#comic-conathome

Comic-Con@Home Masquerade Entry: VivSai 

Costume Title: Lady Loki in Armor

Best in Show: "Valkyrie (Jane Foster)", crafted by The Queen’s Armory. Beautiful and with extensive hand-leather work that wowed the judges, it lights up, too! A stunning interpretation from the Marvel universe.

-as well as-

Winner: Frank and Son Collectible Show Award of $1,000.

Winner: The Costume Designers' Guild Spotlight Award, to include a costume design book, a $100 Amazon card, and more.

* The Judges' Choice Award resulted in a TIE of two very different costumes! *

Judges' Choice: "Obsidian Desert Queen Zagara", Broodmother of the Swarm from Heroes of the Storm, crafted by international Korean cosplayer MyBoo Cosplay

Judges' Choice: "Snow White", an original imagining of the joyful Queen's Happily Ever After, with exceptionally embellished historical design by Mandy Pursley / Be The Spark Cosplay

Best Re-Creation: "Arachne". Japanese artist and illustrator Sakizou's character cleverly and skillfully translated from 2-dimensional artist canvas to real life by Nina London Cosplay

Best Original Design: "Goodbye Beach City", a beautiful homage to Steven Universe, any way she turns, there’s a detailed story sewn into her dress! From Moria Magre/MinesOfMoriaCosplays

Best Workmanship: "Carlotta, from Phantom of the Opera", a highly detailed re-creation of Carlotta's Hannibal dress of the Broadway show, crafted wonderfully by Canadian Devon Baker / Komickrazi Studios

Most Beautiful: "Lady Loki in Armor", a striking original interpretation of the character in resplendent battle armor and impressive weapon too, designed and crafted by VivSai

Most Humorous: "Yo, Ho, Yo, Ho, A Batman's Life for Me". Perhaps in some alternate universe, Batman and Robin could be partying pirates? A jovial imagining by Jeanie Lopez, plus Lucas and Joe Queen

Best Group: "Lord Captain America and Iron Lady", an Avengers Masquerade, cleverly imagining two Marvel heroes in refined and elegant period costuming, as crafted by Miguel and Lucy Capuchino / Capuchino Cosplay

And some Honorable Mentions: Here’s a few entries just as loved by the judges that nearly won trophies. Even though they scored slightly lower than the top choices, they still deserve recognition for achievement:

Honorable Mention: "Gonk (gonk guh gonk gonk gonk)" a fun re-created screen-accurate Star Wars GNK power droid with moving parts, constructed by Kaiweevil

-as well as-

Winner: The David C. Copley Award for Most Innovative Costume: $500 in Amazon cards from UCLA’s Copley Center for the Study of Costume Design.

Honorable Mentions:

"Edgar Markov", (lower left) an armored character from the terror-rife gothic plane of Innistrad in the Magic the Gathering game universe, brought to you wonderfully by Kensadi / Kensadi Cosplay

"Varian Wrynn", (lower right) World of Warcraft's King of Stormwind and High King of the Alliance in amazingly constructed armor, from international Korean cosplayer Sin_Moon

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San Diego Comic-Con gives a big "Thank You" to the contestants for all their work and talent,

to the guest judges Jennifer May Nickel, Dr. Deborah Nadoolman Landis PhD, Garnet Filo, Allan Lavigne and Gigi Bannister for their time and expertise,

to Phil and Kaja Foglio for being our Masters of Ceremonies,

to the Frank and Son Collectible Show, the UCLA David C. Copley Center For the Study of Costume Design, and the Costume Designers' Guild IATSE 892 for their generous support of the event,

and to our convention friends & family both near and far for joining us online- until we meet again!

Comic Con Masquerade Contest: Moria Magre- Mines of Moria Cosplays

Costume Entry Title: Goodbye Beach City

Inspired by Steven Universe

Costume Description:So, this costume was around 400 hours of work. It was a behemoth of a costume. I genuinely don't know where to start in describing it, but I guess starting from head to toe.

WIG: So the wig is styled by me, the figure in the wig is a small little Malachite figure as in season 1 of Steven Universe Malachite pulled themselves into the sea, so the wig is styled to be like the ocean, much the same as the rest of the dress. Malachite is an old worn out sock of my partners that was stuffed and cut and painted. Wire is in the legs and arms to make them movable. Then every piece of the little figure is hand stitched with embroidery floss. The face itself is actually iron on applique (because I feel the face detail wouldn't have been able to show on such a small figure otherwise) The other side of the wig has seashells and such to stick with the ocean motif.

BODICE: The bodice part of the dress is an old 1960s pattern design I modified from an old pattern my grandma had. I took that pattern and laid it on paper and reworked it and had to do SEVERAL tests with old sheets to make the pieces work for me (her pattern wasn't designed for... plus sized girls). On the upper shoulders are hand woven beaded strings that are in the shape of the diamond authority with 2mm beads which are so dang tiny ;_; On the lower part of the bodice is hand stitched flower motifs. I made the flower appliques themselves out of salt packets (since the dress is based on a beach and beaches are salty, salt made sense! I want to transport you guys to beach city with this dress!!!) Salt packets are cut open, empties, Elmer’s glued together then sewn down together on a fabric sheet, then cut out and attached with iron on interfacing. Along each edge of the flower pieces are again 2mm beads patterned into a 3:1:3 pattern with transparent then opaque then shiny.

SHORT BEACH SKIRT:All the skirts in the piece are all patterned by me, no base pattern at all, I genuinely did trial and error for all the skirts from here on. The belt there is attached to the skirts with heavy duty embroidery floss as the two skirts combined weigh close to 30 lbs. Now the first thing from the white dress to this that you see is white smocking. The smocking was all patterned by me with a bunch of error. The idea is from basic Canadian smocking but finding a lot of patterns for smocking is hard and it’s easier to make your own. For the patterning of the smocking I made a wooden template. I made the squares (for this piece the squares are 1cm wide) on the piece of wood and then put holes where each line meets of the squares then traced the little dots on the fabric with water soluble ink. (its quicker than measuring them all out) There are 64 rows of smoking and they are about each row is 38 cm long. Each 2 rows take about 1.25 hours. (Smocking is so relaxing-- that is until you hit row 40. Then it’s just tiring. GOTTA PULL THROUGH THOUGH) After the smocking you then see the salt packet sheets, I described above. Same technique but this time sewn into larger sheets and used as a base for the beach and locations themselves. The salt packets are almost like interfacing with how much it stiffens everything. The salt is still inside for these pieces unlike the roses pieces above so if I hop around you can hear the salt moving (which is quite rhythmic). After the salt packets is the locations. Now these are where it gets intense. (yeah, I know HERE is where it gets intense-- HA!) But the locations-- the fry shack/fish stew pizza, the Mr. Universe van/Lion and the big donut are first done on bedsheets I stretch over canvas (Almost all of the fabric for this costume are bedsheets and curtains-- I gotta be cheap and economical, costume supplies do add up ;_; ) So then patterns are drawn on the canvas, I paint the designs on doing color blocking so when I stitch the fabric is a matching color. They are then hand stitched on the canvas. ( I actually made 2 more designs, one being the car-wash and the other being Mr. Smileys fun land but couldn't find a place to put them so they got scrapped) After they are sewn, I add double sided interfacing to the back to seal up the extra strings and make sure they are flat. I do iron it on to the salt packets and then hand-stitch them on again. On the back of the skirt is a diamond shape I did with my embroidery machine of the diamond authority with the parts of the giant robot they control (talk about a weird plot twist tbh) Under the locations is the sand which is attached via clear caulk and then sand is smooshed in. The beach water is underneath, so the beach water is actually rubber resin (it is a heavy duty type and isn't sold most places, its sortof uncommon) So, there were 3 trial and errors for the water, I first did it in regular resin but added less hardener and coated it in clear acrylic in order to make it still mildly malleable but not tacky. It was more malleable than normal but not as much as I needed. Moving on- I tried the first batch of rubber resin. If you don't buy the kind without the alumilite it will yellow (and this resin is sorta weird and acts strange because of it) and guess what, blue and yellow make green. And the water looked so YUCKY. Third try. So important clarification- this resin also hardens in oh idk maybe 15 minutes max on a good day. 8 minutes on a bad day. I had both. So, because of the short time I had my partner help me mix up the batches. I had to have light, dark, and white for mixing. I had the fabric shape drawn onto dollar tree clear curtains that were taped to my porch ground. I then poured the dark, then light, then white. With gloves on I mixed it to give that watery affect. (not enough time to treat it like an acrylic pour but man I wish) Once it dries it is then attached to the dress with clear caulk. On the edge of the skirt is a ribbon and then a handwoven bead string that is beaded like a braid. So, you have the main bead

bit in the center and then 3 other bead bits. I had 3 needles and braided it like that.

LONG BEACH SKIRT: So, the second skirt is built very similar to the original. The pieces on the skirt are more symbolic of the show. The villain of the first episode is Centipeedle and then the villain of the last episode (SPOILER SORRY) is Monster Steven then on the back is the giant Obsidian temple. The obsidian temple came first and took the longest racking in a whopping 60 hours. I will say these jumbo designs are a little different from the smaller counterparts because these were the ones I started when the pandemic started and TAKE A GUESS WHAT HOBBY EVERYONE TOOK UP?! Yeah needlepoint, or it seemed like it and every hobby store was SOLD OUT of almost all embroidery floss. So, all the floss is hand dyed and colored because I LITERALLY COULDN'T GET MATERIALS (IMSTILLMADABOUTIT) Which took so many hours to get the colors I needed. Especially the grey. The grey for Obsidian and Monster Steven is yarn and not floss because I could not get any more floss). The mountain underneath Obsidian is a textile manipulation piece, so multiple fabric pieces are roughly sewn down to get the texture and coloring you need. I used mostly denims and cottons to get the rough texture to match a mountainside. The little lighthouse is embroidered on my embroidery machine from a file I made.

UNDERNEATH LONG BEACH SKIRT: Underneath the big skirt is a whole other world to immerse yourself in Steven universe. So once again-Smocking. The white as we call "frosting" smocking technique is 1.25-inch squares compared to the 1 cm ones of before. I made a second wood board with the 1in squares since the smocking underneath is literally like 6 yards of fabric (I know it doesn't look like it but man does smocking go through fabric) On the underside in the photos you can really see the blue braid woven beads I mentioned in "short beach skirt". Along with that bead line you can also see little bubbles hand-sewn to the dress! the bubbles there are literal Christmas ornaments cut in half and alcohol dyed. (I used sharpies, alcohol and a spray bottle) They are then clear coated with clear spray-paint to ensure they stay colored and the color doesn't rub off. Inside the bubbles are clay gems, painted and coated with resin to ensure stability. I sanded the bottoms and used hot glue to attach them as heavy-duty adhesives tend to yellow or bleed through and since the fabric (where there isn't salt) is pretty thin and I didn't want to take the chance. Each gem is one we have seen in the show, so we have our main characters, then we have corrupted gems and then the gems with Lars on homeworld like Rutile and all them! Both sides have between 8-10 gems each. (try and guess the gems! <3)

PINK UNDERSKIRT PANELS: Once again for these pink panels I used smocking, you can see it on the outermost side. I used 1in squares for this one so I made a third board for smocking (3 boards in total- S, M, L) This part of the skirt on both sides kinda represented Stevens Pink Diamond abilities like portal making (is that even what it would be considered???) any who, since these panels are hidden until shown it seemed fitting so I put the inside of Lions's Mane on one side and Lion on the other. For Lion I once again did the textile painting technique like I did with the mountain and textured him with dozens of different pink fabrics, string and paper. (yes, I sewed through paper to get some of the pink textures). I did a bit of paint for the eyes to make them pop a bit better. The other side is an applique I did with spray adhesive for the tree base and branches, then they are hand stitched on top of to make it pop. I also machine stitched on top to ensure all pieces are well attached. For the small parts of the design like the t-shirt, and the treasure chest I used my embroidery machine to make the pieces.

MAIN WHITE SKIRT TRIM: The last part is the center white skirt! So, for starters, I can’t read sheet music. I never took music classes as a kid since I always took art (believe me, I regret it now) So I kinda had to teach myself music stuff in order to read the sheet music. So, the music notes on the bottom are from the Steven Universe intro song "we are the crystal gems!" I sewed down 5 different strings about the same distance apart to be the bars (I think that’s what they are called) then drew on the music notes with water soluble ink and started stitchin! My friend taught me what the notes meant and what parts were important on a sheet music sheet to include (like the pauses and stuff) and I can mostly understand it! (I love the music of SU and it’s such an integral part I HAD to include it) So the whole song wraps around the bottom of the white skirt. If I were to take off the over skirt I could twirl in a circle and you could read the whole thing (theoretically)

THAT WAS SO MANY WORDS AND IF YOU STUCK IT OUT TO READ TILL THE END YOU ARE THE REAL MVP. TBH I AM ALWAYS SHOCKED WHEN I MAKE SOMETHING AT THE END. I'M LIKE WOAH DUDE I MADE THAT NO WAY. SHOCK. I DONT FULLY KNOW WHY I WENT SO HARDCORE ON THIS PIECE BUT IT IS AWESOME SO OH WELL. (Tbh it may have been a coping mechanism for this whole pandemic business but haha that's just the way it is guess)

Bio: So, this dress was made originally for the HER Universe fashion show this year. I got declined before they saw the full piece. (I'm not salty, you're salty!) but I designed the dress because I wanted to say goodbye to beach city, as the show's finale was last year. The dress was going to go to San Diego comic con and be my way of ushering the show out. Showing the whole world how much I loved it. Steven Universe meant a lot in different ways to different people but for me it was a lot about pure friendship. I got to watch the show with my best friends and cosplay with them for years. The original Steven universe was just our show and was for us and I will always love it for that

But Steven Universe future was different, it was for me. I saw myself in Steven in so many heartbreaking ways. As a caretaker I saw how much Steven sacrificed and when he stopped taking care of the world, he felt he had no purpose. And I cried after so many episodes because no one talks about what happens to the hero after they hand up the cape, after they settle down. And I saw it. I saw me and it meant so much to just see myself. I love Steven universe for that reason alone, if not for the 500 amazing reasons too :))

Photo Credit:My husband Victor! :) (Photo location: Lake Hardy, Indiana)

Video Credit:My best man Lucy (she is one of those folks I mentioned above that watched this show with me from the start and I’m happy to have done this little shoot with her and man I just love her ok)

GOODBYE BEACH CITY THANKS FOR BEING MY HOME FOR ALL THESE YEARS!

GONK!

The GNK power droids, also known as gonk droids, are walking batteries found in the Star Wars universe. You know there’s a gonk droid coming when you hear the “gonk” sounds they make. They slowly trundle along and power vehicles and machinery as needed, sometimes picking up little hitchhikers along the way!

My gonk’s name is JNI-4. For some reason, I thought this costume was gonna be a quick and easy build. The main body of the costume was two large containers. The middle part is a 4 inch strip of aluminum that is riveted onto the top container. The two halves are held together by nuts and bolts and are able to separate for ease of transportation. The legs are aluminum ducting and the feet are 3D printed.

Everything else is 3D printed or scraps such as bottle caps and jar lids that are glued or screwed onto the body. There are several lights on the front and one on the side. On the front is a moving holographic projector that lights up in different colors. There is a little trap door where JNI-4 can give anyone that comes a little too close a shock! It’s also great for administering stickers and trinkets to kids. The left side has a moving gear, modified from a battery powered car toy. On the top you can see a moving antennae and an exhaust pipe that spews out smoke.

Everything was painted with the look of years of use in the deserts of Tatooine in mind. If you look on the back corner, you can see where JNI-4 got hit by a stray blaster shot. Poor little guy!

When it was all said and done, it certainly wasn’t a quick nor an easy build, LOL! I am glad how everything turned out and I look forward to making people smile at conventions and events with my little droid.

Michelle Joy Princess Marimon Hedmond @ShellieCutiePie on Instagram

Re-Creation - Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon

Hey! My name is actually Michelle and I’m from Nevada! I am Filipino and my family is from the Visayas islands. I used to live in The Philippines for high school and a year of college. I learned so much with working with our indigenous materials back then! From huge palm tree leaves, banana leaves, sticks, dried flowers, coconut husks, and more! I fell in love with working with what I have and what’s out in nature, it made me even more creative.

I hope you love my take on recreating Raya’s full outfit! I made my own hat with dead palm leaves straight from my own backyard. It was my first time making a foam sword and handling a dremel tool. The arm pieces are made of foam, thick shoe laces, twine, and puffy paint. I bought some boots that costed $13 and I cut it and made the tip of it sloping up, painted it, added foam for the center part. I painted all the props and boots all at the same time while each was drying, puffy painted details on my cape & blazer, and even made my own foam stamp for the blazer. I even made my own patterns. 

Faith is big in The Philippines. My parents raised me to learn the ways of our Lord, our God. I prayed to God that I could make and finish this costume and it was a fun and amazing experience overall! I’ve made and done things that I’ve never before! I spent less than $125 on this cosplay because I started with whatever I had at home first. My belt is made out of a handwoven wine gift bag that I cut up and puffy painted the designs. My pants I made from scratch with light green vibrant fabric that I already had at home, I dyed with brown and black rye dye in a bucket and hot water, dried in my backyard in this perfect summer heat to dry it up quick, and splattered it with water and spray to get that perfect Raya pants color! My top is sewn on the machine for the base part and then I draped and hand-sewn the pleats. By hand, I clay molded the dragon piece on my sword! Did embroidery for the first time too for the tip of my cape collar!

Raya And The Last Dragon was such a delight to see because I finally got to see a strong woman character who is Southeast Asian like me! Can’t wait for my future kids to watch it! 

Making this cosplay was definitely the most special one I’ve ever made. It is everything to me. That I put all of my talents, my faith, and my love into this, in a crunch of 8 days straight. I owe it all to God & I hope that little girls and boys who love Raya can look at this and know that with keeping our Faith and having it strong, Nothing is impossible. 

Photos and Video taken by my Husband, Robert <3 

All photo edits, video editing, hair styling my real hair, directing by me. 

I want to thank my Husband so much for motivating me to always do everything I love all at once and for believing in me. I love you forever!

I also wanna thank @nammai​ for inspiring me to make this & all the tips he gave me to start. I applaud his talents in costuming (and how fast he works) and hearing his podcast episode with @asiansewistcollective gave me that push to really go for my dream to make this cosplay.

#Comic-ConAtHome

#Comic-ConAtHome2021

2021 Comic-Con@Home virtual Masquerade

Devon Baker (Komickrazi Studios)

Costume Name: Carlotta

Costume Description: Phantom of the Opera Musical, Hannibal Scene (Re-creation)

This costume is a recreation of Carlotta’s Dress from the Phantom of the Opera’s Hannibal Scene.  It contains a Multiple layered skirt on a steel hoop frame.  Each Tab on the skirt was carefully embroidered with embroidery floss, sequins, and seed and bugle beads over the course of 4 months.  The bodice is fully boned and contains 4 layers of fabric (a satin liner, duck cloth, velvet and gold lace netting).  It was trimmed and beaded with an assortment of sequins, gems and plastic and glass beads.  The costume took approximately 300 hours of work to complete.

Creator Bio:

Devon Baker is a cosplayer from Canada.  She has been making costumes for over 20 years.  She loves nothing more than a spooky horror movie, a good cup of tea and maybe a musical soundtrack or two to sew to.

Welcome to the Comic-Con@Home 2021 Masquerade!

Distinguished artists, writers, and publishers Phil and Kaja Foglio, Master and Mistress of Ceremonies for Comic-Con's and WonderCon's in-person Masquerades for many years, give you an introduction to our virtual contest in this short video before you enjoy the amazing costumes.

Don't miss any of the videos the contestants have included, some have important information and music. Anytime you see an arrow on a photo, click on it, and be sure your sound is turned on. Enjoy!

Julieta Ravencrest - Miss Ravencrest

- Costume Entry Title: Judgement Paladin

- Costume Description: Re-creation: Art by Weis 2008 World of Warcraft Judgement Blood Elf Paladin

- Bio: Hello! I am a cosplayer in British Columbia Canada! I do a game, anime, and art cosplay. Armor and props are what bring me joy. My husband is my amazing photographer!

The individual strands from the waist piece, each of the gold lining were initially hand stitched on and then sewn over to create a smooth look and avoid stretching.