2013 coming to an end

When I started this blog last month, it was to see if any interest would spark in knowing about my life behind the photos and my thoughts and opinions within the cosplay community.
With over 400 page views already, I've decided to continue my blog next year.
However,  I had no idea how difficult it would be to keep updated while I only have the use of mobile Internet.
So, I've decided to put it on hold for about a month over Christmas and New Years until I move into my new house and get broadband.

Every year around this time I go on a small cosplay hiatus and take a break until closer to my next local con date in April, so it doesn't seem so stupid to discontinue posting until I get up and running again.

I have already started making plans for 2014, including introducing myself to the world of Worbla to improve my costuming techniques

I hope that 2014 will be my best year of cosplay ever and I will be keeping everyone updated here with my progress, reviews, and maybe even start interviewing cosplayers :)

See you all next year!
Lots of love
Bloom Cosplay

Send in the Worbla!

While sitting in a dark 2x2 room at work, I decided on my next big project...the DCUO promo vid version of Wonder Woman. 

I've decided that for this project I will have to bite the bullet and fork out for Worbla...especially for those insane boots. 

Seriously hoping I can get this baby done for Gold Coast Supanova along with AC Catwoman...making this my most advanced set of costumes for a convention. 

Last year I actually started making the armour out of foam but never continued the project...so time to start all over and do it right :D

Brisbane Supanova 2013

Hellooooooooooo general public of the internets!!

So I’m going to get straight to it. The weekend just gone meant time for a very exciting event in any Brisbanite cosplayer’s schedule…Brisbane Supanova.

Now this is the second of the year for Queensland but also one of the bigger Supanova events of the year.

This year was held at the RNA Showgrounds like every other year, however in a different area, as the renovations that were being carried out last year, have been completed. In my opinion, they should have kept the old layout.

The basic set out was: one huge building housed Artist’s Alley and the theatres, while another had all of the stalls inside. Now having these two buildings spaced quite far apart, in theory, would be an excellent idea. This was not the case.

On the Saturday and Sunday events, both buildings were overcrowded at all times while the walking area between was barely occupied. Seems fairly ridiculous hiring that much space when it wasn’t all being utilised.

The biggest problem that has always presented itself at the Supanova conventions I have attended is how they use the space. Just because you hire a bigger building, doesn’t mean you should cram more stalls into them!

Tons of cosplayers put hundreds of dollars and hours into their costumes, only to be forced to stand outside all day because it is too dangerous for a delicate costume to join the crowds. In reality, not everyone cares about the effort you put into a costume, some people go to these conventions just for the super-star guests and to buy things that they may not be able to elsewhere. With the amount of people crammed into such small spaces, it becomes human nature to push through crowds and barge past people to get through faster. When one becomes frustrated with a crowd, they don’t think twice about what they’re pushing into, they just care bout getting out.

Why not take a row of stalls away, spread out the remaining, and create a more comfortable area for the attendees. Or better yet, take out that wrestling ring that takes up the same space as four stalls because really…who goes to Supanova just to watch wrestling? I mean, what’s it even got to DO with Supanova.

Plus side, Brisnova will be held at the Convention Centre next year! YAY! :D much easier access to public transport, accommodation, food, and Southbank if we feel like a swim haha. Quite possibly the most important factor about this change, is the safety. Children, families, teenagers, adults and older people attend this convention every year…and I can bet if they were asked where they feel safer walking around (especially at night after the con), they would all say Southbank.

Now enough of that.

Day one of Supanova saw me dressed as Katniss in her training outfit. I chose this costume because it is mega comfy and I just wanted to spend the first day looking at everything/buying all the things!

I didn’t see many costumes of recognition that day, but I thoroughly enjoyed the smaller crowd. One thing that annoyed me about the weekend was the complete lack of security with the weapons policy. I left my bow and arrows at home to adhere correctly to the weapons policy for costumes…but it seems not many other people did. Over the course of the weekend I saw numerous weapons outside the restrictions and a handful of strung bows, which, as I understood, was a big no-no. Clearly, no one cares about the rules within the volunteer group.

Me with Effie 

Day two, I was dressed in Aurora’s peasant dress from Disney’s Sleeping Beauty. A less recognisable costume obviously, but something I still wanted to cosplay as. I attended with my friend as Ariel, which seemed to be a very popular choice of costume in itself.

There were thousands more people attending this day, which made it quite hard to move around within the stalls, but I still persisted in looking, as there were new things to see.

 We found ourselves a little Belle.

Day three saw me as part of a DC Heroes and Villains group as Poison Ivy. I chose the New 52 version as a way to still be Ivy without being half naked. We were quite a popular group to photograph, so much to a point where we were told off several times for blocking up the pathway. This of course, is not a cosplayer’s fault.

We don’t ask for continuous groups of people to take our photograph at once.

We don’t purposely block a path just for fun. THEN we were told to move over into a vacant corner of the room.

Volunteers need to realise that we are NOT going to move into a corner just because people want to take our photo. We have just as much right as anyone else to wander and enjoy the con without being hassled by you to get out of the way. We understand it gets quite annoying having the paths blocked, but we wont deny people photos just because of two minutes of inconvenience to passers by.

 In the Kings Comics booth (Photo by Kayla Barham)

*sigh* enough ranting for now.

While wandering around Supanova, I saw some truly outstanding costumes on display, especially on the Sunday. I was so happy to have found an awesome Bombshell Batgirl wandering around, although I wish I could have seen the rest of the set being represented as well.

All in all, the weekend was a tiring, yet eventful one, and no amount of negatives will stop me attending next year. Hopefully Sydnova as well ;)

Size doesn't matter

“But in reality, the cosplay that looks closest to the character wins: physical outlooks, characteristics, material of outfit, etc.”

This comment was made on my facebook page recently and I’ve decided to address it.

Yes I agree, to some extent, the cosplay needs to look like the character…otherwise what’s the point?

But why do those kinds of things matter, unless you’re in competition.

A while ago, I found a picture of a rather large cosplayer, posing in her Rini (Sailor Moon) costume for an online competition. She received so much scrutiny such as “you shouldn’t be cosplaying her!” “youre too big to be her!”

By what people failed to realize is, she was portraying the character perfectly.

The cheeky, innocent attitude she showed in the photo along with the perfect replication of the costume, made her a perfect replica of the character, but no one saw past her size.

Another point is, who is to decide what cosplays are accurate and what cosplays aren’t?

On the topic of books that have been turned into movies…many characters are portrayed inaccurately on the big screen…but no one tends to bat an eyelid.

Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games trilogy for example. The main trait that has always been brought up is the character’s olive skin…a skin tone which the actress portraying her, Jennifer Lawrence, does not have. But everyone got over it.

Comic book characters are redrawn all the time.

These versions of Wonder Woman are all different, but they are all still Wonder Woman, none of them are “wrong”. So why should we be allowed to go to a convention and judge people’s costumes as wrong because of how they look.

Then we move on to original designs of characters. Many people design their own costumes for characters while still keeping to the personality and look of the original.

These are two portrayals of the character Velma Dinkley from Scooby Doo. When you look at the second picture, could you ever imagine the character, actually posing for a photo like this? Velma is a conservative, intelligent “geek girl” who would never pose in such a way. Why go so far away from the original character and change their personality, when the original is perfect.

Not really sure if this post made much sense but back to the first comment...unless you're in an accuracy competition, why does cosplaying have to be about winning? why does it matter your size, ethnicity, etc...as long as you stay true to the character, you should be able to cosplay who ever you want.

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!

First post yay!

Thought I’d start off with a negativity-free post to ease everyone into my blog.

Now I’ve seen countless pictures of this costume close up and so much detail has gone into it, but right now I’m focusing on the wig.

I once attempted to create Rapunzel’s braid myself with a high level of failure so anyone who succeeds, is a god in my eyes.

This pic is of Pink Pixie Cosplay, a Brisbane-local cosplayer who just completed her creation of Rapunzel as part of a cosplay charity group called Drawn2Life.

The amount of effort gone into the wig alone is astounding and the accuracy is impeccable in my opinion. All hairpieces were purchased from Arda Wigs online which includes a base wig and several wefts to create the length and numerous braids.

I honestly don’t think I could ever make a wig creation to this quality so I send mega kudos in her direction.

If you would like to follow her work and check out any other costumes, along with more detail of Rapunzel, check out her facebook page www.facebook.com/PinkPixieCosplay

A helping hand

I have been cosplaying for two years now and have 20+ costumes under my belt. Compared to other cosplayers, there is not a great deal of difficulty within the methods I use...even though I have tried to the best of my ability to research new ways to do things.

I'm starting this blog, not only to keep updated on my semi-interesting life, but also to keep the interwebs updated on any costumes I'm working on.

Throughout my costuming experience, there have been very few people personally willing to help me out to make my creations better, so through this new blog, I want to aim to help other cosplayers out.

I have aimed to get my work out there via such mediums as deviantart, Facebook, tumblr and various cosplay based websites, with little success, so I hope to reach people on a more personal level with my costuming, rather than just post pictures that hardly show the detail and time that went into each creation.

All opinions that will be posted on this blog are entirely my own. You may not agree with some comments, and that is fine, but blogs are a place for people to freely voice their own opinions without being scrutinised. So please respect and understand that before reading any posts by me.