Friends or Frenemies?

This blog post was inspired by a conversation I had with a fellow cosplayer recently. I had a ton of things I wanted to say here, but alas I could not put my feelings into words. I apologise for anything that doesn't make grammatical sense as I was just ranting when I wrote this.

It has come to my attention, that there are certain people in the cosplay community, that seem to only be nice to you to preserve their image...then completely dog you in the online world or at the next con. As a person, I am quite reserved which leads me to appear anti-social at conventions and online. This is not the case. I have tried to be friends with almost every cosplayer I have come into contact with, and when they did not share the same desire, I stood back not wanting them to think I was annoying or weird. When I was at the height of my cosplay career, I moved out of home and no longer had access to the internet, except my phone. This caused me to lose contact with people which I really regret. My whole life I have felt like a majority of my friendships have only been kept, because I was making the effort to keep it. I am not attacking anyone that I used to be friends with by saying this, I am just being honest and expressing how I felt. Since I started this amazing hobby, I have seen new people join the scene and have everyone love them from the start...this never happened to me. I can honestly say, I am jealous of the people this happens to. Having heaps of friends on social networking is not just about looking popular though, it also provides you with heaps of networking opportunities and access to people with skills that can help you with your own costumes. I am constantly calling out to cosplayers through my page asking for help, however getting barely anything in return. This I believe is caused by not being in the right social groups.

At a recent convention, I even witnessed a cosplayer scowling (in what I can only assume was jealously) at another after she said "your wig is so much better than mine". People go on and on about how cosplay is not a competition and we should be praising each other for their work...but these are the same people who are the biggest hypocrites in their own minds. I will admit, I have thrown a few comments about inaccuracy around when I am passionate about a character someone is dressed as...and anyone who tells you they've never done that, is a liar.

In saying that, there are cosplayers (mainly in Sydney) whom I do not see for months and sometimes years at a time, but will gladly interact with me and hang out as if no time has passed by. These are the people I am truly grateful to call my friends.

Next year when I have improved my weight, and in turn my costume confidence, I hope to reconnect with everyone that I lost touch with over the years and be accepted again. It may seem petty, but I miss being the one everyone would hug at conventions and want to get selfies with.

If you ever feel like it's difficult to make friends or that no one likes you, don't feel you are alone...know you aren't the only one thinking this about themselves. It's impossible for everyone to like everyone, that's not human nature...but NEVER think there is no one in cosplay that won't be friends with you. The community is made up of so many different types of people, and there is a friend for everyone.

Keep on sewing,
Bloom xoxo

Oz Comic-Con Brisbane 2014

Oz Comic-Con Brisbane 2014

By Lois Lane

This weekend was the first Oz Comic-Con event for Brisbane, Australia and as a quick summary, wasn't too impressed by the event in general. The attendance was very different to our usual convention, Supanova, and didn't come close to comparing. 

It is good for events such as these to be nowhere near crowded, for ease of moving around and seeing all there is to see. This definitely wasn't a problem for OzCC. The attendance itself was lacking severely, which in turn, made the general atmosphere dull and uneventful. On top of the atmosphere, the stalls themselves were uneventful. With multitudes of stores for con-goers to buy their wares, I seemed to find the same merchandise over and over. There was not one individual stall that stood out. Other than the 3D printing service, whom charged way too much for the typical customer to afford.

If I had known that OzCC would have been like this, I would have only purchased a day pass and not bothered for the second. With all of the hype surrounding previous events by these organisers in other states, I had high expectations...which were unfortunately disappointed.

On the organisation side of things with queues, volunteer knowledge and time management, this convention left Supanova for dead. Granted there were substantially less attendees, but everything was organised, weapons were actually checked on arrival, volunteers knew the answer to any question I had, and the lines for photos and autographs were structured.

All in all,  the con was a bit of a disappointment, but will make Brisbane much more grateful for Supanova when it comes in November this year.

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

Sydney Supanova 2014

I'm back again yayy :D

So today's post shall be about *drumroll* ...Sydney Supanova!


Supanova in Sydney was held on June 13-16 and after not being there for two years...I can say I wasn't entirely disappointed :D

First of all, SO much more organised than QLD Supanovas, even with the massive token and Stan Lee lines, I was not hindered once. A few times we struggled to get through crowds, but that was purely from density.

Day 1 - Friday

I made a last minute decision to do a closet cosplay of Elsa from the YouTube Video "How it Should Have Ended - Frozen"
Basically the plot of this video, is that instead of locking her away in her room, Elsa's parents sent her to Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, and she became an X-Men member.

Costume: The video only showed Elsa from the torso up so I had to use my imagination for the rest. I already had the dress and boots in my wardrobe so I attached the cloak and painted Elsa's shoe design on the boots with paint. The boots were suede so acrylic paint worked wonders (plus I already had it so yay for no cost). I then made two X clasps for the cloak with craft foam then pinned to the dress.

I spent the day with a few of my Sydney-sider friends and soon grew to regret my shoe choice. I then remembered why I never wore these boots because of how uncomfortable they are. Walking around this day developed 2cm long blisters on each of the bottoms of my feet and ruined me for the rest of the weekend. Despite being in pain, I continued to enjoy the day and luckily grabbed myself a DC Bombshells Black Canary for my collection before they sold out.

I came to the con wanting to meet Jon Heder and Ming-Na Wen but alas when I learnt of the 4 hour queue for photo and autograph tokens, I gave them a miss. Didn't really ruin my weekend though, as I purely came to Sydney to see my friends I haven't seen in years.

Finished the day with a photoshoot with Lark Visuals which I'll hopefully be seeing the photos from soon :)


Day 2 - Saturday

On Saturday I finally got to show off my months of labour: Elsa.
Aside from the obvious foot pain from the previous day, I had an awesome time hanging out with my friend Danica from Newcastle (Pink Pixie Cosplay). I am so happy with how this costume came out (considering the amount of work involved and I still didn't go 100% accurate) and definitely want to wear her again, hopefully to a photoshoot because I wasn't lucky enough to get one done this time.

Costume: The base dress for this costume is Kwik Sew 1356 and I just altered the top to give it a sweetheart neckline. Each of the sequins were handcut from large round sequins which totalled about $50 at $3 a bag. Each round sequin created two rectangle ones. These were all then glued onto the dress with Gem Bond which took a total of about a month to fully complete. My undershirt is actually a leotard design to save it riding up or moving under the dress. The sleeve details are glitter glue.
I had actually created Elsa's ice shoes however within five seconds of wearing them, my feet were in severe pain so I opted for plain blue heels. I decided not to create an accurate train after finding this gorgeous ice design fabric at Spotlight around Christmas time.
My wig was designed by the lovely lady in the photo with me and how to make the snowflake accessories is in a previous blog post.

I had such an awesome time just walking around and enjoying the con with Danica and conversing with other Frozen cosplayers (yes there were a few but not as many as GC Supanova).


Day 3 - Sunday

There is always one costume you're working on the night before, and this is it: Moonstar.
I finished this costume at 12:30am on Friday morning...then woke up at 6am to get to the airport.

Costume: This was supposed to be my easy costume but turned out to be time-consuming in itself. The base bodysuit and black wig were used in previous costumes so I had them lying around. The yellow X of the bodysuit took roughly two days to get right which involved taking the suit on and off countless times to make sure the fabric was not bunching ontop of the black (I hate you stretch fabric). The hair wraps are fake leather trim which I got from Spotlight and have a textured print on the top. The headband is actually a soft headband with the fake leather glued to the front half. I decided on this method purely for comfort on the day. The pouch was also from a previous costume (Fiora Cavazza: Assassin's Creed) which was perfect for carrying all my belongings in (didn't have the bra option that day). The bow was made from wood by my amazing partner and painted with acrylic and conveniently came apart into three pieces for luggage :)
A detail that isn't very noticeable, is the earrings. They are green circles of foam glued to clip-in earrings (as I couldn't get an appropriate base with normal earrings) and one has a feather attached. I soon came to regret choosing clip-on earrings as my ear was swollen the next day.

All day I was with my Sydney friends again and fellow Queenslander Isobel (The Artful Dodger).

left to right: Isobel (The Artful Dodger), Dan (Something Wicked Cosplay), Gen (Mad Maven), Jarrah (Sunday Cosplay), Justin (Justin Acharacter), and me (Bloom Cosplay).

Gotta say, SO much fun hanging out with these guys, they really made my Supanova. We did several shoots throughout the day, and some filming with Deerstalker Pictures. Quite possibly the most exciting parts of my day was when people would ask me for a photo by my character name. To you four people who knew who I was cosplaying as, YOU ROCK! :D


Well I think that covers everything, but before I go, a public thankyou to Justin (Justin Acharacter) for giving me a place to stay for the weekend. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have been at Supanova.


Keep on sewing,
Bloom xoxo

How to: Elsa's hair accessories

Welcome back blog readers :)

Today I'm going to share with you how I made the snowflake shaped hair accessories for my Elsa costume.

 So to start off with, I headed down to my local craft store and searched for an hour with no luck of anything that was snowflake shaped...not the right time of year I guess.
So I found these stick on gems in the scrapbooking section and hair clips with the jewellery supplies.

I didn't really like the little dots around it so I trimmed the plastic attached to the stickers like so...

Then badabing badaboom, all it took was a little bit of hot glue on the back to attach it to the hair clips...

And tadaaaaa there there are :D

Bare in mind this isn't my Elsa wig, just a spare white one I had lying around to show off the clips :P

All up, all four clips that I made cost me $8.00...which is ALOT less than what people are charging online for them

I know they don't look exactly like snowflakes...but being poor I couldn't afford the time or money to buy some online, but pretty happy with the result.

Hope you enjoyed my step-by-step guide.

Keep on sewing,

Bloom xoxo

Detangling your wig

Yay for getting back to cosplay related things :D

Today I'm going to share with you, the magical product that is now helping me detangle my wigs!

Now obviously you don't have to use this brand (this was left behind by a tradie so yay free), from what other cosplayers have said, as long as it's silicone spray, it should do the trick.
If you're a bit sceptical like me, spray on a small section at the bottom of the wig to make sure it won't damage it :)

Before this, I was buying all sorts of wig conditioning sprays online and they just didn't seem to get knots out at all.

So basically all I did, was get a wide tooth comb and begin combing the wig. Once you hit a knot, remove the comb and give the wig a quick spray with the silicone. Then continue to comb out the knot. I couldn't believe how easy it made the job :D
Obviously I'm not an expert at wigs, nor do I know much about them at all, but I love to share things I discover :D


Keep on sewing,
Bloom xoxo