Sky Captain Hat

Welcome back to GeekGetup! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We are back to another cosplay project this week: putting gears on Kiersty's sky captain hat.

Kiersty ordered both the hat and the gears on Amazon. We decided to try putting the gears on with gorilla glue but they wouldn't stick. They also wouldn't stay on the button snaps.

We ended up using a hot glue gun. It worked much better. Just be sure to let the glue get really hot before you use it or it will dry before you stick the gears on. We have a cat and a dog who just loved getting in the way. Be sure to keep everything out of reach of children and any curious pets.

The hat looks great and Kiersty can now move on to her next project. This week we got an early Christmas present. A brand new Singer Sewing machine. That means I can embarrass myself as I post on how to sew. Or how not to sew, since I don't know how. Keep your eyes open for next week's post, and have a great week.

Geeky Pancakes

Good morning and welcome to this week's GeekGetup. This week's post is mainly a bunch of pictures. Last night Kiersty and I got a little nerdy with our cooking. We made pancakes in a number of different shapes and sizes.

Kiersty and I filled an empty syrup bottle with pancake mix. We then used it to draw a number of different designs from a few different TV shows. See how many you can guess.

 

 

Devils trap: Supernatural

Mabel's star from her t-shirt: Gravity Falls

A pair of glasses. Kiersty says Harry Potter

I'm Batman!

The Avengers. Note that it is backwards. Keep that in mind when making any images with letters or that are non-symmetrical.

A fez. Either from Doctor Who or Gruncle Stan in Gravity Falls. 

It was fun making all of the designs. The thickness of the mix has an effect. You could dye the mix to add color and details. It's a good idea for breakfast fun or even for dinner. I hope you enjoyed this week's post on GeekGetup. Have a happy Thanksgiving and happy holidays.

Duct Tape Body form

Welcome everyone to this weeks GeekGetup. This week was fun because I got to wrap Kiersty in duct tape. That's right, we made a dress form for Kiersty. Some details will be included in this weeks post, but if you want to see how it is done, then go to my YouTube channel HERE to see the video.

A home made body form can be made in a number of different ways. I wrapped Kiersty in plastic wrap before covering her in the duct tape. The plastic wrap was to keep it off of her clothes. You can use paper towels or old clothes instead of plastic wrap if you don't mind losing the clothes.

Interview with Venus

Welcome everyone to GeekGetup. This will be the first of many interviews with Cosplayers from around the world. This week on GeekGetup I am interviewing my cousin Venus. Welcome, Venus!

Hi Jacob. It’s nice to be here.

Thanks again for this. So Venus, could you give us a little background about your cosplay experience?

Well I started cosplaying when I was still in High School. My sister Athena made my first two costumes. They were Sailor V and Cinderella. The first convention I went to was Anime Kiai in Flagstaff.

That’s so cool. Now that you are making a lot of your own costumes, what would you say is your overall skill level?

I would say probably on the high end of beginner. I still have a lot to learn. But I’ve had to learn new things for each of the costumes that I have made. I have also had to make up some of my own patterns. I am nowhere near the advanced level but I might be close to being intermediate level.

Well, again thanks for being here. I am fairly new myself and it is great to see the different perspectives from people of different skill levels. Now you said that your sister made you your first two costumes. When did you decide that you wanted to start cosplaying for yourself?

Halloween

Welcome to GeekGetup's Halloween Special. I hope everyone enjoys all the Trick-or-Treating, candy, parties and costumes tonight. This week I have invited my wife to join me here on GeekGetup. Today we want to talk a bit about our Halloween experiences from this year and last.

Hi! I’m Kiersty. Like Jacob, I love costumes. So, where do we want to start?

How about we start with last year’s costumes.

Sounds good! Last year we went as Mara Jade and Luke Skywalker, from the Star Wars Expanded Universe, specifically from Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn Trilogy. I’d cosplayed Mara Jade for WorldCon last year, but I did a different outfit this time.

Staff Tutorial

Welcome back to GeekGetup. This week I'll be going into more details on how to make a 6 foot staff that can separate into three pieces for easy transportation. I have made five of these that I will be using for my Mystogan cosplay for WorldCon.

Reference photo found here.

As I mentioned last week, transportation was one obstacle that I was trying to overcome. My wife and I are flying to Kansas for WorldCon and the idea of traveling with five 6 foot staffs seemed difficult. I needed to find a way to separate them into smaller pieces for easy transportation. As I was asking around for ideas, one person had mentioned using lamp posts that could screw together. One of the problems I saw with that was getting all the lamp posts I needed without spending too much money. I came up with the idea of using PVC pipe, and a wooden dowel. I used fifteen 1/2 inch x 2 feet pipes and one forty-eight inch length of 5/8 inch thick wooden dowel. I used the dowel to connect each pipe piece. Since I want the end results to look like wood, I got a Rust-oleum Painter's Touch khaki colored spray paint and Kilz Complete primer. I am sure that there are other brands out there that would work just as well. (I got my supplies at Home Depot, but they can also be found at the links above. You can check your favorite local hardware store, too, and shop around for the best price.)

Introduction

Welcome to GeekGetup. I am relatively new to Cons and Cosplay. When I first started looking online for cosplay tutorials, I found a lot of information, but nothing that suited my specific needs as a beginner.

Just because I am a beginner doesn't mean that I don't want to do advanced costumes. I've been looking for tutorials that will help me create what I want in a way that matches my skill level. Most of the things I found were intense videos that either had no simplified introduction or required a lot of previous knowledge that was not provided there or in any earlier post or video. Most of the props and cosplays I have planned have involved doing something that is new to me. I have had to ask for advice from friends on different aspects of costume designing. And even then, I have had to change around some of that information to work with my personal resources. Not everyone has a house of their own or even a garage in which to work. I live in an apartment and have had to do a lot of things outside. As I am starting out I may end up relying on other people's ideas and adapting them to my own needs. When I do so I will include my own experiences and personal changes that I use as I work on them and adaptations as well as the original source.