Youma 2017

Welcome back, folks! As per usual, sorry for the prolonged absence! October was a bit hectic, between hosting and recovering from my Harry Potter weekend, and launching full-force into a commission that needed to be done and shipped before Halloween, plus the serious con crunching I did with my last minute necessity of doing an extra cosplay. So, I'll be rolling out all of the details and construction of that stuff this week, but while Youma is still fresh in my mind, I wanted to give you guys that rundown first.

But before I do that, I wanted to plug my social media expansion:

Mikey is finally on Instagram! 

I finally caved after 8,000 people have told me I really should be. And it'll be pretty exclusively cosplay-related photos, because I have no reason to post other stuff there (except maybe photos of my dog, because he is a good boy). So, you can follow me @mikeydoescosplay for the easiest updates on my WIPs and cosplay photos, since you won't have to sift through the inane stuff on my Twitter account.

And with that, on to Youma!!
I'm including primarily photos of my own cosplay here, if you'd like to see the hall shots I got of other awesome cosplayers, check out my Youmacon facebook gallery. 

Thursday

Thursday was super chill and I got up there way earlier than I needed to, but I was glad to since it meant I got a decent parking spot and didn't have to worry about a ton of traffic. When folks finally got there, I did eventually change into Masrur from Magi, since two of my friends wanted to get our little group together at last. Unfortunately, one friend got in super late and the other just never got into costume, so it was just me. But that's ok because at least i finally wore the cosplay I made about 2 cons ago! And I got a few photos! And a few people even recognized me, even though there weren't that many con-goers around yet.

I'm super happy with how he turned out, and he's actually not that uncomfortable, other than the breastplate rubbing a bit under my arms. Eventually I'm hoping we can get our little group together but I'm not in any rush now that it's all finished.

Friday

Friday was great because there were still a bunch of city folk out and about in the convention center and I got to watch as they slowly disappeared and more con-goers arrived. I was dressed as Hestu for most of the day, which is the first sime I've worn him since I altered his head.

When I initially made his tree head, I just made the whole thing out of cardboard, including the but that actually went around my head. There was some foam for cushioning, but it was still super uncomfortable, and gave me headaches after wearing it for 30 seconds. So I decided to change it up because I want to wear this cosplay more since it's more fun and let's be real, Hestu and I are pretty much the same person... plant... being... thing. So to fix the issues I was having, I found a baseball helmet at the thrift store and pretty much just glued what I already made to the top of it. I added some extra fleece wrapping to cover the helmet, reattached the eyebrows and the velcro to attach the mask, and voila, I had a tree head that didn't make my actual head feel like death any more.!

The best part about wearing Hestu around on Friday was that apparently being a tree meant that I was more approachable/less intimidating that most of the other cosplayers? Because no less than 10 times I had normal people come up to ask me what was going on and/or if they could get a picture with me. One couple in particular was super excited to get photos with me, and the lady and I posed with the maracas. It was fantastic. I also had someone from a local news station come and talk to me but sadly I can't remember what station, nor was I successful at finding a video online, alas.

Once it got into the evening hours I changed out of Hestu and into my brandy-new cosplay that I finished sewing literally 24 hours before I left for the con (and those of you who know me know that's cutting it way closer than I ever do). I'm of course referring to Crow for my P5 Phantom Thieves group. 

Despite the incredible frustrations with having to hand sew on the ridiculous amount of trim involved in this cosplay, I am SO HAPPY with how it turned out, and so glad I managed to get it done in time to be a part of this Phantom Thieves photoshoot. I had so much fun and everyone's cosplay was ON POINT.

Photo courtesy of back_of_beyond_cosplay

It was such an honor to be a part of this group of incredibly talented cosplayers. You should check them all out on Instagram because they have a bunch of other wonderful cosplays too:
Skull: climbingtartarus
Queen: madster.photo
Oracle: lightofhope18
Joker: galbadian_aristocrat_cosplay
Panther: lyssalalaa
Noir: I don't have her info but I will share when I find out!
Fox: multiversecosplay

We shot with Robert Tate Photography and I cannot wait to see how the photos turn out! I will be sure to share them when we get the proofs back.

Saturday

Saturday was another awesome day with 3 group cosplays planned, all of which were great!
The morning started with some good old-fashioned Ghibli cosplay: Howl and Sophie from Howl's Moving Castle. Ok, we also had Turnip Head, Calcifer, and Heen. The best thing about doing Howl this time: I had a new wig that wasn't totally disgusting.

The weather was lovely (if a little chilly) so we got some wonderful photos outside along the riverwalk. I'm hoping some day we'll be able to get my Markl in here too, and perhaps find a Witch of the Waste so we have a full crew!

After spending time wandering the con floor, I went back and changed into Mad King Ashnard for the Fire Emblem shoots. We organized a little Tellius gathering (which only had 4 people but was still great) before the main FE shoot.

I love this costume so much, it's ridiculous. I don't care that almost no one recognizes me, because the ones that do are keepers, I made a new friend that was as a matter of fact. And that cape is so freaking luxurious. And the shoulder pauldrons of doom are wonderful. And the giant terrifying sword. I even really like how I look with that wig and weird facial hair. The only thing I need to do is find a better way to attach the shoulder armor to the cape, because every time I moved my arms they would pop off, and I actually lost one of the spikes as a result. But that aside, it was great to get some awkward family photos with my friend cosplaying Soren.

We also decided to recreate the HERON PUNCH since my Sophie from earlier came back as Reyson.

I didn't take any photos at the big shoot, since my phone was dying by that point and I didn't feel like worrying about it, but I did get a nice villain photo with my friend.

Reyson also got a lovely selfie of us with my friend's Ike.

While the photoshoot was of course dominated by Awakening and Fates cosplayers, I was impressed at the representation there. We had at least one cosplayer from every game except Thracia 776, Binding Blade, and Sacred Stones, which all things considered was pretty good!

After the shoot was over and I was tired of wearing 18 lbs. of velvet cape, I went back to the room to change into Junpei. Unfortunately the rain picked up on my walk back over to the Ren Cen so everything got wet, including my already heavy-as-hell cape. But there was a very sweet guy walking behind me who offered to hold my cape so it didn't drag through the puddles.

When I finally dried out a bit it was finally bro time with my senpais!

It was so nice to be back in normal, comfy clothing and I had a blast hanging out with two of my best con friends. It's been forever since we've all cosplayed together so it was nicce to be able to just chill. We got some food and I of course refused to take a serious photo the entire time I was in Jupei.

As the evening went on, I ended up splitting from the group for a bit because some guy lost his phone and his friends so I lent him my cell to get in contact with them. Somehow during that time they decided they didn't want to go to the Persona gathering and went back up to the room, evidently having a seriously harrowing journey on the elevators. I decided I didn't want to deal with it so I huffed it up the 25 flights of stairs to the room and consequently passed out.

Sunday

Sunday was actually pretty good, since we got an extra hour of sleep with the time change, so I slept in to what felt like 9 but was actually 8. I got my stuff packed in my car without having to deal with busy elevators and went to breakfast in my Hufflepuff gear with a few extra critters.

We wandered for a bit and said goodbye to the friends we ran into. I eventually decided to shell out the $25 for a Sunday badge so I could wander through the dealer's room and I'm glad I did because there was a lot of great stuff. I ended up spending almost all of my cash (but I was smart and kept enough for tolls on the way home).

Here's the haul! There were so many awesome artists, and I didn't even see everything because the hall was so big and I ran out of money before I made it all the way through lol. My favorite purchases were definitely the Jill/Haar print, which I got to chat with the artist about Tellius-series FE for a bit and re-motivated myself to fix up Haar for this year. Also the Krem pillow that I have been snuggling with the entire time I've been writing this post.

As per usual, coming home from a con this awesome has motivated me to plan out and start working on some cosplays for next year (since I have no more cons this year), and I'm hoping to channel some of that motivation toward some commissions I have to work on, as well as a few more posts about the commission I just finished, the rest of the magical creatures I never posted about, and my Crow cosplay since I did actually take a decent number of progress photos with my recently joining Instagram.

So stay tuned, folks, because there will be a few more posts coming in the next couple of weeks!

You're a Wizard, Mikey!

At last, my Harry Potter weekend has come and gone. It was tons of fun and we're all so tired. But anyway, here's how the weekend went.

Friday
Friday night was arrival for most folks, and the highest attendance. I set up a scavenger hunt around the house for people to explore all of the fun rooms and test everyone's knowledge of HP lore (but only a little).  My favorite clue read as follows: "You can see all your heart’s desires in this magical object. But don’t be fooled, for the things it shows are neither real, nor true. Resist its allure if you can, as you’ll have to gaze into it to find your next clue."

You probably guessed that this one is related to the Mirror of Erised, and you would be correct. The best part, however, was that the clue hidden there could only be read through the mirror, as it was printed backwards.

Sadly, I messed up a little bit because rather than the clues leading directly to the final location, each clue had a piece of a cipher which would eventually have to be unscrambled to figure out the treasure's final hiding place. Unfortunately, I forgot a letter so that tripped a few teams up. Regardless one team successfully found the treasure chest full of Honeydukes candy OM NOM NOM

Once snacks were procured for the weekend, we had a little welcome bonfire (which took several Incendio spells to conjure since it rained Friday morning so all of the wood was wet. However, with fire being conjured, we also had a very special performance by one of our talented witches, doing a native Albanian dragon mesmerization ritual. Needless to say, it was quite effective on us, dragon or not.

Friday also marked our first brewing of potions and they were moste potente. It certainly made for a fun evening.

Saturday
Saturday morning started with a delicious breakfast prepared by one of our favorite Hufflepuff chefs, followed by a morning wandmaking workshop. People made some awesome wands for use throughout the weekend.

Our newly crafted wands did take some time to dry so we took our opportunity to visit a local park for a short game of quidditch and a picnic lunch.

Fun continued back at the Hogwarts sattelite campus with a magizoology lesson and a series of logic puzzles to earn points for the house cup competition. Most of you learned about many of the fantastic beasts covered, but here's a little glimpse of our care of magical creatures area.

Ok, yes, mandrakes are plants and not animals, but those lines can be kinda blurry when it comes to magical flora and fauna anyway.

As for the logic challenge, the centerpiece was pointedly Professor Snape's own creation, but involved several other riddles and puzzles for our witches and wizards to solve.

While on the subject of Snape's potion riddle, I feel it appropriate to add that the other safeguards protecting the philosopher's stone were also employed, as we had a stone of our own to keep safe.

Saturday evening was by far the fanciest feast we had all weekend, as our head house elf pulled out all of the stops for dinner. Shepherds pie, boiled potatoes, steak & kidney pie, and brussel sprouts were just the beginning of the culinary extravaganza he prepared.

With all of the witches happy and full, we moved on to games including the much anticipated trivia game. Ravenclaw had the highest takeaway from the match and we moved on to the much less serious game of Cards Against Muggles. Yes, it's exactly what you're thinking and yes, it's just as absurd as you might expect. The House Cup was a pretty even split at this point.

Sunday
As I'm sure you can imagine, Sunday was a bit of a lazy start, and many witches and wizards who traveled quite far to join us had portkeys to catch, but we did practice some patronus summoning, and we had a few extra special creatures join us for the morning. The first being a rather large bird of an unusual quality, and the second being a very sweet pupper with a few extra heads. They got along quite famously.

With many happy memories from the weekend, casting patronuses was easy, and our resident boggart-turned-dementor made for good target practice.

No, Kyle, it's supposed to be a happy memory...

That's better.

And how appropriate that we ended with the happiest memories in our minds as everyone began their journeys home. It was certainly a magical weekend, and an event I hope to repeat in the future!

Hogwarts Satellite Campus

Welcome back everyone! As I noted before my nearly month-long absence, the entire month of September I would be taking off from prop commissions in anticipation of my Harry Potter weekend coming up in the first weekend of October. Well, I've been doing just that! A few posts ago, I gave you all a primer on magical creatures, which I've been expanding my menagerie and now have several  more creatures indigenous to the Harry Potter universe, but also have a number of creatures outside of it. I plan to continue building my collection even after the party is over because I really like magical critters.

But you've already heard about all of them so today I wanted to take a quick second and show off all of the other fun things I've been making to slowly transform my house into Hogwarts. Now I haven't mortared all of the walls with stone, but we do have each of the four house common rooms represented.

The Gryffindor commmon room will of course have a painting of the Fat Lady on its door. The painting isn't finished yet but I have every confidence that she will guard the room well. Gryffindor common room will also house our hall of relics, where most of the magical objects we've come to know and love will be on display. We'll get back to those later.

Hufflepuff common room will be accessed through a stack of barrels. for those of you who are not members of the house, the key to getting into the common room is by tapping your wand on the correct barrel in the proper rhythm. Don't screw it up or you'll get a face full of vinegar!
As this is in our master bedroom, there will not be as much extraneous stuff here, but I am planning to hang a picture of our house founder in the room, as it is at Hogwarts.

Ravenclaw tower is sporting its blue and bronze banners and is entererd by answering a riddle from the bronze door knocker gracing the door. Hope you're clever enough to get in. Though it isn't yet finished, there will be a bronze bust of Rowena Ravenclaw with her diadem.

As Ravenclaw common room is in a tower, it seemed appropriate to have the Owlery located there as well, and as a nod to the astronomy tower, the cieling will be filled with stars.

Slytherin common room can be accessed through a large grey curtain painted to resemble stone. Sadly we don't have a basement because it would be great to have it there, but we'll make due.

Given that the potions master has consistently been the head of house, the apothecary will be located there. Also (as you can see by the stuff on the floor) this is usually my craft room so I have all of my supplies there. As such, we've modded it into the Dark Arts (& Crafts) Center!

Along with changing the actual living space for the event, I of course have been hard at work making a bunch of props of magical relics!

First up we have a Remembrall which glows red when you forget something. Good luck remembering whatever it is that you've forgotten.

We also have the Goblet of Fire, in case we need to choose any capable witches and wizards to be our champions.

Don't waste away looking into the Mirror of Erised. It may show you your deepest desires, but it does not show the truth, or what will come to pass.

We have two new books to add to the magical library: Hogwarts, A History and The Moster Book of Monsters. If I get around to it, Magical Me will also be added to out collection. And although it's kind of hard to tell from the photo, the bits that look like they're glowing do actually light up (including the moon).

Naturally we need to have the sorting hat around, especially because there will be a bunch of group activities we need to be sorted for. He was quite grumpy when I asked for his picture...

Here you can see the (nearly) full collection of horcruxes. I plan to add a little portrait of Harry to complete the bunch.

And of course the one Hogwarts founder's treasure that was not corrupted by Voldemort, the Sword of Gryffindor. So shiny. So chrome.

And last, but certainly not least, we have some flying keys for the chamber that protects the Philosopher's Stone. They may have their wings but we haven't charmed them to fly just yet. We'll have a few other items for that room, including a wizard chess set, some Devil's Snare, a collection of potions bottles, the Philosopher's Stone itself, and a permanently unconscious troll. And of course the Mirror of Erised will be kept there as well.

I am thoroughly looking forward to this event, and will most certainly be sharing more photos from the weekend with all of you. Cheers!