Crovv

Fwoo!

What an experience! Dragon*Con is SO massive and overwhelming! My wonderful husband help me through each and every exhausting day.
I entered the Friday Night Costume contest which focuses on craftsmanship (there were so many costume contests and I entered the one I thought was right but I think I meant to be in the Masquerade. Turns out I entered the most intense of the costume contests. Oops.)  I did walk away with the Best Novice award. I'm in such shock. The costume I went in was Otachi. She caused me so much pain and frustration. I hated her. She didn't turn out right, I made so many sacrifices, but she did teach me a lot of things I should NEVER do again. Turns out, she was something special. She got me an award at a major convention! My second costume I've ever made and she won! I'm still sitting here looking at the award plaque in disbelief, but at the same time I feel some guilt. The other novices were SO good and they were all so, SO nice to me as I spent 6 hours straight in Otachi and couldn't sit down for any of it. They offered water and if there was anything they could do for me. The group was just SO nice, I've never experienced kindness like that from strangers let alone in a competitive environment.

Having been to Anime Boston (about 25k) and ConnectiCon (about 18k?)  and then to Dragon*Con (about 70K) I can tell you that even though Dragon*Con is SO much bigger, everyone is SO much nicer!  I've experienced some awful people particularly at Anime Boston; People pushing me, hitting my tail or drumming on it, and just general disrespect for myself and my costume.  Even when I was out of costume at Dragon*Con, just you're average joe, people went out of their way to help me (and no, not because of the contest or anything, I was in full costume and my personal features were unknown). I had people part crowds to help me pass through or offer to get me water. Just SO nice!

I'd go again hands down. Dragon*Con was an amazing experience with seas of the friendliest people around!

Here is a youtube video by Branden Hartness. I can be found at 14:36 and 59:11  but if you have time I'd say hunker down at watch the whole thing. The announcers were pretty disorganized but the costumes were beautiful and the people wearing them are amazing and kind.

Video: 

So, it's official, My husband, Roland, and I are heading down to DragonCon 2015 in Atlanta Georgia this year!  
I feel excited but also VERY nervous and scared. So many amazing costumes and people are there and I'm just so....bleh.
We're staying at the Omni Hotel, which is fancy and awesome! It's on the DragonCon transport route, so that part makes me very happy (it was one of the only sort of close hotels not completely booked up).

I know one other person going this year, is anyone else going to attend?


Otachi is slow going and I need to pick up the pace! I'm working on her body right now, padding up her digi legs. I bought even MORE new fabric to try and make her body look decent. I have no idea what I'm doing! I still haven't figure out what to do about the bobble type things on the underside of her tail. I've been tossing around about 5 different ideas and none of them seem to be that great. Sigh. So much more work.  Her feet are HUGE and it means I can go down stairs, but I cannot go UP them, which will make life difficult. I'm seriously questioning if I could even make it onto an escalator. I doubt I could.

I'm going to get fitted for her wings this weekend and see what's what with those. Attaching the metal / aluminum wing mechanisms to the fabric costume is yet another huge hurtle I need to face. Just So, so, so much to do.

Well it's done with, next up is Connecticon! I'll be wearing my dragon suit again for conecticon with some minor adjustments to make the head more comfortable, and I may add more details to the chest and shoulder armour (thinking on adding a tail,  but we'll see).

If you were at Anime Boston 20014 and got a pic or video of me, I'd love to see! My fiancee was supposed to be taking lots of pics for my parents but came back with like... 5? He was too busy keeping mae safe from crowds and helping me with photos for other people (calling out how many people were still taking photos and where I need to turn to help people get better photos). Due to all his efforts elsewhere helping me, we have no pictures! If you have any or have seen any, please share! We'd (aka my mom and dad) would love to see them!

SO, next step in the costume is making the feet and the tail. I've never done either of these things before, but at least for the tail portion, I'm desperate to avoid what I call "Perpetual Cone-Ass Syndrome". What Cone-Ass Syndrome is, is when people use stuffed tails for dragons, or anything other then a feline or canine and the tail just.... sticks out off the butt awkwardly. I personally really hate the look of this. SO I went to Home Depot and bought a.... I'm not really sure what the heck it is, but it was perfect. My father says it's  metal tube / piping for putting wires underground (just Googled and apparently it's called "electrical metal conduit"). It's still quite light, it has realistic movement for a tail, AND has enough weight to it so it wont stick out oddly (it will hang naturally with it's own weight, yet still flow and move with my own movements).  I plan on cutting out foam rings and sliding them up the tubing into place (leaving small gaps) to give the tail more volume and taper off properly, then placing my fabric over top. I'm hoping this works out, again, I have no idea what I'm doing T-T.

I am going crazy!