My Journey in Cosplay
I've always loved fashion. When I was little I would design beautiful (at least in our opinon) runway pieces for my sister and cousins using yards of fabric and safety pins.
I've also always enjoyed art and learning new things which is why I think I gravitated toward cosplay and prop design (plus who doesn't like to dress up and act silly once in a while).
My husband and I were going to Blizzcon for the first time in 2011 and I wanted to do a costume for it. Another thing I should point out about myself is, if I'm going to do something...I'm going to do it RIGHT. I had never done a costume before but with the help of the internet and a friend I created my first, a Blood Elf from World of Warcraft.
The armor portion of the costume was made with Sintra, a thermoplastic. I was very happy with the way it turned out but I definitely learned a lot from my mistakes.
In 2014, I found a makerspace in Houston where I live and started taking a lot of classes in areas like welding, woodworking, airbrushing, leatherworking and more. I quickly became a member and instructor at the space teaching classes in costuming, airbrushing, and leatherworking.
After working on several small effort costumes and commission pieces I decided this year (2016) to work on something to highlight my skills in leatherworking. The piece I went with was a Nightingale costume from the game Skyrim. The costume armor pieces were made of hand tooled vegetable tanned leather, the cape was made of deerskin, the emblems were 3D printed using steel filament and the sword was cast in resin then hand painted.
I entered this costume into my first ever costume contest at Houston's Comicpalooza and walked away with 2nd Runner up in the Advanced Category and Best Prop Work.
Now...I'm ready to take the gold for next year...
