I am extremely pleased with how my Demon Cleric costume turned out. I didn't decide to buckle down and make it until, genuinely, 14 days before the con, but doing so was actually pretty easy. I had bought the fabric months earlier, and stash-busted everything else.
The most troublesome part was getting things painted. It was SO rainy the week of the con! It was very muggy outside, and my backyard is just The Woods, so while my items were sheltered from the actual rain in the spray paint tent, it attracted bugs... wauuuuggghhh. But I got it done in time.
I used whatever spraypaint I had on hand. I used a flat yellow instead of a metallic gold, without really thinking about it. The pieces (horns, metal hanging thing on front) ended up looking cartoony because of it, but... I actually like it??!?! Faking depth by coloring in the shading is kind of cute.
Things to improve for next time:
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Necklace. I intended to laser cut it from acrylic, and have a vector file for the task, but didn't have acrylic on hand. (i ended up handcutting it from foam and spraypainting the foam black LOL. dont look too close!)
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Put weights in the back of the robe hem? Might make it swish around. I tried putting plastic boning in there but it was too curly
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Remake the ears with fabric that has a shorter fur pile. Lol
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Make the hanging straps attach to something on the back of the robe--- a snap or something--- so it stays even on both sides
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Get new boots because the ones i used exploded lol
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MAYBE remake the horns?They work as they are, I think--- they'remade from paperclay--- but I didn't have time to really sand them well, so they're a bit crusty. If I ever learn to 3D model like I've been telling myself for 10 freaking years, maybe I can make a more lightweight pair. Because....
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The horn attachment contraption is kind of awful. LMAO it's literally a headband underneath the wig with two wires coming down to rest on the forehead.... And it worked, somehow, but it was a little bit painful. Also the angle on one of the horns is slightly off, so I'll need to remove and reattach it without blowing up the whole thing by accident. Remaking the horns with an attachment-forward design instead of "i'll figure out how to keep them on my head later" philosophy will probably be better in the long run...
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Have to remake my claw press-ons because I tossed the ones I made for this weekend
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Get a proper belt instead of borrowing my mother's
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Get jump rings in a nicer medium size so i can replace the 4 ones holding the metal bit in front with just 2
Parts I really like:
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Hat, especially in combination with the horns. It's very tall and attention-grabbing. Lots of people who didn't know what I was wearing came up to ask what I was cosplaying from! Also it made me much taller, so my friends kept seeing me in crowds from across the room lol. I had to remake it after realizing my first attempt was too small for my head, and I'm glad I did instead of stubbornly trying to make my failed first attempt work.
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Tail. It was bouncy and fun and shockingly easy to put together. I followed GinnyDi's tutorial, with the addition of putting wire into the foam tube so I could manipulate its shape. I kept forgetting I had it on, though, so I forgot to pose it for photos (crying) you cant even see it in the one photo i did get lol
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Makeup. At the last minute I decided to put a little red eyeshadow on the bottom lids of my eyes. Very cute
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Mask (lol). I didn't do anything special to it, but the cut of it on my face was nice. I didn't have to worry about what my face looked like in photos too much.
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Nails. Ive never worn press-ons before this, let alone claws. It was SUCH a fun detail, and also felt very fancy. Lmfao
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Metal bit on the front is painted so cutely. I love it. I just flew by the seat of my pants (what the fuck is dry brushing? Is this weathering. Am i doing it right) and it looked just fine!
Parts I'm not-so-proud of:
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The iron-on symbol on the front of the robes has bubbles in it from the iron i used. Aaauugugughghgh (screaming)
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I haven't used double-width bias binding that much before, and THOUGHT I knew how it worked, but clearly I did NOT know what i was doing because it extends past the edge of the purple fabric, and is light enough of a color that you can tell when you look closer at it. You can see the purple fabric fraying on the inside of it. (picture) Aaauuugghhh whatever
I will probably wear it to Western PA Cosplay's halloween photoshoot?.. I won't bring it to MAGfest since it's not game or music related. (not that there's a rule for that, but I like to dress appropriately for themed events, haha). Only going to two cons a year is kind of a bummer! I need a new spring con. Maybe I'll trek out to ACEN?
I really missed Tekko after I was unable to attend last year (family reunion vacation was same weekend)! It was so nice to be back.
Some out of order thoughts:
Masquerade
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A friend of mine, NimbusGrey, won best in show at the masquerade! It was so lovely seeing their hard work rewarded.
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I love craftsmanship competitions.. I didn't finish my next comp piece in time for it, but maybe next year!! (I want to do Gramophone Miku.)
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The emcee did a poor job introducing the walk-ons, though. They didn't even have time to make it to the middle of the stage, or even their first position, before he called on the next one..... I personally think he was phoning it in, because I've seen him operate panels at this con too, and honestly he is kind of unprofessional--- particularly in the Straight-Up Mean kind of way. i hope they pick someone else next year LMAO
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The masq as a whole ended up running overtime, so the poor craftsmanship judge had to rush and could barely give the winners their awards on-stage. Felt pretty bad, man. But I am faithful that they will rectify this for next year. When I attended in 2023 it was fine; they just had SO many submissions this year, and I assume budgeted the time blocks poorly. I hear other cons jury their skit submissions ahead of time partially to recitfy this, so maybe they should do that too?... Even though that would require submitters to have a very clear idea of what they're doing ahead of time. RIP
Ribbons
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I attended a Ribbon Game meetup for the first time ever. It was kind of chaotic. I had fun, but I definitely learned a lot about what to do for next time--- namely, print one(1) ribbon design that you give out for free, and reserve the ribbons designs you actually care about for trading, haha. I only printed 75 of each of my HRT designs, and it was a little sad to give them out to folks who were more invested in "having a ribbon" than they were in the contents of said ribbon, particularly when I didn't get anything back. (Excluding children from this--- they can participate any way they want in my book!) The longtime ribbon experts definitely knew how to handle that feeling!
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I also saw very cool ribbon containers that I should invest in instead of shoving my ribbons in a plastic bag and then having to scrabble around for them in my bag. The ribbon containers also made it more obvious that you had ribbons to trade in the first place!
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I think I prefer just handing out ribbons to congoers as I move about the con, though. It's much more fun for someone to go "hey I like your [X] costume!" and then get to reply with "thanks! Do you want a [related] ribbon?". Lots of joy there. Or the reverse--- me saying "I love your [X] costume! Here's a ribbon related to it!". Getting to give folks a little gift that they will definitely like is so great.
My horses.
Flea Market
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I purchased a table (~$21) for Sunday morning to sell off some figures and miscellaneous merch. I only had like 20 items total. I was kind of mortified to be there with my dinky little setup when I was surrounded by folks with TONS of stuff--- clearly experts in the field lol--- but once I got over that cringe, I managed to sell almost everything I'd brought, and got to come home with an empty plastic tub. Yay!!!!! People bought my things!!! People were excited to get figures that were off the market!!!! Yippeeeeee!!!!!
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One seller tried to lowball me for my Kotobukiya Red&Pikachu figure though. I was selling it for $45, and the flea market hadn't even opened yet when they asked for $30... I had it packed up nicely in its original box, and i've seen it for $400 online!!!!! Genuinely what are you trying to pull on me. I'm already scamming myself as it is. LMFAO
Panels
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Bits Burgh Brass Band played a set and it was so fuckign good, dude. Holy shit. I love brass bands and jazz bands and instrumence. More of this please.... ← Magfest liker
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A friendly acquaintance and firstime panelist ran a Twisted Wonderland Jeopardy panel, and I had a lot of fun! I WAS on the winning team but we won completely by accident (we did our math wrong when betting points on the final Q and ended up in the lead) so, uh, draw your own conclusions. LMFSLOIHFDJSD
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Not a panel, but the photo backdrops provided for cosplayers to pose in went SO hard. I love it so much....... And i didn't get a photo of myself in them, but i did get:
nehehehehehe
- We should have a "little guy" plush doll gathering, or plush doll backdrops too. I think that would be super cute. Maybe I'll run one next year lmaooo
Folks
- Everyone I spoke with at the con (barring the emcee mentioned above) was very kind and friendly. I was attending by myself, but I had no problem calling out to cosplayers I wanted photos of, et cetera... and I got a lot of very nice compliments from strangers that pinpointed parts of my costumes that I wasn't as confident in. Such as "the back of your wig looks lovely" for Azul (twst), and "your face paint is perfect" for Kris (deltarune)! Sooo so nice. I got lots of curiosity about my Demon Cleric costume as well, even when no one knew what it was from. I will post more about that costume in the costume construction post :)