Con Recovery Mode

The best of my Quorra pictures. It's made all the better by
the fact that it makes the lights look better than they were.

I think I once mentioned how I hate when a deadline is approaching, because I don't have time to update as I would like to. That was Quorra. For the entire month of May.

Actually, despite all my rushing, the endless hours of work, and my complete lack of a life for months, she still wasn't completely done on time. Most of the costume (details will be posted soon) is complete. The Cuirass, after 6-8 layers of paint, is hard as a rock. I'm pretty sure I could go LARP in this stuff and come out with out a scratch (on my torso at least). The leggings and skirt were made, but never painted with latex. I wanted to, obviously, but I wouldn't have had time to make news ones if something had gone wrong. Now that there's nothing pressing looming on the horizon, I can paint them without so much worry. The shirt is done, the boots (which came out fabulously) are done, and the Identity disk is all modded ou t(despite my batteries dying before I went on stage).

The only thing I have to complain about are the lights. Yes, they are blue, but that's not a concern. I went back and forth for weeks wondering if I should go with blue or white. When I ordered my wire, the company was out of white, so blue became my default. No problem. The real problem was that I didn't have time to assemble wire and diffusing construct the way I had theorized, with the result that things were held together with electrical tape and hot glue. And there was an issue with one of the main soldering connections, so my suit flickered if I didn't keep perfect straight. Oh. And the gloves were not done. As you can see, the lights are lifting up from my arms. So embarrassing. We'll be fixing that too, real quick.

For all of these reasons, I'm glad I didn't win at PCC. Well, sort of...

PCC's Masc competition irritated me greatly. They judged people according to "genre" not "ability". I suppose this has merit, but if 5 novices compete in class "A", one novice is guaranteed to win. In class "B" you have three novices, one journeyman, and one master. The master automatically wins, because their's is obviously the best; but despite being better than the six novices who were competing, the Journeyman gets nothing. Not quite fair, right? No judges awards, no classes, nothing.

I understand that this was the first year PCC's Masc was run this way and by these people, so it will probably improve, but I feel like several people (and not necessarily me) who should have gotten recognition (like "Sally" or the Mecha from "Avatar") were completely shafted.

My biggest complaint is that the technical part of the judging was running more than two hours behind. This blatantly unfair to everyone who arrived on time (more than a dozen people), then were forced to sit out in the heat. Two hours and 20 minutes after my scheduled time, I was ushered in the door, before the judges were ready. They explained that they were running behind (obviously) and said they would make it quick. That was an understatement. They glanced at my progress photos, but did not even open my folder with the wiring diagrams and technical specs of my costume. I began explaining how the Cuirass was made of fabric backed PVC and covered with craft foam- but before I could tell them that I had painted it with latex, someone came in to deliver food to some of the Judges. That was very distracting, and I lost my train of thought. When I fund it again, the ones who hadn't gotten food were wondering aloud when their's was going to arrive. I barely had the opportunity to tell them how Quorra was lit, or what I did to the boots, or how I made my baton and katana, or how I modded my disk, or anything else. Three minutes after going in I was shooed out.

All right. I know there were time restraints going on. I work in retail, this happens to me everyday. I know what it's like, for pity's sake. But I feel like I was short changed and never given an opportunity equal to what the first interviewees were given to explain just how I made my costume. Not winning doesn't bother me, because Quorra was not up to my optimal specifications. Not given a fair chance is bugging the ever-livin' day lights out of me.

Okay, sorry. The initial point of this post was not to rant. But I feel better now.

On the other hand, Shizuru came out beautifully- especially for being made the night before. I'll hunt down some of the better pictures of our group and talk about her soon.

Quorra: Side Note

I don't know how I could have muffed this so badly. Seriously, the back was all wrong!

Left to right: the previous design; the redrawn, correct design.

All right, not all wrong, but half wrong at least. The top part was fine, yes, but the bottom section- how many picture of Quorra have a stared at during the past few months and I still drew the traces wrong? Yeesh.

So it's not such a terrible thing, since I realized it before I began gluing the foam to the PVC, but I'm still irritated that I made such an error. It was quick enough fix: I hot glued all of the sections back together, drew new lines, covered the old ones, then re-cut everything. It looks much better now, yes?

Quorra: Advancing

I feel like I have so much to update on! But then I tell myself not to be silly.

Seventeen days. Only seventeen days until the Saturday of Phoenix Cactus Comicon and I'm starting to get into that "chomping at the bit" phase.  It's a substantial amount of time, all things considered, but I do not want to become complacent, so I'm keeping myself on edge instead.

So this is where Quorra currently stands. Well was, before I began cutting into her this morning. The front and back craft foam sections were taped on for demonstration.The light traces were drawn on with silver permanent marker- but if you ever do this yourself, I warn you: the two are not friends. The felt tip of the marker seems to absorb some of the foam (or something) and then the ink can't get through. I had to constantly take a blade to the marker and strip off the outer-most layer of felt to improve it's writing. In the end, I gave up on coloring the lines (since it wasn't strictly necessary) and just drew the outlines.

I have a whole post that I am writing up about how I made the Identity disc mount. It's nothing as fancy as some of the other options out there, but it  functions properly and looks great with the rest of the cuirass. I'll post that when it's done (it's saved on another computer). In case anyone is curious, before I get that far, I used the lids from 7" and 4" Paper maché boxes, a ring of sheet metal, craft foam and hot glue.

The arm details were difficult, mainly because it was so much work to determine their proper shape. In most pictures of Quorra they're either hidden or her arm is bent, and that was not at all conducive to my making any patterns. That was simply nipped in the bud when I popped in the movie and got some screen shots.

You can't seem here, obviously, but I have started on the reshaping of the boots, so the top most section of my pair have been cut off. Honestly, I really thought her boots were much taller and received a shock when I began working on my own: they're not even knee high. this picture shoes the heels, which I will be painting with Plasti-dip. Obviously, we can't have any sloppy edges, and masking tape helps solve that problem.

This skirt. Seriously! This skirt! Funnily enough, I'm pretty sure this is the hardest part of the whole costume. It took a couple of hours of draping to get the shape and sizing down properly. I've put a waistband in, but I think I'll take it back out and attach the whole thing to the leggings. The plan is to paint this with plasti-dip, as well, which I hope will solve the biggest problem about it: it won't stay put! Yes, it looks fine on the form, but if I wear it and so much as shift my weight, it wrinkles and misforms and generally looks stupid. Let's hope this is a sure fix!

A costume always needs an accessory or two and Quorra will be getting three: the Identity Disc, a Baton, and a Light Saber. I started on the baton last night using a couple of aluminum rods that my brother gave me. The precise measurements of the baton were something I couldn't find, so I am assuming that it is about 10 inches long. I cut off two pieces of said length, glued them together and covered them in craft foam. A couple strong magnets were also glued on; a matching pair will be inside of the left boot. I cannot go any further until I get some silver/grey foam for the center and ends. The same process will be used for the katana, once I get the "blade" bent into shape.

Here are the images of the "sleeves". It's easier to see on the right than the left, but there were many attempts to get the lines right. Errors were "erased" with a black marker. I realized, with the last sleeve, that I hadn't taken any pictures of my cutting out the traces. Ha ha... Despite being drawn on, I used a straight edge. The circles and curves were sliced off without extra guide, but the going was much slower. With all this done I can make the traces and start gluing the foam to the pvc. Once all that's done, I'll be much more relaxed.

Art Collab?

I spent nearly the whole day working on Cosplay! But not Quorra. Actually, I can't do too much for her until I get the EL wire in. I've decided to go with EL wire, instead of tape, for cost purposes- but more on that later.

So, what was I working on?

I came over to my twin Amara's place to help her with her amazing long be-accomplished-by-PCC list. Right now, my list consists of Quorra (obviously) and Yu Yu Hakusho's Shizuru (who will be half a closet cosplay anyway). On the other hand, she has five characters on her list so I offered to help out. I know how it is to have a huge list of cosplays to do in a short amount of time. Only in my case, I had all of the cosplays done and ended up not having anyone to cosplay with. I need to work on meeting more people, I suppose.

At any rate, I was able to help reinforce the seams on her Toph (Avatar) cosplay, work a bit on the chaps for her secret (sort of) cosplay , and put together the rest of Urameshi Yusuke. She had the pants stitched up for the most part. I finished that part and put together most of the jacket. I hope she doesn't mind that I took some liberties with the collar, adjusting it so that it didn't over lap, but that the ends were also not right up against each other.

All in all, it was a super fun day and I really would like to do this sort of thing more often. I'll have to work on that- but hopefully without reducing my hours at work! ^w^