Boyfriend, Bling, and Bra

So the necklace has the round blocks added on. 

It's just the thicker/est foamies board from Joanns in black, repainted in gold acrylic paint, and stabbed through the center using a pin and some of the wire holding the other pieces together.

Then I worked on the bra/chestpiece.

Boyfriend being awesome and helping me cut out the pieces.

Glued some interfacing fabric to the back of the foam in order to give it some support as I did with all of the other major foam pieces. The base coat was 3-D fabric paint in gold. It was really shiny and pretty.

Then I sort of freehanded the purple swirls onto the foam cutout. I know I should have patterned it out first. (Will need to update these)

Then cut out more foam bits to make the top section of the backless bra.

Finally added on some of the scraps to add dimension. Which of course failed horribly. I ended up scrapping it for hotglue that was then painted over with the 3-D fabric paint in a lilac-y purple color.

Slowly Catching

After the necklace came ... MORE NECKLACE.

More generic Joanns beads.

Though those beads were used for another loop that would be a spacer for these round discs that were apparently there. Enjoying life I suspect... Cheeky bastards.

My apologies for the bad rotate. My mac was being hateful as was the Internet. That's what I consider to be the signature piece to the lovely Akasha. Props to the costume designers for providing a potential cover in the off chance of escaping breasts. Though they'd likely work terribly in that regard...

Akasha's Hair...

Is causing me aneurisms. Dear god how can this hair be such hell to imagine.

I'm considering straightening my own hair for the well straight bit that hangs under her elaborate plaiting. The plaiting could be done using Katie Bair's World of Wigcraft godliness. (Wrap extensions/loose fiber around colored batting of sorts thus pseudo fluffy hair that I can wrap around in a big beehive cone thing)

I could also utilize an addon ponytail and then do the aforementioned plaiting on top of it. Though this might put a lot of stress on my own hair since the ponytail would be combed/drawstrung into my hair with this fluffy thing added on top in addition to the headpiece.

My god this is going to become quite trifling...

Maybe I'll also use a Kanekalon jumbo braid for the plaiting business. I just need to find black batting or whatever to wrap it around. Hmm..

My next cosplay

is starting to seriously look like Queen Akasha from Queen of the Damned as played by Aaliyah (RIP).

I've been weighing her against Erza's flight/swift armor from the Oracion Seis story arc. One of my friends is apparently attempting Vampire Hunter D so that added to my already insurmountable like of Akasha. It'd be hilarious to fight each other in the hallways. Anyway,

The fight between Akasha and Erza was sort of decided on a few issues. Time contraints of course, resources another duh, finally difficulty/skill. I'm happy with how Aisha turned out for my first cosplay. I'm definitely revamping her wig and reattempting the damn leg band (it fell off at the beginning of the con so I decided to forgo it for the con and just re do the damn thing later). I'll also have to rework the breastplate to sit firmly on my breasts/chest without me constantly adjusting (oh what hell that will be to remold that fucker).

Anyway for Erza and Akasha it was beadwork versus swordwork. I know nothing of making props but I am well aware of many a tutorial to help me out. It might be simple enough but her twin swords for her swift armor might be a bit challenging especially if the only time I'll have to work on this is on campus.

Akasha could be cheated a tiny bit with a belly dancer skirt (to save me time for beadwork). The rest will all have to be done by me. (I once found a costume selling for 2k and it wasn't even accurate. What the eff? At least movie accurate, I know the book is different but I do love the portrayal of Aaliyah. Fantastic).

So for Akasha I've been doing a bit of researching. I'm torn between two skirts because from the reference shots I've scoured the internet for show her black main outfit as this somewhat transparent yet solid black fabric.

http://www.missbellydance.com/Belly_Dance_Satin_Full_Skirt_p/skc10.htm

http://www.missbellydance.com/Belly_Dance_Chiffon_Full_Circular_Skirt_p/skc18.htm

The first is satin and the second is chiffon. Both seem to be somewhat see through, though the chiffon is clearly more so. I almost wonder if I should just buy both and decide when I can see for myself. Then I could use the loser skirt for the arm sleeves. Though it would likely have to be the chiffon... Fuck that'd be about 100 bucks right there. It'd probably be best if I checked out the silk market out here in China and Jo*Ann's for chiffon like material. This might become difficult really quick... Eff...

I'm going to post on cosplay.com's forums and I'll return with some results hopefully.