Mirai Nikki Photoshoot (circa AZ 2012)

Another item from the backlog of things from last summer- the Mirai Nikki photoshoots with the wonderful and talented Katsuya Weller!  Beware- massive photo spam below.

Group shots yeaaaah

Everyone loves sketchy parking lots full of cosplayers

       Deus!

Poor Stuart and his miniscule field of vision

Murumuru!

Lounging on the sketchy stairs

Read all the manga! (i.e. the Ratchet and Clank comic we borrowed off of Katsuya)

Time for Mimi's closeup!

Ninth / Minene Uryuu!

I recall this feeling very awkward

Yes, scream into the microphone like a crazy person!

Third / I don't remember his real name because he dies after the first episode (spoilers)!

Guys, we should probably take the stairs instead

Twelfth!

Next up, Katsuya's Black Rock Shooter pictures!

~Kathryn

Murumuru cosplay - the final touch! (a small wig tutorial)

Murumuru's costume was super easy to make...until I started to work on the wig, which was a disaster.  My original plan was to attach the two LONG ponytails I purchased from Arda wigs to my Eruka wig.  Let's just say that it didn't work out very well, the Eruka wig had to be preserved for the second appearance of my Eruka cosplay and it was way too thin to work with.  So I had to purchase another wig last minute from cosplay.com (due to the fact that Arda was closed Q_Q).  

The wig took way too long to arrive.  It got shipped out after I made a paypal dispute with cosplay.com.  So, don't buy from them.  

Here's the wig untouched.  It was a lot darker than the "silver" ponytails from Arda.  The quality of the wig was pretty good, except that they stitched up the eyelets in the back where you could adjust the size of your wig.  tsk tsk

Murumuru has this weird bang thing going on where it lifts up and makes a little pocket thingie (this is hard to explain Q_Q) kind of like Sephiroth's hair.  It took me ages to find a tutorial on how to make this happen, but I did find a Japanese tutorial HERE.  It uses a frozen glass bottles to form heated fibers.  Aslo..apparently this type of hair is called the middle M letter (途中Ｍ字).

so I took some hair, heated it up with my hair dryer and then rolled it down with a frozen glass tube I found. Then I teased the down side of the section and brushed the top smooth.  Hair spray was then applied to keep the shape of the "M".

Done with both sides.

I have to say, I thought my job was done after this since the ponytails were clip-on.  I was totally WRONG. There was no way on earth those heavy clip on ponytails were going to stay on that wig.  Especially when I have to make outer decorations for them. 

taken from THIS POST on cosplay.com

Now, the image above is where I got my inspiration to make my ponytails.  However, instead caulk, I used hot glue.  I know that some of you are probably frowning at this point, but I was in such a time crunch that I had to use whatever dried the fastest.  I made two little stubs on the wig and hotglued them to harden.  Then, I took the clips off of my ponytails and carved two pieces of pink insulation foams to fit/hotglue into the ponytails.  Last but not least, copious amount of hot glue were applied to the foam and the stub to hold both together.  You have to be VERY patient and hold the ponytails up until all of the hotglue is dried.  The drying process took about 10min.

After attaching the ponytails, you will notice that your wig has gotten so heavy that it is impossible to put on. Do not worry!  Just sew some wig clips in the front and you are good to go!  It will just hurt a little bit because your hair line will get pulled back really tightly.

Photo courtesy of  David Song

Photo by Stuart

and Voila!  My entire costume :D  More photos will come since Katsuya Weller is awesome and has posted some preview shots of our Mirai Nikki photoshoot already! 

Cosplay Progress: Murumuru (with a small bracelet tutorial)

Sorry for the lack of updates, a lot has happened lately to my family and friends.  Anyhow, I have made some major progress with my Murumuru cosplay from Mirai Nikki, so I'm going to post it here.  :D

Currently, I'm done with Murumuru's shirt, panties + tail, and bracelet.  

I made the shirt from scratch out of some pattern I used for my Ciel cosplay long long time ago.  I altered the pattern quite a bit, but I think the vest came out a little short >.> oh well.  

Anyhow, onto the bracelet tutorial:

1. Buy some cheap plastic bracelet and clay.  I used La Doll Premier Lightweight Stone Clay, I like this type of clay because it is very easy to sand.  

2. Then, I just wrapped strips of clay onto the plastic bracelet.  This step would be a lot easier if you use water, water really helps to soften the clay.  Well, my clay is a little old, so it kinda dried out.  >.>

Here are the two I made, obviously, they are not perfect, but I can sand them down later to make them a little rounder and smoother.  They took about 24 hours to completely dry.

3. Sanding.  This process takes a little bit of patience, and know when to quit.  The good thing is, if you mess up, you can probably just add some more clay onto it.

See, it's a lot better!

4. Gesso.  I use a type of transparent gesso from Liquitex, it was just something I had from painting, but I'm sure you can using any gesso that works with whatever your paint is going to be.  This step is important because the plastic part of the bracelet is very smooth and hard to paint, you could even sand it so that the gesso would go on more easily.

5. Painting!  I painted everything white :D

6. Glaze or Clear nail polish.  Since I couldn't find my clay glaze, I just used some spare nail polish.

Anyways, I also started to make the little cat pin

hehe, it really needs to be sanded >.<

Here's everything I have so far:

That's all!

-Mimi-

ahh, I have not posted for a while

Stuey and I went to his sister's wedding this weekend and hence have not had anytime to either work on our cosplay or blog Q__Q.  I do, however, have some new pictures of Gachapin to share with you guys.  This is basically a wig review.

Remember this wig?  It's the wig I bought from ebay for my Eruka cosplay.  It was a very cheap wig ($24) and definitely lived up to its price.  The wig itself was thin and tangled very easily. However, it works with Eruka because she wears a big hat that covers up the very thin part of the wig.  Now, I have to somehow transform this sucker into Murumuru's hair.

I know for sure that the volume of this wig is not nearly enough and that it will be hard to make ponytails with one wig, so I ordered two LONG ponytails from Arda wigs in silver to match my current wig.

As you can see, the pony tail I got is a little big lighter than the wig I have in this picture, but in reality, they are pretty darn close.  The biggest difference is probably the quality of the ebay wig compared to Arda's.  Well, there's no comparison.  Arda's ponytail is not only silky, but also very easy to brush.  The volume of the ponytail is amazingly full but also makes it super heavy.  I might have to somehow dye the wig a little bit with a lavender colored sharpie...but we will see.

I definitely recommend ordering from Arda, however, they are a lot more expensive compared to the cheap ebay wigs.  (The ponytails were about $20 a piece with shipping)  I have also received my black rock shooter wig from Cosplaywigsusa, however, it's ponytails are not nearly as full as the ones from Arda.  I also need to figure out something in order to add some blue highlights to my black wig...any suggestions?

- Mimi -