Confessions of a Cosplayer

I have written and rewritten this post so many times I lost count, but here’s hoping the final copy makes sense. I haven’t even read over this document since finishing so no doubt something wont be comprehensive haha, its just the ramblings of a mad woman.

“You shouldn’t cosplay to be popular” is a phrase being thrown around a lot online these days ever since cosplay became more mainstream and accepted by the general public. Sure it’s true enough, you should be cosplaying because it’s awesome and you get to be your favourite character for a day. It also acts as an ice-breaker with random people at conventions that have the same interests as you.

But on the other hand, what’s wrong with wanting everyone to love you and your work?

All my life I have lived in the shadows. Never really being looked up to or praised for the things I do. I don’t work in some awesome job that does great things for humanity. I’m not an academic; in fact I just scraped through high school and my first degree, the second isn’t doing much better. My parents were, and still are, supportive of everything I did/do, but I mean…they’re parents right? They love you and everything you do no matter what (well most of the time).

When I found cosplay, I found something I actually enjoyed doing, and in my own opinion, did really well. For a while it was all about the ‘having fun’ part and making new friends...and then I hit a wall. In 2013 I came to a point in my life when I had to stop making costumes every weekend and get serious about life. I worked in a job that basically forbade me from having weekends off, barely gave me any consistent hours for the money I needed, I started paying bills and wanting more expensive methods of making costumes…so I took it down a few dozen notches.

Around this time, I didn’t really use social media as much so I lost touch with a lot of people I only saw at cons… most of those people I don’t talk to at all anymore because I didn’t make huge efforts to stay in touch. I still put heaps of effort into my costumes for conventions, but then started to wonder if it was truly worth it. At the point where I started to 100% do my own costume work without assistance, people stopped noticing me.

Which brings me back to the original point about popularity.

For me, it isn’t about having thousands of people liking me…it’s about having thousands of people noticing the effort I put into my costumes and characters that I love.

At conventions I always notice those handful of costumes that were made out of recycled materials that cost under $100, or the people who already look like the character and wear normal clothes…these people were the ones getting all the praise for their awesome costumes of characters that were popular.

I looked at these people and thought, “why isn’t anyone noticing me? I put tons of time, money and effort into creating this character accurately and no one really seems to care”

This is the thought that always haunts my mind now at conventions.

I pick characters that aren’t exactly popular, hell when I was Moonstar, five people at the entire con knew who I was…but I felt pretty awesome when they called out to me by my character name.

My knowledge of all things gaming and anime aren’t exactly extensive, but it’s people like Kamui Cosplay that makes me wish it was. She creates amazing costumes almost entirely out of Worbla (a tool I have yet to master), many of which I have never seen the character before, but you can tell she has put many man hours into creating the accuracy.

It’s not very often that we see many costumes like hers in Australia so I am truly in awe of her work.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying at all that every ‘popular’ cosplayer doesn’t deserve their recognition, I’m just saying there are cosplayers out there who deserve MORE recognition for the work they do.

A short dictionary meaning of the work popular is as follows: Appealing to the general public, widely favoured or admired.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be appealing, favoured or admired. I’m sure everyone in the WORLD wants to be admired by someone. Recently I had one of my ‘fans’ approach me at a con and tell me how much she loved my work and followed my page…I am now good friends with that person. Going through my whole life never being told how awesome I am at something, makes me truly appreciate the comments made by others about my costumes.

How many times have you seen young start-up musicians say they want to be famous? This is no different, they too are just wanting people to see what they can do, and love it.

In conclusion, is there really anything wrong with cosplaying and wanting to be ‘popular’? I personally cosplay because I finally found something in life I am good at, and I just want to get my work out there to the world so people will appreciate the time, money and effort I put into this crazy hobby.

No doubt this blog post will get some comments disagreeing with it…as evidenced on my facebook like page, everything I say regarding issues seems to cause uproar these days.

Again to reiterate about my blog, these are my opinions and my opinions alone. Please do not crutinise them as I’m sure you would want the same courtesy when you tell your own opinion.

What was my point again?

Keep on sewing,

Bloom xoxo

Stargirl's Cosmic Staff Tutorial: Part 1

So at the end of this year, I will be cosplaying in a DC Bombshells group as Stargirl and I thought I'd upload the ins and outs of how I made her Cosmic Staff

So as a whole, the way I chose to create it isn't that difficult...which is why I like it :P


First of all I headed down to my local hardware store (for those Aussies, I went to Bunnings) and grabbed some 25mm (1inch) diameter PVC pipe, along with these joining pipes.

The first three are for the main part of the staff, the next four are to create the bendy part (this is technical language here people :P ) , the bottom left is for the bottom of the staff to protect it from being damaged, and the bottom right is for the top to attach the triangle bit.


Next step, I laid out the 45 degree joins to figure out the size I wanted then measured up all my pipe to be in between them. The sizing is purely up to you.

To cut the pipe I just used my fake Dremel :P
Cuts through pipe really well but don't force it or you may break the cutting tool like I did once.

After cutting all the pieces, I put the staff together to see how it looks and voila! Here it is :)

Since taking this pic I glued all the pieces together and it has been painted...but that will all be in Part 2 of this tutorial :)


If you have any questions, don't hesitate to message me at my page
www.facebook.com/bloomcosplay1


Until then, keep on sewing
Bloom xoxo