Etsy Store is Open!

Ignis Winter Etsy Store

The link above is where I sell all my creations to fund the red and black one :D  I'm a huge lover of upcycling and vintage and retro. I love finding treasure!  At the moment I just have my vintage things on there.  I'm waiting for some more materials to come from the states so hopefully I can have a massive crafting session in the next couple of weeks. Hope you can stop by and have a look and maybe also purchase something in the future :D

Out with the old and in with the new - rise like a phoenix!

Around 4 years ago something terrible happened to me. During this process I lost many things, my home, my stability, my belongings, basically my life as I knew it but as this is a cosplay blog, I will attempt to stay on topic.  One of this things that I lost, (or more precisely, one of this things that was taken from me), was a costume I had invested over a thousand pounds, hundreds of hours of labour and 5 years of planning and dreaming into.  The person who refused to give it back to me, then sold it.  Now as heart breaking as that was, to rub salt into the wound, I have to see the person that purchased it, proudly walk around in it - we are in the same costuming circles.  If it was destroyed in a fire, it would be gone, and easier to get over. To say the situation really sucked is an understatement!

Even after I got my life back into some sort of order, I was put off Cosplay.  I had been costuming for 14 years but the hurt of having something I was so proud of, my pride and joy, my ultimate achievement - ripped away and then paraded in front of me, meant that the joy was gone.  Last year I managed to go back to where I began in 2001, Lara Croft, my first love. I threw together a costume and attended a local convention on my own.  It was strange, I wasn't sure, I kind of enjoyed it but I felt out of place.  

I put together something more difficult for Halloween (in just a couple of days), a comic armoured Gamora from Guardians of the Galaxy.  No one knew who I was but everyone thought it was cool.  I felt a little more at ease (although that may have had something to do with Mr Jack Daniels haha!!).  This year I decided to fix up and wear this to my first big convention in a long time, May MCM London.  After 30 minutes I nearly went back to the car and got changed. Again not being part of my old costuming group had me on the back foot from the start.  I stuck it out though and I'm glad I did. I met up with some old friends, got some great photos, saw some amazing costumes.

Me and Kristen as Gamora and Ashley from Mass Effect - photo taken by David Kane Photography (c)

It also gave me the opportunity to have a chat with Stephen Weir who made me feel much more at ease about going back to my club... with a new costume project.  One I can work on and once again be proud of, that project is Darth Talon. Finally a real chance to put the past to bed and begin to Cosplay again with a fresh head, a new beginning.

Now this project for me is not just about the costume, its about the whole package.  I will be working towards getting the look down as perfectly as I can.  First off, before anything is purchased, sewn, glued, cast or painted I need to do some cutting ... no not fabric or leather ... flesh.  I need to cut my body fat and build my muscle tone to recreate Talon in all her glory, after all, for a good costume you need a good hanger!  I am training around 6/8 hours a week at the moment and I hope to increase that as time goes on before I start to make anything.  I've given myself 6 months to achieve this.  I may research and buy materials and pay up front for the lekku, research and test out the body paints and stencil methods during this time but I cant make anything until I am the size at which I will wear the finished pieces.

Now, I've seen lots of instances where costumers have lost costumes in tragic circumstances and people have banded together to replace as a gesture of good will and kindness.  It really shows how this hobby (or lifestyle!) joins people together in friendship.  I would never expect, ask, or accept such help (I'm a fighter if nothing else!).  What I would however really, really appreciate is that you take a look at my items for sale (which are all hand crafted) and see if anything takes your fancy.  I have over a thousand pounds of costume deficit which I would dearly love to replace by hard work and creativity and lets face it, as a single mother working for less than minimum - that's the only way I'm going to achieve it!  I'll post a link to the items in the next couple of weeks as I'm sorting it all out as I type (well not as I type because I've only got two hands but you know what I mean!)

So anyway, that's me for now.  Thanks for taking the time to read about my disaster.  I'm really looking forward to the challenge and to getting my mojo back!! Oh and before anyone asks what the costume was, who did this etc etc, its irrelevant and I don't want to brow bash anyone or point fingers.  This story is really to emphasise to me and to everyone else how I can recover from this!  I simply want my new beginning and to finally put this behind me - start a new chapter. (An evil sith chapter! :D)

Lastly, I'd like to say a big thank you to Kristen Jones (littlemissmetamorphcosplay) her other half, Chris Cooper and Stephen Weir (His Lord Sithness) for their continued/new friendship and their general cosplay encouragements :D