A day in the life of Mikey

So rather than my standard weekly post of Throwback Thursday (which I missed yesterday anyhow since I spent the whole day working on props for people), I thought I'd give you guys a glimpse into my real life... although that still involves a lot of cosplay and crafty things.

First things first, I am definitely more of an early bird than a night owl, so I tend to go to bed by 9:30 or 10 every night. I know it sounds crazy, but my fiance (and soon to be husband) gets up at 5 every morning, and I usually follow by 6 or so. That's one reason you'll see me posting on facebook & here & tumblr a lot more frequently in the morning, and often catch some of my friends who haven't yet gone to bed. Absurd.

 My mornings begin with a cup of coffee with cream at the cafe. My afternoon begins with hot tea with two lumps of sugar. And my evenings... In the evening I change into my pajamas.Yes, nothing beats a hot cup of tea in the morning.

FOOLS

My day begins, ends, and is occupied primarily by cosplay and crafts. Thankfully, I recently acquired a new space to do my crafting at our house. Thankfully we weren't really doing anything else with the space, and we really just stashed a bunch of stuff in there. Its much nicer than the space I used to use since it was the back end of our game room so any time we had company over to play games I'd have to clean everything up and find someplace to stash it. Also, it was carpeted so I had to be a lot more careful with paint and other stuff. All around, the new space is awesome!

That's it! It looks like a mess, I know, but it's my little crafty world! And usually those giant green pieces of foam aren't there so there's an actual place for me to sit on the floor. Yes, I do all of my crafting on the floor, like a toddler. But it's the best thing for me cause then I can move around as much as I need to, I don't need to worry about dropping stuff cause there's not that far for it to fall, and my butt slowly cleans up previous messes as it scoots around; it's perfect!

Let's take a look at that picture again cause you can see all of my current projects in it!

The claws and gun are projects I mentioned a few posts ago. The claws are for Hsien-Ko from Darkstalkers, and the gun is a blunderbuss from Bloodborne. The two swords are actually both a commission from the same person, but they are two different swords for two related characters. They belong to Yuu and Mika from Owari no Seraph. I'm pretty excited about them cause they're pretty awesome designs.

And that personal project to the left was kind of an experiment, but I will eventually finish it. It's for [SECRET COSPLAY] so you'll find out about it eventually but it won't be for a while cause my intention is not to have that done until Ohayocon.

You'll also notice the long coffee table which is set up for me to make my Magic: the Gathering life counters, which if you haven't seen them you should check them out cause they're pretty cool, even if you don't play Magic.

Another integral part of the Miked Does Cosplay / Kilted Katana Productions experience is music, because I can only sit on the floor painting tiny details on swords in silence for so long before I go crazy and start thinking I'm holding a real sword and try to stab someone with it. The musical selections differ a bit depending on my mood, but there are two genres I tend to listen to while I'm crafting. If I'm in a bit of a slump and need some motivation, I tend to listen to some upbeat dance music and that gets my fingers flying, and is of course interrupted periodically by personal dance parties when a song comes on that I really like. Which of course is good for you, you're not supposed to sit for long periods of time without getting up and moving around so we'll just call this preventative healthcare. The rest of the time I'm usually getting into super!nerd mode and listening to soundtracks because that's just how I roll. I've been using Pandora a lot and enjoy the Final Fantasy Live channel which is more fun than hearing the same collection of stuff that's on my computer and let's me play the fun game of "What movie / video game is this song from?" I'm getting pretty good at it too, even with some games I haven't played before!

That is pretty much my world at the moment, and I spend the vast majority of my time there. I've been using a lot of foamcore board for my projects lately as I'm getting a good feel for how to work with it, and it lends itself well to a lot of my current proects. You can see the the stack of full sheets to the left in that photo and all of the wierd little leftover pieces all the way across to the right. I always hoard all of my scrap materials to use for projects later, cause you never know when you're going to need a small piece of something for some detail. That is, of course most of the reason my craft room is constantly in such a state because I have scraps that just float around everywhere and just get moved when I need the space they're in for something. I am obviously not an organizational freak XD

You'll probably also notice that there's a vacuum cleaner just chilling over to the right too. I've found that it's best to just keep it right there, and plugged in, especially lately with having to spackle and then sand all of my raw foamcore edges because it kinda looks like a crack den in there after I sand a piece.

I promise, I don't have a drug problem. That would be really unsatisfying to snort, trust me. 
And that, in a nutshell is my craft business, pretty much proving that my life is about as spastic as my blog posts.

But there's only so much time I can spend cutting up Magic cards and foamcore board with an X-acto knife at a time before the threat of arthritis increases exponentially, so I often intermix a variety of other activities into my work day of crafting.

Hooping out in the back yard has been a good intermittent activity cause it actually gets me moving around more and I get to play with hoops and try tricks! I'm still not great at... lots of things, but I can go from my hand to my chest or waist and back. And that's about it.

And yes, I do make a point to dress as gay as possible when I go out to hoop.

And speaking of outside, our house has lots of garden space so on nice days like today I try to spend some time in the garden as well, so lets take a little tour of the yard!

Most of my time in the garden is spent battling the forces of evil.... well the weeds. Thanks to our lovely maple tree back here, we have a small army of little trees sprouting up everywhere. Not gonna lie, I love playing with helicopters but pulling all of these little guys out is kinda annoying.

There's also my constant struggle with the crazy weed that perpetually grow in the gravel area off of our driveway...

And let's just not talk about this area... I've already surrendered the battle to the forest of weeds.

Also, despite not working in the field any more, I'm still a biology nerd at heart so I love watching things grow and finding fun little living things out here.
Like this little American Toad that I found in the yard the other day; isn't he PRECIOUS?!?

I also found this lovely scat in my strawberry plants. Thankfully the strawberries are all done for the season so I don't need to worry about the fact that some animal pooped in there... but it is pretty fascinating.

I don't know what animal this came from, but whoever you are, thank you for eating a healthy diet of japanese beetles because they've been eating my roses and my blackberry plant and I don't appreciate that!

And now that I've digressed to showing you all a photo of all the shit in my life, I think we'll just leave it there. Love you guys!

DAMNIT KORRA

Photo courtesy of, and starring WOLF Cosplay

Welcome back to another edition of throwback thursday here at MDC. this one really isn't much of a throwback considering I just wore it a few weeks ago, and my hair still hasn't fully recovered. But hey, I'm running out of viable options and I'm trying not to just give you an endless string of Fire Emblem cosplays cause that can get out of control quickly with my history. So here he is, the airbending Avatar child, Tenzin.

Sorting ourselves into the four nations has been a thing for as long as ATLA has been around, and I feel like the air nomads and I are besties. While I'm an Aries and therefore cosmicly associated with fire, I've never been a particularly fiery person except in limited situations. I'm much more of an evade/flank type person when it comes to taclking problems, rather than facing them head on. So it should come as no surprise that I've wanted to cosplay an airbender forever. I also have the usual disposition that most of you are aware of that I prefer to cosplay characters that don't get done as often, so Tenzin was a perfect fit. Not to mention it gave me a good excuse to wear a sour look on my face all day... which is wierd because I'm generally a pretty cheerful person XD. Tenzin is pretty much the Edgeworth of the ATLA/LOK world so naturally I was drawn to him.

photo courtesy of Lydia Joy Palmer

In my usual costume repertoire, Tenzin is pretty much my perfect cosplay all wrapped up into one. Here's the list of criteria:

1. Its easy to wear: Tenzin, while not really what I'd be wearing day-to-day in the real world, is pretty normal clothing compared to a lot of anime and video game characters. He wears pants and a long shirt (albeit technically a robe), a belt, and some capes. Yes, capes aren't really 'normal' either bit they're easy and fun to wear, so they're a bonus rather than a hindrance.
2. Comfy shoes: 'nuf said.
3. Wigs: I DON'T NEED ONE, HUZZAH! Hair is such an important facet to cosplay but wigs are expensive, a pain in the ass to cut & style, and are not comfortable to be wearing for long periods of time. The ideal hair situation for me is something where I can use my own hair, like Rhys (or like I tried to do with Kariya and will never do again cause it looks janky as hell). In this case, I do get to use my own hair by lopping it all off. And the bonus: I don't have to take a razor to my head because I'm a ginger; I just go to Great Clips and have them buzz it with a zero and it's short & light enough that I look bald. Ok, if you look super close you can see the tiny hairs, but all of my most impressive Tenzin photos are like that, I only actually Bic'ed my head (with the help of my wonderful roomie) once: the first time I wore it.
4. It's good for pretty much any season: This costume is light enough that I'm not going to die in the summer but the capes are made out of a thick enough material to keep me relatively warm in the fall/winter. No, I would not stay outside for extended periods of time in -3* weather, but it can keep me warm enough walking from a car to the con center. The shoes are also not something I'd ever want to wear when it's raining or super deep snow cause they're just cloth, but that's beside the point.
5. Recognition without repetition: As I've said before, I love doing cosplays that no one's done before, or that you see very infrequently. Tenzin fits that bill, although I do know someone personally who also cosplays him. But that's fine; I really have no qualms about seeing another cosplayer with the same costume. It's an instant bonding experience. But I'd prefer not to run into one every 50 ft. I walk down the hall at a convention. That's one of the reasons I don't like wearing Stein as much, because there are always so many Steins. Granted, I'm very proud of that costume and will wear it again because I feel I did a very good job with it, but it's nice when you're a bit rarer of a find at the con. Also, it's great to get stopped for pictures, and Tenzin gets lots of attention because the series is so popular and he's so recognizable. It's really hard to get that perfect balance between being recognizable and not having too many people who cosplay the same character and he fits in there beautifully.
6. MOAR COSPLAYERS: By that I mean, I love cosplaying in a group cause it's more fun that way, and you're more likely to get stopped for photos. I have friends who also do Korra cosplays and I will now almost always bring Tenzin with me if one of them is doing their Korra cosplays.

Photo courtesy of Sean Vichinsky; featuring Danielle as Kya and WOLF Cosplay as Korra

Here's the gang and we had an awesome time standing in one spot in the hallway and being asked for photos every 3 minutes. Let's be honest, most cosplayers have at least a small degree of vanity and love it when that happens, I know I do.

My debut with Tenzin was at Ohayocon a few years ago, and as often happens with my new cosplays, I'm having so much fun wandering around the con in the new costume that I forget to have anyone I actually know take pictures of me. Fortunately I did actually get a couple that time.

Clearly I like the meditation pose given the last two photos. I've decided that any time I'm just sitting around waiting for someone I'm just going to do this. Yes, I'll probably miss some cool cosplayers wandering by, but it's a lot of fun and I thin people enjoy seeing it. I did this while I was waiting for my friend to use the bathroom at this past Colossalcon and while my eyes were closed I'm pretty sure I got my picture taken at least 3-4 times as I kept seeing flashes.

Weird airbending poses are obligatory as well when I'm cosplaying Tenzin. I look like such a derp, but not quite as much as the one from my next foray as Tenzin at Youmacon. It was nice and windy outside so I made my friend Josh go out and take pictures of me airbending. Great in theory but not in practice because it was too windy to keep my eyes open and stand posed for more then a few seconds without nearly falling over. Evidenced by this...

Fortunately the cape billowing was on an epic level, but I had my eyes open for 0 of the pictures and this is the photo where my face is the least contorted into pain and frustration as I'm attempting to open my eyes. Thankfully Youmacon is also the con where I have all of my awesome photos of this costume because David and Kyoko of Cerulean Photography did a little private shoot with me playing with my airbending scarves (which would have blown away if I'd tried to use them in that wind. All of the rest of the photos were taken by them.

This was one of the most fun and rewarding cosplay experiences I've had because I literally just got to dance around and play with my scarves while they took pictures, and you can totally tell that's exactly what's happening here XD
And the end result is this beautiful photoset! The only downside was since I was spinning and moving around so much, my capes kept getting skewed all wonky-like, but there's enough motion in the photos that it doesn't really matter.

And as a bonus, without my knowledge, Lydia Joy Palmer (who took that first photo I posted) was also taking pictures of me while I was dancing. Here are a few of her other photos, including one of my favorite close-up photos of me ever.

After this wonderful experience, I've been a lot more motivated to try to get professional photos of more of my costumes because they're just so darn pretty, and with as much time and effort as I put into my costumes, I want some nice photos of them.

Well that's all folks, so from this air nomad to all you benders and nonbenders out there, peace.

Just keep crafting, just keeeeeeep crafting

SO this doesn't actually have anything to do with Finding Nemo, it just seemed appropriate for my random collection of recent commissions and new projects I have in my queue.

HOKAY, SO, the first finished project in my recent collection is actually a mask I've made before, and I actually made it for the same person. The first one was a bit different that she was expecting/intending so while I offered to make her a new one she could essentially trade in for the old one at no charge, she offered to just straight up buy the new one and keep the old one. Bless her.

I'm not sure if any of you remember the Wolverine-esque claws I made for a Toakaka cosplayer a while ago, but the mask was for the same customer.

The claws turned out really well but the mask ended up being a different shape that it's really supposed to be, so I ended up making a more half-spherical one with the help of a lovely styrofoam half-ball and some paper mache. Several hours later, with the help of some black knit fabric, white foamies, and red chiffon (which I cut out of some flag poi because I couldn't find the leftovers from my first attempt at making this mask), and we have this lovely new one!

Just as creepy, but a good bit more impressive, and definitely better quality.

The second of my recent projects was also fairly simple, but I discovered a new way of making blades that I'm very excited about, as I usually make them out of wood and I have a hard time beveling the blade so I usually just don't XD

I was asked to create a pair of Kuni that have a rather more interesting design that the classic Kunai you see in things like Naruto (and therefore can find manufactured versions that are probably cheaper than commissioning me to make them for you). I admittedly don't remember what series they're from, since it wasn't something I'd ever heard of before, but they look like this:

I LOVE THE COLORS!

So, first of all I should say that I love making bladed weapons cause I just think they're fun, and I end up playing with them when I'm finished making them :-D

These ones started with two layers of foamcore board.

After drawing in the point at which the bevel of the blade would stop, I went over it with an x-acto knife and peeled away the outer layer of paper on the board.

With the paper gone, it was easy to cut the bevel into the foam using a serrated craft knife (I think the one I used was just a steak knife I found at the thrift store. Yay thrift stores!)

Look how pretty that edge is! The next step is to spackle the exposed foam so it strengthens it and fills in all of the air holes. I usually use this lightweight spackling (and I did for this one too), but next time I think I'm going to use the regular stuff as the lightweight spackling doesn't like to sand very well, it's rather odd. I think it's because it's designed to go on smooth and not require sanding but that doesn't really work with the way I'm using it...

I don't have a photo with just the spackling, but after that I added the detail layers in using compressed paperboard (I assume you all know that means cereal boxes by this point, right? Cause I use them for everything).

After some sanding, I tried a product I hadn't used before, called plasti-dip. It's supposed to be good for waterproofing things and building up a nice, strong, flexible, rubbery layer on the outside. I know other crafters use it so I tried it. Honestly, I'm a bit on the fence about it, because I never ended up getting a nice smooth surface with it, even after several coats. Thus, I had to put several more layers of gesso on over the plasti-dip to even out all of the little holes. I'm not sure if there is a way around this, so I'm planning on trying again at some point to see if it works out a little better. Anyway, a few coats of gesso, paint, and mod podge later we have some sparkly new blades!

The only other cosplay-related thing I've made recently is an 11th Doctor bow tie for a friend of mine.

The rest of my projects are new! And I'm really excited about pretty much all of them, though I'm also a but daunted by at least one of them. First up in my queue is the blunderbuss from Bloodborne. I've made a few guns in the past and I always have fun constructing them, and this one is definitely going to be a fun build. The design is pretty intricate, and it's a rather unusual shape, so it'll be really interesting to figure out what different parts are going to need to be constructed out of. 

Next on the list is a duo of items from Dragon Age. I'll be making a staff and necklace for a friend of mine who is cosplaying Morrigan.

I'm making the one on the far right

Jewelry is fun cause I get to use legit materials sometimes and while I'm making one of her simpler staffs, they're all interesting so it should be a lot of fun to put together.

Next on the list is not a formalized request just yet, but will probably get nailed down fairly soon. A friend of mine would like a giant set of claws for Hsien-ko from Darkstalkers. Sounds simple enough, right?

Lastly is the most daunting prospect on my list at the moment, but also one of the most exciting. A fellow Fire Emblem cosplayer has requested a full set of armor for Leo(n) from FE: Fates. By this point I'm pretty sure most of you know my fellings on the current state of the Fire Emblem series, but that's beside the point because getting to make this set of armor would be awesome!

As you can guess, this will be no easy feat. And if you remember my last throwback thursday post, Haar is my only experience with armor to date. His turned out reasonably well given my skill level at the time, but making a suit of faux armor for a client is a bit more stressful because I want to make sure it lasts and needs minimal maintenance to keep it looking nice, not to mention making sure it actually fits the person without having that person around all the time to try things on. This commission is also not a done deal yet as I'm still studying the artwork and researching materials to give an estimate, but I'm staying optimistic at the moment because this would definitely be a new and exciting achievement for me as a cosplayer.

So as you can see, I have my work cut out for me at the moment, so be sure to check back in as I start cranking out some of these awesome projects!

<3