No Change, Past or Present

At Genki 2013 I was so lucky to get a few pictures snapped by the talented Saks Photography, he really is a cool guy and takes some crazy good pictures, both cosplay and modeling.
Every time I look at these pictures I find things I want to change on Ion, since I REALLY love this design, but I'm very very very critical about it and I have a hard time being completely satisfied with it - BUT I did try a lot of new things with this costume and I'm very happy about the turn out so far - And also having such a great great group as my cosplay partners, truly.

I did try and take pictures of the progress of this costume, so I will definitely make a post with those at some point, but until then - I hope your curiosity is mildly satisfied.

Mie Rose as Mirka Fortuna || Me as Ion Fortuna

*my favorite shot! This is definitely going on my wall*

Ion Fortuna: Patching and Plates

Finally got some work done for Ion, and I have to say that this have been the first time I had to do SO much prep-work for a costume. Making the small templates, then the larger patterns, cutting up the patterns (which I did not enjoy) and stitching on every piece to make sure it'll stay in it's place. It's fair to say I am ready to feel like I'm actually making progress!

It's been repetitive  but not as boring as I would have thought, because I kept shifting back and forth between four different things and two sorts of fabric. Right now it looks like someone have spilled blue-goo on my fabric, next step is gluing on rhinestones and adding gold-trim around EVERYTHING (as you can see  on the patterns)

Today I've been working on the back-piece shoulder plate, made out of funfoam, because it's cheap and easy to work with, and wonderfully lightweight, this costume definitely will not be light weight, so I'm saving where I can.
I'm still figuring out how I want the golden coverage, so it's shelved for now.

Ion Fortuna, Come at me.

I have a lot of projects for the coming year, the most daunting one, is Ion Fortuna of Trinity Blood. I'm actually not a Trinity Blood fan, but as soon as I saw this design, I felt extremely inspired, and couldn't help myself for making it a plan for next years Desucon.

All the sowing will not happen before next year though, so I'm trying to make most of the jewelry before that.
So here's a picture of the design that I'm working on, just so you know what I'm getting myself into.

Some months ago I started trying to figure out the detail designs for the domes, which is not easy mind you, since there really isn't much specific details on it. (artwork why?)
And since I know this isn't going to be a lightweight cosplay, I used Styrofoam, just to make it slightly lighter than clay would be.

And the the project was actually pretty much off until now, because I haven't been in a cosplaying spirit. BUT, today I visited an antique jewelry shop near my house. And oh my gosh, I found so much I can use for him, I really had to restrict myself from not buying everything they had in there (It was cheap too!)

So I got a varies of different beads, dangly earrings, broaches and stuff alike.
I also found a bag with all sorts of different kinds of beads, but most were silver, but that's nothing a little paint can't fix.
*click the imagine for the delicious details

So yes, that's an actual update!
After this find, I'm excited to start working on Ion again