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Hot Glue Gun Helper- A cosplayers best friend! (oh, and a giveaway!)

Lots and lots of hot glue.

The other day, I was diligently working on the odangos (buns) for a Sailor Moon wig, and it was… painful. The first attempt, the ball was too small, the second attempt I had used entirely too much hot glue, because I had to put some glue in there, wait for it to cool enough to stick my finger in there to hold the hair down,  and then if it wasn’t enough hot glue to hold the hair down, I had to add even more. I started getting frustrated, because my fingers were pretty badly burned (it comes with making costumes, I think) and so I tried to work quicker, which just made it worse. I gave up for the night and went online to try and find some kind of solution to help me either be able to work quicker with the hot glue, or to minimize my burns.

What I found was review after review of Hot Glue Gun Helper– a newish invention by two craft television hosts who were also tired of hot glue burns, and hot glue sticking everywhere it shouldn’t. Continue reading →

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The Original Pocket Podcast cosplay photo contest!

I know that not all of you listen to our podcast, or read that blog, but if you’re a cosplayer, you should definitely head over to the blog today and enter in our very first contest for the podcast, a cosplay photo contest!

Head over to The Original Pocket Podcast blog to check out the details!

(Oh, and we’re going to be having a giveaway of our own here in a few weeks, so stay posted!)

 

 

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Arcanite Reapers and you. Part 3

Time to assemble the Axe and finish out the last detail items. These include cosmetic items on the axe. The shaft of the axe looks like its made from a spine, and I also need to finish casting the skulls that will place on the flat of the axe.  This is a lot of work but most of the steps leading up to it are done.

We start with creating a casting the skulls due to time for the material to set up.

This was a clay sculpt that I knocked out while watching some family guy. I don’t do much sculpting but I though this turned out really well. We had a lot of problems creating a mold for this, but most the problems were outlined in a previous post Do’s and Don’ts. Continue reading →

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Wigs!

I am currently working on a Sailor Moon wig based off this tutorial, but I will be posting my own tutorial on it later showing things I’ve learned in the process and what I did differently. If anybody else is interested in custom wigs (especially the Sailor Moon one, I’m having fun making it!) please send us an email, I would love to hear from you! I try to keep my prices reasonable and I’m willing to work with budgets.

In other news, I have a long royal blue wig for sale, either styled or unstyled, if anybody is interested. It is this wig from Arda Wigs, 35″ long, and I originally got it to style into a male night elf (from World of Warcraft) but we ended up running out of time for it, and so it’s sitting in our closet and we don’t need it for anything. Asking $10 less than price on website, and I’ll cut you a deal if you want it styled.

Keep an eye out, we’ve got the third part of the Arcanite Reaper tutorial coming up soon!

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The Original Pocket Podcast!

In case you don’t know by now, the awesome Pocket and I have a podcast, where we talk about a ton of different subjects (Blizzcon comes up a lot, and cosplaying, and video games). I just wanted to get word out there on this blog as well, since I am a cohost, that our podcasts are usually up every Tuesday around 10am PST, and that you should all listen. You can hear about what commissions I’m working on, or cosplay dos and don’ts (not all of them are listed on this blog!), and every week we’re going to try and give one tip about Blizzcon.

Don’t be shy, listen in, and feel free to submit questions, comments, or your own cosplay tips on what not to do!

http://www.theoriginalpocket.com

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www.fiendle.com commission review

Ok, you guys. Our friend Jenny (from fiendle.com, we’ve talked about her before) is pretty much the most awesome person ever.

I can tell you don’t believe me. How could anyone be the most awesome person, ever? Obviously I’m going to have to show you some pictures to convince you.

Firstly, some back story. Mario has a troll priest as his main, and I have a blood elf priest. When we first met at Blizzcon, he was wearing Tier 8 priest armor, and I was wearing (on the second day) a lovely purple dress. 

Yeah, kind of like that. Only he was a human, not a troll, but that’s what our characters look like in game (plus the shoulder armor on his part, totally forgot to add those in.) Continue reading →

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Arcanite Reapers and you: Part 2

We left off and we only had a very general shape of an ax and only a true wow nerd would be able to call this an “Arcanite Reaper”

After some examination of the current project I realized that I had made the center section much too large. I used the computer print out and laid it on top of the ax at this point and used this to find out where I needed to make some corrections. Continue reading →

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Cosplay Do’s and Don’ts: Molds

Well, here we are with our first cosplay do’s and don’ts. I wanted to make a series of this, so you will definitely see more posts like this one popping up as we learn what not to do when working on cosplay!

Mario and I were working on an Arcanite Reaper, when we came across the problem of how to make the skull. Since it is on both sides of the axe, we wanted to make sure that both skulls were as close as possible to each other. We decided the best way to do this was to carve a skull out of clay, then make a negative mold of it, so we could easily duplicate the skull. Continue reading →

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Arcanite Reapers and you. Part 1

From Dec 21 – Jan 21 www.epicweapons.com ran a WOW weapon smithing contest.  I knew I had to enter, but couldn’t decide on which fantastic weapon to make.

At first I wanted to go big, Zin’Rokh

Alice kind of toned me down so I scaled back to Kalimdor’s Revenge

But alas even this was a bit to grand of a project for a limited budget after a great Christmas. A good friend Jenny who runs Fiendle.com wanted to make an Arcanite Reaper for an upcoming costume.  I asked if i could make it for her as both a free commission and an entry in to the weapon smithing contest. Continue reading →

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Review: Damsel in this Dress corsets

Recently, I purchased my second corset from Damsel in this Dress on Etsy. Now, I have to say, I am nuts for Etsy, browse it every day, and if you don’t already know about this site, then go ahead and head over there. There is literally everything you could want on there, hand made by awesome, crafty people, and chances are if there’s not something you need, you can find someone on there to make it for you.

Now, I had bought a corset from the shop owner, Michelle, before. I bought it specifically for an Alice in Wonderland inspired look for the release of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland.

Continue reading →