...and the Tooth Fairy? Jack Frost? Easter Bunny? Santa? Sandman? Boogyman?
Baltimore Comic Con has come and gone. I swear I sat down to write this blog several times but never got further than putting up the photos from the Con.
I spent the week leading up to the Con working at Starbucks in the mornings on Baby Tooth, my headdress, and other smaller projects until Tim got off work and I moved over to his house where Mom (Michelle) helped me out with my Toothiana costume. She was completely wonderful and took over gluing the feathers to the dress. I had planned on making the front of the dress shorter than the back and slitting the back several times to help with the whole tail feather look but ended up scrapping that and I don't think the costume suffered as a result. Before I took the base dress over I used fabric spray paint to create a gradient on the yellow dress from yellow to green to blue.
I spent the week leading up to the Con working at Starbucks in the mornings on Baby Tooth, my headdress, and other smaller projects until Tim got off work and I moved over to his house where Mom (Michelle) helped me out with my Toothiana costume. She was completely wonderful and took over gluing the feathers to the dress. I had planned on making the front of the dress shorter than the back and slitting the back several times to help with the whole tail feather look but ended up scrapping that and I don't think the costume suffered as a result. Before I took the base dress over I used fabric spray paint to create a gradient on the yellow dress from yellow to green to blue.
I figured if there were gaps in the feathers or if a feather or two fell off at some point (which happened more than a few times) then having the color behind would help to keep the look complete. I also spray painted the white turtleneck I bought so the chest and neck were yellow while the arms went from green to blue. We glued feathers to the chest but left the neck and arms just colored cause ow.
When it came to the wings I knew that I was going to do the standard hangers for the shape and then cover them but where I had previously used black stockings for my last fairy costume I wanted to find something lighter and iridescent for Toothiana. Her wings kinda resemble dragonfly wings. I looked at a few fabric stores trying to find a sheer iridescent but only found purple/pink ones where I was looking for blue/green. (Of course now that I've been back to those stores looking for fabric for Rocky Horror they have the exact fabric I was looking for, oy.) I switch from the fabric idea to cellophane and hit up Party City where I got several rolls for cheap. Before I did that step (after Tim & Mom helped me figure out the right shape for all 6 wings) I wrapped the metal wire of the wings with a light yarn that changed colors subtly from blue to purple. I also strung the yarn across the wings to simulate the veins in the wings. My first attempt wasn't so awesome for the largest of the wings. The wing shape for the biggest was narrow and long so the typical way I would vein it looked too busy. Tim gave me the idea of doing a dreamcatcher pattern for all the veining and after trying it out I really loved it. The look was perfect and I loved the dreamcatcher symbolism. I cut out the iridescent cellophane to the right sizes then glued them in place long the inside of the wings. I also put glue under the yarn to adhere that to the cellophane. After another discussion with Tim & Mom I decided to follow the yarn pattern on the other side of the cellophane so the wings would have the same look front to back. PS Hot glue is my go-to but it's a literal pain...so many burns.
We constructed a harness out of nylon strips with two buckles, several layers of cardboard, and a piece of foam to keep the whole thing from hurting my back. I glued some bolts that the wings would hang from and added the nuts on to keep the wings attached. There were a few flaws in this process...it proved too difficult/time consuming to move the wings onto the second bolt which would hold them in the "open" position. I had originally only wanted them open for photos but instead kept them down for the entire Con. They still looked awesome in my personal opinion but I also failed to realize that while walking the wings would shift and the nuts would come loose so I lost wings towards the end of the day. Thankfully it's obvious to everyone when they fall and having 6 total meant that when I lost one pair I still looked alright with the 4 I had left. I need to seriously rework this before I wear the costume again.
We constructed a harness out of nylon strips with two buckles, several layers of cardboard, and a piece of foam to keep the whole thing from hurting my back. I glued some bolts that the wings would hang from and added the nuts on to keep the wings attached. There were a few flaws in this process...it proved too difficult/time consuming to move the wings onto the second bolt which would hold them in the "open" position. I had originally only wanted them open for photos but instead kept them down for the entire Con. They still looked awesome in my personal opinion but I also failed to realize that while walking the wings would shift and the nuts would come loose so I lost wings towards the end of the day. Thankfully it's obvious to everyone when they fall and having 6 total meant that when I lost one pair I still looked alright with the 4 I had left. I need to seriously rework this before I wear the costume again.
| For Baby Tooth I started by crocheting her body, arms, & legs out of a blue/purple yarn I had. It took two attempts to get the sizing right cause she's supposed to fit in Jack Frost's hand and I made her too big and square at first. I bought some copper wire from the craft store and gave her the outline of wings. I attempted to use a green, a blue, and a purple wire to doing the |
veining and even tried to glue on the iridescent cellophane to mimic my wings but the effect was just too heavy for her so I took it down to just the outline copper wire. For her head I made it out of sculpey (a clay that hardens when you bake it) and a LOT of trial and error. I'm not an artist by any means but I am really happy with the way she came out. I extended the neck to a crazy proportion so that it would fit into the body and secure it when it was all glued together. I also added some blue feathers that aren't pictured before I glued it all by simply squeezing a lot of the hot glue into the body and holding everything in place for a minute or so. She was a hit with all the kids who I let hold her when they asked for pictures.
I actually made my headdress, feather ear cuffs, and bracelett/anklets on Friday morning at Starbucks before we left that evening. It was another trial and error thing that ended up working out really well...and got me a lot of strange looks as I worked it out in public, lol.