So the new utility knife arrived, so I took another stab at cutting out my pieces. This time...beautiful. It is amazing the difference it makes. The first one...jagged edges, wavies, etc. Look how smooth and even the new cuts are. I am sooo happy. It is so beautiful.

It also took way less time to get the better results. This knife has an extra locking mechanism on it, so there is no possibility of retracting while I cut. Yes, I am in love with this knife.

So as predicted, the second run at this turned out way better. I then put it together with DAP contact cement. There were some gaps, but it also worked way better than hot glue, and way faster. Prettier.

So that part being done, I let it cure overnight. Well, a couple of nights. I had homework to do so I let it go a few days. The next thing is the paint job. I wanted to paint it grreen and brown, dapping so it is remeniscent of leaves. I ended up doing it a couple of times. It is really hard to see. I am unsure how to proceed from here. First I put down 3 layers of Plasti dip, to prime it for paint.

See? Unless it is in a certain light you can hardly tell it is there. I guess it might be fine. I don't know. Depends on how it ends up. Next is to attach the stretchy fabric to both sides, and create the boob parts. That won't happen until after the weekend, though. I have only 4 weeks left to finish a couple of classes, so this weekend is buckle down time. That'll give it time to cure completely, and for me to decide how I am going to finish execution.

 So today I got up the courage to actually work on the project itself. I first took out a couple of old paper grocery bags and created a pattern. I used a corset that doesn't really fit me to get the basic idea of the shape of the pieces. Then I measured down my front from between my boobs to where I want the center of the front to stop. Then I drew curves for boobs from the center line to the outside, and created a curve on the bottom. Then I drafted out the side pieces. Next I measured out a back middle piece. I started with the same measurement for the longest part of the front, then I slowly cut it down until it was the right height. Then I taped all my pieces together and tried em on. I discovered I was about 4 inches short in size, so I made 2- 2 inch rectangle pieces to add to the back. Yeah, I am a big woman. I repeated the taping together, altering and taping again until I got to the size and shape I wanted. Then I pinned it to the foam.....

The next part was the hardest for me. Tracing the patterns on the foam and cutting out the pieces. I suck at tracing, and I doubly suck at cutting out. I can't cut a straight edge with a thick metal ruler. I tried. I tried hard. I broke a retractable knife, an exacto knife and a pair of scissors trying to get good cuts. Did not succeed. I ended up having to use my flimsy exacto knife, which bent and sagged as I cut, making funny curves and/or 45 ish degree angles, instead of 90. Note to self: get a better retractable knife than just a dollar tree one. That broke quickly. As the lines were so unclean, I could not use anything but hot glue to put the pieces together.

Slightly daunted, but determined to continue, I then pulled out my heat gun and warped the foam pieces. That was kind of fun. My gun works best on level 1, setting the dial to 7. I am unsure what tempurature that is, but it works.

As I mentioned earlier, my pieces did not lay flush when places edge to edge. SO I pulled out my hot glue gun and put the pieces together. That is something I apparently suck at as well. I am still getting used to useing a hot glue gun. When I was a teenage crafter, all you could find int he craft stores was low temp glue guns, so nothing held together very well. Anything like body tempurature, leaving it in the sun for a minute, would make your project come completely undone. As such I completely rejected it as a good mode of glueing. Now there are higher temp guns, with stronger glues. I have been impressed with what I found. However, I still need to refine my technique. Heavy drips, uneven edges, burned fingers are just a few of the issues I had. But, nonetheless, I got it basically together. Yeah, this will not be my final product. Once I figure out where I am going wrong throughout, I will start over again. That seems to be my M.O. anyway. I generally totally suck the first time round, get it right the second. To see how well it fit me and to see if I needed to make any design changes, I hot glued velcro straps in. That is the worst way to put together your corset. Just saying. I have some black stretchy fabric I am planning on attaching to each side, so I can just slip it on over my head. The sleeves will be made of drapy halloween fabric in green and black and grey, and sewn to a piece of cotton. I can't wear this stuff against my skin, so I figured it would probably simplify things if I didn't attach the sleeves directly to the EVA foam lower part.

Next step is to make the boobs. I have ordered some 6mm foam for those pieces. I plan to either try to use a heat tool to carve leaves so it looks like layered leaves, or scaled elaves, or cut and paste individual leaves out of foam on them. Then they will be painted green and brown. Then I will glue them to the curves at the top of the..um..corset seems the wrong word to use here. There is also a skirt. Am considering greaves as well. I also want to make bracers. I am thinking of using the 6mm foam to make a base, then I have this 2mm stuff that if heated I can make look like wrinkly leather fabric. I also found a round spider felt piece that I plan to use on the front of this thing. Put a skull in the middle of it. I will integrate spiders and leaves and stuff all through out. It will look awesome.

So...got the second batch of EVA foam tiles. These are exactly what I expected them to be. They are 2 ft x 2 ft, black, and smooth on one side. That is what we want.

This is so cool. I will actually be able to get bigger pieces. I can't wait to build with it. First though I wanted to experiment, so last night I did somma that. They handily came with 2 inch edge pieces, which I may end up using for smaller bits, but they are the perfect size for playing around with. First I cut a few pieces off and tried scoring them and heating them up. I have seen a bunch of videos regarding this technique, and I am excited to use it. The first attempt was not so great.

I think I may have either not cut deep enough, or applied too much heat for such a small piece. So I tried again.

Worked a bit better that time. I cut deeper. I think you can tell where I didn't cut deeper. I just found a video that says to cut 1/3 of the way through. So that was probably my issue.

So then I decided to play with curving it, and see how well it held. This was not as easy as the other tiles, and it hasn't held nearly as well. It has held some, but I think maybe the thickness may require more heat and more bending time to hold the curve the same.

 Next I decided to try some painting. I don't have my paint paints yet, but I do plan on using nail polish for accents, etc, so I used that. I started with a brown then added some metallic green/blue on the leaf. Looked great to start out, but when I flexed it, cracks showed up everywhere. Yeah, well, I should have reasoned that one out. Nail polish is enamel, not flexible. It works and stays great on the leaf, which is not in a bendy place. But the brown...well, yeah....will just use that on the fixed bits. I also played around with some shaping and sanding.

So now I have to get bold and actually cut a pattern and try constructing something. I am kind of nervous about that, as I do not have a flipping clue what I am doing. I do beleive I have enough tiles to make some mistakes and still be able to make my final thing. Ooo hey...I should actually plaster up the ram horns and make a head base for those.

Ok, well, heading out to Fred Meyers to see if I can find a cheap heat gun stand and then after homework I will be working on this some more.

So today I got some of the EVA foam tiles. The ones with woodgrain on them. I thought they were dark brown with woodgrain painted on them. Nope. They are tan with a plastic woodgrain laminate on them. Look at the label picture...it even has the tiles as dark brown. Sigh.

Whatever...they were cheap and I can paint them. So I set out to play with them and see what I can do. First I tried cutting them to see if putting a heat gun on them would pull out the detail like in the regular tiles, or if it would turn out horribly bad. Well, turns out it turned out horribly bad. What I thought was a paint job is actually woodgrain laminate, so it melted and bubbled really bad.

So next I decided to try making a bend in it. I have never played with EVA foam, and I am curious how to get it to do what I want. The black tiles won't get here till tomorrow, so I set my heat gun to 7 and turned it on to level 1. Then I bent it on the carpet and hit it at a side angle with the heat gun for like 10 seconds or so. To tell you the truth, I was scared to try any longer than that, for fear of melting carpet or killing the tile. It worked really well. I mean really, really well. It is a great angle, tighter than I expect to ever use, and it is still there an hour later.

I probably will use this for accents. I am hoping I can use the woodgrain and don't have to paint over it to use it. I just thought it would be nice to not have to learn how to paint good woodgrain. Cause I suck at painting. Or I may use it as the under layer for my chest piece. Put black and copper accents on top. Or I may just to the bottom black. I don't know. Ooo...or maybe I will use this stuff for the greaves.

So...last test...how hard is it to remove the laminate? Turns out really easy. Too easy. I wouldn't use these tiles around kids, as is shown in the pic. They would destroy them so fast. I just got a nick in one edge, then pulled and it all came off. But you can easily remove the laminate, prime it and use it as per usual. I didn't get what I expected, but I didn't get something unusable. That I think is the important part.

I am still trying to finish the video for Anglicon. I am cutting it close, and I doubt it will happen, but I am still trying.

This last week, I discovered a show called Cosplay Melee. It is fabulous! I am not much of a reality TV fan. I hate it, actually. But I needed a video to watch while I was working on homework to keep me from wandering away from my computer and it was there. There was no artificial drama. In fact, it was heartwarming to watch the contestants actually help each other out. Watching the final version of the costumes, I do not in any way believe that they finished those in the time allotted. They definitely worked more on them after the finish bell went off. The one thing I worry about is them giving an unrealistic expectation on how long it takes and how much work it takes to get them looking finished and beautiful like that. It was interesting to watch these people work. Watching thier techniques and how they organize thier workflow is way more valuable than any tutorial up on You Tube. In fact, watching the show has inspired me to try to build a costume out of EVA foam. I already have the ram horns I built a month or so ago. I have a skirt. So yesterday I headed out to the Dollar Tree to see what kind of supplies I could get there. Surprisingly, a ton. I got black loose fabric, black roses, natural colored foliage, plaster to fill in the bits of horn that needs filled in. Several fabric scarves that I can use as foundation fabrics. Rolls of tulle. Rolls of jute twine. Thinner craft foam to use as accents. Spiders and other insects to incorporate. My idea is to make a semi Augra type thing, with nature being the base for it. I also got a heat gun for cheap off Amazon. I found packages of EVA foam squares for cheap on Amazon. And Flexi-dip. I think all I have left to get is paint, and I want to finish designing it before I get that. I will have a full cosplay outfit for Kumoricon at the end of October.

I need to learn how to use my heat gun. Surprisingly, there are no instructions in the manual, just safety warnings. It has 2 levels, and a dial on the back with the numbers 1-8 with MAX just past the 8. I am guessing that, reading the box, level one is 176 to 572 degrees, and level 2 is 176 to 932 degrees. Which number corresponds to which temp is anyone's guess. Did not find anything online about it. Quite possibly, 1 is 176 and 8 or MAX is either 572 or 932. What the other numbers are specifically is wild guesswork.

I also need to figure out what the optimum tempurature is for heating EVA foam. 932 degrees feels a bit excessive. But maybe it is the correct tempurature? I dunno. What is the general temp of a heat gun that does not have the variable heat options? Online tutorials just say "heat it". That does not help here. I am probably overthinking this. I dunno. But once I get the EVA foam I will experiment. They include edge pieces as these are interlocking floor pads, which will be perfect for that. Either this will turn out spectacularly awesome or spectacularly crap. Because for some reason there is no inbetween with me.

Well, more accurately learning. I did learn a bunch. I think I need to play around with the video exporting in it. I chose to make the video dark, and as such there is a lot of noise. That is me needing to learn my camera settings better. I want to be able to do the Anglicon video in it. yes, I am still hoping to get that done before the OoooYouWaitedTooLong deadline of October 1. I am probably hoping falsely. Still....hope spring eternal in the diseased mind. Right? :P

So tonight I noticed the moon is an eerie orange color from all the wildfires we are experiencing here in Oregon. I took some pics, uploaded them HERE. There is so much smoke it is hard to breathe. You can barely see when you go further south into Eugene. They are up in the unhealthy range for air particulates because of the fires.