taken by me during a December afternoon with a semi-clear sky and a setting sun very low in the horizon. We have polar night right now and it means that the sun rises really late and goes down early, hence the orange light. There's no color filters or such on the close-up photos and that's so that the colors would be as true to real life as possible.

Apartment room light. Lamps on.
Bathroom light.
Facing a window in the corridor. (not sun side)
Yellow light in the staircase.
Facing a window in the staircase. (sun side)
Outdoors, back against sun. Cloudy.
Outdoors, facing sun. Cloudy.
Outdoors, back against setting sun.
Outdoors, facing sunset. (sun is really low in the horizon)
What can I say? It's a gorgeous lens that's hindered by its below average comfort but, then again, I do have sensitive eyes and I opened these late (meaning a couple months before they would have expired in their vials) so my comfort grade might not be accurate.
The I.Fairy Venus Red could work for cosplay but I mostly see it as an extra-ordinary fashion lens for those who want to make a statement. The design is unique and it's a fun lens to wear! The red shows up well and still something keeps it from being like those obnoxiously bright red crazy lenses, which could be a good thing if you want a more sophisticated red color. :) So yeah, it's an eye-catching lens that still, somehow, manages to not be too flashy, haha.

Distance photo!


Want to see the I.Fairy Venus series in other colors?
Check out these reviews: Brown

Short summary:

Color: 7/10
A slightly darker and toned-down red shade. It's not really vivid enough to jump at you.
Design: 10/10
Beautifully detailed Victorian-esque whirly print. Mystical and mesmerizing.
Opacity: 8/10
Good coverage on light eyes.
Enlargement: 9/10
Big as always.
Comfort: 4/10
These make my eyes really watery after insertion (lasts approx. 10 min) and occasionally feel a bit scratchy. I can wear them for around 3 hours before they start to show the first signs of dryness.
Naturalness: 1/10
If you ever find someone with huge, red, intricately printed eyes then do tell me....

Thanks for viewing, I hope you liked this review! ^.^

December 12, 2016

Game characters I want to cosplay someday! [pt.2]

Hello people!

With the end of this year approaching I thought it could be a nice idea to go through some more cosplay candidates that I want to do in the future – from different kinds of games, just like in the previous post with the same name. ^_^ This post is not a guarantee that all of these characters will eventually happen but it's a fairly good indicator that I want to do them because yeah, most of these have been on my mind and on my cosplay list for a longer time already and haven't fallen out yet. I admit that there is a higher chance of me doing any of the following characters earlier if some of my friends etc are interested in the same series and/or plan a cosplay group! So yeah, comment if you are hyped about any of the characters/series and we could get something together!

Now let's go, roll out the list ~

Characters are in no particular order.

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Game: Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate
Character: Ace Commander

I'm a huuuuuge Monster Hunter fanboy and of course I want to cosplay some armor sets etc but yeah, I also want to cosplay some actual characters that you interact with in the games. I really enjoy playing MH4U (1500+ hours and still going!) and I took a big liking to the Ace Commander. I just love how awkward he is with small talk and showing compassion and yet he's the cool leader type who values the other Ace hunters like family and protects them when it's needed. He's pretty relatable and I love his design, color scheme and... well... I have a bias for males with long silver hair, haha. One day I swear to God I will cosplay this guy, it needs to happen.


Game: Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate
Character: Argosy Captain

This one started of as a joke between me and Sacchan but quickly grew to be a real candidate on my cosplay list. I just love this trade captain in MH3U who keeps mixing Japanese words into his sentences and he's just really funny! I also of course like his design and he wouldn't be too hard to do as a first MonHun cosplay, except that the wig will be a challenge and I need to make monobrows to be accurate.... oh shit!


Game: Resident Evil 4
Character: Leon Scott Kennedy

If you had asked me a couple years ago I would probably never consider playing nor cosplaying from a horror game I just don't like anything that might give me nightmares. But then there's my friend Sacchan, who loves survival horror games and is a big fan of Resident Evil and once she brought her PS2 to my place and proceeded to play RE4, from the very beginning, while I watched her play. Turns out I found the game interesting (although I'm still too much of a scaredy cat to play it myself) and ended up liking Leon surprisingly much. Besides, Sacchan want to cosplay some characters from the series anyway so why not join my best friend in the fun? And now I finally get a reason to go to an unsettling, possibly abandoned building after nightfall and have a photoshoot in there...


Game: World of Warcraft
Character: Malfurion Stormrage

Before anyone inserts a pitchfork up my ass I must confess that I've never played WoW (yet) but I've always been drawn to the character designs and I really liked Warcraft: The Beginning. But despite not playing WoW it does have some nostalgic connections with me, mainly because one of my childhood friend's brother played it a lot and that I remember at my first big con I saw some really amazing WoW cosplayers that made me think "oh man, I want to be purple and badass one day too!". Later it turned out that Sacchan had been wanting to cosplay Tyrande Whisperwind for years and she asked me if I wanted to join in as Malfurion. I checked him up and my eyes jumped out of my sockets – OMG, this guy has everything that I've been wanting to create in a cosplay! Wings, huge horns, bodypaint, fur details, a long beard, those famous WoW-eyebrows, huge ears, leatherwork, making a realistic muscle suit etc. This will be one hell of a challenge but I'm gonna do it!


Game: Touken Ranbu
Character: Taroutachi

I think most people know by now that I'm a fan of sword boys. I have already cosplayed a few characters from this online web browser game but there's so many more that I still want to do – and Taroutachi is one of them. He's actually one of my dream cosplays from Touken Ranbu and one of the very first ones I decided that I definitely want to cosplay one day. His design just speaks volumes to me and I can't wait to make a huge-ass sword!


Game: Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
Character: Oscar

Ah, good old Nintendo Gamecube age. I'm still there. Path of Radiance is, so far, the only Fire Emblem game that I've played but I really like it even though it's really frustrating at times. Oscar is one of my favorite characters in the game and I want to cosplay him someday when I'm good enough at armormaking and when... I can get to borrow a horse from somewhere. :D No but really, he's a cavalry knight in the game so yeah, it would be really awesome if I ever got the chance to photoshoot with a real "oat motorcycle", as my father always said. *dreaming*


Game: Umikaze
Character: Kantai Collection

What is this, a female character on my list? Yes, you saw right. Although I'm not into crossplay I will do an exception for KanColle ship girls because yeah, I have a big interest in ships and history etc and hey, why not do something different every once in a blue moon? I really like the color scheme of Umikaze and I thought that "why not? :D". It would be a challenge in itself and way out of my comfort zone. I'm still not 100% sure if I want to do an actual crossplay or a genderbend but I think I'm leaning a bit more towards doing Umikaze as she is because it just makes more sense to not genderbend her since ships have always been referred to as feminine.

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I would have a couple more characters to list but I think I'll save those for a third reveal so stay tuned for that. ^^ Thanks for your time and I'm looking forward to hear if any of these characters caught your interest! I'm often up for pair and group cosplays if it's possible to arrange, the more the merrier ~

Bye bye!

December 6, 2016

Lens review: I.Fairy Venus Brown

Hello and happy Independence Day to Finland!

Today I have a circle lens review to share. I will be reviewing the I.Fairy Venus Brown lenses, which I've been eyeing for a long time before I finally decided to try them. It's a really beautiful lens with a unique pattern!

Let's go ~



Base curve: 8.6 mm
Diameter: 16.2 mm
Water content: 55%
Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)



I honestly love the design of these lenses – it's a really unique, gothic, mystical lens with an intricate swirly print. The outer edge is darker than the inner and makes these stand out but in a sophisticated, almost fantasy-like way. The color is a light brown shade, lovely yet soft. The swirls make me think about something Victorian-esque in style. I love these, they really speak volumes to me.

As with any  I.Fairy lenses these are definitely on the big side. The outer edge appears like a dark limbal ring when worn but because it's not solid black it makes the impact a bit smoother and less, err, animated? Not saying its natural but it's a bit watered down when compared to some other circle lenses with bolder limbal rings.

One lens in. Notice enlargement.
About comfort I can say that they aren't so comfortable but still wearable. The first time I tried these I could only wear them for 1 hour before they started to feel blergh; the second time it took 3 hours before they started to feel dry – no super long times but I've had worse. These lenses feel a bit annoying after insertion and I do feel them in my eyes but yeah, I love the design so much that I'll endure it and hey, that "lens in my eye" discomfort does lessen after a while.

Lens photos below!
All photos taken by me during a December morning with a semi-clear sky and a rising sun. Yeah, it's called polar night and the sun barely goes above the horizon, hence the poor/orange light. There's no color filters or such on the close-up photos and that's so that the colors would be as true to real life as possible.

Apartment room light. Lamps on.
Bathroom light.
Flash photo.
Facing a window in the corridor. (not sun side)
Yellow light in the staircase.
Outdoors, facing the sun.
Outdoors, facing sun. Cloudy.
Outdoors, back against sun. (facing wall)
I'd definitely recommend these first-hand for peeps who prefer some "darker" fashion styles like goths, steampunk and Visual Kei etc. I guess they'd be fine for cosplay as well but I personally think the Venus series might be better suited for alternative fashion.

I'm a bit disappointed that I couldn't get a photo in clear non-orange sunlight because the sun doesn't rise far up in the horizon anymore (I'm lucky if it gets above the trees, lol) and thus the sunlight is a really bright orange most of the time. I don't have many sunlight hours to take the photos and yeah, I feel like my photos don't do the lenses justice because of that – they're prettier than they look. I had to hurry and my camera wasn't cooperating either... ;_;

Distance photo!


Want to see the I.Fairy Venus series in other colors?
Check out these reviews: Red

Short summary:

Color: 8/10
Pleasant and soft light brown.
Design: 10/10
Intricate yet mystic Victorian-esque whirls. Dark and mesmerizing.
Opacity: 8/10
Good coverage on my light blue-gray eyes.
Enlargement: 9/10
Really big.
Comfort: 4/10
A bit annoying at first and dry out somewhere between 1-3 hours on my sensitive eyes.
Naturalness: 2/10
Not natural because of the highly detailed print and massive size.

Thanks for viewing, I hope you found this review helpful!

December 1, 2016

Blog 5-year birthday GIVEAWAY

Happy 1st December everyone!

*inhales*
On this exact day, five full years ago, I made this blog. It feels crazy that it's already so long ago – time sure does fly by! But yeah, with that said and without further long-winding emotional mumbo jumbo about the past years of blogging and cosplaying and... *sniff* ............ Oh man, I still love you guys for the support and for staying with me all these years, I really do. ;_; I still don't know where you all came from (you are like coins from Saunalahti!) and it doesn't really even matter but hey, I'm genuinely happy that you enjoy my writings and I hope to see you around for a long time to come! I will also try my best to keep blogging for a long time to come as well, so that you peeps have something to look forward to! ♥

To celebrate my 5 years of cosplay blogging I've prepared a giveaway for you all lovely readers and fans! This giveaway is made possible thanks to my lovely long-time sponsor, LensVillage. The lucky winner will get to choose a free pair of circle lenses from their store – a wonderful little Christmas/New Year present!

Here's the information for the giveaway, please read it carefully:

(open in new window for full size)
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LensVillage's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/lensvillage/
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*~* IMPORTANT *~*

• Please note that ALL 3 STEPS MUST BE DONE to get a valid entry! 
• This giveaway is active from 1st December to 25th December 2016.
• The winner will be chosen randomly and contacted.

Psst, if you don't know what Google Friend Connect is it's that gadget at the upper right side of my blog with the images of the (at the time of posting) 225 readers. :) You can enter the giveaway even if you are new and join/follow my blog now! A Google account is needed.
Also, Bloglovin' can be found directly under GFC.

Hint: If you don't want to write out your Facebook name or email address on the comment section, for any reasons, it's perfectly okay to send these separately to my email address: valkoinensamurai at gmail dot com. I only use this information (Facebook, email) to contact you, if you win, and to check that you did the steps required. Just mention in the comments that you've sent contact details through email because yeah, I still need each participant to comment since each comment will receive a number (based on order) and I will use that to draw the winner through a random number generator. ^^ Thank you for your understanding.


So that's my little giveaway for this year's blog birthday! My blog is a big boy now! :D
Enjoy yourselves and best of luck! Remember to tell your friends too ~
~ Shiro Samurai

November 27, 2016

The making of Hotaru's tengu geta!

Hello buddies ~

I'm a bit crazy for attempting this, I confess. But as a sort-of-perfectionist when it comes to my own cosplay making I decided that this would at the very least be a wildly interesting challenge to go through, both in making and in wearing the finished product, which, in this case, is a pair of tengu geta! You see, Hotaru is always seen in the manga wearing these 10 cm high Japanese wooden geta shoes – except that his signature footwear only has one ha (teeth) to stand on – yikes!
Needless to say this is gonna be one hell of a trial to actually figure out how to walk with these beasts! I'm gonna need to prepare myself for some serious balance training, huff puff.

Sooooo... are you interested in following my adventures in making some serious suicide shoes? If yes, read ahead and remember build and wear these at your own risk. Hohohoho ~
Warning: this is gonna be a long post. 

Hotaru reference.
When I first thought about cosplaying Hotaru, for several years ago, I was thinking about just making ordinary geta (aka those with two teeth) and painting them red and call it close enough. I was afraid of making tengu geta because of the hazards they'd come with once you slip them into your feet, hahah.
But then at Närcon 2015 I saw a guy cosplaying Hotaru and, once I asked to take a photo of him, I saw him pull out his tengu geta and change into them! :O He was wearing some kind of comfy-looking sneakers or such as walk-around-the-con shoes. I remember that he had to lean on his two friends to get the shoes on (I guess these two were always around him, just in case he'd trip or something) and once he was done he could actually stand with them on without having anyone pressed next to him! Seeing him standing on those crazy shoes without any support made me think "if he can do it, so can I!" and yeah, I did ask him later if it was hard to walk in those skyscrapers and he said that it's actually not that hard to walk in them... but standing still is a whole different story. *badumtssh*

How can he jump around, fight and run with those on??
But yeah, these things ain't easy to move around in; you're constantly worried about tripping over something, losing your balance, falling over someone, getting accidentally bumped in crowds or entering an area with uneven/bumpy ground etc. You really can't move around freely because you have to be 110% aware of your surroundings at all times... or else you'll be effectively face-planting.
I'll be sure to always bring with me a second pair of shoes whenever I bring my Hotaru cosplay to a con because hey, I will need comfier shoes and something that's a bit less risky to move around in. Having "tengu-legs" all day doesn't sound like the most sober idea I'd ever have – these are likely best suited for photoshoot occasions or for the mildly crazy ones out there.

I apologize for the crummy cellphone-quality on most of the photos ahead; I didn't have my SLR camera with me in school during this project.

Okay so, I started this project on early March 2016. Because I'm cheap and stuff I did this during school on my woodwork class... or well, it's not actually called that but woodwork is what a big majority of the students are doing during class so, err, yeah. The class is actually called "redesign" and "furniture renovation". We work in a garage that belongs to the school and there we have a lot of power tools, paints, sand paper and whatever you might need – including free wood. 
I knew that I needed to use some kind of wood that could take my whole body weight and would be durable yet preferably not too heavy or else wearing my shoes would be like walking with anchors strapped to my ankles, lol. I checked first through the "trash box", aka where all the scrap wood pieces were but I didn't find anything suitable in there. I then went to check the actual wood storage and found a thick plank that seemed suitable. I went to ask my teacher and he said that "you should be able to jump with shoes out of that" and so I assumed it was okay to use. xD Problem was that I couldn't find another plank of the same wood, width and thickness so yeah, I had to go with something else. I searched around for quite a while before I laid my eyes on some scrapped wooden bed legs – they had just the right thickness and seemed very sturdy! I went to ask my teacher if said legs belonged to anyone else's project but he said that I could take them, hell yeah!

Got my wood!
For those wondering what woods these are the plank is Scots pine, aka European redwood. Note though that it was painted in some white paint before I took it, hence the pale color. The former bed legs are made out of beech. I reserve the right for any misinformation since I'm just stating what my teacher told me; I'm not a wood expert and I don't know if he is either. 
The Swedish names, for those curious, is 'furu' (the plank) and 'bok' (the legs).

Even though it's officially mentioned that Hotaru's tengu geta only have 10 cm long teeth I decided to screw that and made mine 15 cm instead. Normally I'd always go for accuracy but I honestly thought that 10 cm looked stupidly short and I always thought that his geta looked taller than that in the manga anyway, lol. I'll probably regret this choice once I have to walk in them...

Aaaaand back to the project!
After I had found the pieces that I needed and marked where I needed to cut I went and said hello to the new love of my life... err... the circular saw. I had never used one before and, hot damn, is it a handy asset to have when working with wood! It just takes a few seconds and bam, you're done!

Too bad I can't steal it without anyone noticing....
Pieces cut.
Next up was some rigorous sanding, except on the 'tooth' parts since those are already smooth and all thanks to being a recycled leg piece from a bed. Save time, effort and nature, wohoo! I sanded the body pieces of the shoes until they were smooth like a duck's butt and then I sanded some more. All the previous white paint that was on them came off.

Everything sanded and the placement for the 'teeth' are marked.
Now came a brainstorming session with my teacher about how to proceed and if it would even be possible to walk with these things strapped to my feet. He googled 'tengu geta' and pointed out how other examples had a slanted shape on the underside, likely to provide stabilization and support for the 'tooth'. Don't quote me on that though, it's just a guess.

Example photo from Google.
Now I can say that I've seen tengu geta without those triangular slanted shapes on the underside (mainly homemade pairs) but I'm fairly certain having them makes these monsters easier to walk on. I thought long and hard if I should add them or not; not adding them would be more character accurate but adding them would likely lessen the risk of me faceplanting everywhere and so, the question stood, should I go for accuracy or for convenience and safety? Which one weighed more?
It was a really hard decision to make but I decided on adding them in the end, mainly because I really don't have the best balance to begin with and I don't want to kiss the floor at cons, unintentionally. 
Off I go to find something usable in the scrap wood box!

DO DO DO DOOOOOOOH ~
Another bed leg to the rescue! :'DD No but really, this one had one side already in a slanted shape that had been glued on – a perfect starting point for an occasionally lazy cosplayer like me, lol. Thank you beds for sacrificing yourselves for a good cause. 
I had really good luck because each of these scrap legs were 18 cm long (the leg part, not counting the fastener top) and my geta needed two 9 cm long pieces per underside, bingo! So of course I decided to just cut one in half and use the more slanted half for the front half and the less slanted for the back half. I hope my explanations are not too bad. What I was less lucky with was that these pieces are not as wide as my geta's main body but yeah, I thought I could deal with it because it's not a ridiculously noticeable difference and, well, it won't be seen all that much anyway; I just want something to support the 'teeth' and balance out the weight a little, without having to put a shitlot of time into making it.

At first I had thought that I'd just saw off the piece that I wanted but then one of the assistant teachers looked at the bed leg and saw that the glue fastening had started giving way; he said we could likely just split them open with a knife in the seam and a couple hits with a hammer – said and done!

Slanted pieces separated. One is glued.
As you can see on the photo above one of the pieces cracked because it didn't come off cleanly. Luckily it didn't break in two, so we just glued it and put some pressure clamps on. The knife pictured is the one we used, in case anyone wonders.

Next up I moved to work on the main body again. I decided that I wanted the teeth platforms to have some extra support to hold on to so I decided to make a groove in the underside of the shoe's body to sink them into. It was really important that the groove was as close to the tooth's width as possible so that it would be snug and not wobble around. Every millimeter was important and I had to be really really careful. But instead of carving out the grooves by hand (which would be quite some work and take time) I had a genius flash and turned my gaze to the circular saw, once again.

I'm a clever little shit!
I basically adjusted the circular saw so that it wouldn't go all the way down and then I did a lot of sawing in lines back and forth, millimeter by millimeter, until I got a nice groove formed. Fast and efficient!
When I was done with that I took a chisel and smoothed out the roughness caused by the sawing.

One groove done.
Shoe to the left is smoothed, shoe to the right is raw.
Next I took one of those metallic compasses (?) and marked out the holes and the center of them on the teeth, mainly so that it would be easier for the drill to locate them. I used a 51 mm hole saw on a drill to do the holes, it's pictured on the photo below together with the compass.

Holes made more pronounced, in preparation for sawing.
Holes cut out with the hole saw.
The hole saw got really warm while in use, to the point it actually burned the wood and reeked of smoke hence why the holes look blackish on the edges. It started to smell burnt, it was kinda scary. :S The drill even shut itself down to cool down when I was half-way done, oops. I need to mention though that beech is an amazing wood, it doesn't crack nor splinter at all!

Next I marked out the placements for the hanao, aka the thongs. I then fetched some rope of the thickness I'd want to use and picked out some leftover fabric from school; the fabric is actually a former couch cover pillow thingy and thus it was perfect for my project because I wouldn't need to buy any cotton filling for the hanao!
I drilled the holes and realized that the fabric rope I first had set my eyes on sadly won't be durable enough. Luckily a trip to a mixed store afterwards provided me with a white synthetic rope that was cheap, had a nice thickness, a lot of meters and was durable too!

I noticed at some point that, for some reason, the holes on the ha weren't on the same spot, even though they should have been – good thing for me was that I had saved a reserve bed leg, just in case, and now it came to use. I shortened it to the right length, drilled the hole in it and then I had a much more identical second "tooth"! It also fit better into the groove when I did a test-run, aka the new one didn't wobble around as much.

Summer vacation came and went and I didn't progress on these shoes for months because duh, no school. :'D The project continued again on 30th August and the first thing I did was to refresh my memory of what I had been planning for these shoes. I remembered where I had left off and continued by gluing each tooth to the main body of the shoes. I used normal wood glue and pressure clamps.

Tengu geta glued and put to dry.
I left the glue to dry for a couple days, aka until my next lesson. The next time I came to work on my shoes the glue had dried completely and I took them out of the pressure clamps. But upon taking off the clamps I noticed that one of them had pressed an ugly mark onto the main body of one of the shoes; I didn't notice before but one of the pressing "plates" on the clamp, that you screw onto your item to hold it in place, had an uneven surface. Luckily it was not a big deal because I would have to go through and use filler to even out cracks and shit anyway.
But before I started with the whole filler mission I decided to make each tooth extra sturdy and thus I went ahead and drilled some screws into them – don't want to take any risks with the glue failing me after some time of use! Okay so I basically just marked out the spots for each screw (two per geta), drilled the holes, used a thicker drill to "carve" out space for the screw head and lastly I, of course, drilled the screws into the geta. I placed the holes about 2 cm into the body from each side. Each screw was about 4-5 cm long.

Screws drilled in place.
Notice the pressure marks from the clamp as well.
After the screws were drilled in I found some wood filler that I thought I could test. I didn't quite like how it behaved (I think it might have been semi-dry because the person who used it before me didn't close it properly after use) and so I gave up on it and went with normal filler instead. I carefully went through the whole shoes to even out any cracks, splinters and unevenness. Once that was done my class had ended and I left my tengu geta to dry upright on a shelf.

The wood filler that I tried using. It sucked. :(
During next class my shoes had dried and I continued by sanding down the excess filler until I got my geta as smooth as possible. After that I wiped them dry of the sanding/filler dust with a towel and then I went to purchase some spray primer, because it's a lot faster and easier than using ordinary primer in paint form.

Before priming my project I took a good look at the current progress. I remembered the existence of those slanted pieces that I made out of the bed legs and messed around with them, to try to simulate if they would actually do as much of a difference in balance and sturdiness as I had thought. I got more and more sceptical because after doing some simulations it seemed like they didn't actually do much at all to increase the safety of me standing on these murder shoes; I started to think that maybe they don't give the desired effect because it's not from the same block of wood as the main body. So yeah, after some thinking I decided to forgo these slanted pieces (after all the work I put into them) because they didn't really seem to do as much of a difference as I had hoped and yeah, if they don't do their work then I'd rather be more accurate to the character and go without.

Comparison with one shoe with the slants and the other without.
So yeah, I left the "stability pieces" out of my project and continued with priming my shoes. I let them dry and added another coating. The drying time took long enough that my class ended before I could get to start with the actual painting job.

Primed geta.
Next time was painting time! I had previously decided on using the same metallic red vax paste that I used for painting Hotaru's sword a while ago. I wanted them to match and the color (and the vax paint itself) is awesome and super quick to use! So yeah, this paint is really chunky and you apply it by using a soft piece of fabric or a sponge – I use a torn piece of an old bed sheet. I spent a lot of hours painting my shoes, did two layers and was very careful to avoid as much "color-stealing fingerprints" as possible because yeah, I need to seal this thing after it has dried or it will continue to smudge off ever so slowly when I touch it. :D It got kinda hard in the end to not accidentally touch some spot when you were painting another – the only area that didn't matter was the actual part of the shoe that will touch the ground when I wear these.

Painting in progress.
Once the shoes had dried I returned to seal them with a clear gloss varnish. When I was done spraying them I carefully put the shoes upright to dry on a shelf in the garage; I should have realized that this was not the safest space to put them on because the shelf itself is vintage, narrow and wobbly – I remember thinking before I left that I'll move them to a safer place once I could touch them on the next lesson. But of course, once the next time came about I of course forgot about that tiny little detail. So yeah, when I came to check on the varnish I noticed that the paint still left fingerprints and thus a second coating was needed. I opened the drawer under the shelf (the shelf was separate and on top of the drawer, fyi) to look for my varnish can, which was not there, and then I closed the drawer without thinking and – BAM! Of course the impact from closing the drawer (it doesn't go in smoothly) made the whole shelf shake and my shoes fell down. One shoe survived without taking any damage but the other one hit one of its front edges against a wooden chair and the tip of the edge got worn down and lost its point. Fuck my life. :)) I was really annoyed with myself because I could so easily have avoided this unnecessary and stupid mishap (I even reminded myself before I left last time >_>) and now I had to partially redo the painting job. Its during this kind of times, when you ruin things for yourself when you're almost done, that you want to highfive yourself in the face... with a frying pan.
So yeah, I had to backtrack, try to repair the edge and then repaint the area surrounding the damage and then go back to seal the whole shit again. Oh well, I needed to do a second coat of varnish anyway but yeah, fucking up the the nice edge really sucked donkey balls. I could so easily just have moved them away before closing the damn box.

Once I was done with the painting it was time to actually make the shoes wearable, aka create the hanao. What I did was that I took the previously mentioned synthetic rope and the couch cover fabric thingy that I took from school. I don't know the proper name for the piece but it's fabric with cotton layers/filling added to it, to make it extra soft and thick. So yeah, I had cut out some strips of the fabric and of the rope that would become the hanao. I just simply handsewed the fabric onto the rope, like the photo below shows. The fabric was folded in half and the edges were folded in too. It's important that the rope stays inside the fabric during all times because if it accidentally goes out then it's gonna be a bitch to reinsert once the "fabric tube" is closed.

Sewing the hanao.
This is not any accurate way to do it and no, I did actually not zigzag the edges because I had no sewing machine available; luckily the fabric doesn't seem to fray too easily. What I did though was that I folded in the edges before sewing them closed – should keep them from unravelling too much.
Once I was done with sewing I tied these thongs to my shoes. I didn't do any proper tying because I have no idea how the Japanese actually do it so yeah, just did a lot of basic knots over and over again until I ran out of rope.

Now what was left was to, preferably, find some sort of textured and durable rubber that I could attach to the bottom of the shoes to make them safer to walk on, especially indoors. I've realized from an earlier convention experience that wearing wooden shoes indoors with a plastic floor is like being on an ice-skating rink – in other words, a combo that will lead to injuries. Tengu geta has a higher percentage to lead to injuries anyway lol, who am I fooling?
Okay, so my first thought was to buy one of those car rubber mats and cut out pieces of it and hot glue them on. My second idea was to buy some really cheap second-hand shoes and cut out the bottom and use that but yeah, when I went scouting for suitable shoes it turned out to be harder than I thought. The thing is that I preferably wanted something transparent and so, one day when I passed by Ikea, I suddenly remembered that I had scrap pieces of a colorless anti-slip plastic cover thingy lying around somewhere; I'm sorry but I don't know the proper name for it. ^^" It's a thin transparent rubbery plastic film on a roll with nubs on it. I originally used it to put some inside my cupboard boxes so that all my cooking tools, spice boxes etc would stay in place; also used it for protection and for ease of cleaning. The reason I remembered its existence when I was close to Ikea is because that's where I bought it, for your information.

Before gluing it on.
So I just cut out some fitting pieces and hot glued them on. Of course I put the textured side outwards. I don't know what my hot glue was doing but it didn't seem to want to heat up properly (might be that the electricity is restricted in the garage, idk) and so I fear that these won't hold for very long. Oh well, in case that happens they're super easy to just glue back on at home.

Glued in place and started to trim the corners.
After I had glued the transparent sheets onto the shoes I trimmed the corners and whatever else that was a bit too big. Now to hope that the glue holds... Good thing though is that I have a fair amount left of the plastic thingy so even if I would somehow lose these original ones at a con or something I can easily replace them.

Finished tengu geta for Hotaru.
With that done my tengu geta are finished for now! I might still need to resize the hanao because I fear I might have made them a bit too long but yeah, I can't tell yet if that's gonna be a problem or not since I haven't tried wearing these monster shoes yet. But oh well, in any case I'm happy to finally be done with these shoes because it means that my SDK Hotaru cosplay is now complete!

Thanks for reading! Feel free to comment if you have any questions etc ~
Shiro Samurai out.