Mai Sheri Costumes - Blog

Civil War Geekery Con

17/5/2016

The Geekery is a very geeky cafe/restaurant in Niagara Falls (Canada), and they like to host events for the community. This April I attended my first “ Geekery Con ”, and was honoured to have been invited as a cosplay guest!

I met soooo many new people at this con (I don’t know most of the Niagara Falls and Hamilton-area locals who were in attendance); cosplayers, photographers, and geeks in general. I didn’t have my own table (since I don’t sell anything), but I just hung around with the other cosplay guests and tried not to block traffic; it was a packed place! We did some fun photos on the cute Avengers backdrop, and I recorded my second interview for We Got The Geek Podcast , which you can listen to here!

I didn’t do any shopping (bad Jen!) but I did end up with a lovely thank-you gift/raffle prize of a print from Toy Bacon - if you’re aware of my affection for playing LEGO games , you know how perfect this is LOL. The mini-con wrapped up in the early evening, but I stuck around for a while longer to take over the dining area of The Geekery for Skyleaf ’s birthday dinner! Eating with friends was a great way to end my day in Niagara Falls ^_^

Thanks to Candy Cosplay and crew for the carpool, and to Jason and the Geekery/We Got the Geek family for the invitation.

Charity and Community

4/5/2016

Playing catch-up some more… late in 2015 I got involved in a couple of events which were new to me - the Parkinson Superwalk and Niagara Wine Festival!

Etherbloom invited Mr Stark and I to join her hero-themed group for the Parkinson Superwalk in Burlington. I had hoped to get my Captain Marvel costume finished in time for the walk, but nothing ever works out so I threw on the next-most “superheroic” (looking) costume I have - Sally Impossible from Venture Bros . For all intents and purposes, I was an alt-colour Mrs Incredible for the day and although I wasn’t as awesome as Batman, Supes, Wonder Woman, or Iron Man, some of the kids were thrilled to see me. I wasn’t just there for entertainment though; I did the fundraiser walk in costume! Unfortunately I never got to see the official photographer’s photos, but below are a bunch that my friends and team-mates took. Featuring Stark Reality , The Real Toronto Superman , Amazon Princess Wonder Woman , London Batman , Etherbloom , and the rest of the Harvey's Heroes team!

A week after the Parkinson walk was a very different (still walking-heavy) event: I joined Cosplay For A Cure at the Niagara Wine Festival parade! I wore Cersei because it’s one of my few readily-wearable and non-casual costumes, is recognizable for anyone familiar with the show, and I thought a wine festival was just too appropriate for her. The group ended up being fairly small (there were a few conflicting events that weekend) but so many of the kids on the parade route loved seeing us (especially the princesses and Spidey) that we were one of the most popular groups! Even Cersei got a lot of hugs from little girls ...and laughs from the parents who knew the character. Featuring Skyleaf Creations , The Symbol of Hope , Last Minute Cosplays , and more friends who I don't have links for XD

I hope that I can attend both events again in 2016 and that we have even more cosplayers joining in!

Kitchener Comic Con 2016

1/5/2016

Just like in Toronto, Kitchener’s geek community has its fair share of drama, personality conflicts, and people who are simply poor representatives of fandom. However, the positive energy at Kitchener Comic Con this year totally dominated the atmosphere and made for a great event. Granted, my experience was coloured by spending most of the day working the Cosplay for a Cure booth which is always a positive experience, but still.

Because I was at the booth most of the day there’s not a lot that I can say about the event itself aside from the general commentary above. I debuted version 1 of my latest Alice in Wonderland costume, and although the other Cure girls were also in their rock princess costumes, the booth was busy enough that we didn’t get photos together. I was able to sneak away for a little bit for solo shots with Dream Land Photography . Ragz Cosplay was there in his latest Spiderman costume and standing next to him, I was mistaken for Gwen Stacey several times hahaha. Iron Girl wore her Elsa costume and was “borrowed” by the Marvelous Girls of KW throughout the day to join their (canon) princess group.

“Ain’t No Pretty Princess” Alice gallery page is now up featuring photos from my shoot at KCC.

April Picnic Fail

26/4/2016

Well, the “picnic” last weekend was… interesting. It seems that a couple of local groups who like to organize these kinds of things have started a feud and are now going out of their way to prevent other cosplay hangouts from happening. It’s immature and unfortunate, and even though I’ve only been directly affected by the most recent blow-up, I’m officially done with these events. From now on, I’m only doing cons and private on-location photo shoots. I don't like to be so negative and dismissive, but it’s not worth the hassle and I’m too old for this stuff.

Fortunately, we were able to find a second location nearby after getting ejected from the first spot and although I was shivering cold all afternoon (so glad I decided not to wear Tizzie!) I got some nice Wendy Corduroy photos with Dream Land Photography.

Wendy teaser from Dream Land Photography

Making the best of the situation

My job was to keep the umbrella from blowing over. Occasionally the tree filled in for me though.

Behind the Scenes with Dream Land, Alex Rose, and Little Jiggy

Hawks in the Park

21/4/2016

I'm planning to go to my first cosplay picnic/meet-up of the year this weekend, so why not throw-back with photos from the High Park picnic last summer? I wore my "L.A. Woman" Kate Bishop costume, and put Mr Stark in my Clint gear to goof-off as Team Hawkeye for the afternoon. While the picnic itself was not really my scene, we did do a fun shoot with Elemental Photography . I've added photos to my Hawkeye gallery page , and some highlights are below ^_^

Toronto ComiCon 2016

28/3/2016

Before I talk about this year's Toronto ComiCon, it's been a while, so I want to catch up on a few things real quick:

I'm going to lots of cons this spring! Every other weekend, in fact, starting last week with MTCC. Here's what it looks like:

(March 18-20: MTCC)
April 2: Kitchener Comic Con (I will be at the Cosplay for a Cure booth)
April 16: Civil War Geekery Con in Niagara Falls Canada (I'm a featured cosplay guest!)
April 30: Toronto Knitter's Frolic (OK, it's not a media con, but I will be there - without costume - at the Zig Zag Stitches booth)
May 7: Free Comic Book Day (location ??)
May 13-15: Ottawa Comic Con (masquerade staff)
May 27-29: Anime North (masquerade staff)
June 10-12: YetiCon

I'm making lots of things! On top of costumes for myself and collabs with friends, I'm pushing my boundaries with props, which includes having entered Worbla's TranspART contest . I really hope I manage to succeed at actually making something which isn't a disaster!

... That's probably enough of a brief catch-up for now! Moving right along....

Toronto Comicon a.k.a MTCC a.k.a MTAC!

I went in to Comicon this year with a plan: buy some makeup, buy a wand, cosplay with friends, and take selfies. I had even avoided scheduling any shoots ahead of time, because I just didn't feel like it. Anyways, neither of the makeup or wand vendors which I had hoped to shop at were at the show this year, which was disappointing. I didn't get my new costume done on time so I wasn't part of the group that i had wanted to join. And I kept forgetting my camera at home, so I only grabbed a few selfies with friends and cool people on Saturday.

BUT, I did get to hang out with friends for most of the weekend, saw lots of great costumes, and was kidnapped for mini shoots by Dream Land Photography , Santiago Ortega , and a huge group of Game of Thrones cosplayers. Stopped by the body-painting panel by Evie E and Shelle-Chii and picked up one new thing to try with my makeup in future. Oh, and I got lots and lots of street-passes ^_^
As usual, here's a little gallery of my selfie-con pics as well as some of my favorite shots which have popped up so far Additional photographers: OOC Photography , Tim Bermingham , Michelle Flannigan , Very Frank Pictures . And bonus content: I got the opening shot in Neffy A 's video!

Blogs on Hold

24/2/2016

Hulk represents life. He is kicking my butt.

Hey friends and readers,

There's been a serious lack of blog posts and site updates so far this year, and it's something which I feel bad about. It's not like I don't have a backlog of event photos and shoots and new costumes that haven't been posted; in fact the backlog stretches back to July. Unfortunately, my day-job has been keeping me extremely busy the last few months, and while I'm fortunate that I have a job which allows me to leave the work at work when I clock out for the day, by the time I get home I'm too exhausted to do much besides playing a DS game.

I'm going to try to make a costume for Toronto ComiCon - which is becoming higher and higher priority as the con sneaks up on me. it's something that "needs" to get done because I'm part of a group! I've also had friends bugging me about when I'm going to finish Cersei. I usually end up with about one weekend per month during which I can work on cosplay, so progress is pretty damn slow when I can't get much done in the evening. On top of those immediate cosplay plans, I also have a few gifts and donation items to make... and I really, really need to advertise that I'm selling old costumes because I have seriously run out of storage space.

So what all this means is that I have very limited time and energy for cosplay at the moment. I have so much on my plate that I can't handle my to-do list anymore. Despite having made some shiny new things, I've even been avoiding scheduling any photo shoots. Since one of the big things that's hanging over my head is posting content here on my site, I'm officially putting that on hold until at least the end of March. This way, I don't have to feel guilty about spending time making costumes and props instead of posting photos, tutorials, and event reviews.

(I'll still be posting progress pics when applicable to instagram and facebook in real-time and to tumblr on #WorkshopWednesday )

G-Anime 2016

31/1/2016

I'm working through my back-log of posts! I don't have a whole lot to say about the con because I didn't go to any panels or events and didn't even shoot anything, but I did get to debut my latest casual costume, "flashback" Tizzie from Rat Queens, and I took a handful of photos of my friends and I. Here are my photos from G-Anime this year - mostly selfies and elfies ^_^

Tutorial: Freezer Paper Stencils

26/1/2016

Surprise bonus Tutorial Tuesday! Last week I posted a video tutorial for freezer paper stencils, and today is the same project, but a text & photos version for those who prefer their knowledge in "print" format! I decided that stencils would be a good choice for a tutorial since I had a few friends asking me questions about it after I talked up using freezer paper for my t-shirts at a cosplay panel last year. I hope that other people will also find it a useful resource for fabric-painting projects!

Take Note: this tutorial is not necessarily the "right way" to do things, nor the "best way", but is simply how I went about it when I made my own. Anyways, on to the project!

The Project:
Using freezer paper for stenciling makes complex designs easy to paint exactly the way you design them, whether you're dealing with wiggly narrow areas which shift easily, designs which contain negative space, or using multiple colours. Above are just three examples from my recent cosplay projects, all of which were made using freezer paper stencils or templates. The vest from my Night Vale angel is another good example. This is the first time I have made something new just for tutorial reasons, so I asked some of my friends for suggestions of symbols which either had negative space or irregular shapes (but were still simple enough to do quickly), and ended up going with Kurumasha 's suggestion of the Heartless symbol in the video tutorial , and the Zerg symbol (at the suggestion of Dan the Video Ninja ) for this photo version.

Materials used:
freezer paper (grocery store)
fabric paint, or acrylic paint with fabric medium (art & craft stores)
t-shirt or other fabric

Tools used:
pencil
cutting mat and knife
iron and ironing board
scissors
stencil brushes or sponges

The Process:
First off, you'll need a hard copy of whatever design you're putting on a shirt (or any other fabric; I'm not judging). In this case, that means printing a simple version of the Zerg icon. You then need to transfer that image to freezer paper. So, cut a piece of freezer paper big enough to be at least an inch or two beyond the design (depending on how messy you get with your paint) but not larger than your project itself. Freezer paper has a shiny side and a paper side - trace your design on to the paper side . Tape down the paper to avoid shifting if necessary.

Once your design is traced, it's time to start cutting. The key is that this stencil is done in two steps - most of the cutting is done on a mat, but leave very small gaps in your cutting. And by "very small", I mean like, half a millimeter. Hair-widths. This is easiest done at corners since you just barely don't connect the cuts from each side, but is also easily done on long straight edges. Do this for your whole design. All the pieces should still be loosely attached together once you're finished, like in the photo.

Now line up where you want your stencil to be on the shirt, and with the shiny side down , iron it on. Start with low heat and increase as needed; you don't want to burn the paper or permanently melt it to your shirt. Let the whole thing cool before moving on to the next step.

Time for the magic. taking the point of your craft knife, gently press it through all of the un-cut points in the paper. If your points are small enough, the knife will just cut the paper (because it's stiff) but the shirt will compress underneath and be intact. Do not drag the knife around the stencil. Just push through to finish cutting.

When you're finished cutting all those paper "threads", simply peel off the parts of the stencil which are the areas to be painted! Since this process can sometimes loosen the rest of the stencil, I like to give it another quick pass with the iron to make sure the stencil is secure before painting.

For paint, you can use fabric paint (the main colour for this shirt is metallic purple from Setacolor - leftover from my Night Vale Angel bodysuit) or acrylic paint mixed with fabric/textile medium (the accent colours are metallic blue and silver craft acrylics from my stash).
First, place something under the stencil area to prevent any excess paint from soaking through to whatever is underneath. I used a stencil brush to dab on the paint, filling the whole area with purple. You could also use a sponge, roller, or even a regular paintbrush if you're careful not to brush paint under the edges of the paper. Next I stippled blue on to the outer edges of the spikes and central spiral, finally finishing off with a third layer in silver just on the outer most edges.

Once you are satisfied with your painting job and the paint is mostly dry, peel off the rest of your stencil. Heat-set your paint with an iron or dryer according to the directions on your paint.

And there you have it, a simple, affordable way to make replicating complex designs, or designs with negative space with a stencil!

Final Tips: Freezer paper likes to stick to some fabrics more than others. I've never had a problem with t-shirts, but the slub fabric that my Cersei dress is make of did not want to stick at all. And these stencils aren't very reusable. You could probably get a second use out of them, maybe a third, but it won't likely stick very well. Also the best part of this method, that all the fiddly detail bits can't wiggle around, is negated on the second use because everything is already completely cut out.

2016 Ambitions

8/1/2016

Cosplay
My cosplay wish list is long. Very long . So, like last year , I'm going to post just the costumes that I'm most motivated and most likely to finish this year. I'm sure that this isn't how it's actually going to work out, but it always helps to start with goals.
Carrying over from last year, Midna and Nightingale are key, as is finishing off Cersei 's embroidery by getting those lions figured out. I also really want to finish up Captain Marvel 's costume, and the latest addition to my long, long cosplay list is an original Alice design to coordinate with my Cosplay for a Cure friends. Once those projects are all taken care of, then come the bottom row costumes... Espeon, Miz Mishtal, Captain Marvel (again), and Journey . And probab ly others from my wish list or which I haven't come across yet. I'm not even going to pretend to set deadlines for these things though, because I realllly don't want to push myself to burn-out again.

Conventions
I'm planning (and hoping) that this year will be lighter on conventions for me than last year, despite that being a blast. It means my weekends become highly valuable and I don't get to see my non-con friends often :(

Anyways, I only have a few events confirmed so far...
G-Anime in Gatineau (January 22-24)
Civil War Geekery Con in Niagara Falls (April 16)
Ad-Astra in Richmond Hill (April 29-May 1) *not the whole weekend*
Anime North in Toronto (May 27-29)
Fan Expo Canada in Toronto (September 1-4) *at least one day*

And in the "maybe" or yet-to-be confirmed category: YetiCon, ConBravo!, and Otakuthon. Who knows how many others I'll end up at though! Unfortunately, no AmeriCons are being planned - sadly the exchange rate is just way too bad right now for it to be feasible. But that just means that my friends from the States should come visit us north of The Wall and live like kings!!!