#artemis progress

And as you can see one of the moons I sculped as masters had an unlucky run it with my cat. But nothing that couldn't be fixed with MORE FILLER and then ended up as the most sloppily made silicon mold I've every made. Idk man, I was impatient and just wanted to start casting. I did curse myself later for that bc it did mean I had to sand a lot more afterwards.... but I do love my moons. They are so shiney and sparkly and catch the light beautifully on photos. u__ú

So... the idea was to have a mount inside the wig where I can mount everything on. At first I tried for a wig with mount + headgear version but soon realised that it would be easier to have the horns and the moons seperate. So what I ended up with was a weirdly shaped headband with some antennas, made from sturdy craftboard, shaped to my head, with an adjustable elastic band in the back, pokeing out of the wig, where I can attach the horns to with screws. Getting the orientation of the little antennas right, so the horns would point in the right directions took some trial and error with the heatgun but then it look really promising. Please enjoy this goofy video of me testing how it would hold up to constant head movement. I didn't intent for the horns to have this much jiggle but it causes me _immense_ joy bc I _love_ secondary movement in costumes (or character designs overall). With the horns out of the way, the headband with the moons could be much smaller and less of a constraption and more of an... well, headband. I used some leather leftovers, I've dyed a darker shade of green as base and glued everything onto that. (insert 2h montage of me upturing every box and shelf for find those golden bangle thingies I knew I had SOMEWHERE but couldn't find) And then sewed several hairpins onto the inside, so I could hook it into the wignet itself. Addionly the front middle has a magnet, that attaches to an corresponding magnet inside the wig to keep it from slipping and hold it centered. The back has another slim elastic, which I thread though the braid in the back to hold the band snug to the sides of my head and give it a bit more hold on my head. I have to say that I felt immense relieve when I tried this on the first time and realisd that my plan would work???? Like.... I was high from that feeling. I was crunching the rest of this costume within two weeks before the convention and my plan for the headgear not working out was my greatest fear bc I had no other idea how to do it. Or it working and then being uncomftable or painfull to wear or something. But then it just... worked. Yay me! And now that I also wore it to a convention... it also works for a whole convention day. And it's also comftable for a whole convention day. I have to secure the wig, so the weight of the braid doesn't pull it back but the headgear? Super secure. Easy to put on, considering everything. Comfy to wear. Fyear success.

I'm not much of a builder of big props or armors and this was my first bigger foam work. I'm generally okey with how the bow came out, even though I have to repaint it bc the colours are off again and it took some rain demage during Dokomi. :'D While I'm not inclinded to repeat the process of building a bigger prop soon (there is still sanding dust... in every nook and crany and will there be forever, I guess...), I still happy I did it?? Like, I kinda hated every step of the process but I'm still happy I stepped out of my comfort zone for once, bc I tend to rather stay on the save side of things and be stuck with the same five things over and over again. And I learned a lot - for exsample that videos of cosplay influencers showing of their foam and dremel work in squeeky clean workspaces are filthy lies. And that foam clay is very texture and I hate it. And that foam isn't so bad overall. The bow came out a bit bigger and chunkier than intended but I couldn't find smaller pvc pipes for the core but it looks alright on pictures. Just posing with it is a heavy for me and my thin, noodley stick arms. :'D

Makeing the feathering for Artemis arrows was an odysea in acrylpaint and colours. >__> Like... I should probably stop painting at night but also a lot of these paints dry a lot darker than you might think, so I ended up repaining these parts like 3-4 times... triing diffrent highlights, no highlights, paint combinations and in the end realising that you need way more white in your paintmix than you think, to get neoncolours. I later cut the feathering a bit slimmer to make them less chunky looking and I'm quite satisfied now. Still looking for a better way to glue the feathering on bc currently it's a bit fragile. If anyone might have a tip, for a good way to attach these, I'd appreachiate it. (Contact glue, hotglue, superglue and normal woodglue only had medicore results and I have to regulary re-glue parts.)

Various Artemis bits and boops - everything you see, except the cape, was done two years ago I think I lost a bunch of photos of... basicly everything. So here is what's left :'D

Next round of Artemis progress - it's wig time. This was also done two years ago and I don't really remember the details anymore :'D It's a light green base with some neon green extentions added and I think, I dyed a bunch of leftover wefts I had at home and the lower part of the base wig, in various shades of green and added them together and then backcombed the living shit out of everything. And cut that super weird choppy fringe that somehow does not look weird when worn. :D

First batch of Artemis progress Most of the sewing part was done two years ago in the hight of summer so fake fur options weren't great and every fur I ordered looked vastly diffrent than in the pictures and nothing satisfied me. But then, while skimming furry forums for better fur options, I saw people basicly patchwork diffrent furs and adding little spikes of fur, to get better results and then I did just that. It takes a lot longer but I really love how it came out without haveing to buy another meter of fabric. The bad thing is, that I still have to many fur leftovers I don't know what to do with.

OH MY GOD YOU DID NOT THINK THIS VIDEO THROUGH CONSIDERING YOU HAD A FRICKEN INTRO YOU SHOULD HAVE SAID STUFF DURING