Costume Con 27 report
It’s been quite a while since I’ve made a real post so what I’ve been up to lately…
Besides rushing to finish my phoenix prop for Costume Con, I was at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden last Tuesday to help with the Sakura Matsuri press day. The weather was lovely but ridiculously warm for late April; I was asked to wear my Sarah costume which wasn’t ideal for being outside in 80 degree weather. ^_^; But it was nice to get a chance to see the cherry trees since I wouldn’t be in town for the actual festival and it was fun chatting with people between pics. My brother tagged along since he didn’t have class that day so there should be pics later on.
And, of course, I went to Costume Con…
My father drove down to Maryland with me Thursday afternoon and we got there around 5. Picked up my badge, had dinner and then spent the rest of the evening in my hotel room sewing tail feathers onto my phoenix. That bird turned out to be a time-eating and thread-eating monster; I thought it would take me around 40-50 hours but it ended up being closer to 70-80 (probably as much time as I had spent on the whole 19th Century D costume back in 2007) and I completely used up 4 spools of thread in addition to some partial ones. o_o;
Friday’s panels didn’t start until 1PM so I spent some of the morning in my room working out my walk-on. Wore my brocade tailcoat for Count D that day and went out for afternoon tea at the Harbor Court hotel in the Inner Harbor with a big group. Many of the others wore period costumes and the hotel was perfect for photos. Unfortunately, my brother wasn’t along for this con so I only have snapshots my father and I took on my camera; it didn’t seem to handle dim lighting very well. ^_^;;
Looking at the birds of paradise; this would have been better if my jacket weren’t doing weird things. ^_^;;
I loved the spiral staircase in the lobby.
Some of the others who attended the tea; the lady in green was the organizer
Unfortunately, I seemed to get quite a few blurry pics.
Blurry pic of sarcasm-hime ^_^;;;
Don’t know where the white spot came from. o_o Dust, maybe?
I didn’t make it to any panels that day since they were ending by the time we got back from the tea. (Programming would end around 6 and the evenings would be taken up by parties and the masquerades.) The single pattern contest was that night and it was interesting to see people’s different takes on the selected patterns. Have pics of a lot of the entries but that’ll have to wait for another time. Also that evening was the “Vampires, Villains, and Vixens” themed social, which was the big party of the con. Of course, I wore my Count D vampire costume for that. For fun, they had little trophies inscribed with various words and were giving them out to people who fit them. I ended up with the one that said “Vampiric” since someone else pulled me over there. ^_^;
Wore my Eugenie costume on Saturday and went to a bunch of panels including historical corseting and basic presentation design. Also saw one done by Andrea Schewe (who designs for Simplicity patterns) on how a commercial pattern is created.
Had my tech rehearsal around 4:30 and then it was time to get ready for the masquerade. Workmanship judging took place in the greenroom and was a bit rushed, partly due to timing not working out in my favor. I knew I had to talk fast but I only got through explaining my prop and a couple of things about my costume before I had to go line up to go over to the backstage area. :-/ While I love the idea of being able to show costumes in a masquerade with so much awesome stuff, I much prefer the less hectic pace of anime con workmanship judging. (Part of the reason I was hoping to finish Ekaterina and enter the historical masquerade was that the historical entries get a 10 minute pre-judging.)
I think my walk-on went pretty well although I haven’t seen video yet. I ended up using a snippet from the finale of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite as my background music since phoenixes are usually associated with fire. Since I couldn’t do much other than walk slowly in my 19th Century D costume, I tucked the tail feathers up onto the bird’s back and waited until I was onstage to let them fall down into view; also moved it a bit to make the wings flap. As mentioned last time, I got a workmanship award titled “Best Bird” and an honorable mention for presentation. It was a tough contest and the prop was the new thing I made for it so I’m satisfied. Didn’t really expect to get anything for presentation, considering I didn’t come up with music until several days before the con and figure out my walk-on until I was actually at the con. ^_^;;;; Everyone who talked to me afterwards seemed to like the bird, too. I think Suioh completely upstaged D! XD Forgot to have someone take pics on my camera so it might be a while before I have pics to post.
Wore my Sarah costume on Sunday and went to the lattice smocking workshop. I’d done lots of counted needlework before but had never tried smocking so it was interesting. Want to experiment with it a bit and maybe make a bag but that will have to wait until after AnimeNext. I was tempted to sign up for more of the needlework workshops but there wasn’t time since there were so many things I wanted to check out. Watched the future fashion show. Looked at the exhibits and went through the dealer’s room although I didn’t find anything I really wanted to buy. Went to more panels and changed back into my D tailcoat to watch the Historical Masquerade.
Met a bunch of new people over the weekend and got to see some who I hadn’t seen for a long time like kaijugal, sarcasm-hime, and sailormo. Less rushing around so it was more relaxed than an anime con. Overall, I enjoyed it and will definitely return when I can. Next year’s Milwaukee location is too far for me since I won’t fly but it’ll be in NJ in 2011. Anyone want to join me? :-D It’s rather different from anime cons but great for costuming panels and seeing awesome costumes.
Costume Con 29
Theme: Give my Regards to Broadway (theme is only for fun so there’s no need to costume to it if you don’t want to)
Dates: April 29-May 2, 2011
Location: Hilton Hasbrouck Heights; Hasbrouck Heights, NJ
I was talking to Dora Buck, the con chair for 2011 and they’re really interested in getting more cosplayers to come. Pre-registration rate at Costume-Con was $65 and I was told it’s still good for the 2 weeks after. The price will be going up after that but they haven’t decided exactly how much yet; they said they expect the price to go up every 6 months. (And I believe memberships are transferable so they can be sold to someone else if you end up not being able to make it.) Right now, I think they’re only taking mail-in registration with checks and I have a copy of the form if anyone wants it. (Don’t think they have a website ready yet.)
Besides rushing to finish my phoenix prop for Costume Con, I was at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden last Tuesday to help with the Sakura Matsuri press day. The weather was lovely but ridiculously warm for late April; I was asked to wear my Sarah costume which wasn’t ideal for being outside in 80 degree weather. ^_^; But it was nice to get a chance to see the cherry trees since I wouldn’t be in town for the actual festival and it was fun chatting with people between pics. My brother tagged along since he didn’t have class that day so there should be pics later on.
And, of course, I went to Costume Con…
My father drove down to Maryland with me Thursday afternoon and we got there around 5. Picked up my badge, had dinner and then spent the rest of the evening in my hotel room sewing tail feathers onto my phoenix. That bird turned out to be a time-eating and thread-eating monster; I thought it would take me around 40-50 hours but it ended up being closer to 70-80 (probably as much time as I had spent on the whole 19th Century D costume back in 2007) and I completely used up 4 spools of thread in addition to some partial ones. o_o;
Friday’s panels didn’t start until 1PM so I spent some of the morning in my room working out my walk-on. Wore my brocade tailcoat for Count D that day and went out for afternoon tea at the Harbor Court hotel in the Inner Harbor with a big group. Many of the others wore period costumes and the hotel was perfect for photos. Unfortunately, my brother wasn’t along for this con so I only have snapshots my father and I took on my camera; it didn’t seem to handle dim lighting very well. ^_^;;
Looking at the birds of paradise; this would have been better if my jacket weren’t doing weird things. ^_^;;
I loved the spiral staircase in the lobby.
Some of the others who attended the tea; the lady in green was the organizer
Unfortunately, I seemed to get quite a few blurry pics.
Blurry pic of sarcasm-hime ^_^;;;
Don’t know where the white spot came from. o_o Dust, maybe?
I didn’t make it to any panels that day since they were ending by the time we got back from the tea. (Programming would end around 6 and the evenings would be taken up by parties and the masquerades.) The single pattern contest was that night and it was interesting to see people’s different takes on the selected patterns. Have pics of a lot of the entries but that’ll have to wait for another time. Also that evening was the “Vampires, Villains, and Vixens” themed social, which was the big party of the con. Of course, I wore my Count D vampire costume for that. For fun, they had little trophies inscribed with various words and were giving them out to people who fit them. I ended up with the one that said “Vampiric” since someone else pulled me over there. ^_^;
Wore my Eugenie costume on Saturday and went to a bunch of panels including historical corseting and basic presentation design. Also saw one done by Andrea Schewe (who designs for Simplicity patterns) on how a commercial pattern is created.
Had my tech rehearsal around 4:30 and then it was time to get ready for the masquerade. Workmanship judging took place in the greenroom and was a bit rushed, partly due to timing not working out in my favor. I knew I had to talk fast but I only got through explaining my prop and a couple of things about my costume before I had to go line up to go over to the backstage area. :-/ While I love the idea of being able to show costumes in a masquerade with so much awesome stuff, I much prefer the less hectic pace of anime con workmanship judging. (Part of the reason I was hoping to finish Ekaterina and enter the historical masquerade was that the historical entries get a 10 minute pre-judging.)
I think my walk-on went pretty well although I haven’t seen video yet. I ended up using a snippet from the finale of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite as my background music since phoenixes are usually associated with fire. Since I couldn’t do much other than walk slowly in my 19th Century D costume, I tucked the tail feathers up onto the bird’s back and waited until I was onstage to let them fall down into view; also moved it a bit to make the wings flap. As mentioned last time, I got a workmanship award titled “Best Bird” and an honorable mention for presentation. It was a tough contest and the prop was the new thing I made for it so I’m satisfied. Didn’t really expect to get anything for presentation, considering I didn’t come up with music until several days before the con and figure out my walk-on until I was actually at the con. ^_^;;;; Everyone who talked to me afterwards seemed to like the bird, too. I think Suioh completely upstaged D! XD Forgot to have someone take pics on my camera so it might be a while before I have pics to post.
Wore my Sarah costume on Sunday and went to the lattice smocking workshop. I’d done lots of counted needlework before but had never tried smocking so it was interesting. Want to experiment with it a bit and maybe make a bag but that will have to wait until after AnimeNext. I was tempted to sign up for more of the needlework workshops but there wasn’t time since there were so many things I wanted to check out. Watched the future fashion show. Looked at the exhibits and went through the dealer’s room although I didn’t find anything I really wanted to buy. Went to more panels and changed back into my D tailcoat to watch the Historical Masquerade.
Met a bunch of new people over the weekend and got to see some who I hadn’t seen for a long time like kaijugal, sarcasm-hime, and sailormo. Less rushing around so it was more relaxed than an anime con. Overall, I enjoyed it and will definitely return when I can. Next year’s Milwaukee location is too far for me since I won’t fly but it’ll be in NJ in 2011. Anyone want to join me? :-D It’s rather different from anime cons but great for costuming panels and seeing awesome costumes.
Costume Con 29
Theme: Give my Regards to Broadway (theme is only for fun so there’s no need to costume to it if you don’t want to)
Dates: April 29-May 2, 2011
Location: Hilton Hasbrouck Heights; Hasbrouck Heights, NJ
I was talking to Dora Buck, the con chair for 2011 and they’re really interested in getting more cosplayers to come. Pre-registration rate at Costume-Con was $65 and I was told it’s still good for the 2 weeks after. The price will be going up after that but they haven’t decided exactly how much yet; they said they expect the price to go up every 6 months. (And I believe memberships are transferable so they can be sold to someone else if you end up not being able to make it.) Right now, I think they’re only taking mail-in registration with checks and I have a copy of the form if anyone wants it. (Don’t think they have a website ready yet.)