July 29, 2012

Närcon 2012 - Cosplay chess and tabi socks with holes

 Hellous ~

I just arrived safely at my dad's place in Bålsta after a successful trip to Närcon. I met a lot of familiar faces and some new friends too and generally had a very nice time. Now follows a rather long summary from start to finish what happened on the journey to, at and from the con ~

Tuesday (24th July)

Me and my twin Jäätynyt Enkeli's journey from northern Finland to southern Sweden started. We had packed our stuff earlier and took the bus at Haparanda bus station 17:10 (Swedish time) that went to Luleå. We walked with our luggages to Luleå train station and I noticed a girl with blue-blond hair who was sitting close to the grill/kiosk/whatever who looked disturbingly familiar. Turned out it was one of my con friends who was going to work at Närcon! Me and my twin had a place at the sleeping car and my con friend, 'Ecce', had a sleeping place too although, I think, in the one next to ours. We talked for some hours in our sleeping car and some other early congoers joined in. One of them looked creepily similar to one of my Finnish con friends... and I don't even exaggerate when I say 'creepily similar' in the sense of pretty-damn-sure-they-are-twins-who-were-separated-at-birth. lol When I first saw her my brain went "Fuck, isn't that [insert Finnish friend's nickname here]?? Wait... it can't be.. it just can't... WTF IS THIS SHIT? IT TOTALLY LOOKS LIKE HER. SCAAAAAAAAAAAAARYYYYYYYYYYY." and then, for the the rest of the train trip and even at the con, whenever I saw her I was totally brainfucked for some minutes until I could tell my brain it's not the same person. Not. Not. Nooooooooooot. I'm not sure do I want to meet my doppelganger... my twin doesn't count.
One hour or so before midnight Ecce left to her sleeping car 'room' and two random strangers entered our sleeping car.. and lately one more. One con goer was there too. Luckily they didn't snore so I could sleep.

Wednesday (25th July)

Around 12:30 or something like that (late train...) we arrived at Stockholm central train station. There we noticed what an epic fail we had made when we packed our stuff at home.. why did we put all our stuff in one of the luggages and leave the other one completely empty except two decoration katanas?? So what was labeled as "my" suitcase weighed probably closer to 20 kilos and the other one like... maybe not even 5 kilos. Guess was it fun to be the one having to haul the heavy-as-fuck one? Nope. Well well, we took turns kind of hauling the heavy-as-fuck one and made it to the train that would take us from Stockholm to Linköping. Around 15:00 something (or a bit earlier, I dunno) we got to Linköping.
When I was about to go down the stairs a random girl took my Urahara hat and put it on her head and started to walk away like nothing happened. I waited like 5 seconds if she would give it back to me, but she didn't and just kept walking towards the stairs. I then took the hat back and put it on my head and asked her "Why did you take my hat?" in all seriousness and she just answered "Because it's fun" in a casual tone of voice. The fuck. I almost wanted to punch her in the face, what an idiotic answer and behavior. I know you're a congoer and I am too, but that doesn't give you any more rights to steal my hat. You're a total stranger and I am one too, where is common sense? Some people... *sigh*

Oh well, met up with Psycho Cat who had been waiting for us at the train station; we had booked a room together for the con stay. So yeah, we walked to Sky Hotel Apartments, aka our sleeping place. Actually it's more of a mini apartment than a hotel, we had our own mini kitchen! It was nice and cheap, at least I think so. So we dumped our luggages there and went to the nearby food store to, well, buy food. Me and my twin bought milk, yoghurt, rosehip soup and rhubarb soup, small Kellogg's cereal packs, candy, noodles, chips (CHEESE DOODLES!) and frozen thai/asian food. Yup, that's the con diet, cheap and unhealthy like crap. :')) <- double chin lol After that we went back to the 'hotel' and derped and awaited the next day to dawn.

Thursday (26th July)

DA FIRST CON DAY BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM ~~
Yah, morning came, on with the cosplays and let's go! So I got my Kondou wig on time (it arrived the morning we had to leave) and so I could debut him at Närcon, as planned. What I didn't plan was how long time it took to put on everything. Well, the make-up part took the most time because I used that one stuff, whatever-it-is, that takes like 9389594394 hours to dry. And I almost ragequited when my new experiment derped; stupid glue stick just peeled off when I tried to use it on my eyebrows to try to get them flat and easier to cover so I could draw on cooler brows yo. But nope, not today man. Not today. So I thought "screw this shit" and did my usual eyebrow coloring instead.
Putting on the hakama was derpier than usual too, I dunno why.. my twin even managed to kill my hakama's hera (hakama "spatula" to help keep the back in place) or well, the piece of string it hung from broke. Yipee.. Oh well, it didn't matter all that much because you can still wear hakama without it, it just makes life a bit easier. *shrugs*
Jäätynyt Enkeli cosplayed Keisuke Sannan from Hakuouki too and when we all three were done we walked to the central station and took the bus to Närcon. We saw the line of colorful people and costumes waiting to get in and went to stand where it ended. Oh, and let me say IT WAS HOT AS HELL. I kept taking my shinsengumi haori off when I stood still. So we three stood there and soon enough our friend Angie showed up. She bought a wig from me.
At 13:37 Närcon opened its doors and the line started to move, after some few hours of waiting for us. The line actually moved surprisingly fast this year. *remembers Uppcon's 4 hour lines* Soon we were inside the building and started to walk around and derp, like I usually do. Not so much to say except that during the evening I had to go to the CBG room to get information and prepare for Friday's cosplay chess -the biggest official one in Sweden- which I took part in for the first time this year. The theme was manga/anime VS games. The preparation was a let's-go-through-how-this-will-happen thing and we got to know who we would fight against and come up with our own fighting scenes. The preparation was quite entertaining if I do say so myself.. even though I wanted to go pee during the whole thing which took probably 2 hours. -.- Wonderful. My Kondou cosplay pretty much competes with my Hijikata cosplay when it comes to the current "murder when you have to go to the toilet" title...

Me, my twin and Psycho Cat went back to the 'hotel' around 22:00-23:00 something and thank god for that, my feet hurt so much. At the 'hotel' we watched the comedy movie Dumb & Dumber on TV, ate chips, showered and then went to sleep.

Friday (27th July)

Second morning of the con and time to cosplay Hajime Saitou from Hakuouki. Jäätynyt Enkeli was too lazy to cosplay Sannan again I would have had to dress him etc, takes long to get ready so he just went in casual clothes.. or well, the 2012 year's official Uppcon t-shirt. Getting myself ready today as Saitou went way quicker than Kondou yesterday. Simpler cosplay to put on. But before I put on my cosplay me and my twin cooked noodles for breakdast, mmm nutritious...
At the con it was the same usual again: look at the cosplays, merchandise, feel the happy atmosphere... until I noticed my right tabi sock had finally chosen to give in; there was a big visible hole on my big toe.

My reaction
What to do?
I went and looked at all the merchandise booths after tabi socks and I spotted a tabi and geta set. I asked the seller if they had more tabi socks and he said those were the last pair. He could sell 'em for me separately. But I looked at the geta and figured I wanted them too, especially when I noticed they fit me. So yeah, Saitou got new shoes and the day was saved.
It didn't take too long before Angie showed up and asked if I was going to take part in the cosplay chess. At that point I realized I had totally forgotten to check the time! We were running late and left for the CGB room. Almost all people from yesterday's preparation were there and they were going through the standing positions or something a last time. So I went and stood there and when I noticed people didn't really do anything that seemed like we-will-leave-at-this-very-moment signs I asked one of the people holding the chess if I had time to go to the toilet. He said if it's super fast then yes, I just answered medium fast and went on my way. lol Luckily I found a toilet very close to the CBG room, just up the corridor. When I was done someone said "Saitou Hajime!" and me, being pretty stressed (and even confused at the call because pretty much no one seemed to know who I was cosplaying) I was trying to say to her I'm running late but it just looked and sounded like avdgvsafgds so I said "Okey, fine, but make it quick" and posed and then walked fast back to the room. Back at the room people had taken their positions and then we walked out from the room in a nice line towards the outside grass area where we would start the cosplay chess. Oh, and let me tell you: back-stage was hooooooot. I joked with some people in line about the warmth and then I got nervous when people started to walk one by one to the chess playing board. It was soon my turn, as Bishop number 2 to step in. Oh, I forgot to say that I was in the anime/manga team, even though Hakuouki was first a game and I even asked about it before the con and the holder of the chess said I would be in the game team... *shrugs* Oh well, I have my theories why I got put in the anime/manga team and I don't really mind anyway ~
So err, what to say about the cosplay chess in itself more than it was awesomesauce and I certainly want to do it again! <3

We left the con around the same time as yesterday because everyone had more or less pain somewhere... and as soon as I got to my bed...

(Photo by Jäätynyt Enkeli)
NO IT'S NOT FANSERV--, MY LOWER BACK JUST. HURT. LIKE. HELL.
(I could barely stand straight.. or do basically anything... it was that bad... OTL)
A lot oh-fuck-my-back-breaks-if-I-move-anymore-today pains I managed to get my ass over to the dining table and put some freeze food in the micro which resulted in a lot of derpy 'Saitou eating food' photos. I was eating some kind of sweet chili teriyaki chicken with rice, which I had not tasted before by the way... hence why lots of weird and silly faces happened.

(Photos by Jäätynyt Enkeli)

Saturday (28th July)

On Saturday I debuted my Soujun Kuchiki cosplay at the con, mostly because Psycho Cat did Byakuya and I also wanted to attend the planned Bleach meet... so I needed a Bleach cosplay. The meet was quite nice, we did a loooong line of Bleach cosplayers and marched around the con. I remember someone saying "A lot of Bleach cosplayers-- OH MY GOD THEY'RE MULTIPLYING!!" when we walked by. xD We had a photoshoot outside and also went to the con's photo studio. We broke the con's how-many-people-can-get-photographed-at-the-same-time record for the year I think. trololo ~
Oh well, after the Bleach meet had officially been declared finished I soon went and changed cosplays back to Hajime Saitou because I had talked with a girl earlier who had told me she would be Chizuru on Saturday and that made me go "Agsjahfdsj must change to Saitou!!". So yeah, I went and changed around 13:00 something and then I spent a good chunk of the con day trying to find said Chizuru whom I had only seen early at the morning, aka before the Bleach meet. At the evening my twin called me and said that he had found her close to the entrance so I went there and there she was, yay~
I hung around the rest of the con day with Chizuru (my twin was with his friends and Psycho Cat had gone back to the 'hotel' earlier) and some of her friends, it was nice even though my lower back was -again- hurting like hell, afdghsg. Later I found my twin and told him I wanted to go home because I felt tired and yeah, pained too. Said goodbye to Chizuru and left the con building. It was raining a liiiiiiitle bit but it soon stopped. When we passed the tunnel and were close to McDonalds I couldn't resist taking a photo of the trash bin outside, it's obvious where the con goers go eat...

Trash bin explosion
Sunday (29th July)

Sunday morning came and I decided to not go to the con after all. I had planned to wear (and half-way promised) a yukata with a vine red kaku obi but I figured the trouble to get to the con wouldn't be worth it. If I wanted to go to the con I would have needed to wake up early as shit to get ready (style my hair, dress up etc) and then pack everything (in stress) and make sure I don't forget stuff and haul it to and through the whole con because the cloakroom was already full so I couldn't have dropped my stuff there and... yeah. You see what I mean. Besides my feet were so dead, my back was killing me and I just rather prioritized to sleep and then pack my belongings without too much stress and hassle. So sorry everyone who had expected to see me there on Sunday...
Mine and Jäätynyt Enkeli's train from Linköping to Stockholm and then to our dad's place left 15:20 and.. *yawn* Sweet Jesus I'm soooo tired I don't feel like writing about the train trip back to dad's place.. it's pretty boring anyway so. *shrugs* Sorry, I reaaaaaaaally should sleep now... and if there's any spelling mistakes it's because I'm dead tired and didn't proof-read before posting, oops.

Närcon was great and if anyone read all this crap then thanks for your time ~~

July 23, 2012

In which I happily wore a "skirt" + Närcon closing in!

Sweet Jesus.. tomorrow evening me and my twin will start our journey down to Närcon. 20 hours of bus and train awaits us to get to the southern part of Sweden.. aka Linköping. We haven't even started to pack our stuff aghkfsgk!

Today on the morning my mom and twin went to town and because I woke up late I didn't go with them. I stayed home, hung the laundry to dry outside and then decided to do a Kondou WIP because I have everything ready, except the wig. I wanted to test my vintage brown hakama with the kimono to see if I preferred to do the anime version (dark brown hakama) or game version (dark blue hakama) after all.

Anime version of Kondou
(NOTE: I will wear the shinsengumi haori instead of his black haori)
I tried on the brown hakama first (because I already know what my kendo hakama feels like when worn. lol) and immediately declared that "Fuck yeah, brown it is!". It felt chill to not have to lift the kimono's hem into the obi like I do when I wear umanori (split-legged) hakama with full-length kimonos. For the first time in my life I friggin' loved wearing what technically was a skirt. BADAMTSSH, BLASPHEMY!
So yeah, here's some quick wigless!Kondou photos for you.. because I'm too lazy to censor my face. lol And I'm too lazy to put on tabi too.. even though Kondou doesn't even wear socks. lol Not to mention I totally forgot my swords...


Oh well, back to the other thing I needed to inform. Houston, we have a problem.
I might be more or less forced to change my Närcon cosplay plans last minute. I can't tell until tomorrow and then it'll probably going to be too stressy for me to write a blog post about whatever I finally decided to do. So the thing is, I might not get my Kondou wig on time. It was posted on Saturday and as we all know the post doesn't move on weekends and well, I'm leaving Tuesday evening and post delivery takes (at least according to the post of Finland's site) with 1st class mail one day. So if it goes out on Monday I might get it on Tuesday before I leave, if I'm lucky and the post doesn't slack. But it's gonna be very last minute as I said.. and with my crappy luck it's probably gonna be here on Wednesday when I'm already in Linköping. :'DDDD Hohohohoho.. not.
Well well, in case I don't get the wig on time (and don't have time to report it before I have to leave) I will write my Plan B here, just in case. If I don't get my wig in time for Kondou he will be postponed for debut at Tracon in Finland instead, if I can go there which I have planned and really really want. To Närcon I will then be Hajime Saitou on both Thursday and Friday instead. And now I'll go back hoping I'll get the wig before I leave, however puny the odds might feel right now, because hey - here's hoping because I want to cosplay Kondou.

July 18, 2012

My cosplays for Närcon 2012!

Tjenare!

This is pretty late because Närcon is soon at the door but yeah, I bought the train ticket to Linköping yesterday and now I'll publish my cosplay plans here on my blog too!

Thursday


Character: Isami Kondou
Series: Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan

Lawdy lawd, Kondou. BADAMTSSH ~
But yeah, seriously going to happen because he's a great character and he so deserves more cosplay love than what he gets! ;_; Which is pretty much zero..
I'm going to reuse my shinsengumi haori and I have a vintage kimono that is close enough for his yellow-brownish kimono. Mine has a small grid pattern and is darker but whatevah.. it's not like so many people will recognize who I'm cosplaying anyway. XD I'm not sure should I use my kendo hakama (game version-ish) or my brown vintage andon hakama (anime version) ... I need to try brown hakamas on first because I haven't tried them yet. lol I don't think people would care if I have umanori or andon hakama so yeah. We'll see what happens but a Kondou WIP will follow shortly whenever I get my commissioned wig.

Friday


Character: Hajime Saitou
Series: Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan

My Saitou cosplay, as seen in Uppcon XII and Animecon IX this year, will also be seen at Närcon! complete with a strangling scarf and sword sheaths that keeps falling whenever the sash loosens. lol I really like cosplaying Saitou because, well, our personalities are so similar so I'm pretty much in-character even when I'm just being myself (at least how I am during daily life, con me is more derp though trololo) ... anime alter-egos. 8D And it's so awesome to cosplay someone who for once is left-handed too so I don't have to worry about 'wrong hand' problems. lol

Saturday


Character: Soujun Kuchiki
Series: Bleach

So sweet not to have to make a cosplay based on pretty much only one official art of the character. OTL Obscure character choices are obscure. Oh well, at least most Bleach shinigamis wear the same generic shihakusho so it's a pretty safe bet. lol Just need to add a fukutaicho badge because Byakuya's dad was the fukutaicho of the 6th division.
I guess this will be my last Bleach cosplay for this year because I've been cosplaying soooo much Bleach the last year, need a break. xD But yeah, I want to debut my Soujun cosplay this year because I finished it ages ago (not like there was much to make. lol) and a Bleach meet has been planned for Närcon.

Sunday


Character: ???
Series: ???

I honestly don't know will I cosplay anything during the Sunday because the con closes already around 12:00. I would have to wake up very early to get into cosplay for it to be worth the hassle. It feels pretty 'meh' to put on a cosplay and only have like 1-2 hours to wear the thing. I'm also not really a morning person at all so I might very likely be very worn out on Sunday from the 3-days-in-a-row-early-wake-up-and-put-on-cosplay routine. Yeh. We'll see if I will be there on Sunday at all.. and if I am I might just wear a random kimono.

That's it, ciao!

July 17, 2012

Animecon 2012 – THIS IS SPARTA!!

 Hello!

First of all, this Animecon 'commercial' video has been stuck in my head for months and, after having seen it for the first time a bit before Chibicon in Oulu, it sure subconsciously dug it's way into my brain and did what it was supposed to do.. namely making me want to go to Animecon. Yeah, now the con trip to Animecon has been done and I'm back scratching my ass at home. So yeah, here is my summary of the con in Kuopio ~

On Friday around maybe 11:00 something (I dunno, later than we had originally planned at least xD) me, mom and my twin Jäätynyt Enkeli started the car journey from Tornio to Kuopio. It went smooth until around mid-way when it started to rain a lot. Oh well, the rain just made us drive slower but we got to the hotel safely - Rauhalahti spa hotel. We booked the hotel pretty late because originally me and my twin had planned to go together to Kuopio by train, but err, it fucked up because when mom had decided to order the train tickets the super cheap campaign price had disappeared (around 140 € for both of us, two-way ticket) and it would have now cost 280 €. Fuck that robbery price I say.
So yeah, mom figured she could go with us and drive there because it would be cheaper and well, Kuopio luckily isn't that far away. Also mom would get some spa vacation at the hotel while me and Jäätynyt Enkeli derped at the con, a win-win situation. Oh well, when we got our hotel room (112 lol) we dumped our stuff there and soon went to eat dinner buffet at the hotel and after that back into the hotel room and chill and sleep. Oh and they showed the movie 300 on the night..
THIS IS SPARTAAAAAAAAA!!!1!!!11


Saturday

Saturday morning, me and my twin woke up 07:00. Well, I actually woke around 05:00 because mom was snoring like a lumber mill. -.- We quickly dressed in normal clothes and went to eat hotel breakfast. After that we went back to the hotel room and changed into our Saturday cosplays; I cosplayed kimono!Masamune Date for the first time and my twin cosplayed Kratos Aurion from Tales of Symphonia, his signature cosplay. When we were done the clock was just past 09:00 and after having gone to the reception and learned that the busses to the square/centrum leave 08:00, 09:00, 10:00 etc  fuck.. missed it by mere minutes we stood outside the hotel and looked for some people my twin knew. We didn't see them but a random English speaking tourist came up to me in front of the hotel and asked what was going on with the weirdly dressed people. I explained and he seemed interested. Oh, and one thing, it felt like many hotel visitors stared at me, mostly because I had an eyepatch. xD
   When the clock was close to 10:00 a wild mom appeared and she was walking towards the car. Seemed like mom had already had breakfast and decided to drive us to the con after all. Sweet. When we were sitting in the car and I was derping with the Kuopio city map a random lady from the car in front of us came up to mom and asked if we were going to Animecon, obviously we were. lol So she said she already knew where it was and that we could just drive after her. Yay!
   Soon we were at the con and I immediately found Jäärä standing with some other people. After a while of standing there I noticed someone with a FBI vest walking towards us - Ri-kun.
The rest of the con day was random walking around with friends, looking at the merchandise, buying Japanese candy and some mangas and having a Sengoku Basara photoshoot. I didn't attend any panels because I'm lazy. derp
   Back at the hotel later we went to eat, again at the hotel's restaurant. This time we were too late for the buffet so we ate pizza instead. I was still in Masamune cosplay (my twin had changed to normal clothes) and when we walked to an eating table we passed by some people eating there and I heard them say something "Masamune", trololo~
Later Ri-kun came visiting at our hotel and we talked and they got to eat the other half of my pizza. xD

Sunday

We woke up 07:30 I think and this time mom ate hotel breakfast at the same time as we did. After we got back to the hotel room it was time to put on Sunday's cosplays. I cosplayed Hajime Saitou from Hakuouki: Shinsengumi Kitan and my twin cosplayed Keisuke Sannan from the same series. I had to help my twin dress in kimono, tie kaku obi and hakama and do the make-up for him too before I could start putting my own cosplay on. -.- Oh well, we were done a bit before 10:00 (con opening time) and we had also packed our luggage because we wouldn't be coming back to the hotel anymore after the con. We took with us some bags and left them at the car and mom drove us again to the con. As soon as we arrived to the con Chizuru (Jäärä) appeared and soon my double Saitou (Ri-kun) did too. We Saitous brofisted each other as promised and went on to find the others of our Hakuouki group. I must say Sunday was the better day of the con for me because I really enjoyed hanging around with all the Hakuouki peeps and the photoshoot was so hilarious and funny. XD I hope I get to see all those (drunk) gay pairing photos, Chizuru more-or-less romantic park bench photos and everything. So much fun!! :'DDD

Here's one of the photos I took during the Hakuouki photoshoot:
Because it's fun to pretend to be drunk and gay XD
(Jozo-dono as Hijikata, Ri-kun as Saitou, Chooichi as Okita and Zkitsune as Harada)
Ighjdgskgsgdksagk, I want to see the photos everyone else took! Gief them nooow! ~~
Needless to say I had a crapload of fun during the Sunday and I hope we will have Hakuouki groups a lot in the future too! <3

Oh well, everything fun ends and mom decided to be a joykiller and call me one hour before the con ended. "I'm there in 10 minutes, get ready to leave ololol". At least it didn't bother me that much this time because a lot of my friends had already left. I figured there wasn't much to do because mom didn't want to drive all night so yeah, tried to enjoy the last minutes of the con (at least my earlier lung derps had eased..) and then it was time to say goodbye to Kuopio, Mira-kun and Ri-kun and step into the car.. in cosplay. Yes. I figured half-way at the con that neither me nor my twin would be able to change back into normal clothes (as we had planned in the morning) because we both were wearing vintage silk kimonos as part of our cosplays and well, idiot me had forgotten my tatoshi (kimono wrapping paper) in the bottom of our luggage that was in mom's car's tailgate. Fail. Oh, and it wouldn't have worked anyway because I cringe of the thought of having to fold a kimono on the (toilet) floor... So yeah, needless to say the 5-7 car trip back home was in cosplay. At least Saitou cosplay is comfortable so I didn't really mind... until we had to stop at an ABC gas station/restaurant to eat and.. well, there was always someone staring at us, even when we sat down eating everytime I would look up I saw a pair of eyes looking at me. lol

Oh, and one last thing.. on the car trip back home we drove by this one small parking/resting place in the road that well... had the same name as my surname LOL. We had to stop and then Saitou (me) ran out and crossed the car road, with a camera in hand, and took some photos of the road sign and went back inside the car. XD Wonder what the people driving past thought when they saw a random kimono weirdo taking photos of a road sign...
Ihan voittajafiilis tuli!!
Smell ya later!

July 11, 2012

PARTY TIME!! (aka Masamune preview)

My eyepatch stopped smelling glue so today when I woke up I decided to put everything on and take some preview photos before the coming debut at Animecon. I also needed to check that everything worked as I wanted it to. Oh well, enough blabbering, here's photos!

Cosplayer: Valkoinen Samurai (obviously, duh :-DD)
Photographer: Jäätynyt Enkeli

Ignore my Uppcon wrist (ticket) band... I don't want to take it off because this year's Uppcon was the last in history and well, Uppcon 2010 was the first (proper) con I attended and cosplayed at so yeah... ;_;




Bonus pic!
"Fuck these mosquitos..."
(one tried to eat my face and I slapped it. lol)
 And some background info why I did kimono!Masamune:
I needed something very simple because I wanted to cosplay from Basara already this year (cosplay group!) but I have had a lack of time making cosplays since Desucon because I've been away from home for almost a month + Uppcon. So yeah, this means that this cosplay is mostly not made by me. White kimono is commissioned by my friend Hasakitsuki's mom and the inner gi is from Kendoshop. The hakama are my kendo hakama.. yay multi-use! Eyepatch made by me. Sword borrowed from my twin.

I noticed a few things while wearing this cosplay: I will need to reinforce the eyepatch with Jesus tape (duct tape) because even Karlssons klister can't seem to hold the elastic in place at the back without the sides starting to peel off.. oh well, I guess it's because the eyepatch bends a bit when worn.. human faces aren't flat. lol I also need to try to keep my covered eye closed because it's annoying to get my eyelashes almost touching my eye when I blink and also moving the eyepatch around... otherwise it's all fine and dandy.

Awaiting Animecoooooooonnnnnnn ~~~~ <3

July 10, 2012

Chikage's collar and Kondou's kimono

Some time ago I had randomly found out what that particular pattern Kazama has on his haori's collar is called after having seen it on random Asian stuff (including dish cloths in a Thai food store lol) during my life time - sayagata. I had typed it and searched on Google for fabrics but didn't find anything with the right color for Kazama.. until I saw a thumbnail of an Etsy auction selling a vintage kimono collar. It was labelled as 'moss green', but looked darker gold on the photos, so I took the risk and ordered it. Today I found a small package from France in the mailbox and figured it must be it and well... for once luck was on my side when it came to colors, it do indeed look gold!



Oh, I also went and biked with Jäätynyt Enkeli all the way to town to pick up two packages from the post office. One of them was the vintage kimono I will use for my coming Isami Kondou cosplay for Närcon in Linköping. Oh, and yes, it's Kondou from Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan. Yes, I will cosplay him because he is such a bro to Okita (codename: Konbro! xD) and deserves some cosplay love. Especially considering what he did to save all the shinsengumi and yeah, I kinda adore his sense of honor and I loved that scene in the anime where he gave his black haori to sick Okita. ;A;

Kimono (in plastic bag) and collar
Collar close-up
Besides, speaking of Närcon.. a cosplay plan list will appear any day here on my blog so stay tuned if you're going there!

July 9, 2012

Masamune's eyepatch

I've been away from home, as you might have figured already, but now I'm back and thus this blog is brought back to life again with the most recent cosplay updates. So Animecon (Kuopio, Finland) is soon around the corner and the only thing keeping my cosplays from being 100% ready for the con is Masamune's eyepatch. Well, I was bored today so I decided to make it and get it out of the way ~

First of all I needed a reference. I had already saved myself a good screenshot from the anime so I could start working ASAP.

hurr hurr
But before I could start working I needed to climb to our attic where mom currently stores all her leftover fabric and sewing supplies. I remembered yesterday I had asked about black elastic and she had said there should be lots of it in different sizes visible as soon as you get up there. So yeah, I dragged my ass up there and when I was up I noticed a cardboard box lying on the floor. I opened it and was flooded with lots of zippers. Yeah. But because I didn't see anything else that could hold elastic bands in it I dug deeper into the box and then I saw a whole roll of white elastic. "Cool, but not the right color.." I thought. Dug some more and found a black one... and another... and another... and then I probably looked like this:


I went back inside á la herpy derp and could start working. I took with me two rolls because I wasn't sure which width I preferred. I ended up using the wider one.

Mom I love you. <3 lol
Cut off a fitting length
Now I will just show photos of the rest of the progress because I'm lazy ~ 
and my twin wants to play Mario Party 4 with me lol

I made a (fail) test version first to check size...














... and then started making the real one. (craft foam)
Some trimmings later...
Cut out a second layer of the same size (lol Masamune secretly likes Sweden...)
I started painting 'em black... dries so slow...
FUCK YEAH HAIR DRYER!!1
Three coats of paint, black fingers and some glue later I had made myself this:


I did do a quick try-on.. but soon found myself getting high on glue fumes and my eye twitching. So yeah, need to let it dry completely before I go take preview photos trolololo ~