Fly Pupa Fly

Duke and Dutchess, like a lot of the nursery section, is more a collection than an actual brand. The idea is that similar nursery fabrics are grouped together, so you decide you like one of the elephant prints, look at the end, and start checking bolt ends for more in the Duke and Dutchess collection to find fabrics that match it. There might be some real brands mixed in there, but mostly it’s all Joann collections.

As far as I can tell, with the exception of SOME (not all) of the premium quilting fabrics and some (not all) of the home decor fabrics, all fabric in Jo Ann is made FOR Joann. The red tag section (just the red, not orange or lime or pink or purple) is usually mill end fabric made by other companies, for other projects. When the other company’s project is done, they sell the leftover fabric for cheap, and Joann buys that.

However, Quilter’s Showcase, Keepsake Calico, MIA/Creating New Traditions, Legacy Studio, Snuggle Flannel, Cozy Flannel, non-licensed Nursery, Casa Collection, Glitterbug, All That Glitters, Sew Sweet, Witching Hour, Yaya Han, Loungethletic, Famous Maker, Gertie, almost ALL licensed fabrics, and several more lines I can’t think of off the top of my head, are all JoAnn exclusive, as far as I know. 

Daisy Kingdom was made by a woman named Patty Reed, who sold the company in the min 90′s. They used to make huge collections of fabric, with matching patterns, trims and notions, and other craft supplies.

Much like how The Singer name is still out there, but the copyright is owned by Viking and the Singer Manufacturing Company doesn’t really exist anymore, Daisy Kingdom is a name owned by another company, but isn’t really making too much of their own stuff anymore.

Which is quite the bummer, because a lot of their 90′s fabric would work REALLY well for country or sweet lolita.

<pretend I rotated this picture. My computer’s going slow and doesn’t want to even think about opening iphoto>

Patty Reed is still out there, designing the Jungle Babies line of nursery fabrics (which you can find at Joann), patterns for Simplicity, and about 50 different kinds of reusable shopping bags called the InstaTotes series.

So I came up with this great idea for a fake beard using fiber mascara and I realized there were no tutorials out there for this already. So I made one myself. It works really well and is very realistic!!

here are some links to some fiber mascaras as well as the type I used (I’m sure you guys can find one at a cheaper price though)

here is the absolute best crossplay makeup tutorial I highly recommend it

Having troubles with facial angles in your drawing style?

Try a 3D sculpture of your art in your own style in a free program that is simple and very easy to use.

The program is called Sculptris and is a free off-shoot program from Zbrush, that program that you keep hearing about but either takes selling your kidneys or piracy to actually use. 

If you download it and sculpt out a facial model, you can have references for your own work for all of time. No more endlessly searching Google for reference materials or twisting/rotating/flipping a drawing to see if there are flaws. And you can easily edit it to create more facial types. This way, you can make character references for any and every face and facial angle that you can think of.

The program offers mirroring right from the start, so your faces will be perfectly symmetrical. You can turn off the symmetry for things like scars or otherwise. 

It takes a little time. For instance, I downloaded the program on Christmas and, in my spare time, this took a few days of getting familiar with the program (first day) and then sculpting for a few minutes each day, mostly due to my perfectionist nature. And this one isn’t even done. I still have to mold the mouth, ears, and other smaller aspects before I consider it done. However, I was so giddy over the possibilities that I wanted to share this with my fellow artists.

GUYS????

This really useful oh my goodness. It takes a little figuring out, but once you get the hang of it it’s actually pretty easy. Just watch a couple youtube videos. Seeing how other people do it helps you to make sense of it.

THE FUTURE OF ART REF FOR ARTISTS! AAAHH SKETCHFAB IS FINALLY UP AND RUNNING!

the resource for rotating 3D models, everything from 3D scans of human beings, to eroche anatomy sculptures, 3D models anybody can use and move around to reference and learn from! this is how you’re REALLY supposed to learn, if you don’t have a model to observe in real life this is as good as you’ll get!

some of them are really high resolution, it’s fantastic! 3D scans of people is a good tag to start with but you can go check out anything!

Having troubles with facial angles in your drawing style?

Try a 3D sculpture of your art in your own style in a free program that is simple and very easy to use.

The program is called Sculptris and is a free off-shoot program from Zbrush, that program that you keep hearing about but either takes selling your kidneys or piracy to actually use. 

If you download it and sculpt out a facial model, you can have references for your own work for all of time. No more endlessly searching Google for reference materials or twisting/rotating/flipping a drawing to see if there are flaws. And you can easily edit it to create more facial types. This way, you can make character references for any and every face and facial angle that you can think of.

The program offers mirroring right from the start, so your faces will be perfectly symmetrical. You can turn off the symmetry for things like scars or otherwise. 

It takes a little time. For instance, I downloaded the program on Christmas and, in my spare time, this took a few days of getting familiar with the program (first day) and then sculpting for a few minutes each day, mostly due to my perfectionist nature. And this one isn’t even done. I still have to mold the mouth, ears, and other smaller aspects before I consider it done. However, I was so giddy over the possibilities that I wanted to share this with my fellow artists.

GUYS????

This really useful oh my goodness. It takes a little figuring out, but once you get the hang of it it’s actually pretty easy. Just watch a couple youtube videos. Seeing how other people do it helps you to make sense of it.

How to Level Up Your Cosplay panel.

Again, this is just the bare bones and examples, as some of this was elaborated on in person. The presentation itself isn’t that impressive, but I hope people can get some good info out of it, especially since no one was able to see this one in person.

This was a panel meant for people are are beginner or low intermediate cosplayers who want to up their game. It’s not meant to be a basic intro panel, and it’s not meant to give really in-depth information about how to do certain techniques. It’s more about how to create well-made, interesting costumes when you already have some experience but probably haven’t learned or thought of some of these things yet. It’s also not definitive or comprehensive, as there is a LOT that can be put into a panel like this.

I ask that people use this for personal reference only. It can be reblogged and shared, but I ask that people not use this information for other purposes without my permission/credit.

Seam finishing images are from: pinked/zigzagged, serged, hand overcast, French, lined All artwork is official artwork, which is nearly impossible to source exactly in most cases, due to how these images get widely disseminated. Series are noted in the captions. All cosplay images are either of myself ( @fabrickind ) or of @aknightlight, my co-panelist.

Here is a link to the pdf file of the presentation, in case this photoset is difficult to read. It’s slightly confusing but all I could get my computer to do, so here’s how you read it: the 4-slide pictures read left to right, top to bottom. The 2-slide pictures read top to bottom. The 4-slide pictures have to be read across first. I couldn’t get that to switch in the version of Reader I’m using, so sorry for any confusion. The pdf file should read correctly, with one slide per page.

Wanna make your costumes shiny and bright? Want to transform into a living Christmas tree?

I HAVE A NEW BOOK! And it’s only 5$! 

http://www.kamuicosplay.com/product-category/books/

Here’s a link!

I’ll be honest this is only the bare bones of starting a store, though. There’s a lot more that goes into it, and it is a LOT more frustrating and time consuming than you’d think, especially if you’re the one shipping your product and putting out the capital to manufacture it.

The thing about running your own store is that it is definitely not an endeavour for someone who isn’t business minded. It wears me out for sure! It’s exhausting but it’s also rewarding when I finally get to put the product in the buyer’s hand.

Easy Prosthetic Ear Tutorial by celticruinsdesigns.