Showing posts with label Cosplay. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cosplay. Show all posts

February 29, 2024

Dota 2 Invoker cosplay WIP part.2

Hello hello!

I was checking through my unpublished drafts and found this progress post buried between the rest of the lot of forget-me-nots and well, last time I touched this draft was in... wait for it... January 2017. Jesus Christ, who ate up all that time? It feels like it wasn't that long ago I swear. ;_;
Nobody probably remembers but in the first part I said I had no deadline for this cosplay but was aiming for a summer 2017 debut? Well, as everyone now can see that totally happened. /sarcasm
Well, I still intend to finish this costume at some point although I have no idea if that group cosplay idea which spurred this creation in the first place still stands, lol. Anyways, I figured I might as well publish what I have made since the last progress post from... umm.. *counts*... almost 8 years ago. Yikes. Honestly I barely remember what I was doing the last time I worked on this project but I'll just publish this post as-it-was and then do a "current sitation" note at the end.
___________

I had previously finished serging the jacket's top and the skirt part (to prevent edges from fraying), which I had planned to later sew together to make things easier for me. The "skirt" consists of three fabric widths and I started out pleating it in big, wide pleats, of which every single one was to be 10 cm. It was quite a task to pleat all that fabric evenly...

Skirt pleating done.

It's sewn together and held up here just to show length.

I then sewed the skirt onto the main body of the jacket, aka the top half. I ended up with a miscalculation, because I got the numbers mixed up, but it was nothing that wasn't easily fixed by taking out the seam ripper and deepening one of the skirt pleats before reattaching it to the body. I also hemmed the edges.
Before sewing together the bottom half of the jacket (the "tails") or attaching the sleeves I wanted to make and sew on all those golden swirly details on them. For this I remembered that mom has this whole roll of some nifty golden fabric that doesn't fray and thus should be perfect for this kind of work.

Soon after I had done the progress I mentioned above I quit the sewing class in the school I was at back then, mainly because the only good teacher quit her job and she was the only one I came to terms with. The other two were not proper teachers and, honestly, most of the time it felt like I knew more about sewing than them, which is a kinda awkward spot to be in as a student. Not to mention but they didn't treat me all that well either so I ended up jumping off the class for more than one reason. So yeah, once the only talented and friendly teacher was gone my progress on Invoker was put on hold. Another problem was that the apartment I had back when I worked on this cosplay was ridiculously small and crammed; I had no space to lay out and cut the golden fabric roll into the shapes I needed. Not having a sewing machine easily available made it really hard to get motivated to continue on the project and yeah, it's been literal years since I last touched Invoker. Don't read that in a dirty way thanks ololol.

The current situation is that I have since then moved to a better apartment (space is still an issue though but for wholly different reasons rip) but some of my belongings and especially my cosplay stuff are still scattered in all kinds of different bags and places and, truth be told, I have no idea where my bits and pieces of Invoker currently lay hidden! I remember having them in a saggy white plastic bag at some point but I can't recall where I've last seen it. Yes, I'm not a terribly organized person. But I know I haven't disposed of any of the cosplay parts and once I find them I'm going to go through them and pick this project up again. I still won't put a deadline but I hope it won't take another 8 years before we see any news on Invoker again, that would be epic fail.


Yeah I know, it's not much for an update but now you all at least know that this costume isn't dead and buried. Not yet at least. It's kinda buried though, among unknown stuff. Now, wish me luck in finding the remains of my forgotten wizard...
~ Shiro Samurai says bibbidi-bobbidi-boo!

December 31, 2023

Year of Cosplay 2023

 Hello everyone!

This year has gone by really fast I swear they go faster and faster every year help but unlike the last few years there's been a marked improvement in my con attendance. Yes, I'm slowly rising back from the dead and even got some kind of inspiration back! It feels so good to return to this hobby and get some enjoyment from it that isn't too tarnished by anxiety and other issues. I'm very thankful to all my friends who made this year so wonderful and I'm actually feeling motivated to make new costumes again and get my shit together. I've been to a record amount of conventions this year (and a lot of firsts!) and I'm hoping to keep up the steam into next year because this has honestly felt refreshing. 

Cons attended in 2023:

Kummacon - Oulu, Finland
Sastamalan cosplay-päivä - Sastamala, Finland
Nekocon - Kuopio, Finland
Mericon - Rauma, Finland
Nippori - Pori, Finland
Matsucon - Oulu, Finland
Nordsken - Skellefteå, Sweden 
 
It's hard to pick what was my favorite event this year as there's several strong candidates but I'd maybe put Nekocon at the throne, although tightly followed by both Mericon and Matsucon. Nekocon had a really nice vibe going on, enjoyed great summer weather and the stay at Rauhalahti spa hotel really elevated that experience as a whole to the next level. I might have a slight Mericon bias since I was one of the organizers but it was a roaring success for a small first-time con and it had a distinct atmosphere and heart that I felt was really pleasant and genuine. Matsucon was also a great experience; working the video game room was fun and overall Pohjankartano is such a nice con building and yeah, I might have become addicted to Itsudemo's sushi buffet help.
 
...
...
Guess what? I actually cosplayed at conventions for the first time in ages! It feels wild to realize it but the last time I wore a costume at a con before 2023 was in Kummacon 2019 where I was a random nameless jedi from Star Wars. After that I hadn't wore a single costume out until Nekocon this year, crazy isn't it? It feels weird to think there's been such a long gap but I can't be mad at myself for that either, I've struggled so much with my mental health and I need to be kind and remind myself that it's okay to fall out of hobbies for a while and focus on just surviving. But yeah, I'm slowly healing and this just might be the start of a new cosplay chapter and a return to the glory days... or something.


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

Kummacon: I was in alternate fashion gear so no cosplay.
Sastamalan cosplay-päivä: Because it was a spontaneous trip I had no costumes with me.
Nekocon: I made and debuted Kisuke Urahara from Bleach for Nekocon, which was a good idea as it was decently breezy and I didn't die a summer heat death lol.
Mericon: I was dressed in a pirate-inspired fashion outfit to fit the con's nautical theme. I don't count it as a cosplay.
Nippori: Rewore my old kimono version of Gakupo Kamui the Vocaloid.
Matsucon: Saturday I went casual but on Sunday I debuted a remade version of Yuuto, one of my oldest OC's that I created specifically for cosplay when I first started out.
Nordsken: I had loose cosplay plans before the con but ended up going casual and tbh I have no regrets about that choice.

~~~

I don't have so much more to say. This year feels like the start of a good run and I'm hoping to keep the momentum up and make new costumes next year and maybe even up my game and compete! We'll see what happens but I'm entering 2024 with a sliver of good faith and we'll see where it carries me.

And in regards to this here blog it will continue to stay active and I'll post content whenever I have something to share. ^_^ Someone might have noticed too that I've silently deleted my Facebook cosplay page recently but that's no precursor that the blog will face the same fate so don't worry! I just felt like the cosplay page had become excessive because I hardly ever used it and it had absolute crap reach (Facebook's algorithms are depressing). It felt pointless to keep the page because it feels like no one uses Facebook anymore anyway and yeah, I don't like the changes Meta has done recently either so I felt it was high time to nuke it and focus all my content and efforts to my trusty old cosplay blog. So now you know that the blog is where it's at. ;)


Thank you to all readers & Happy New Year 2024!

October 31, 2023

Matsucon 2023 – Gamer panic and gamer bliss

Hello geeks, spooks and cheeky pumpkins!
 
I was at Matsucon this past weekend and I'm here to tell you all about my latest con trip, woo! For those not in the know Matsucon is an annual anime convention in Oulu, northern Finland, and this year's edition was held on 28-29th October – which makes it coincide with Halloween. This mashup was visible in the decorations like a Gengar plush at the info desk, pumpkins on promotional material etc and added an extra layer of fun and festive atmosphere. After all, most people with a geeky bone in their body also tend to enjoy Halloween because of reasons (dressing up, dark/creepy aesthetics, supernatural stuff etc) so there's a lot of overlap and yeah, I personally find it a good call that Matsucon incorporated Halloween elements into their set this year.

But enough ramblings so let's go~

Matsucon information booklet.

I left for Oulu on Friday afternoon and my travel companion for the con was Firith. We had booked a Sokos hotel room for the weekend and that meant I didn't hijack my aunt's apartment this time lol. The hotel room was tar themed and quite nice and we spent Friday night just destressing and preparing for the con. Oh, and eating the dinner buffet at Itsudemo aka stuffing our faces way too full with sushi and honey cake.

Our tar themed hotel room. Me like.

I had applied for a con volunteer position prior which meant I was part of the work force and I just so happened to have the first morning shift so yeah, I had to be at the con 9:30 in the morning. My original plan was to cosplay on Saturday and go casual on Sunday. Yeah I know, I didn't do a cosplay plans post before the con and that's simply because I didn't decide until last minute on what to wear. ^^" Oh well, when Saturday morning came I felt quite uncomfortable with the idea of cosplaying because of practical, physical and mental reasons and so I ended up going casual.

Thanks to my phone's GPS flipping its shit around (and messing up my efforts to use Google Maps for navigation) I ended up taking detours through Oulu's centrum while I tried to waddle my way to Pohjankartano where Matsucon was held.
I found my way inside the building, claimed my worker's badge and scurried up the stairs for the work briefing before my shift would start at 10. I had applied to work at the gaming room, which meant my shifts consisted of a lot of nostalgy-fueled sounds Tetris music rentfree in your head anyone? and assisting willing gamers in any way needed – sometimes it was just inviting curious onlookers to come play, sometimes explaining how a game works or assisting in how to play 8-bit Super Mario and other times just being there for company or playing versus games with a lone gamer. It was a very nice, feel-good job and not too stressful.
 
The gaming room, my workplace.

My first shift ended at 12 and after that I was free to roam the con for four hours before my second shift for the day would start. Somewhere around this point I contacted Firith to ask if he was already at the con because there had just been an announcement that the Saturday tickets were sold out at the door. This surprised me because of how early it happened but yeah, thankfully Firith reminded me that he had pre-ordered his tickets already a long time ago so there was no panic.
 
My original plan was that I wanted to attend the Studio Ghibli concert that started at 12 but when I found the room that it was held in a few minutes past it was already locked. That was quite the bummer as I remember other cons where you could still enter if you were a bit late. Oh well, no can do.
I went back to buzz around the main area and quickly checked through the sellers and did a first run at the Artist's Alley by myself. I did run into Sallukka and their boyfriend Dongrieg and we swapped some words and after that I soon found Firith as well. Both friends were about to participate in the cosplay competition and were waiting for their turn with the judges so I left them to vibe together while I hurried over to the Green Room. I had gamer responsibilities to do.

Near entrance view of Matsucon. Dealer's Hall area.

Dealer's Hall.

More Dealer's Hall. There was this seller with only Genshin merch!

MION's booth, the Guest of Honor. There was always a line to meet her.

Dealer's Hall view from upstairs.

Before Matsucon I ran into a huge issue. A huge dilemma for a gamer. You see, I've been playing World of Warships: Legends almost since it launched (I'd call myself a better than average player, I currently hold the world record for highest damage game in premium battleship Nassau #flex) and these past 4 weeks there had been a daily event with simple tasks that you need to do and if you completed every day without missing any you'd get an exclusive new commander and of course I had put a fair share of effort into completing these tasks... until I realized that the final two days of the event fell on the Matsucon weekend and if I missed these two then I'd miss out on the main reward and would basically have wasted 4 weeks of effort. *insert panik meme here*
I tried to think of all kinds of solutions before the con but everything fell through last minute (and I can't exactly drive 100 km home every day to go do my dailies and then drive all the way back to Oulu, especially when I don't even have a driving license) and I was desperate. So desperate I asked in the discord if I could somehow borrow a monitor at Matsucon if I brought my own PS4 with me to do the dailies during my off-time. It looked bleak at first but then I was recommended to ask Marko privately if he could bring a small screen to the Green Room. And it turns out that besides being the main technician he is also the Guardian Angel of All Gamers in Distress™ and said it was no problem to bring a monitor as he lived close. Bless his heart!

A gamer's gotta do what a gamer's gotta do.

Once I got done with my dailies I packed away my console and left it at the Narikka (cloakroom) for storage for the rest of the day. I gotta say I really enjoy being a worker nowadays because it also gives you access to the Green Room where you can go whenever to have a quick bite, drink tea or coffee and such and it just helps to make sure I don't get nauseous during cons because yeah, I have a bad habit of forgetting to drink and eat sufficiently. >_< Besides, to me it's fulfilling to volunteer because it's meaningful and so important –  if no one was willing to donate their time to make the con run smoothly then we'd soon have no cons because usually the organizations behind them are non-profit and are reliant on the goodwill of people to function and well, I find it very important that these kinds of events are held because a lot of those who have an interest in this kind of pop culture also often deal with difficulties to fit in elsewhere and might be vulnerable – cons might be their only safe spaces and where they feel they belong as their geeky, most authentic and colorful selves. This is based on my observations and experiences over the years and, although I'm not here to generalize, it does seem to me that groups that are minorities in society are the majorities in these pop culture spaces; cons seem to attract certain types of people who often share life experiences.

Okay, enough deep thinking there. Back on track!
My second work shift started at 16 and that of course meant that I couldn't go watch my friends at the cosplay competition. I did make sure to check on Firith multiple times during the day to make sure that he was okay as I knew he has been in a rough patch lately. I did hear later that Sallukka had won some honorary mention award at the competition for best accessory (I think?) so congrats to that!
My shift ended at 18 and that's roughly when the con closed and the party moved over to the night club (tickets were sold separately). I didn't have the mental energy nor interest for the afterparty so once my workday was over I met up with Firith and we called a taxi back to the hotel. Once at the hotel Firith peeled himself out of his cosplay and then we just relaxed for a bit before we met up with Sallukka and Dongrieg for a cup of coffee at the nearby Coffee House.

Lemon meringue cake, yum.

I had a pumpkin spice latte (yeah I'm slowly starting to enjoy some sweet coffees but the ordinary stuff is still yuck as fuck lmao) and a yummy cake with lemon curd! We just hung around for a while and talked about the day and such, just the whole chilling with the bros vibe ya know? After the coffee we wanted something more spicy and so went to a nearby karaoke bar and had a few drinks. Something funny happened at the bar too! So we had a table near a more quiet corner and were just having fun chats when suddenly this middle-aged lady appears out of thin air on my right side. I'm quite shook by the time I register that she's way into my personal space and she's like bending down slightly and tilting her head in this very observing-but-drunk-granny way (it's almost comical I tell you) and then she suddenly says "I have no idea who you all are, I've never seen any of you here before but I love all of you" and then she just up and leaves and we're all just sitting there like "????". XD

After the bar episode Sallukka and Dongrieg left for their hotel while me and Firith raided the Hesburger around the corner. Or more like Firith activated his unquenchable thirst for nuggets and I just tagged along. Then again, he had not eaten anything warm since the hotel breakfast so I can't blame him. xD

Back at the hotel we played on our Nintendo Switches and leisurely watched a movie on TV; it was a Finnish movie about a blind man and it was quite unsettling at times but the way they implemented the reality of blindness throughout the whole movie was genial. It's called The Blind Man Who Did Not Want To See Titanic in English, do look it up if you're intrigued.

Sunday morning came and I slept rather poorly. I was quite anxious on the morning and debated whether I wanted to cosplay at all but I managed to get my shit together and cosplayed anyway. My outfit for the day is actually one of my very first cosplays but just reimagined – it's my original character Yuuto. I kept the main colors of his outfit the same (white kimono and indigo hakama) but compared to the first version I added more pieces to his outfit and changed the wig from a white bob to this silver-blue gradient wig in a similar cut. I did look for the original wig but could not find it anywhere, I think I might have sold it years ago. Anyway, this was a comfortable and simple cosplay to wear and, although I want to tweak it a little before I wear it again, I'm quite happy with the overall look. During the con I didn't wear the correct shoes though because yeah, it had snowed and I did not want to wear geta clogs in the snow.

My Sunday cosplay, OC Yuuto.
(photo by Firith)

On Sunday I also had the early morning shift at 10 but this time me and Firith could leave for the con together as he would not have to wait in the cold for 30 minutes before the doors open in a sleeveless dress that isn't even full length, like the case would have been on Saturday if we left at the same time.

I headed straight for the video games room again while Firith went his own ways. It was quite nice that some visitors from the day before came over on Sunday to play some more. But overall I can say that Sunday was a much more quiet day in the room and our assortment of Nintendo consoles also decreased by one around midday as the NES left the building, leaving the gaming room with a Switch, SNES and Wii. So yeah, there was 100% Nintendo dominance this year. And for those curious the games that were played the most were the Wii and Switch versions of the Super Smash Bros and Mario Kart series along with Tetris on the retro consoles.

At 12 my first shift ended and I had a spontaneous idea to go check out the "Kiss, Marry, Abyss" Genshin Impact program. I watched for a while while the panelist explained the rules but there were quite a lot of people and the whole setup looked rather overwhelming and so I lost interest and left. It seemed like the rules was that the room were split in three halves, one for each option (kiss, marry and kill) and you had to go stand in the right spot according to what you would do to the multiple characters shown on the screen. I was expecting it to be done by like a phone app or something and you would just click on options and then have the results shown on screen what everyone voted. Moving around the room might have worked, I don't really know cuz I didn't stay to watch how it actually unfolded but to me it looked like it would quickly become chaotic cuz there was a ton of chairs and other furniture everywhere (the room was a lecture/auditorium style room). The game's idea seemed fun though!

Artist's Alley view.

This little tip jar amused me too much!

I now did a more proper Artist's Alley run and I was so excited to find that someone actually had somehow had time to do Neuvillette merch! He's my new favorite character in Genshin and I wasn't expecting to find anything featuring him and I just afjdsfdfs when I saw the charm. ;_; I'm posting a con loot photo at the end of this post~
Artist's Alley was located on the second floor and split into two halves, one on the left side of the building and the other on the right side. I felt like it worked decently well but there was quite a lot of crowding on Saturday, hence why I did most of my shopping on Sunday as it was easier to move around and browse the tables. I also gotta say that I liked the variety in sellers – there were both familiar and new faces to me. I wish I could have bought more and supported more artists but I don't have a lot of spending money right now as I'm still unemployed.

Of course I did my dailies in the Green Room again once my shift ended (and I got the final mission reward, yay!) and at some point me and Firith went outside quickly to take some photos of my cosplay. I mainly just wanted a proof picture for now but I will do a proper photoshoot later. :)

During my second shift I was witness to the tragic human tale of a man who bought too many mystery lootbags. I bet this was the best laughs of the whole con lmao. So there was this group of guys in the gaming room (I think they were friends of the other guy who was working at the same time as me, not sure) sitting around the table in the middle of the room and at first I didn't really pay attention to their conversation until I sat on the same table and they were talking about something that apparently caused hilarious regret. And I was curious and asked what they're talking about and apparently I had now pressed the cursed button because one of them said something like "now you have to do it because you asked about it" and I was like "oh no what have I gotten myself into" and this guy then pulls out this tiny rotating fish game for kids where you have to fish up the fishies with a magnetic rod while they open and close their mouths and I just had no way to back out. I had to accept the challenge like a man. And so I fished up like half the fishes and some I got real fast, which earned me some impressed 'oohs' and 'aahs' and then I had integrated myself into the group. They then kept talking about the lootbags and how shit they were and the conversation got wilder and wilder (somehow Rovaniemi's tax money was relevant to this, I guess bro's unemployed too and that's what the sponsor joke referred to xD) and it was absolutely hilariously unhinged crylaughter-fueled regret and the guy who was the one cheated out of his $$$ was laughing like a human siren with his face turning bright red – you ever have that thing where you feel sorry for the poor soul but you just fucking can't stop laughing because he's laughing too? That was how I felt, basically schadenfreude with consent. x) At least he could see the humor and laugh at the whole situation (although it was on his expense) because yeah, not everyone is a champ like that and someone else might just have broken down in a corner because of the huge waste of precious money.

After my second and final work shift ended at 16 (it started at 14, I worked 4h/day so 8h in total) I went to find Firith again and we did a final Artist's Alley round together before we were satisfied with our con experience and then we headed back to the hotel to rest our legs and wind down. Our budgets were almost used up so once we got back to our hotel room we had to brainstorm a bit on the topic of dinner. I happened to check Burger King's website and there was a really affordable campaign and what's even better is that the restaurant was located almost just around the corner from our hotel!

Läskeillään koska soli halp. :)))

And that about wraps up my summary of Matsucon. After the burgers we just returned to our room for the night and on Monday we parted ways and our Oulu trip was officially over; Firith went back to the south and I continued back up north.
Overall I had a great time at Matsucon and would definitely visit it again. I've been to Matsucon twice before (2017 and 2019) and I've always felt that it's quite well organized and an inviting anime con to attend for anyone even moderately interested in what it has to offer. I would say it's worth your time if you live in the north and why not if you live further away as well because yeah, Pohjankartano is a solid building for this type of events and Oulu is a lovely city well worth a visit!

Here's a photo of my con haul:

Square magnets by SaQe-Art, dragon charm by Sysirauta, Beidou
by si3art. I don't know who Neuvillette was from sorry. ;-;


Thanks for reading and Happy Halloween!
~ Shiro Samurai

September 28, 2023

Nippori 2023 – Another tiny library con

 Hello weebs!

I ended up attending Nippori for the first time last weekend. It's a small library con in Pori, Finland, and that probably comes as a surprise to no one since the name of the event is clearly derived from mashing together 'Nippon' (Japan) and 'Pori' hah. Anyways, Nippori is a free event and the reason I didn't do any announcement on my blog prior is because this was a rather spontaneous last-minute trip – Firith asked me if I could accompany him as he didn't want to go alone due to Pori being quite an anxiety-inducing town. I agreed because it's always nice to go somewhere I've never been before, even if the town has a reputation of being a shithole (if you ask anyone in Rauma at least lol). 

Oh well, Nippori was held on 23rd September and it's a one day event that's split into two different buildings – the first half was held in Pori's library and the later half in Nuorisotalo (lit. 'youth house'). 
 
Let's get on with the summary!
(and a fair warning for foul language ahead)

Nippori entrance, also known as Pori's library.

I should maybe put a disclaimer here that although I'm to some degree affiliated with Mericon I am visiting Nippori as myself, as an ordinary visitor, and my opinions about Nippori are purely my own. I know Rauma and Pori have a longstanding friendly rivalry (because of competing ice hockey teams etc) as do many other neighboring towns in Finland so yeah, I felt I should make it clear that I'm not sent by Rauma to smear Nippori lol. I'm not even a local, I'm from the far north so I have nothing to do with this silly rivalry in the first place lmao.

On Saturday morning me and Firith woke up quite late. We had planned to be at Pori roughly 14:00 as we had organized a carpool with Katriina and her kids. I made the classic mistake of severely underestimating how much time it takes for me to get into costume and that meant that the later half of the morning was panic mode unhinged – hands down the most stressful con morning ever. #whenwillilearn
I had decided on rewearing my Gakupo Kamui cosplay from Vocaloid, yes it's the same original kimono version I last wore at Skecon 2014! I know, that's like 9 years ago fuck I feel old
I don't know how but somehow we managed to leave the apartment on time, although I had to put on my cosplay very sloppily and rush my makeup but yeah, we could not afford to be late for the carpool which was waiting for us at Prisma's parking lot – nobody wants to inconvenience other people. I figured I'd just fix my costume once we arrive at the event so it wasn't that big of a deal. And I didn't care too much about my makeup not being slay as I had no plans to photoshoot Gakupo due to unfavorable weather and Firith told me that Pori centrum doesn't really have any good photoshoot locations as it's mostly just dreary concrete buildings.

We arrived to Nippori roughly 14:30 which meant we caught the very last moments of the first half of the event that was in the library. Nippori had split the con into two separate buildings in such a way that past a certain time (15:00) the first building would close down and the second would open. This meant that whatever was located in the library, aka the first building, would be unavailable once the con migrated over to Nuorisotalo. Needless to say we had to immediately bolt upstairs once we got into the library just to have enough time to visit the Artist's Alley before it closed.

General photo upstairs, near the entry point for the Artist's Alley.

I didn't bother to fix or put on the rest of my cosplay because we were so short on time to check out the Artist's Alley, one of the main reasons we attended Nippori. I really needed to pee too but there was no time for that either. xD
So yeah, me and Firith went up the stairs and I guess we both were quite perplexed when we saw a big sign stating something like "queue for Artist's Alley here" – I mean, not to be that guy but that kiiiiiiinda already gave me a red flag that the location for the Artist's Alley must be pretty unoptimal if they have to limit how many people can enter at once and from what direction.

We both looked towards the corridor past the glass door and I swear my first thought was "oh no". I could already tell that this would be an unpleasant experience. I shit you not, the Artist's Alley was placed in an extremely narrow reverse U-shaped corridor with barely enough space for visitors to even move past the tables if someone stopped to look at what was being sold. This was ten times worse than Kummacon's placement last year, which also was in an U-shaped corridor but at least there was a semblance of air quality. I found myself trying to rush through the Artist's Alley's later half because I literally felt like I was running out of oxygen; it was absolutely suffocating once you passed the midpoint of the corridor and the constant bottlenecks and crowding made it unbearable (even though we were one of the last people inside as it was closing down, I dread to think how awful it must have been during the active early hours *shudders*). And as we all know some congoers have a bad habit of stopping to talk with friends in the middle of narrow passageways without paying attention to the fact that they're effectively blocking the flow of traffic and yes, Nippori wasn't exempt of this cancer either. I might be getting old and cranky but I have no patience for these kinds of people – like for the love of god almighty please move out of the way if you're gonna strike a chat with someone in a place where space is already severely limited and others are trying to get through, it's not that hard to be conscious of your surroundings and considerate of the sanity of others, is it?

View of Artist's Alley corridor.

So yeah, hands down the worst Artist's Alley experience to date purely because of how bad the placement was. I don't understand why they didn't locate it downstairs, there seemed to be a lot more room? The sellers were interesting and there were a lot more tables than I expected there to be but sadly I could not browse to my liking as the crowding and poor air quality kept triggering my panic syndrome to the point I had to get out as soon as possible. This was such a bummer, especially because I was really looking forward to the Artist's Alley and wanted to buy stuff.

We arrived a bit too late to be able to check out the other activities that the library half of the con offered – I saw for example that there was a video game room but the door was locked when I tried to open it. Of course, because it was a library, there were a lot of manga put forward that you could borrow and read and I found that very pleasant and yeah, it added to the feel of it being an anime event. There was also this, umm, I guess it was meant to be some kind of art corner or display? Whatever its purpose was I assume it was primarily for decoration and perhaps to show local talent.
 
These Mew stuffies were adorbs!

Part of the art display.

Aside from the Artist's Alley disaster I found the library to be an okay building for an event of this scale. It was quite comfy and there were places to rest your legs and free bathrooms. As far as I'm aware Nippori is held by the library crew in collaboration with the local youth agency so it makes sense that it's those two buildings that they have in use. And as long as the event doesn't explode in size I think it'll suffice.

While I was standing outside the library's entrance I had a very unpleasant experience. There was a group of three teenage boys who approached me and my company, handing out homemade flyers that read stuff like "have you seen this man?" with a black and white photo of an almost naked male model. I had seen these flyers scattered around inside the library and my educated guess is that this trio were not the intended target audience of the event but just delinquents who wanted to harrass "the weird colorful gays". I'm also assuming that Nippori's security guards had removed them from indoors but were powerless to banish them from the outside vicinity of the library, where they continued to disturb visitors by handing out these flyers. So yeah, I was unlucky to be targeted by this group and one of the three boys proceeded to ask me if I had seen the dude on the photo and when I answered the boy's facial expression promptly changed to visible confusion and he proceeded to ask me at least five times in a row if I'm a man and every time I told him yes in my clearly and unquestionably male voice – like what the fuck I'm not gonna give you a different answer just because you repeat the question and I pity you if your masculinity is so narrow and fragile that the mere existence of an androgynous guy in makeup and a colorful costume is a threat to your understanding of the world. Like what do you want me to do, show you my damn ID card and that little M marker on it or mess up my cosplay by not shaving my beard next time? Gtfo and don't approach me until you have amassed a deeper understanding of the complexity of individual expression, that which transcends the stifling norms your limited capacity is currently capable of processing.
Worst part is that this pissflap even asked for my photo and it was clear as day that he had no good intentions (most likely would have made fun of me) and I politely declined, although I should just have been rude at this point as he didn't deserve an ounce of my respect with how blatantly he disrespected me and made me feel uncomfortable. Even worse, I think he took a candid photo anyway. The group then left us alone for a few minutes before this same boy returned to ask me again "Are you really a man?" like for fuck's sake is your hearing comprehension as challenged as your intelligence? I hate that I was as polite to him as I was, I should just have told him to fuck the hell off but years of school-bullying and trauma have made me extremely scared of conflicts and I just shut down when suddenly thrown into uncomfortable situations.
Oh well, I can't really blame Nippori for that (although I wish security would have stepped in to handle them) as this kind of situation can literally happen anywhere and at any time. It did affect my overall mood for the worse and I didn't feel safe at the event after said incident. Who would? I'm pretty sure a lot of other congoers were also harassed by these shitbags during the day and it wouldn't surprise me if they primarily targeted people whom they perceived as female, which would make it even more disgusting as that's technically on par for sexual harrassment...

Just proof that I was in cosplay.
(photographer is Firith)

As the first half of Nippori was closing down we used the help of Google Maps to navigate ourselves to Nuorisotalo with Katriina as the mama hen leading the way. It was surprisingly far away from the library and luckily we live in the age of smartphones or a non-local like me would have gotten lost lol.

After some walking we arrived at Nuorisotalo and it was crammed full of people, as one would expect. It was nice to see the amount of people in costumes and fursuits though, especially considering that it's a small event. I felt like a rather notable percentage of the visitors were dressed up in some way.

Nuorisotalo outside view.

Now I finally got a chance to go to the bathroom for a very urgent bladder emptying and I also put on the missing parts of my cosplay and fixed up the hakama knot. We then went to check out the Artesan's tables which is similar to Artist's Alley except it's more 'official' I guess, like bigger names and sponsor merchants or something like that. I think the general difference is that artists have to apply but artesans are invited by the event? Anyway, the location of the Artesan's tables were a lot better than what the Artist's Alley got – the shopping area was located in an open space room so you actually could move around like normal and check out the tables. This was such a relief and made the browsing experience a lot more enjoyable. I could actually get in the con mood for a bit too.

Nuorisotalo entrance.

Programs and activites for the con's later half.

I was lowkey interested by that Sephiroth panel but as I haven't played the games (yet) I didn't want to risk any spoilers and so I passed on it. In the end we didn't stay all that long at the con so we didn't watch the cosplay competition or anything. Our group mostly just vibed for a bit and did the shopping rounds. I didn't end up buying anything this time but Firith had a field day so at least it was worth it to come here lol. Oh well, window shopping is always a decently fun pastime and so is meeting friends regardless of how briefly it is. Yes, we ran into Gure. :D

Artesan's tables area. Entrance view.

Drawing wall.

I forgot to draw the legendary Buttman on the wall to continue the legacy but oh well, it's too late now. Maybe I remember next time. I gotta say though that whenever a con has one of these taped up somewhere it's always a win in my book, it's a really fun way to encourage creativity and make people socialize!
Oh and there was apparently a cafeteria that sold food and pastries but I had a brainfart and didn't go check it out. Oh well, it's still a very nice addition and something I appreciate as a whole as it gives visitors the option of convenience – they don't have to leave the con area and go walk around in a town where they might feel unsafe because of the way they are dressed etc.

I don't think I have so much more to say about Nippori really. It's a small event that's suitable for locals and those who live nearby and it appeared to provide a decent amount of entertainment with most of the typical con staples that visitors have come to expect. I think battle-hardened congoers would probably get bored after a few hours but for those new to the scene and community it's a good springboard into this colorful hobby, especially because it's free and thus a low threshold event with no barriers attached. The general mood and flow of the event was relaxed, casual and easygoing.
I don't know if I would visit Nippori a second time (especially because of the 600+ km distance, not really worth it for the event alone imo) unless I happen to be nearby for other reasons too. But obviously if you live close and you need to scratch that geek itch then I'd say it's a worthwhile day trip.


Thanks for reading, Shiro Samurai says bye!

July 28, 2023

Kisuke Urahara cosplay WIP

 Hello frens!

I finally got around to compile the work in progress post of how I made my Urahara cosplay from Bleach, you know, the sus shopkeeper with the funny hat. Although I gotta say I didn't take very many photos of the process, partly because I forgot and partly because this was a last-minute rush project. We all know how real the con crunch can be so please cut me some slack lol.
 
Oh, and all the photos are taken with my phone's not-so-good camera so yeah, I'm sorry but the quality is a lot more shit than usual. I didn't have my SLR camera with me at any point while I was working on this cosplay, so no can do. Bad photos are still better than no photos and thus no WIP post, right?

Anyways, let's go!

Kisuke Urahara reference.
 
Okay so, this cosplay materialized in a very short amount of time. I had to finish it no later than one and a half week before Nekocon as that was when I left home with mom and stepdad to attend my cousin's wedding in the other end of the country, which meant my cosplay came with me to Gothenburg and from there to Kuopio on our return trip. I don't like doing anything with a really stressful time frame but stress is also a good motivator to get things done.

Because of the lack of time I didn't have time to visit a fabric store. Thankfully mom used to have a fabric store many years ago and what remains from it is in her attic, so basically there's a fabric store at home whenever I visit her. So I went and pillaged the sortiment and almost immediately found a perfect green cotton fabric and a sufficient dark green polyester fabric. 
I know, Urahara's haori is most often depicted as black but mom didn't have any black fabric (unless I wanted a really porno PVC haori lmao) so I had to use something else that seemed passable. My options were dark grey, dark brown or dark green but I found dark green first and decided to roll with it because the colors went nicely together.

Fabrics, check.

I immediately spread out the fabrics on the kitchen table and started measuring and cutting out all the pieces. Urahara's outfit consists of a samue (kimono-like top and pants) set, a haori, traditional geta clogs and his signature hat. I only used a pattern for the pants, the rest I just winged because kimono are basically just rectangles sewn together.

Fabric laid out.

Pants pants pants!

All the pieces laid out plus elastic, cord and threads.

That's all the progress I did on the first day, it was quite late. The next day I used mom's serger to go through all the raw edges. I have to be kind to it as it's as old as I am and if you go too fast it will squeak a lot. Poor thing has seen a lot of use but it's such a trusty, convenient lil' machine. <3

Saumuri goes brrrr

While I was working on my cosplay mom was using the sewing machine to do some embroidery gifts for the wedding and that's when the worst thing that could happen happened – the machine died! Like it would start up but it would not sew a single stitch and just make this infernal noise instead. It was panic galore. Like please not now, we literally don't have time for this! T_T

So I had to ask Sallukka for an emergency visit to their place so I could continue on my cosplay. Mom drove me home and I packed my stuff for the wedding trip. I also frantically searched for Urahara's hat because I knew I had seen it _somewhere_ but I had no idea where as it was literal years ago. I bought it many years ago at a con just for shits and giggles and now I needed to find it for some real use.
After rummaging through all thinkable closets and storages I found it inside a large black plastic bag that smelled like yesteryear!
 
Hat and wig found, wohoo!

I also looked through my shoes and low and behold – I had the perfect pair of geta clogs that I didn't even remember having! I can't believe my luck, I was ecstatic!
Also, I somehow found a suitable wig in my wig stash and no, I have no fucking clue what I originally intended to use this wig for; it was just existing in there. xD
 
Later on that same day Sallukka came to pick me up after they finished work for the day. I sewed the haori together in my friend's comfy abode in Kemi and did some paint tests. We also watched a bit of anime and had a good time.
 
One coat of paint, freshly applied.

Same single coat but dry. Insane difference.

On the photos above you see what a world of difference it makes whether or not the fabric paint is made specifically for dark fabrics or not. This is the same brand with ordinary white on the left and "for dark fabrics" white on the right. The ordinary white is hardly even visible after it dried while the other white is super opaque! I didn't have to think twice on which one to choose.

Mom came to pick me up from Kemi after she got her sewing machine repaired. It warranted a trip to an old gentleman in Oulu with 40 years of experience repairing all kinds of sewing machines.
Back at mom's I started to prepare for painting those salmiakit rhombic patterns. I wanted to make a stencil to guarantee that the symbols would be as identical as possible and for that I needed some kind of plastic or cardboard etc as a base. Mom had no suitable scrap cardboard available but my stepdad had a big leftover roll of 'rakennusmuovi' (builders plastic, construction plastic?) that he used while building the house they live in. It turned out to be just what I needed!

I made my stencil out of this plastic roll.

Stencil design measured and sketched.

I wanted to paint by hand with a pencil so I didn't do the usual stencil approach and instead used the cut-out shape as a measure, drawing along the outlines with tailor's chalk. 
It was quite a nightmare to figure out how many symbols I could do while having the space between each one as identical as possible throughout the whole width of the garment. I almost had a meltdown fr, it was so frustrating because it would never line up just right, no matter how logically you tried to measure and calculate beforehand and then you had to redo and redo and redo and yeah, I just wanted to cry lol.

This was my "spacing them out" approach. It was pain.

Finally got it to be as symmetrical as possible!

One coat of paint later.

The fabric paint was so good that I only had to do two layers to have an opaque, covering result. And this is on synthetic fabric, which I found extra impressive as the paint didn't even specify that it would work on synthetics – only naturals like cotton and silk etc.

Sealing the paint.

I let my paint job dry overnight and then heat-sealed it the usual way. I personally use baking paper for protection when sealing fabric paint on synthetics because the recommended heat-setting is usually "cotton strength" (aka three dots or max heat) but synthetics rarely can withstand that high heat without taking damage. Using baking paper as a barrier also protects the iron itself so it's a win-win in my book.

After that was done I went to try on the haori in the mirror. I noticed quite soon that my sleeves looked dumb as hell because I had apparently had a brainfart when I had sewn them and yeah, I had hemmed the edges the opposite way from how I usually do and I had completely forgot to factor in that the sleeve mouths are quite wide and so the fugliness of my flappy flap flap seam was very visible!

Fix that awkward mistake!
 
On the photo above you can see what I meant by hemming the opposite way of how I usually do. The left sleeve (which I'm correcting/sewing on the pic) is how I usually hem everything and the sleeve laid out to the right is the epic fail brainfart deluxe sew-it-together-in-the-middle-of-the-night abomination that knows no bounds nor decency.

After that hotfix my haori was done, this time for real. Now what was left to do was to sew together the samue. I didn't take any photos because it was really simple and basic stuff. The only thing I did that's worth mentioning is that I took some liberties with leaving slight openings at the armpits, this to make attaching a straight sleeve to a straight body of fabric as easy as possible and, secondly, to make the cosplay a bit more breezy – aka less sweaty to wear. I did the exact same approach while attaching the sleeves to the haori too. I figured it won't really be that obvious unless I lift my arms a lot and well, it's not like Tite Kubo followed many traditional kimono rules when he designed the outfits for the characters anyway so it's not like I'm comitting any terrible kitsuke police offenses here either by just making cosplay life a bit more comfortable for myself – by deviating from references ever so slightly.

Sleeve opening shenanigans.
 
I had originally cut out the okumi panel (the front "add-on panel") for the samue to get extra width in the front for overlap, but upon closer scrutiny I noticed that the okumi seam is completely absent on reference arts and well, Urahara wears his samue rather sloppily anyway and it only narrowly overlaps in the front so yeah, I decided to leave it out as I determined that the extra width wasn't needed after a test wear.
To add the little cords (the ribbon tie) keeping his top closed I just put the almost finished garment on my body, looked in the mirror to figure out the approximate placement, marked with pins and then sewed them on. Of course I acupunctured myself with the pins too.

The pants were super easy to do, just basic 3/4 length trousers with an elastic waist. I used a basic loose-fitting pattern mom had already cut out from a sewing magazine earlier and modified the pant legs a bit shorter and added extra length on top to make the channel for the elastic to reside in.

Measuring and readying the waist for elastic insertion.

And with that my rushed cosplay was finished. 8D Considering how ass-on-fire this whole project was it turned out pretty okay – luckily Urahara is not a very complicated costume to make so yeah, the risk of absolute unhinged disaster was low. I'm still happy I got it done on time as the cosplay turned out to be comfy and fun to wear and yes, breezy too. 
For photos of the completed cosplay check out this mini photoshoot I did during Nekocon. ^_^

Thanks for reading, stay crafty you nerds!