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I just thought that it would be fun to share what Im going through at the moment to improve on one of my all time favorite costumes. Im always of the feeling that I can always do better, so Im in the process of working on improving this costume. Throughout this blog, just click on the images you see to see a bigger version.
If you dont know who Darcia is or what he looks like in his costume:
For this one, I am completely redoing the entire outfit, including his coat. Some of you remember me from Kawaii Kon 2005
I always felt that I didn't like the way my original wig turned out. It didn't have that "body" that is apparent in the anime or the images of him, so after fiddling around, I finally decided to do something about it.
In this post, I'll go through the process in which I am attempting to make the wig better, and later through the rest, I'll even describe how I am redoing the coat and the headdress he wears.
So first off, the wig.
This time, I decided to go with what I had originally done, cutting 1/4" strips of Stiffened Black Felt.
There are three sizes that I plan on working with. The full 14" length (that the stiffened felt comes in). The 9" length (which is the other way the stiffened felt was cut) and 1/3 of 14" pieces. The 14" and 9" lengths will all be wefted together with strips of extension hair. The smallest pieces will just be added to the wig to give it more texture and depth.
Also, I am using 22 guage Floral Wire, that I spray painted black:
Now with both felt and wire ready, I sewed the wire to the felt so it can give it strength:
Once done, I took wefts of extension hair and hot glued the tips to the wired felt:
So, soon, I'll have a bunch of wefts stuck to a cardboard box in my kitchen:
(make note, Dani, buy a lamp for your living room so you can do this there instead of the kitchen)
Once the wefts are ready, I took the Got2b Glued hairspray and began spraying and blowdrying the wefts so they would hold their shape and be stiffened:
I highly recommend this hair product for any type of spiking, wefting, or sticking hair to some other object. Its a miracle worker.
Now the wefts are ready, time to sew them into the wig:
Side view:
Once sewn in, you can see from the photos above that I already am attempting to give them the curved looked as referenced from his images above. I've only sewn in a few, but I am pinning the rest of the wefts into place so that I can guage to how much wefts I'll need to make, of which size and where the smaller strips of felt will go once the bulk of the hair is sewn in.
As it is now, its a work in progress, but keep visiting as I continue to add to this project.
Other items I'll be adding is some feathers to give it volume.
Update: Well, after 24 hours of wefting, sewing, and hot-gluing and hair spraying, I've managed to finish this little recreation. Below are the images of the completed wig.
Update: I have done the castings for the headpiece, starting with the main piece. I've also decided that I would make the holders for the jewels as well.
I started off by sculpting the main heapiece from Clay. Its a oil based clay, that doesn't air dry and gets soft when you add it to heat. I purchased the clay from the website : MonsterMakers. I highly suggest this site as you can get everything you need if you wish to do any kind of casting.
Update: Here I will now cast the accessories using Thermal Adhesives (aka Hot Glue). You can pick up a hot glue gun and sticks at your favorite Hobby/craft store , Walmart or home improvement store. I suggest using HIGH Temp glue sticks.
Now, once you've gotten your negative molds, you will want to soak them in water for about an hour. A little longer if your mold is thick or has a lot of details. The plaster will soak up the water, which will prevent the hot glue from sticking to it.
Now, once you've done soaking the plaster molds in water, dry them with a clean cloth. You will then need to get your hot glue guns ready.
You will have to work quickly since hot glue sets almost immediately; have extra sticks ready if you run out. Inject the hot glue right on to the mold. If you have crevises, make sure you inject the glue into them otherwise you will end up with uneven surfaces.
Make sure that when you are done, you have a somewhat, flat surface on your mold.
The beauty of using this method to cast accessories, is that the wait time is very low. On smaller pieces, you can have your casted piece out in 10 minutes after injecting the glue into the mold.
And what is nice is that the plaster will hold a bit longer to this method, so you can make multpile castings before it becomes unsuable.
As you can see here, the edges are bit rough so I will have to go in and clean them up a bit. Once cleaned, they are ready for painting.
All of these casts were done in only an hour's time.
Update: Now to painting the accessory pieces and assembling them together.
As with any you paint, you should always lay down a base coat. Primer is fine. Actually, primer is perfect!
Let dry completely. Once you've layed down the primer, you can actually now see if you need to do any patchwork to your castings. If you see holes or uneven edges, take your glue gun and apply small amounts of glue to the areas you need work on. You can smooth the glue out using a putty knife or your gloved hand. Be careful, the glue is still hot and you will want to work fast otherwise you'll get even more errors to correct.
Once you've patched up any problems with your castings, you can now paint it.
Again, let it dry. Do as many layers as you think you need. Remember, to always let one layer dry completely before spraying another layer of paint.
Wow, we are onto the final steps! Once I finished with the painting, it was time to assemble the headpiece together.
Now, a much more durable headpiece for my costume.
Want to know what it looked like with everything put together?
Wow, big difference from my first version no?
Next task in this ongoing project! SEW the coat!
Wish me luck
If you dont know who Darcia is or what he looks like in his costume:
For this one, I am completely redoing the entire outfit, including his coat. Some of you remember me from Kawaii Kon 2005
I always felt that I didn't like the way my original wig turned out. It didn't have that "body" that is apparent in the anime or the images of him, so after fiddling around, I finally decided to do something about it.
In this post, I'll go through the process in which I am attempting to make the wig better, and later through the rest, I'll even describe how I am redoing the coat and the headdress he wears.
So first off, the wig.
This time, I decided to go with what I had originally done, cutting 1/4" strips of Stiffened Black Felt.
There are three sizes that I plan on working with. The full 14" length (that the stiffened felt comes in). The 9" length (which is the other way the stiffened felt was cut) and 1/3 of 14" pieces. The 14" and 9" lengths will all be wefted together with strips of extension hair. The smallest pieces will just be added to the wig to give it more texture and depth.
Also, I am using 22 guage Floral Wire, that I spray painted black:
Now with both felt and wire ready, I sewed the wire to the felt so it can give it strength:
Once done, I took wefts of extension hair and hot glued the tips to the wired felt:
So, soon, I'll have a bunch of wefts stuck to a cardboard box in my kitchen:
(make note, Dani, buy a lamp for your living room so you can do this there instead of the kitchen)
Once the wefts are ready, I took the Got2b Glued hairspray and began spraying and blowdrying the wefts so they would hold their shape and be stiffened:
I highly recommend this hair product for any type of spiking, wefting, or sticking hair to some other object. Its a miracle worker.
Now the wefts are ready, time to sew them into the wig:
Side view:
Once sewn in, you can see from the photos above that I already am attempting to give them the curved looked as referenced from his images above. I've only sewn in a few, but I am pinning the rest of the wefts into place so that I can guage to how much wefts I'll need to make, of which size and where the smaller strips of felt will go once the bulk of the hair is sewn in.
As it is now, its a work in progress, but keep visiting as I continue to add to this project.
Other items I'll be adding is some feathers to give it volume.
Update: Well, after 24 hours of wefting, sewing, and hot-gluing and hair spraying, I've managed to finish this little recreation. Below are the images of the completed wig.
Update: I have done the castings for the headpiece, starting with the main piece. I've also decided that I would make the holders for the jewels as well.
I started off by sculpting the main heapiece from Clay. Its a oil based clay, that doesn't air dry and gets soft when you add it to heat. I purchased the clay from the website : MonsterMakers. I highly suggest this site as you can get everything you need if you wish to do any kind of casting.
Next, I prepped the sculpts so they can be casted. I laid each piece on a flat surface (in this case a cookie sheet), and built up retaining walls around the pices. This is so that when I pour the plaster, the plaster stays within the wells I've created. I also took a blow dryer on high heat and heated up the clay. This brings up the oils within the clay to the surface so that when the plaster is poured, the less chance that the clay will stick to the plaster as it dries. If you dont like this method, you can also use Vaseline as your release agent.
After I prepped the clay, I got my supplies together to mix the plaster. Be sure to follow the directions closely as possible, wear gloves, and layout newspapers on the ground or some kind of floor covering to catch any drips or spillage. You have a short time to work with the plaster once its mixed.
Use a clean bowl and cold clean water. Mix until you get a nice consistency to your mix.
Now, pour your plaster into your wells.
Wait the recommended time on instructions to dry. Mine stated that it dries completely in 25-30 minutes. I let it dry for 2 hours ^_~. Once dried, you can now remove your sculpt from the plaster and you end up with your negative. (The clay will not last through casting, so dont expect to salvage it)
And voila, the casting for the headpiece and the jewel holders are now done. Next update, I will show you how to make your positives from the negative castings.
After I prepped the clay, I got my supplies together to mix the plaster. Be sure to follow the directions closely as possible, wear gloves, and layout newspapers on the ground or some kind of floor covering to catch any drips or spillage. You have a short time to work with the plaster once its mixed.
Use a clean bowl and cold clean water. Mix until you get a nice consistency to your mix.
Now, pour your plaster into your wells.
Wait the recommended time on instructions to dry. Mine stated that it dries completely in 25-30 minutes. I let it dry for 2 hours ^_~. Once dried, you can now remove your sculpt from the plaster and you end up with your negative. (The clay will not last through casting, so dont expect to salvage it)
And voila, the casting for the headpiece and the jewel holders are now done. Next update, I will show you how to make your positives from the negative castings.
Update: Here I will now cast the accessories using Thermal Adhesives (aka Hot Glue). You can pick up a hot glue gun and sticks at your favorite Hobby/craft store , Walmart or home improvement store. I suggest using HIGH Temp glue sticks.
Now, once you've gotten your negative molds, you will want to soak them in water for about an hour. A little longer if your mold is thick or has a lot of details. The plaster will soak up the water, which will prevent the hot glue from sticking to it.
Now, once you've done soaking the plaster molds in water, dry them with a clean cloth. You will then need to get your hot glue guns ready.
You will have to work quickly since hot glue sets almost immediately; have extra sticks ready if you run out. Inject the hot glue right on to the mold. If you have crevises, make sure you inject the glue into them otherwise you will end up with uneven surfaces.
Make sure that when you are done, you have a somewhat, flat surface on your mold.
The beauty of using this method to cast accessories, is that the wait time is very low. On smaller pieces, you can have your casted piece out in 10 minutes after injecting the glue into the mold.
And what is nice is that the plaster will hold a bit longer to this method, so you can make multpile castings before it becomes unsuable.
As you can see here, the edges are bit rough so I will have to go in and clean them up a bit. Once cleaned, they are ready for painting.
All of these casts were done in only an hour's time.
Update: Now to painting the accessory pieces and assembling them together.
As with any you paint, you should always lay down a base coat. Primer is fine. Actually, primer is perfect!
Let dry completely. Once you've layed down the primer, you can actually now see if you need to do any patchwork to your castings. If you see holes or uneven edges, take your glue gun and apply small amounts of glue to the areas you need work on. You can smooth the glue out using a putty knife or your gloved hand. Be careful, the glue is still hot and you will want to work fast otherwise you'll get even more errors to correct.
Once you've patched up any problems with your castings, you can now paint it.
Again, let it dry. Do as many layers as you think you need. Remember, to always let one layer dry completely before spraying another layer of paint.
Wow, we are onto the final steps! Once I finished with the painting, it was time to assemble the headpiece together.
Now, a much more durable headpiece for my costume.
Want to know what it looked like with everything put together?
Wow, big difference from my first version no?
Next task in this ongoing project! SEW the coat!
Wish me luck
