Cosplay Update + Adventures in Metal Leafing

Hi everyone!

It's been a while since my last update! Where does the time go? Well, once the weather up here in the northern treasure state got nice, it's been pretty hard to keep me indoors.  I think my inadvertent sunburns are more than evidence enough of that.  My husband and I also rearranged our little apartment so that I have my very own craft room now! I'm very lucky ^.^, and now I have lots more space to spread out and work on cosplay projects!

And that is what I have to report to you today, is some progress I've made on my latest cosplay.  I will be cosplaying Morgiana from the manga/anime "Magi."  It's a series loosely based on the "Arabian Nights" stories-- mainly they use the same character names, and its roughly the same time period.  It's quite enjoyable to watch, and I would definitely recommend it.  Morgiana is my favorite character from the series.  She has excellent character development and she is a strong character with a well-defined personality.  Specifically, I will be cosplaying the outfit she wears in episode 18 of the anime.  I've included an image below for your viewing convenience, but to see the whole series you can visit http://www.crunchyroll.com/magi.

This outfit also makes an appearance in chapter 81 of the manga.  Morgiana's usual outfit is much more conservative.  This particular one is worn for a festival, but I chose this one because its going to present much more of a design challenge for myself.  Sure, it doesn't look like much sewing, but I'm going to have to learn new sewing techniques.  This will also be the first time I've created a cosplay from the ground up, rather than utilizing clothes or accessories that already exist. And who doesn't love a challenge?

The first thing I've gotten started on is the accessories.  From the image above you can see it includes two ankle cuffs, one wrist cuff, a necklace with a chain that attaches to the top, and a headband.  All presumably made out of gold.  As I certainly don't have the financial means to buy and process gold, and hours of scouring the internet were fruitless, I decided to build everything out of good ol' Wonderflex.  

Continue down the post for photos and explanations of my progress thus far! ;)

This is the pattern for the body of the headband

Ta-dah! I used two layers of Wonderflex, plus a thin third outline of Wonderflex to give it definition.
The little ring is where a little tuft of hair comes through (see above photo^^)

Made patterns and traced everything else out onto Wonderflex.

Everything finished! There are approximately 8 to 10 layers of Gesso on here.  Gesso primes the Wonderflex for whatever painting material you are going to use.

If you are wondering how I formed the cuffs, what I did was warm up the Wonderflex  with a heat gun, waited for it to cool just slightly, then curved it around whatever I needed it shaped to, i.e. my wrist, ankle, or head.  It's best to protect your skin with a layer or two of plastic wrap if you want to form Wonderflex directly to your body.  

*To get double (or more) layers of Wonderflex, all you have to do is heat all the piece up with the heat gun and stick them all together.  For extra stability (I did this in the ankle cuffs), simply sandwich a piece of craft foam in between the Wonderflex layers.  

Left wrist cuff.  If you caught it in the photo above, I accidentally made a wrist cuff for each wrist, although I only need the left wrist.  But too many wrist cuffs are better than not enough, right?

Perfect fit!

So, onto my adventures in metal leafing.  Metal leafing is a method in which you apply an adhesive, the metal leaf (a foil like substance that is metallic,) and then a sealer and you can turn pretty much any surface into something shiny and pretty.  After watching a few videos and doing some research on the use of metal leaf, I thought it would be pretty nifty to use it on my accessories to make them shiny gold.

The test run went pretty well.  It seemed to go on smooth and was pretty durable, unless I tried really hard to scrape it off.  

"Look at me, I'm so pretttty and shiiiiny."

When I went to apply it over a large surface area though, I had a very difficult time maintaining a smooth, uniform texture.  I got about halfway through my headband when I decided that I'm going to order some gold Rub 'n' Buff and finish my accessories with that.  It doesn't look as bad in the photos as it does in real life, but the scratchy texture is very noticeable in real life, plus I feel like this is almost too shiny for what I am aiming for.  I feel like the metal leaf would work really well for other applications, like refinishing a frame or gilding small areas, but it's just not what I wanted for my cuffs.

"I lied, I'm not so smooth and shiny after all!"

"I'm also very messy to clean up and you are going to find gold flakes all over your craft room for MONTHS!"

Thus ended my adventure with metal leafing.  I've already ordered gold Rub 'n' Buff from Amazon and should have it within the week!
I'm very excited to finish this cosplay.  I think it's going to be really fun to wear, and I'm looking forward to the sewing challenge. It is also pretty good fitness motivation :)

Any questions or comments? As always, let me know!
Until next time,
-Alycia