Thor: the Dark World Photoshoot - Thor and Loki

Nailed it.

Lots of preparations to be made before my flight to Australia tomorrow, where I'll be attending AFTT for the year, but I wanted to update my blog. Just edited some photos from a recent Thor photoshoot, in which my good friend Airra Faih cosplayed Loki.

This was the culmination of a six-month project, debuted at Denver Comic-Con. We were also able to participate in the cosplay catwalk. Loki, as expected, hammed it up in front of the audience and literally stole my thunder. 

Now, on to the costumes themselves.

Thor's armor and accessories required the better portion of 6 months to complete, amidst a relentless onslaught of other busy-ness. I have to admit I've never before experienced such a claustrophobic schedule during the summer, one event bleeding into the next and the next and the next.

That being said, I'm pleased everything turned out as well as it did. The armor and all other related components are entirely in leather. To do otherwise would not have sat well with me. I'm just too extra.

So hundreds of hours of pattern-making, cutting, shaping, tooling, dyeing, sealing, gluing, burnishing, and painting later, the armor was finished. (If you're attempting a similar project, feel free to contact me. I'm happy to provide some pointers that may save you a bit of frustration.) The nice thing about making this cosplay in natural, durable materials was that it will hold up basically indefinitely.

The rondels are 3D modeled and printed. An awesome guy I met through the RPF forums kindly did the printing for me, and then I sanded, smoothed, and painted them. They're also screwed into the leather from the inside, so there's no way they're coming out. (Incidentally, I'm also screwed into the armor on one shoulder, so I can't escape without assistance. My Loki found this terribly amusing.)

Loki's cosplay is also entirely in natural materials, the coat in black deerskin. The design on the front is hand stamped. It took us four days to complete, and we were still working on it in our airbnb before the con. (Typical, I know.)

During the photoshoot, we decided to try to recreate some of the Thor: the Dark World posters. We elected to put Loki in Jane's poses, because c'mon... it was too good.

Loki looks like he's dabbing.

"Loki... NO."

So this will likely be my last post for a while. I'll be back in business next year, and ready for my next project. For now, my life will be film school. And Australia. And avoiding spiders, snakes, and sharks. *glances around warily*

Major Work - Thor: The Dark World Cosplay WIP

Other insanity I've been up to in the last month or two includes:

-Thor's armor ensemble from Thor: The Dark World
-Loki prison cell costume (for Lisa, both for Denver Comic-Con)
-camping road trip to Maui with my mom
-5-day wedding adventure in Idaho (never moving there; sorry, spuds)
-full-scale remodel of our local Sunglass Hut, starring large, rectangular grey tiles and badly designed cabinets full of glass
-keeping my Grandpa in line
-clearing out my costume inventory (I've sold about 60% of my costumes so far, and about 90% of what I had listed)

Thought I'd post a bit about my Thor cosplay, since that's been in-progress for about 5 months now. The chest armor took forever, otherwise I'd definitely have been done by now. Stare at the designs for too long and you go cross-eyed. Everything looks like pretzels.

Chest armor:
-tooling leather, leather glue, rivets, copious amounts of patience

Front

Back

Pattern

Pants / kilt:
-garment leather, industrial sewing machine, leather adhesive, metallic paint, double-sided hem tape, 500 hours spent online looking for the right metal buckles, blue linen, metal zipper stops, pliers

Cloak:
-red wool, red linen, going crazy with pleats, patience to tack everything properly

Rondels (3D printed; before smoothing: left, after smoothing: right)

Commission - Thranduil-Inspired Coat/Dress

Thranduil-Inspired Coat Dress

So... a casual glance at the dates between this post and the last should reveal I've mostly abandoned the "costume a day" blogging campaign. But a lot's happened since then. Big changes.

1- Livy and I went our separate ways. She's going to be back and forth between Oregon and the Czech Republic, where her partner is from. I wish her all the very best, and am grateful for the time we spent together and the adventures we were able to have. :) She might be less often in my life, but she'll always be my Tauriel.

2- I'm off to Australia, beginning July 2, for the Academy of Film, Theater, and Television in Sydney. Exciting times! My goal is to dabble in all the various aspects of film production before re-specializing. I'm definitely still going to be doing costumes - nobody panic. But I'd rather keep that more of a side thing, as well as a hobby. Who knows? I might end up working in more of a designing capacity.

On that note... my latest commission I've just completed for a wonderfully patient customer in Canada. She had seen one of my (in my opinion, awful) older gowns based on Thranduil from The Hobbit. That dress had long since been sold, so she asked if I could create a custom variation on it. She wanted one with detachable sleeves, archery lacing around the wrist, cap sleeves, and a stand collar. I was incredibly busy right around that time, but managed to finish it at the very last moment (after I'd gone to Idaho to attend a friend's wedding).

I think Thranduil-Inspired Gown Mk. 2 turned out reasonably well, even if I wasn't able to get very good photos of it before sending it off to its new owner. I particularly like the long skirts and the way the back is shaped. (I also love the mock-up I made in silver damask and silvery-blue crinkle taffeta. I'm so glad I get to keep it, haha.)

And the mock-up! Again, I really love this color combo almost more than the final version. (Wasn't quite done with it when these photos were taken, so it's not hemmed / fully sewn together.)

So much skirt! 

And a few more of the finished Thranduil-inspired dress. Most of these were taken in Jamie's (my model) father's front yard, right before the sun set. We were in a bit of a rush because we had so much wedding prep to finish, hence the various vehicles in the background. I'd photoshop them out if I had the time. ;) The others were taken indoors, some before I'd finished attaching the skirt to the bodice.

Lace ups on the lower sleeve for a more fitted look

Shoulder detail (cap sleeves and detachable long sleeves)