Intensity making of

This summer I got an awesome email from Blizzard Entertainment:
Hallo Svetlana!
Congratulation! Your costume was choosed as winner of the costume contest "Win a Trip to Blizzcon"! The first prize is a flight to the USA to Blizzcon.

Yeah.. I was a bit stunned... Just a bit, he he. I remember that I went crazy the hole day! I screamed, and jumpend and it was just amazing. I never, NEVER expect the first prize and could not believe that I would really fly to Blizzcon. Only for 4 days, but these had to be awesome!
But now I had a problem: Journey's End and all of my other staffs were too big for my case suit. So I decided to build a new one.

I searched a bit in the World of Warcraft modelviewer and chosed Itensity.



I searched for a good looking staff which was as flat as possible and matched to my Druid Tier 6. It was also not a staff, which I really really wanted or I loved it's design, but I only needed a staff which would fit in my suit case.

Cause of this it composed of 4 parts, which I could screw together. I planed the building of the model only a few days. Then my boyfriend would paint it.
In the first picture you only see my materials: Some greyboard, wooden staff parts, foam, expanding foam, modeling clay, crepe tape and newspaper. The second one shows the technique I used for the core itself. I just cut the right form out of grey board and built a sandwich of 2 grey board parts and some foam for filling it. After this I put one wooden staff inside and clayed everthing with hot glue together. Now I closed the border with crepe tape and covered the hole head with newspaper and paper maché. For those round things I used modeling clay.

For the button I used the same technique. I just put a plexiglass pipe inside for the pending ball in the middle.
For forming the middle parts I used expanding foam and carved them to the right form.Yeah, it was really simple to build this staff and I was very satisfied with the base model.
My boyfriend got the finished parts and made the paint for me. And I think, he did a great job!

And after 3 weeks of work for me and my boyfriend staff Nr. 4 was done!

So Blizzcon, I'm coming!

To discribe, how awesome this weekend in Anaheim was is beyond my english skills! But know that it was just amazing and some of the best days in my life. AND: I will come back! You will also find me at next Blizzcon, he he!

Druid Tier 6 pauldron and headpiece making of

Next part of my Druid Tier 6 story from World of Warcraft:

Most of my work with fabrics was done, so I started with my weapons and my props.
The sample had 2 very complicated pauldrons and one helmet.

At first I tried to model both forms with expanding foam. I used rabbit wire as a base and covered it. My plan was to carve it now, but unfortunately my skills were at the time not good enough for such a hard sample. The pauldrons were too big, too long and just looked wrong...

I was frustrated and discarded both pauldrons. It was time for a other technique so I tried the one I learned 2 years ago, while making my Druid Tier 1 project.

At first I took a polystyrene half hollow and clayed some board on it. I carved the bird skull out of expanding foam and covered everything with crepe tape, newspaper and paper maché. The wings are made of board and foam (as core) and covered them with newspaper. My boyfriend had to do the paint job and I clayed everything together and added details with fur and feathers. Yeah... and what I have to say? This time I was very satisfied!

Okay... but the though that I still had to build a second one, was just horrible...
Someday both parts were done and I started with the building of the headpiece. I made the first steps at the same time I build the first version of my pauldrons, and fortunately I was satiesfied with the first version.

Here I took some rabbit wire, cut out the right form and clayed (with hot clay) the cut lines together. I covered this base completely with expanding foam, waited a while and carved the right model with a carpet cutter. After this I covered everything with crepe tape, news paper and paper maché. Paper maché gave it the last details and i got a really flat surface after I sanded it with some sandpaper. I added some details with wooden half spheres within the paper machè like this round things on the topside. The pattern on this ear muffs were just some greyboard parts I glued on the head piece. The next step were acrylic paint and acrylic finish. I took some feathers, painted their ends with acrylic paint, clayed them (with hot clay) and... Finished!

Puh... I wrote enough for today. In the next part I will tell you something about my staff Journey's End.

Druid Tier 6 robe making of

It was a long hard way and a half year of work after I was able zu finish this project. So here is my story:

In summer 2008 I was still stunned of World of Warcraft Tier sets of the Druid. After I finished Druid Tier 1 and Tier 3 I searched of a new challenge, a new project which will give me new expieriences, new techniques and materials. I searched the roots of the Druid Tier 1 looked and found the Druid Tier 6 set in my modelviewer.

There was a lot of luck that I found the right patterns for this: Teflon leather (I think it's called swedenleather, too.) It's normally used for upholstered furnitures and it's buckskin look was just perfect for the wild, natural Druid Tier 6 set. It was sold for a very low price in my drapery and had a great attribute: My boyfriend was able to give it great details by soldering the fabric. Just take a look:

(Here you see the finished front part of my skirt.)

I was very easy to sold the fabric. You just need a steady hand and a bit of fantasy.

Feathers and a fake fur worked also gread for a natural look So, here are some progress photos:

Oh, I look so silly here!

Sometimes the easiest way is best way... I tried a lot, to start with this, searched for bra patterns, cut a lot of rubbish out of my look-a-like leather and still didn't get it the right way...
But finally I just took an old bra an some glue and began trying... This method was really the best and so I almost finished my work on this part.

In the last months of my project I tried to loose some weight and I hope you see, that I was sucessful. I lost about 14 pounds for this night elf cosplay and was very satisfied with the result.

I glued a lot of the costume with hot glue because it was just easier than sewing it. There are a lot of single parts on it, like the skirt, the soldered front skirt part, the covering skirt layer with fake fur and featers, the bra, gloves and the bracers. All of this I put together with some Velcro tape, which was glued on every part.