Costuming Update! With Pics!
So I guess I should tell you guys about Hal-Con!
So, okay, Hal-con was great. Huge venue and a considerable hike from the World Trade Convention Centre, through the attached mall, and over to the hotel (seriously, we didn't have to go outside unless we wanted to, and I never saw the sun all weekend, because the only time we did go outside--for Chinese dinner I think Friday night, and sushi Sunday, it was already dark) so that was cool, but I actually wore the rubber base of the heels of my boots off over the three days; did a lot of walking, lol. And a great deal of fun! I think one of the highlights of the con was watching Dorks in Dungeons, who are hilarious. They're an extremely nerdy five-person improv troupe. Two people play our sort-of heroes (except they're kind of terrible people who keep solving problems with murder), and are in costume; the other three play the GM, and any other characters they encounter. There are two pedestals, with wide, shallow wooden bowls on them, and a D20 in each, downstage to stage left and right. When the our heroes try to do something, they have to roll to see if it succeeds, but it gets even funnier than that (no, I'm being serious, making them roll and then act out the consequences of rolling, like, a one is hilarious), because at the start, they toss a handful of dice into the audience, and at any point someone can toss one back on stage and shout "Reroll!" and then they have to reroll. Sometimes they're used to rescue a bad roll; sometimes they're used after a really good roll. Sometimes it doesn't matter in the slightest; one time she rolled a one, someone did a reroll, and she then rolled a two. Lol.
If they get a 20, they shout "Natural 20!" and throw candy at us. :D
See the Elven Ranger at 3:58? Guess who! :D That was filmed in the line-up for the costume contest. They did film us together after for the I guess more official music video by GeeksversusNerds, but we didn't make it into the final cut. Pooh.
Okay, the costume contest. So, okay, Ilithiel's sewing skills were about average, I guess, and neither of us had ever entered a costume competition before, so we figured we'd try for the Journeyman level. See, they have three adult levels: Journeyman, for people "with average costuming skills"; Artisan, for people with "above-average costuming skills;" and Master, for people with "professional-level costuming skills." So I went to register (Ilithiel was at a panel) and they took one look at me and said, "Yeah, no; we're bumping you up to Artisan. You'd just blow everyone away at the Journeyman level; it wouldn't be fair." Which is nice. So, okay, we went in at the Artisan level, and went to the judging where they look at you in a small room off to the side, just you and some of the other contestants, and can get a close-up look at the costumes and ask questions and stuff, which of course they can't very well do on stage without being really boring. So we went in, and oh my gods, there were some amazing costumes. And we were all, like, "Yeah, maybe not." But we got up there, and we'd made like 90% of our entire outfits, from the costumes to the bags to the bows and arrows and quivers (they were very impressed with our fletching, so the time I took to look it up online to see the proper traditional way to do it, where it's glued and tied and not just glued, paid off. And one of the judges, who is a professional cosplayer being flown out to Paris-con shortly, told me he had never seen such invisible seams on ears before, that they were really well done (several people did ask me at the con if they were real, which I thought was a silly question until I found out that ear surgery is a thing). So that was nice. Guess my Special Make-up Effects course was worth something after all, heh!
And we were kind of winding down when I remembered the lembas. We'd made lembas, and the craft-foam leaves, and each had about six pieces in our bags, and when we pulled them out, and confirmed that they were edible, his jaw literally (literally-literally) dropped. Which was awesome. So we fed them lembas (but asked for the leaves back lol), which was good, because aside from being a nice touch I don't think they'd had lunch yet and were hungry, and then we started speaking Sindarin to each other.
Lothlasiel: "Len suilon!"
Ilithiel: "Suilad!"
Lothlasiel: "Im Lothlasiel eston! Man i eneth lin?"
Ilithiel: "Ilithiel."
Lothlasiel: "Ma! Dorthon mi Eryn Lasgalen; mas dorthol?"
Ilithiel: "Imladris."
Lothlasiel: "Ma. Mae g'ovannen, Ilithiel!"
Ilithiel: "Galu!"
--I put a lot of time into learning Sindarin and really didn't get very far, but Ilithiel was taking all the overtime she could and didn't get as much practise in, but she could say a couple of things, but was getting a bit mixed up. So we decided on the way down that I'd do most of the jabbering, and then all she'd have to do was to respond at the appropriate pauses with a greeting, her name, where she was from, and a goodbye. Pretty straightforward, but we totally blew them away. Ends up both the judges were huge Tolkien nerds, so by the time we were done they had just huge grins, and told us how much they were nerding out. It was fun.
But as I said, the competition was stiff! I mean, look at this, she only won third place, can you believe it?! She did a little dance and everything:
The wing feathers are done out of packing styrofoam, with the sort-of-pleats lined up in the direction of the quills; it looked amazing
And this guy took second as the Pokemon Cypher:
Poor guy couldn't sit down in that thing; it wouldn't let his hips bend enough. Fantastic wings! We discussed some options on making them fold down (and still spread out like this) while we were waiting to go on, which is something he'd wanted to do but didn't have time. As it is, the other wings with the armour there at least can fold back (with help) for doorways but poor Cypher is stuck in that configuration. Plus I think he must really devote a lot of time to working out and monitoring his diet; he is in incredible shape! And that takes a LOT of work to get like that (and stay there).
Ha ha, look at these nerds:
I have a completely gormless look on my face because I'm about to point and shout, "Mabar i pheriannath na Isengard!" Internet cookies to anyone who can figure that out. ;)
I did that during the judging and they said to do it on stage as well. So I did. :D I do have my bow too but it's behind Ilithiel in my other hand right now. We wanted to fit an arrow to the string, and actually did make one arrow each that had a fake head on it for the contest and for posing, but they don't allow arrows on strings anymore after some kerfuffle with a Green Arrow's routine making people nervous at the contest a couple years ago. See, this is why we can't have nice things. But I'll share more close-up pics of our bows and arrows as soon as I get them off Mike's phone.
Did I mention we took first place? Because we did. We took first place in the Artisan category!! :D OMG!! They're mailing us something or other, no idea what. Certificates, I presume, but no idea.
So there you go! Hal-con was a bit different from my previous con experiences, but still a lot of fun; we went over very well, with a lot of people asking for photos (and me trying to get pics of and/or with every other Tolkien character there, especially fellow Elves). You can see my photos here, if you're on FaceBook (I created a new account in my online name just for staying in contact with my fellow Tolkien fans), and here, on my Photobucket (which doesn't have titles or descriptions added yet, but which will over the next little while), if you're not.
Yay Hal-con!
This entry was originally posted at http://kryss-labryn.dreamwidth.org/105618.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
So, okay, Hal-con was great. Huge venue and a considerable hike from the World Trade Convention Centre, through the attached mall, and over to the hotel (seriously, we didn't have to go outside unless we wanted to, and I never saw the sun all weekend, because the only time we did go outside--for Chinese dinner I think Friday night, and sushi Sunday, it was already dark) so that was cool, but I actually wore the rubber base of the heels of my boots off over the three days; did a lot of walking, lol. And a great deal of fun! I think one of the highlights of the con was watching Dorks in Dungeons, who are hilarious. They're an extremely nerdy five-person improv troupe. Two people play our sort-of heroes (except they're kind of terrible people who keep solving problems with murder), and are in costume; the other three play the GM, and any other characters they encounter. There are two pedestals, with wide, shallow wooden bowls on them, and a D20 in each, downstage to stage left and right. When the our heroes try to do something, they have to roll to see if it succeeds, but it gets even funnier than that (no, I'm being serious, making them roll and then act out the consequences of rolling, like, a one is hilarious), because at the start, they toss a handful of dice into the audience, and at any point someone can toss one back on stage and shout "Reroll!" and then they have to reroll. Sometimes they're used to rescue a bad roll; sometimes they're used after a really good roll. Sometimes it doesn't matter in the slightest; one time she rolled a one, someone did a reroll, and she then rolled a two. Lol.
If they get a 20, they shout "Natural 20!" and throw candy at us. :D
Click to viewSee the Elven Ranger at 3:58? Guess who! :D That was filmed in the line-up for the costume contest. They did film us together after for the I guess more official music video by GeeksversusNerds, but we didn't make it into the final cut. Pooh.
Okay, the costume contest. So, okay, Ilithiel's sewing skills were about average, I guess, and neither of us had ever entered a costume competition before, so we figured we'd try for the Journeyman level. See, they have three adult levels: Journeyman, for people "with average costuming skills"; Artisan, for people with "above-average costuming skills;" and Master, for people with "professional-level costuming skills." So I went to register (Ilithiel was at a panel) and they took one look at me and said, "Yeah, no; we're bumping you up to Artisan. You'd just blow everyone away at the Journeyman level; it wouldn't be fair." Which is nice. So, okay, we went in at the Artisan level, and went to the judging where they look at you in a small room off to the side, just you and some of the other contestants, and can get a close-up look at the costumes and ask questions and stuff, which of course they can't very well do on stage without being really boring. So we went in, and oh my gods, there were some amazing costumes. And we were all, like, "Yeah, maybe not." But we got up there, and we'd made like 90% of our entire outfits, from the costumes to the bags to the bows and arrows and quivers (they were very impressed with our fletching, so the time I took to look it up online to see the proper traditional way to do it, where it's glued and tied and not just glued, paid off. And one of the judges, who is a professional cosplayer being flown out to Paris-con shortly, told me he had never seen such invisible seams on ears before, that they were really well done (several people did ask me at the con if they were real, which I thought was a silly question until I found out that ear surgery is a thing). So that was nice. Guess my Special Make-up Effects course was worth something after all, heh!
And we were kind of winding down when I remembered the lembas. We'd made lembas, and the craft-foam leaves, and each had about six pieces in our bags, and when we pulled them out, and confirmed that they were edible, his jaw literally (literally-literally) dropped. Which was awesome. So we fed them lembas (but asked for the leaves back lol), which was good, because aside from being a nice touch I don't think they'd had lunch yet and were hungry, and then we started speaking Sindarin to each other.
Lothlasiel: "Len suilon!"
Ilithiel: "Suilad!"
Lothlasiel: "Im Lothlasiel eston! Man i eneth lin?"
Ilithiel: "Ilithiel."
Lothlasiel: "Ma! Dorthon mi Eryn Lasgalen; mas dorthol?"
Ilithiel: "Imladris."
Lothlasiel: "Ma. Mae g'ovannen, Ilithiel!"
Ilithiel: "Galu!"
--I put a lot of time into learning Sindarin and really didn't get very far, but Ilithiel was taking all the overtime she could and didn't get as much practise in, but she could say a couple of things, but was getting a bit mixed up. So we decided on the way down that I'd do most of the jabbering, and then all she'd have to do was to respond at the appropriate pauses with a greeting, her name, where she was from, and a goodbye. Pretty straightforward, but we totally blew them away. Ends up both the judges were huge Tolkien nerds, so by the time we were done they had just huge grins, and told us how much they were nerding out. It was fun.
But as I said, the competition was stiff! I mean, look at this, she only won third place, can you believe it?! She did a little dance and everything:
The wing feathers are done out of packing styrofoam, with the sort-of-pleats lined up in the direction of the quills; it looked amazing
And this guy took second as the Pokemon Cypher:
Poor guy couldn't sit down in that thing; it wouldn't let his hips bend enough. Fantastic wings! We discussed some options on making them fold down (and still spread out like this) while we were waiting to go on, which is something he'd wanted to do but didn't have time. As it is, the other wings with the armour there at least can fold back (with help) for doorways but poor Cypher is stuck in that configuration. Plus I think he must really devote a lot of time to working out and monitoring his diet; he is in incredible shape! And that takes a LOT of work to get like that (and stay there).
Ha ha, look at these nerds:
I have a completely gormless look on my face because I'm about to point and shout, "Mabar i pheriannath na Isengard!" Internet cookies to anyone who can figure that out. ;)
I did that during the judging and they said to do it on stage as well. So I did. :D I do have my bow too but it's behind Ilithiel in my other hand right now. We wanted to fit an arrow to the string, and actually did make one arrow each that had a fake head on it for the contest and for posing, but they don't allow arrows on strings anymore after some kerfuffle with a Green Arrow's routine making people nervous at the contest a couple years ago. See, this is why we can't have nice things. But I'll share more close-up pics of our bows and arrows as soon as I get them off Mike's phone.
Did I mention we took first place? Because we did. We took first place in the Artisan category!! :D OMG!! They're mailing us something or other, no idea what. Certificates, I presume, but no idea.
So there you go! Hal-con was a bit different from my previous con experiences, but still a lot of fun; we went over very well, with a lot of people asking for photos (and me trying to get pics of and/or with every other Tolkien character there, especially fellow Elves). You can see my photos here, if you're on FaceBook (I created a new account in my online name just for staying in contact with my fellow Tolkien fans), and here, on my Photobucket (which doesn't have titles or descriptions added yet, but which will over the next little while), if you're not.
Yay Hal-con!
This entry was originally posted at http://kryss-labryn.dreamwidth.org/105618.html. Please comment there using OpenID.