Kimberlywills.com

Saturday photo from Animazement of myself as Imp Midna and my good friend Mary as Wolf Link. This weekend was amazing and I love seeing my friends and hanging out with them in and out of epic costume time. The reactions I got were beyond wonderful and much photo mobbing was had.

The glow on my suit is more reflective tape. I haven’t seen any other Midna’s do it, and I’m looking forward to a real photoshoot (SOON) with my puppy in more convincing surroundings. The hair is a giant fleece ponytail that I gradient dyed. I really love the effect and am just completely thrilled with how it came out. I may replace it with a (lot of) real wigs bundled together but I kinda like it just the way it is.

I totally forgot to post this here!

Finished Midna Helm!

WIP – Midna’s helmet.

I needed to take a break from working on commissions and to keep myself from going insane during a 7 day work week. I wasn’t able to work on my commissions, but I was able to throw time at the helmet while spending time with my husband. I probably should have kept better track of time, but I believe this is currently over 15 hours of work, possibly 20. The layers of sealant and paint won’t take up too much time, but it may depend on how I decide to finish the final layer of paint. I want shine, but not too much. The helmet in game is almost like ore – not shiny like metal, but not entirely rocky either. It’s a weird mix. The fact that there are broken bits and cracks makes me think it’s not pure metal, but it’s not polished granite either. That said, a granite type finish might be a good idea, with speckles. hmm..

This thing is HUGE. When I started on this journey (haha) I knew I wanted to make it as proportional as possible to the original Imp form of Midna, who is of course very small and stout. This helmet is about two feet wide and the crown is a full 40 inches around. I have a lot of extra space inside the helmet, so after this thing is painted and sealed, the next step will be adding interior padding so it’s comfortable, and of course, the ears need to be added. Looking back at the model, I should probably add a half inch rim all the way around the bottom edge of the top half of the crown. WHEE MORE GLUE.

… This thing is going to be HEAVY. I haven’t even added the wig yet. Which may be fleece.

Materials: Several butchered anti-fatigue floor mats, nearly 24 sticks of very large hot glue sticks (about 3 wasted and discarded), thick floral foam wire, some craft foam for raised areas, model magic for the rope snake and other raised puffy areas and elmers glue for sealant before painting. The white stuff was my first attempt to seal the helmet with spackle. It didn’t really work. The front piece of the helmet is lined on the outside edge with Worbla, for strength and to resist denting should I drop it. I had some gap issues with it though, so I decided not to use it on the rest of the crown.

I found the original textures and blew them up, by a lot. It messes with the details a bit, but I was able to cut an exact replica with the edges. The front piece is exactly the right shape. I do have a tiny bit of an issue where the crown is about an inch or so too high – you shouldn’t be able to see the blocks above the rim of the front piece of the helmet, but I think it looks okay. I can’t cut any more off the bottom edge, nor off the top and the only other option is remaking either the crown or the front piece, and neither of those is going to happen.

I’m sorting out my schedule leading up to Animazement 2013, but I have a number of costume commissions to finish, including at least one of my own projects. Some time at the end of June, I’ll be starting on my Twilight Princess Zelda.

I feel like I’m spending all my free time sewing, but I’m really enjoying it. It gets me away from computers. If it paid well enough, I’d just sew all day instead. One commission is done, with 3 more to finish, and one stuffed animal before June 10th.

In snatches of free time, I’m playing the new Tomb Raider on PS3. It’s really quite fun, and satisfies my urge to Explore All The Things. I’m happy there appear to be no zombies in the game. I never finished the first uncharted due to unexpected super fast monster zombies. And the fact the area I’m in you have to start over from the beginning of a ten minute run when you die. I could jack it down to ‘easy’ I suppose and try to finish it that way.

Created to run on air for the new TWC downloadable app that lets you watch on iphone, ipad, etc.

Done a few months ago, when the accident happened. One of the times I get to break the boundaries of our usual on-air guidelines.

This is a couple of different photos merged together.. Maybe I need to do something to the lighting and make the whole thing darker, I don’t know. I don’t feel like I’m actually blending into the background properly.

It’s close, but not quite there.

Hint, the secret steps are spray paint and silver rub n buff

I forgot I made these a few months ago!

I’m working on a couple of new commissions, so that’s exciting. I’ll have new photos to add to my cosplay section, including a Snowtrooper, Jinora from Avatar: Legend of Korra, and 2 Mara Jades. Oh, and Luke Skywalker.

I have a busy busy schedule, but I feel like I’m getting faster every time I make something. Panicy moments aside, and the time I stall to get started on. oh.. ANYTHING, I’m getting better. Having a serger really helps a lot too.

I’m looking into possibly getting a Cricut machine. If nothing else, it’d be really freaking useful for cutting out stencils. I could potentially add my Journey costume as an option for commissions – as of right now, there’s just no way. I’d have to charge $700 for it, as I made mine, and I seriously doubt anyone would pay that. Additionally, that means I’d have to make it again. Which I am SO not ready to do anytime soon. I’m going to replace the tights, since my attempt at tight-making more or less failed. I popped a number of stitches on photoshoot day, but was able to arrange myself so none of them show up in the final shots.

There’s a future potential of doing a Tangled/Rapunzel dress, which the cricut machine would basically make manageable. Otherwise, I don’t think she’ll be happy with the quote that I have in my mind.

I need to order more skin paint too.

I’m working on an idea for Mara Jade’s lightsaber, as a hilt prop only. I haven’t gotten around to really attempting to work with metal yet, but I am managing plastic pretty well. I picked up some PVC pipe and am looking into making something that can eventually be shipped off and chromed, then adding final details. I also picked up screw covers for the rivets, and a handful of fittings to try out. I may get a blank blade from ultra sabers, and try rigging an LED blade myself. The basic one will be just a hanging hilt though. If it turns out satisfactory, I might be able to add custom PVC sabers to my shop, which would be pretty cool.