Lolita Thug Life

So a friend of mine bought me the Heanuli "Enchanted Fawn" dress in fawn colorway to pay for a commission I am going to do for her. So as soon as I got it, of course, I had to go on a photo shoot! I wanted to shoot in a grungy cityscape location because, like I said in my last post, I love looking lovely and having everything around me look like ew. It's fun. So James and I decided to go on a "Lolita Thug Life" photo shoot. It was silly and fun (and exciting/disturbing, as we saw a hobo drinking beer bottles from the dumpsters.) So on with the photos and I hope you guys enjoy! 

Lolita Thug Life

I didn't chose the lolita life....

...... The lolita life chose me.

Until next time!

~Edward

"Oh Sempai..." Photo Shoot

So since I've moved to the city, my brother in law James and I have been doing more photo projects together. He has been the one to take the majority of my cosplay pics and I think we work well together. He likes taking pictures and I like being photographed. Lol.


Recently we went on a little photo shoot. Lots of times we either do lolita or cosplay shoots, but this time we didn't have any certain goal. So I picked out some clothes from my closet and came up with a cute outfit. It turned out kind of school girl-y, which I quite liked.


I thought I'd share the photos with you guys since it was silly and fun. We found a building downtown that was abandoned and after much pressuring of my brother in law, I convinced him it was safe to go in and that no one would care.


After he got over the nervousness of being naughty, he loosened up and got all artsy. So we got some pretty interesting shots!

I hope you guys enjoy them!

I gots feets.

Fabulous pose. 

Favorite.

My "your going in this fucking building" face.

I'm going in this fucking building.

Heh, I'm so naughty. 

So fashion. Such model. Wow.

*sigh* Will sempai ever notice me?

Oh sempai.... <3

I had lots of fun on this shoot. I always have a good time taking pictures with my brother in law. And I really quite like doing shoots where I look lovely and the background is all dirty and grungy. It may be my favorite at the moment. ^_^

Well I hope you guys enjoyed the photos, cause I'll be posting another set that we did soon. It's a lolita shoot.

Thanks for reading!



~Edward

Kyary Pamyu Pamyu World Tour Seattle

So I may have not been doing much crafting lately, but that doesn't mean I've been doing nothing these last few months. In February I saw my most favorite singer Kyary Pamyu Pamyu in Seattle!
 





Let me just tell you.... it was epic! My super awesome husband drove there with me even though he didn't go to the concert. We stayed with some of my wonderful cosplay friends who also went to the concert. We went to the International district and ate yummy food and went shopping. It was a great time!

But instead of typing it all out, I'll just share this video I made a while back that talks all about it. I recently made a Youtube channel and have been posting videos. Though.... they are mostly about Monster High dolls. I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with my Youtube channel... I'll probably figure it out eventually.


But anywho, I hope you all enjoy the video!!

Thanks for reading!



~Edward

Lizard Beans Cosplay Showcase: Arwen's "Chase" Jacket

Well, it's time for the LOOONG overdo Cosplay Showcase for Lizard Beans! Hooray! And it's awesome. But before we get to that, let me quickly direct you to this update post that explains my long absence and what I will be doing with this blog in the future. So once you are done checking out Ms. Lizard Bean's epicness you can pop on over there and read that. But first!:

Cosplay Showcase

Arwen's "Chase" Jacket from The Fellowship of the Ring

Photo By Tim Boothby

Why did you choose this character/prop to make? Why did you choose it for the showcase?

I'd really been wanting to make a Lord of the Rings cosplay since it's my favorite series ever! And I really wanted to make a cosplay to wear to the midnight premiere of the first Hobbit movie to show off my Tolkien love. I really wanted to make something of Arwen's and this jacket was the only thing she wore that wasn't a dress. Dresses aren't really my thing, but warrior babes are :) And I've always loved the look of it, I just avoided it for a long time because it looked too hard. But I finally had the proper motivation to make me shut up and do it. 

I chose it for the showcase because it was a beast to make. I had to use pieces from 3 different patterns which I modified a bit and I had to make a few pattern pieces of my own. It was a labor of love as well as frustration and I am insanely happy with the final product. This isn't something you could just make in a weekend (unless you're some crazy wonder seamstress, which I am not). So I'd like to show off the construction process for you guys.

What was your construction process?

Research- I always start by finding pictures from every possible angle. I watched the scene from the movie and took snapshots on my computer so that I didn't miss any details. And I even found a site where someone had gotten to see the actual costume in person and made an in depth analysis of the costume.

Gather Materials- The analysis site said the actual jacket was made of dove grey suede, so I found a similar charcoal grey microsuede that worked. Then I found fabric for the underskirt and undersleeves pretty easily. The sashes were harder. I found some cheap chiffon but it was a light blue, so I had to dye them in a mixture of grey and purple dye to get them the right color. And I got really lucky and found some mesh fabric leftover from Halloween that looked similar to the mesh on her collar.

Patterns- I bought a pattern for a vest that had a rolled collar, but it had no princess seams. So I traced out the pattern, cut princess seams into the copy and then added seam allowances to the new seams. I used two different skirt pattern pieces for the bottom half of the jacket. And I had to make a pattern for the petal shaped sleeves. I just cut newspaper little by little until it looked the way I wanted it to.

Test- I bought a bunch of muslin fabric to make a test jacket. It's a good thing I did because my torso was longer than the vest pattern and I had to add 5 inches to the bottom. It also let me test out the petal sleeves to see how well they hung from the top part of the sleeves.

Cut and Assemble Pieces- Exactly what it sounds like. I followed the directions as much as I could and made up the rest. The design on the sleeves was drawn on with an oil based paint pen.

Accessorize- I found my leggings, elf ears (by Aradani Studios), and Evenstar on Amazon. I already had the boots. I made the brooch out of Sculpey based on a design I found on the analysis site. I threw the sword together at the last minute. I cut it out of 1/2 inch thick Sintra, shaved the edges and painted it. It's not great but it looks good in pictures.

Photo by Tim Boothby

The things you love about this cosplay/prop.

Like I said, Lord of the Rings is my favorite series ever. Books and movies. So I love that I can cosplay someone from my favorite series. It's also very easy to get in and out of, and I don't have to wear a lot of makeup for it. I feel very badass and beautiful. 

The things you hate.

I hate pulling off my elf ears when I'm done. I hold them on with spirit gum and it feels like I'm peeling my skin off with the ears.

A general closing statement and where one might find more pictures of this and other cosplays you’ve done.

I was very proud of myself when I was finished with it but I have gotten such a positive response from other people that it's turned into one of my favorite experiences with cosplay. I've come very far in the last couple of years and I hope to go further.

You can see more of me on my facebook cosplay page ^_^

Lizard Beans Cosplay

Photo by Tim Boothby

Woo!! Super awesome! I have seen this cosplay in person and it is simply lovely! Thank you Lizard Beans for sharing your process with us (and for your infinite patience waiting for this post.) You can read her interview here if you haven't already.

Ok! So I hope you all enjoyed reading about Lizard Beans! I also hope you all will head to this post to read up on where this blog is going in the future!


Until next time!



~Edward

Why You No Post?

"Edward.... What the hell?"

Oh dear, oh dear. Where does one begin? It has been a very long time (4 months... Oh my...).
I can't honestly say I haven't had time or that I've just been crazy busy, because that would be a lie. I certainly have had lots of opportunities to pick up this blog again and get back to talking about cosplay and crafting at any point in the last 4 months. So why haven't I?

Truly, it's because I've been incredibly uninspired by this blog and I haven't been mentally capable of putting in the effort I know is required to make interesting and engaging posts. As I've said in a previous entry, I moved recently and let me tell you.... it's been a lot harder than I thought it would be--emotionally wise. I don't want to bore you with my melancholy, but I have, indeed, been so the last few months. Moving from a rural mountain homestead to the "big" city has been a uneasy transition. I quite liked living in my fairytale land in the woods. So it's been a slow and uncomfortable adjustment.

And of course when one is melancholy, one does not usually partake in hobbies they found enjoyable when they were happy. I've also been very tight financially. On top of that, my husband and I are staying with my parent's in a back room of their house, leaving me not much room to craft things. So I haven't been creating much as of late. Simply, I have had nothing to talk about. Not where crafting is concerned anyway.

But things are slowly getting better. I'm adjusting and figuring out what I'm doing with myself. My husband and I are hopefully moving into our own apartment soon. Things are looking up.

And I've been obsessing over some new hobbies. J-fashion being one of them. Monster High dolls being another. I've been inspired in many things lately, they just haven't been very crafty so far.

So what does this mean for Insane Cosplay? Well, I do really like writing this blog. And others have told me they like reading it and that they like my writing style. So I definitely plan to continue writing on here. But the focus will not be so narrow. I'm going to just take the leap and make this a blog just about me and my hobbies in general. My tendency to hyper focus on one thing and then switch to another thing makes it hard for me to write consistently on one topic.

I will probably have a range of topics: fashion, photography, MH dolls, BJD dolls, cosplay of course, nerdy topics and other crafts I'm doing. It will sort of be a public journal of all my interests and hobbies. And I will be changing the name of this blog to better represent this new range of subjects.

I am somewhat worried that people may not want to read this anymore if its focus is no longer cosplay and crafting. And that will be sad. But I can't write a blog that I'm not passionate about and that feels like work. I want to enjoy writing this blog. I don't want it to be a chore. And maybe I will get a new and varied audience. Who knows. But I hope that people will still like to read it.

So that is it! From here on out this blog will be called "A Girl Named Edward" and will have a varied range of topics, the connecting thing being me.

Thank you all for reading this blog up until now and for your patience. And I sincerely hope you will continue to read it!


As always



~Edward