SakuraCon 2011 ^_^
I finally got my black dragon costume done after 2 years! Unfortunately, I do not have a camera, so I was unable to take pictures of it myself. Luckily for me, MANY people at SakuraCon did! I'm not comfortable posting someone else's picture here, so instead, I will offer you a link to their flickr page of the picture!
What you can't see in the picture is the back of the wings or gown: the back of the wings are done in faux snakeskin and the back of the underskirt is suede cloth with a scale pattern on it and a 1 foot train (that was my tail ^_^ ). The dress is about 30 yards of black bridal satin (HEAVY!),the sleeves are lined with crepe satin, the bodice a heavy brocade and the chemise is Dupont silk. The wings are on a pulley system, so the did collapse back down (making walking easier, not that I got to do much of that...). The full span is about 8 feet! I hand beaded the front of the underskirt to make it look like lightening. The overcoat is bustled up in various locations with pewter and silver buttons hiding the stitching. I also put the leftover buttons along the sleeves in between the holes for added embellishments. FiannaValkyrie helped me with the horns. They're made from the dense pink insulation foam found in the insulation sections of hardware stores. ^_^ We lightly sprayed them with spray paint so the foam would be slightly eaten and pockmarked before we sealed them with a plastic and styrene friendly spray paint sealer. They're wired and molding clay strapped onto a headband, with what I swear is industrial strength velcro on the underside to keep them on my head! I chose to wear just plain black opera gloves instead of going with my original plan of painting fading scales from the hands up and putting on "claws" of some sort. People seemed to like that bit of simplicity. ^_^
All in all, it took me about 60 hours to do this, from cutting out to final fitting. I had a BLAST wearing this costume! I couldn't go 5 feet without people asking for a picture. ^____^ It made me feel giddy and euphoric to know that I have the ability to create something at this level that people appreciated, whether or not they know what I am supposed to be. I was stopped several times on the streets of Seattle by folks who had no idea what was going on or about SakuraCon, just to look at the dress. ^_^
What you can't see in the picture is the back of the wings or gown: the back of the wings are done in faux snakeskin and the back of the underskirt is suede cloth with a scale pattern on it and a 1 foot train (that was my tail ^_^ ). The dress is about 30 yards of black bridal satin (HEAVY!),the sleeves are lined with crepe satin, the bodice a heavy brocade and the chemise is Dupont silk. The wings are on a pulley system, so the did collapse back down (making walking easier, not that I got to do much of that...). The full span is about 8 feet! I hand beaded the front of the underskirt to make it look like lightening. The overcoat is bustled up in various locations with pewter and silver buttons hiding the stitching. I also put the leftover buttons along the sleeves in between the holes for added embellishments. FiannaValkyrie helped me with the horns. They're made from the dense pink insulation foam found in the insulation sections of hardware stores. ^_^ We lightly sprayed them with spray paint so the foam would be slightly eaten and pockmarked before we sealed them with a plastic and styrene friendly spray paint sealer. They're wired and molding clay strapped onto a headband, with what I swear is industrial strength velcro on the underside to keep them on my head! I chose to wear just plain black opera gloves instead of going with my original plan of painting fading scales from the hands up and putting on "claws" of some sort. People seemed to like that bit of simplicity. ^_^
All in all, it took me about 60 hours to do this, from cutting out to final fitting. I had a BLAST wearing this costume! I couldn't go 5 feet without people asking for a picture. ^____^ It made me feel giddy and euphoric to know that I have the ability to create something at this level that people appreciated, whether or not they know what I am supposed to be. I was stopped several times on the streets of Seattle by folks who had no idea what was going on or about SakuraCon, just to look at the dress. ^_^