Lady Loki for opening night of Thor 2: The Dark World

Hello!
I know I have a few projects that need a write up before this one but I'm just so darn excited about this I need to post the write up now! It is also a work in progress due to some unfortunate happenings that night, so this won't be the last you see of it!
(I promise to get to the other posts soon, but look now you have some more consecutive reading material to look forward to!)

So.
Thor.
I have a confession to make. I never liked the Thor-verse before the movies. I know I know, hear me out. Rainbow bridge? Flying by swinging hammers? Loki's ridiculous pre-movie costume. Aliens who think their gods or the other way around...well that parts cool, but really it was all pretty silly. I did not want to see this movie and actually waited until it was out of theaters before I finally gave in. Holy Asgard was I wrong. This have been my favorite out of the Avengers movies (Iron man is a very close second) for many reasons. Reason 1: They exceeded all my expectations and made Thor and his world interesting, I was blown away! Reason 2: The costumes and props. Oh My Odin they are fantastic!! I literally watch this movie at least once a month and just drool over the designs. I love the combination between norse/viking stylings with the polish of something that is made to look out of this world. The textures are subtle but still purposefully and noticeable. I also appreciate how they change the costume designs subtly to show change for each of the characters as they grow in the 3 movies. Thor's armor gets more complicated and heroic as he grows as a person and Loki's gets more patina-ed and dingy as he goes showing the trouble he's caused leading to his downfall and more complicated inner turmoil on wanting to be accepted and carve a path on his own. I could go on! Reason 3:  Chris Hemsworth is a pretty, pretty man and Tom Hiddleston is brilliant as Loki. I have not been so fond of a character in years  (no it's not just because of his hair for those of you who know me..... but that plays a part :3 )

Look at this! How can you not love it?

Now than you know the extent of my love for this movie you can understand how excited I was to work on a costume from this universe. Not only was I going to build my favorite characters costume but I was able to get Meredith to re-design it for me so we could do another collaboration! I am in love with her design but I have another confession, I ended up changing the tunic/corset portion of it. I had so many ideas I had  to try them!! Meredith was more than supportive of this and I am ending up having to make a third change to it in the near future due to the crappy material that the corset was made out of. I think it will be better in the end from this last change but I digress....

I was doing this as part of a group with other members from Project Hero and we were all trying to go for a more norse god/viking look rather than the clean one from the movie (as much as I love it!) Meredith always blows me away with her designs so I was ready to get started! Some poor planning last year cause me to put this on hold for a year or so but I'm actually happy this happened as it allowed me to have some time to plan.
My first change was that I wanted to add some scaling to it. I don't like the versions of her in entirely green metallic scales as that's not the vision I had for this but I wanted something to give off that affect. I ended up finding green pheasent feathers that were the perfect size, shape, and color. I had to use these! I decided to use a corset for the top and ditch the coin belt for a "leather" belt with young Loki's logo (also thank you Meredith for suggesting I read "Journey into Mystery: Loki" it was a amazing!) in an antique gold finish to match the horns.

These are both pre-detail stitching as you can see I left some pins in it

I then designed a top section that was going to go on top of the corset to house and protect the feather scales. I only wanted them on the top as an homage to the comics and a unique interpretation of it. I used the same material I was using for the arm wraps to cross over the feathers to tie the two together.

I then sewed some brown leggings out of 4-way stretch "leather" (same material I used for the sides on the top of the corset) tea stained some linen I ripped into wraps for my legs, and cut all of the wraps for my arms and stitched them together with big "x's" like I did on the middle of the corset in the last picture above.

I then proceeded to the horns and the wig. I pepped a horn from the movie helmet and Garrick filled it with foam and sanded it down smooth. He should be posting a video or a write up soon on his process for that. I then templated out the base of the crown out of paper and fit it to a mannequin head. Once I was happy with how that looked (I changed it twice to make it look more like Meredith's design) I cut it out of various sizes of foam. I glued it together and Garrick took care of the rest of the construction. Once he had it all together I added some bands of thin foam around the horns to make them look like they were actual horns fixed and bezel set on the crown. I then weathered it to make it look like oxidized, antique gold and am going to go back and add some more detail on the horns to make them a little more weathered to convey the "old horn" or "stone" look. Even though Garrick sanded them down and resin coated them before he molded them to give them the bumpy texture of stone of worn bone. I was going for a more rustic look. The whole head piece ended up being very light and very secure. I don't have to worry about moving my head and having it wiggle or fall off. I do have to watch how I walk through doors, however.

First design, wasn't digging it so much, too "Mera" looking.

Second design painted!

Needs a little more weathering but I am still pleased!!

I need to get some better pictures of the coins. Alas, I will still tell you about them! I had an idea that I thought was awesome, might be a little nerdy but it's a cool detail. I did some research on the Norse version of Loki and he had three kids, Fenrir the giant wolf, Hela the goddess of the underworld, and Ritter a snake that looks an awful like an ouroboros. I thought it would be neat to have their faces on the coins. So I sculpted 3 designs, had Garrick mold them, and voila! Hair coins! I sandwiched small pieces of the wig hair in between them and glued them together. I also added some black  rooster feathers to the wig just to add another subtle detail.

I almost forgot the cape! The cape was simple. I wanted green and fur. I found both and sewed them together. I had some left-over gold thread from when I made Zuul a few years back so was a perfect way to clean out my thread box. i sewed the edges of this in gold as another homage to the movie design with the gold accents lining his jacket. I also wanted this to stay back and not hang in front of me so as to not ruin my feathers. Another costume detail form the movie I am in love with is the layering they did on their capes. They are set on shoulder pads to make them look heroic and pleated so the cape drapes beautifully behind them while keeping it behind them and not obstructing the front of their costume. I did something similar but no pleats as you cant really do that with fur. I made a harness (Meredith's idea actually) out of brown elastic that hold the cape on my shoulders without anyone being able to see the elastic. It's great! The edges of the cape are pinned up on my shoulders crating a collar of fur and a mantle so the extra fur collar wasn't needed. It frames the whole costume and shows off Loki's signature green enough to grab attention but not be over-whelming.

Here's the finished product! The Warmth drive went fantastically and we collected a lot of clothes and blankets for the homeless. Also the movie was amazing and I am making Garrick take me again this weekend! Everyone looked SO GOOD!!! Paul is an amazing Thor and I'm so pleased we all decided to do a Thor group! Deb's Black Widow is fantastic, I couldn't stop staring at it!! Cassie was great as Squirrel Girl, best one I've seen yet! And Jose was an awesome Cap.

Charlotte! You are amazing! thank you for taking pictures!!

My mom!

Gah!! I love this picture!! Everyone looks so good!

Sibling rivalry

I think I know who will win this one....

Stan Lee's angels?

Causing mischief, making bad faces...

Only bummer is I have to re-do the corset. This is last time I buy something out of China. I will be making my corsets from now on. I only wore it once and the finish on the vinyl ripped and peeled. Oh well, live and learn a new skill. I will show you my ideas for how to fix this since I spent so many hours on the feathers already!! TBC....

Phoenix Comicon 2012

I know this is a little delayed but we had a lot going on during PCC and after so it took me awhile to get around to this. I think I have so much to talk about from events since the last time i posted I might have at least 3 weeks straight of Friday blog posts, woohoo!!

Let's start with my story...
Garrick decided 6 months ago that we were going to have a booth at PCC 2012 this year. I laughed. I laughed a lot. I didn't laugh when he bought the table. This meant we had to haul ass on producing stuff, like finishing the TRON costumes (that we had been talking about for 2 years), trying to put together our Avengers costumes (which worked out really well since we tied that in with Meredith), X-Force Domino and Deadpool, oh, and we bought a house in the middle of this, a house that needed fixing. It didn't need a major overhaul, but as you've read, I definitely waged full blown chemical warfare on the backyard. We also painted the entire house, patched holes, replaced plumbing, sealed the garage, and tried to nurse the rest of the landscape that I wasn't trying to kill back to life. So long story short, we were REALLY busy!!

Our stuff!!

Batman wears underwear too....

We had a lot of other things we wanted to have done by the show, but we worked around it. (Quorra helmet mold breaking). It was a good learning experience all in all and we got a lot of really good ideas for next year. We are even going to have stuff for sale next year! We also met a lot of really great people through this. Despite my disbelief, scoffing, and general unhappiness with being on a forced deadline I'm really glad we did it (Garrick is also glad I'm glad lol). Meredith is also an awesome booth buddy and next year we will be having someone (volunteers?!) watch the table while we're away so she is not bombarded with questions of EL, urethane, and general construction questions.
All in all, we had a lot of fun seeing everyone, hanging out and finding terrifying dolls in a basement, watching girl ponies gather around pretty boys, trying to create photo-bomb opp for Shannon and the Samurai crew, taking pictures of phallic foods, and generally watching Garrick, Paul, and Jason play together, skip in costume hand-in-hand, all while Deb and I laughed hysterically/played damage control. (Thanks guys for staying with us!)

  (on a side note, Garrick and I need rooms with separate computers. As I'm trying to type this while he is spinning my chair around and thrashing in his boxers to Ke$ha trying his hardest to get me to pay attention to him....yesss separate work rooms....)

I have, as I do after every con for at least one costume, some things I need to fix on Wasp. I'm going to make her armor removable (so I can sit down!!) and redesign the general shape of it so it's not so linear and severe. I need to make a "wing sheath" as well. Meredith gave me a very good idea!

I am working on the faces I make... I promise....

Garrick is also deciding is he wants to try to build a War Machine or Ant/Giant Man for our Avengers group with Project Hero (more to come on them in a future blog post!!).
Ideas? Comments? Suggestions?! Let me know. Also Meredith and I will be doing another collaboration on a costume since that went over so well. I'm not telling what it is yet....
 
Last PCC comment, would have liked to have been able to walk around more and talk to people and see other booths. Will need volunteers next year!

Anyhoo...here's some pictures!!!

yay!

Little Gohan was so cute!!!

Garrick finally got to play with Power Rangers!

I'm starting to envy Paul's wig collection

Best Barda ever!!!

Project Hero! (minus Garrick)

X-Force Project Hero

We made the New Times!

They do exist...and light up!

I thought this was a great picture, you all look great!

Oh an if anyone finds the picture of me as Domino hanging on a wall with Jay and Silent Bob, I NEED that picture kthxbai!

Wasp and Deadpool progress

Oh boy....there's nothing like the 2 weeks before a con, especially if you are getting a booth for the first time. There have been days that eating, showering, and leaving the house have not happened (you think I'm joking..)
One such day was the day before Free Comic Book Day (I did shower...I promise) I spent 14-16 hours the day before trying to get Wasp wear-able and I did! I also passed out in the upright position when we got home and made some horrible faces in pictures but damnit it was mostly done!

Whitney and myself

Ryan, Todd, Deb, Garrick, Paul and myself
(Avengers assemble! now with Batman, Bane, and Deadpool...)

WHY would you give Deadpool the hammer?!

Garrick posted about the armor pieces and the awesome spray paint we found here. He did a great job on it too! Only problem was something that we coined as "handruff"...read his post, the explanation is in there and it's not a gross as it sounds.

Big thank you to Hero Comics and Samurai Comics for having us, sleep deprived and all!

I still have to do the piping on the gloves and the wings on Wasp, looking to try to finish the gloves this weekend and the wings next week. Let me tell you, piping is AWESOME but it is way time consuming! You have to pin everything especially when it is mirroring itself on both sides of a costume. Oh and welting feet have saved my life, I love gadgets. I am currently collecting interesting presser feet if anyone has any suggestions. I love things that make my life easier! Don't you?

Awkward crotch shot...but it was the only way to show the piping!

I think I would have imploded if it didn't turn out to by symmetrical.
I did a little piping on Deadpool as well and have a little more to do on the mask and the legs. So far so good! I will be finishing the shoulders, gloves, and arms this weekend. I'm excited to get the eyes finished, they are squinty eyes! I think I've talked about this before...anyway Deadpool should always have awesome facial expressions. Once PhxCC is over we might start casting those in urethane....we shall see...




Oh and I think the wig I got for Wasp is an Ouran Host Club wig, Haruhi's to be exact...whatever it's still cute and she is a girl and so am I so there.

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We did see the Avnegers and it was AMAZING! Glad to get excited about a movie again especially one with lots of props and costumes in it. I think I need to see it again so I can focus on the movie and not go nuts over all of the design elements and have a bagillion ideas about how to use them running through my head while trying to focus on the story. Lady Loki is in my future...let's just say that.
When I get paid this week I will be donating our ticket prices to this charity Hero Initiative. If you love comics and all great things that come from them donate to help take care of their creators. Most comic artists are freelance which means no benefits. This organization provides help for those artists when they need it.

Now back to work...

Avengers Wasp

Are you excited for this?! I am! I am so happy to be working with Meredith McClaren on this costume. She has such an eye for costumes and design in her work I couldn't wait to make this. It will be even better since Garrick and I are sharing a table with her at Phoenix Comic-con this year (table 433!). You should stop by...just sayin' :)
Meredith and I were talking about making certain characters costumes more "visually interesting" by trying to incorporate more tactical designs and lines and this is what she came up with



I LOVE the piping on the legs and gloves. I had never though of this  and it is going to be awesome. The only change I made to her concept is the palm of the gloves are going to be a similar yellow to that of the bug parts. I even got a wig that is pretty dead-on for this, hell yea for plans coming together!

Wig:





The bug pieces I am basing off of this girl. She does amazing work and goes by "Riddle" as her pseudonym. She sculpted the bug parts for Wasp and then had them Chromed in gold (there is another term for Chroming something in gold but I don't know it so deal). I am not that fancy right now and I want to try sculpting something smaller first like a new Black Cat mask before I take on body armor. That being said, Garrick is helping me out with this (We're trading, I'm sewing his new D.Pool and Nick Fury) and we are making it out of foam. We made boob molds out of giant Easter egg bottom so we could heat mold the foam on top of those, we're so smart. He should be posting his progress soon.
 I also love her eye for tactical and small practical details in her costumes. You can't see it in this picture but she made wing holes in the back! If you turned into a bug you would need holes for your wings to go through too! Small, but great detail. Check out her gallery, it's super impressive!
 I will have wings with mine purely because I have been dying to make to make them! I am going to use the wing hole idea so I can go with or without wings depending on the event. So there. My bug parts will not be identical to this but similar, I want to put my own spin on it as well.

 

I wanted to give you a little glimpse into my work process since I had to re-make all of the patterns for Deadpool (they were lost in the move).

First there is planning...



then nomming....



Ok I really just wanted to post those to show what I have to go through to get the cat to leave me alone anytime I have to do things on the floor. I use wrapping paper for my patterns for two reasons. 1. it's gridded on the back side! Measuring I own you now... 2. I can pin through it. Almost everyone has it laying around the house so you might as well use it!

Long post long...I got a lot of my pieces cut out and seams ripped this week and once I get my welting foot in the mail I'll post some pictures/tutorial of how that goes.