Thursday, October 19, 2006

Darcia (Wolf's Rain) Ver. 2

I just thought that it would be fun to share what Im going through at the moment to improve on one of my all time favorite costumes. Im always of the feeling that I can always do better, so Im in the process of working on improving this costume. Throughout this blog, just click on the images you see to see a bigger version.

If you dont know who Darcia is or what he looks like in his costume:




For this one, I am completely redoing the entire outfit, including his coat. Some of you remember me from Kawaii Kon 2005



I always felt that I didn't like the way my original wig turned out. It didn't have that "body" that is apparent in the anime or the images of him, so after fiddling around, I finally decided to do something about it.

In this post, I'll go through the process in which I am attempting to make the wig better, and later through the rest, I'll even describe how I am redoing the coat and the headdress he wears.

So first off, the wig.

This time, I decided to go with what I had originally done, cutting 1/4" strips of Stiffened Black Felt.


There are three sizes that I plan on working with. The full 14" length (that the stiffened felt comes in). The 9" length (which is the other way the stiffened felt was cut) and 1/3 of 14" pieces. The 14" and 9" lengths will all be wefted together with strips of extension hair. The smallest pieces will just be added to the wig to give it more texture and depth.

Also, I am using 22 guage Floral Wire, that I spray painted black:



Now with both felt and wire ready, I sewed the wire to the felt so it can give it strength:




Once done, I took wefts of extension hair and hot glued the tips to the wired felt:



So, soon, I'll have a bunch of wefts stuck to a cardboard box in my kitchen:



(make note, Dani, buy a lamp for your living room so you can do this there instead of the kitchen)

Once the wefts are ready, I took the Got2b Glued hairspray and began spraying and blowdrying the wefts so they would hold their shape and be stiffened:



I highly recommend this hair product for any type of spiking, wefting, or sticking hair to some other object. Its a miracle worker.

Now the wefts are ready, time to sew them into the wig:



Side view:



Once sewn in, you can see from the photos above that I already am attempting to give them the curved looked as referenced from his images above. I've only sewn in a few, but I am pinning the rest of the wefts into place so that I can guage to how much wefts I'll need to make, of which size and where the smaller strips of felt will go once the bulk of the hair is sewn in.

As it is now, its a work in progress, but keep visiting as I continue to add to this project.


Update: Well, after 24 hours of wefting, sewing, and hot-gluing and hair spraying, I've managed to finish this little recreation. Below are the images of the completed wig.









Update: I've edited this blog so that you can see how to cast the accessories in the Nov. 2nd post. Please view that post as to how to make your own accessories by using Hot Glue (Thermal Adhesives).


Update: After painting the castings for the headpiece, I assembled the accessory together. So here it is , Darcia's head....




Tuesday, October 03, 2006

AWA 12 Atlanta Georgia

I had the pleasure of attending AWA this year, as I wanted to experience what a "mainland" convention would be like, since the last one I attended was AnimExpo way back in the 90's (then, the total attendance was like 5,000 visitors). Struggling to find a room, I had the pleasure of sharing a hotel room at the Waverly, where the Convention was held, with a couple of Canadians, who were as friendly as they can be! So, this is a shout out to them, for letting me camp out . To Kevin and Vessa, much mahalos!

What was nice was that I was able to see how a bigger convention than Kawaii Kon is run and the different panels they had going. Interesting enough, the Waverly and the Cobb Galleria Center was mind numblingly huge. So, Kawaii Kon is definitely going to improve when it is held in the Hawaii Convention Center next year.

I also had the pleasure of meeting up with Michael Sinterniklaas again. Last I spoke with him, he was celebrating his birthday (Happy Birthday dude!) in California, and I had just missed his visit by only a week. So it was great to see him there (and get a really big hug from him). He's still as funny as ever!

Oh and I can't forget Jennifer Sekiguchi! It was awesome to catch the premiere of Paradise Kiss with her, since she directed the dubbing for it. Great job, girlfriend!

Okay now to the pics. Im only post a few, since I dont want to weight down with the load times!