Sakura Kinomoto-Final Stages

Before I start talking about real cosplay stuff, what the hell is this?  You thought the PT Cruiser just couldn't get any sadder, didn't you?  Too bad.  It just did.  It just got freaking wood paneling.  And by that I mean wallpaper from your grandmother's kitchen cabinets that she installed in 1963.

What is the problem with these cars?  They're not content to be the faux-retro loser that tells everyone you're either going through a midlife crisis or renting a car and they were out of Mustangs.  No.  They have to sit on street corners looking SO FECKING SNAZZY AND SHIZ and then you realize it's just a bloody PT Cruiser with wallpaper on it.  Know what else I've seen?  Convertible PT Cruisers.  Yep, that right.  Another gift from Chrysler's bunghole.  What could possible make you look cooler than cruising around with the FREAKIN' TOP OFF YOUR PT CRUISER?!  What's next?  Convertible Hummers?

Oh, right.  We already have those.  They're Hummer's slightly retarded cousins--Jeeps.  Guaranteeing that someone can hot-wire your car since 1951 (or whenever) because the top of your car is made of plastic.  Bloody hell.

Off my rant box now, I hope.  Let's get some work done.  Or you could just stop reading there because everything after this is gonna be boring in comparison.  Just sayin'.  Probably.

After a bit of consideration, I finally decided to get some elbow-length opera cloves and give that staff a try.  There may not really be any point.  But there we go anyway.

My choices were limited this close to the convention.  Also I wanted to avoid shiny satin for its ability to overexpose any photos.  These are the gloves I chose:

With some luck they should fit.  You know, I've got short fingers, so why can't I ever find a pair of gloves that's long enough in the finger?  These bloody well better be big enough.  Otherwise I'll unhappily have to make them fingerless gloves.

The staff is last-minute and I did not anticipate that it would come out looking extremely well-polished.  It needs to look good in photos for one day at the con.  Not much else.  I chose mat board from Dick Blick as my weapon of choice.

This thing seems circular.  That's where we'll start.

There also seems to be a bit of a raised/lowered edge around the inner and outer edges on the circle.  For simplicity I chose a lowered edge.

Sketching out the design carefully on newpaper ads.  Tsubasa symbols have a grace and style that doesn't look right if there's too much deviation.  I hope this came out alright.

All cut out!  I bought an Exacto knife and should have used it.  I'm just lazy and couldn't seem to find a place to cut where I wouldn't damage floors or furniture or the knife.  In the end I chose to use regular scissors and have a good bruise on my thumb to show for it.

The stick is nothing fancy, nor does it need to be.  It'll mostly be hidden in the folds of my skirt and cloak, or at least I hope so.  Anime Boston's new weapons policy made me extremely cautious when I chose materials for this prop so that it could NOT ever be mistaken as a weapon, nor could any of the materials be strong enough to be used as such.

For extra strength the dowel extends far into the design and gets mostly disguised by another piece of mat board.

All painted!  From the front...

And from the back.  This photo is closer to the actual colour of the spray paint, which isn't a particularly beautiful gold colour.  Once I've painted all the repairs for Seth Nightroad, I'll use what paint I have left to give this a more bronze colour.

The only other piece I've made progress on is the hairpiece, which is done.  I've got more photos on my other camera and for now I'm too lazy to post them.  Here's what I've got.

The hairpiece was made in two pieces using paper clay.  The piece below is the topmost piece, which will have another piece nested beneath it.

As the pieces dried, I draped them over a cylindrical jar so that they would curve instead of being flat.  The problem ended up being that they got too curved and so now they follow the curve of my head instead of sticking up as the do in CLAMP's artwork.

Both pieces got glued together with Shoe Goo for EXTRAH STRENGTHHHHH.

Didn't turn out too bad.  They are spray painted a nice bronz-y gold and I'm holding them onto my wig using pin backs.  I DEFY GRAVITY, SUCKAHRS!

Now I am tired and tomorrow I am taking the Orange Line over to the arboretum at Forest Hills.  Here's a little parting gift before bed: