The Continuing Story of the Horns.

Well unfortunately I don't have any photos of the second phase of the horns... sorry guys I dropped the ball.

But I can give some detailed instructions.

First locate your cardboard horns.  Make sure all holes and hollows are plugged up with hot glue.  Some of the cardboard pieces are gonna have big dips in them and it's gonna make the next few steps that much harder if they are not filled in with hot glue trust me.
Next, find your reference images:  these images are what will determine the texture of your horns.  I chose to model my horns after a gazelles.
So now we need a medium.  This is what will cover the horns and allow for some sculpting to take place to give it texture. I used a two part clay called Apoxie.  Two part clays are a clay that has a part A and a part B and you mix them (in this case in equal parts).  If you can't get Apoxie, try another air dry light weight medium.  Paper clay, or paper mache is light weight, malleable and you can sand it.  Don't use standard air dry or terracotta clay since it's brittle and will not adhere very well.  Basically if you would make pots or tiles out of it or if it shatters when you drop it, don't use that clay!  Once you have your medium, spread a thin layer of your clay over the entire horn.  I worked in small sections to allow the clay to harden before moving on to the next spot.  I worked the Apoxie this way so that I would have a hand hold and be able to set the horn on a flat surface to dry without getting marks in the surface.  If you end up with rough patches I've found a basic clay tool (wood or plastic) with a flat, rounded head is good for smoothing out these textures or use a dab of water and rub your finger over the rough patch.  Apoxie has a dry time of about 24 hours according to the package.
When the pair is entirely covered in the primary surface of clay, sand it until it's smooth or the awkward textures you don't want are gone.  Sanding can also help shape the tips of the horns into a point if working with the wet medium fails to produce one.
This is where the reference image(s) are crucial because now any ridges or texture gets added to make the horns seem real.  The gazelle horns I modeled my pair after were smooth and shiny black with large, defined and rounded ridges.

This is the reference photo I used
(via bing search)

 This worked out really nicely for me since it meant I didn't need to make small, freakishly difficult textures on both horns.  After the sculpting was done I took a fine grade of sandpaper and gave the horns a once over to get rid of any unwanted rough patches etc. 
Once all of the sculpting is done, you need to prep your horns for painting.  I picked up a can of glossy black spray paint from Home Depot for like $11.  I chose not to use a primer paint like gesso since I was going to be painting it black.  If  you plan on painting your horns any other color besides black, it may benefit you to use a primer before painting to get an even under tone or a "blank canvas" effect.  After that the painting is all up to you.  I took a black plastic trash bag and split the side seams for a tarp to spray on top of.  It was cheaper than buying one and I could dispose of it after I finished.  Also always spray paint in a well ventilated area like outside and wear a mask.
Methods of attachment can range depending on what you're goals are.  I attached mine to a hat, and the horns were pretty heavy by the way.  I've used 2 tie pins in the past to hold pieces in place, this way I could remove them and exchange bits depending on what my costume goals were.  In this case, due to the weight of each horn, I bonded the horns to the sides of my hat via a combination of E6000 jewelers epoxy and hot glue.  This stuff ensures a strong hold but it takes away the interchangeability of your props.  
So here's what the hat and the horns looked like when I finished:

My lovely work space.

Hot right?  Well here's a picture via the lovely Jillian of the costume I wore it with:

Otakon 2012

I think I wore this for about 2-3 hours before I started to pass out from the heat.  It was over 100 degrees Fahrenheit for that convention and that skirt weighed a few pounds on it's own.  I was sweating my bum off. Oh yeah I totally sewed that skirt in like 5 days and used nearly 6 yards of fabric, but it looks awesome! 

Otakon, now there's a ...cluster fuck.... nah that's too harsh.  It was full of convention drama.  Although the highlight was probably the Cosplay Burlesque Workshop.  We got on line early so we'd get seats (when I say we I mean, Jillian, Mike, and others who I'm too lazy to name but are more than likely a part of the Red Horizon or Phoenix Airship.) and one of our group members shows up to join us on line.  Now, he's dressed as Jay from Jay and Silent Bob (I'll just refer to him as Jay), he walked around with an "Eat Pussy" sign and a boom box along with his friend who was Silent Bob.  So the boom box starts to play that song from Clerks 2, where they do a parody of the Buffalo Bill dance from Silence of the Lambs, and Mike starts to strip.  I'm not kidding you he started shedding layers of clothes.  I'm sure there's a video of it out there on the internet, I just can't seem to find it.  It was really funny though cause Mike had a lot of layers to shed.  There was his gloves, belt, harness, gun and holster, vest, shirt, pants and various other bits and pieces.  All this is happening with the music in the hallway waiting for the workshop to begin.  From the time we were waiting until the end of the workshop which was about 3 hours, Mike managed to strip to his skivvies 3 times.  The workshop was great and at the end, they had a strip-off.  3 guys from the audience got up and danced for our amusement.  The first guy wasn't all that amazing, and then there was a Spock cosplayer and he was just so freaking graceful.  He very nearly kissed one of our group who happened to be in the aisle seat and he was just great to watch.  Then it was Mike's turn.  Now you have to remember that it was over 100 degrees Fahrenheit that day so we had all been sweating like crazy.  So Mike starts stripping again and it's like watching some cheesy 70's porn with this goofy grin on his face.  Well he gets to his shirt, and he swings it around and throws it into the crowd of spectators, and this girl with a braid catches it and her face is priceless, cause that shirt was soaked through with sweat.  You can imagine the horror.  Well after regaining all of his bits (lol) Murder Nurse (one of the Cosplay Burlesque performers) asks Mike to apply for a position in the group.  As of right now Mike claims to be too busy for it, but I think he should apply anyway.  Could be fun right? 

Well I think that's all for now.  I'm sure more Otakon stories will leak out into my posts as I find them relevant or start rambling about them.  So, yeah.
Se Ya'll Later!
~Amy

Plastic is so 1980

It's been way too long since I last posted.  Projects have been crazy and jobs have been too. 

I guess I'm writing this post,
A) because it's 3:30 am and I can't sleep, and
B) I just saw this commercial and I really needed to get my thoughts out on... virtual paper. 

So I'm watching Tanked on Animal Planet, cause lets face it there's nothing else on at 3am.  Then this commercial for a new line of Barbie dolls comes on.  Now normally I just ignore it cause why would I be interested in dolls?  Dolls, frankly creep me out.  What was interesting, was that this is a line of Barbies from all around the world.  Well, that's partially true.  All the dolls looked like various shades of Caucasian at first glance.  So I decided to check out their website cause I figured "That can't be right.  I must be tired and not seeing things right." Well, so far the Barbie website lists 8 dolls: Argentina, Chile, China, Holland, Ireland, India, Australia and Mexico.  All of them look like Caucasian girls.  There's very little difference in skin tone or facial structure.  The darkest skin tone looks like a bad Jersey Shore tan. 

Now the bone I really have to pick with Mattel, is the Australia doll. 

And she gives tours of all the
great Australian nail salons!

This was a great opportunity to teach young girls about indigenous cultures, and Mattel decided to go with what I guess is more marketable: a white outback girl with a koala.  This would have been the great opportunity to have an Aborigine Barbie.  A black Barbie, allowing girls to have a much more diverse world to look at instead of the mildly different skin tones of Mexico and India (as portrayed by Mattel).  I feel like there's a gap in this Mattel world view.  And that gap is called Africa.  I can understand not having an Eskimo or Lithuanian Barbie, they're kind of not so well known cultures (and I'm pretty sure there's an Eskimo Barbie already out there), but to be completely missing the quintessential black girl character from a "multicultural" Barbie line?  Are you kidding me?  This is how we hobble young girls.  This isn't teaching them what true multiculturalism is and it's not a very wonderful role model for young girls of African or Aborigine descent.  This is teaching, "Yeah it's great to be from different places in the world!  But only if you look like a white girl or have an exceptionally light toned skin."  Maybe I'm looking too hard at this or I'm just looking for trouble, but at the same time that's how the commercial reads to me. 
I can't begin to describe how much it bothers me to see some of these kids toys that are... gentrifying the world.  It's like other cultures loose their identity because a company needs to make them more "accessible" to an American market.  These are supposed to be the kind of toys that are like the gateway drug into cultural tolerance.  (There's so much intolerance in the States it still amazes me.  I've been called a Cracker a few times in Baltimore, and I had to wonder if those kids even knew the meaning behind the term.)  We need to return to what the basic function of a toy is.  It's not something to give your child when you want them to shut up: they're learning tools.  Toys are to teach us many things that we need later in life.  They teach social skills like cultural tolerance or are practice for human interaction.  Toys also made us use our imagination, they are inanimate objects that depend on the child to come to life.  This stimulates the brain and makes us think or use, what my mother calls, a "struggle muscle" (the part of the brain that develops the problem solving skills).  Many of my toys were meant to challenge and exercise the brain and to be honest, I benefited from it later in life.  Something as simple as a bucket of Legos was enough to keep me occupied for hours on end just building different structures (the favorite was the upside down pyramid). 
My sister and I recently discussed this.  She went into a local Toys R Us to find a basic bucket of Legos.  Her problem was that this particular Toys R Us didn't carry a set of Legos that was not a pre-made kit.  You could get the Star Wars kit, the Fairy Castle kit or any other pre-organized kit, but getting a basic bucket of Legos without a set of instructions was impossible.  Now don't get me wrong, making models is fun, but the idea behind a bucket of Legos is to let the kid build what they wanted to build without having to use a set of instructions, a free-will sculpture if you will. 

I guess I really wanted to rant about the subject of toys since it was already on my mind.  Sometimes I just want to express an opinion so bad, that I end up with a bad case of Foot-In-Mouth Syndrome.  I just wish these companies would remember that there's more at stake here than just "the bottom line".  There are important skill sets that children need to learn in order to function later on in society, and toys are the tools for that.  This happens to be my belief based on my experiences.  I'm not a child psychologist, but this is my set of ideas just based on what I remember toys being when I was a kid and how different they are today. 

So I guess thanks for tolerating my Foot-In-Mouth Syndrome. 

See Ya'll Later!