Project Cosplay

Gradient Dyeing: The Quick and Easy (Cheating) Method

There are many tutorials on how to dunk & dye your gradient. Here are a couple of good ones for you:

• Fire Lily Cosplay
• Hyoko Chan

But I’ve found a quicker, easier method that won’t kill your pots and pans, require no heating, cooking, or sorcery. Here is the result of such a method:

The material started out yellow and I gradient dyed it with green fabric dye.

Materials you will need:

• A spray bottle. If you don’t have one find something in your kitchen that might work and dump it out. I found an almost empty Windex bottle, cleaned it, and used it
• Fabric spray. I found that the TULIP kind works very well. You can buy it at Michael’s or JoAnn’s. Tip: DON’T USE THE PUMP. The dyes are great but the container is horrible. If you try spraying with the nozzle, it will come out in glomps and you will get splatters of fabric paint instead of an even slight spray.
  
  
• A tarp. I usually get a 13 gallon trash bag and cut it open into a square / rectangle.
• Wear gloves. The paint will stick to anything it touches.

Directions:

1. Take the fabric spray and pour it into the empty & clean spray bottle. If the paint isn’t the right color, make sure to mix your colors into the spray bottle at this time. Keep in mind that you are “tinting” your fabric, you aren’t changing its colors. Because of this, the fabric paint will mix with your color fabric. With light colored fabrics, you can probably get a very good match between the paint color and the end result. But with let’s say, darker colors, it will be more “tinted” than an actual color change. (With my photo above, I used 1/2 yellow and 1/2 green fabric paint. Since my fabric was light colored, it came out exactly as it looked in the spray bottle).
   
   
2. Lay out your tarp. Put your fabric flat on top of the tarp. This will help with any spray paint seeping through the fabric.
   
   
3. Spray in a line starting where the gradient will be darkest. Now you are going to work your way down the fabric in layers. For instance, the darkest part of your fabric might take 6 layers of spraying. Move completely below the width of your first strip of gradient and spray 4 layers, below that and spray 2 layers and finally the last “level” with your last layer. TIP: Do NOT over lap the layers. Otherwise, your gradient won’t appear seamless and you will get dark lines throughout your fabric. (6 layers of fabric paint & 4 layers of fabric paint will give you a very dark 10 layers of fabric paint).
   
   
4. Let the fabric dry. Usually takes about 24 - 48 hours depending on the humidity.

That’s it! If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Cosplayers

gailsimone:

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. Cosplayers make everything better. EVERYTHING THEY TOUCH.

Conventions would suck without them. They make people happy. They are living art.

It takes courage to cosplay. It takes exactly ZERO courage to tear cosplayers down.

Cosplayers, thank you a million times for what you do and all the delight you bring. Thank you for all the children’s hospitals and charities you visit. Thank you for sharing yourself with us the way you do.

I beg of you, never let some creep make you feel bad for doing something SO positive and joyful.

Huge shout-outs to all the Black Widows out there, whoever they may be!

Emphasis mine.

It’s just nice to hear sometimes, even more so coming from one of the creators.

Also, adding one of the replies to Ms. Simone’s post in this reblog, because I like it.

countryboylife said: People don’t dress up anymore. I mean where is the style. Where is the White Tie? Cosplayers keep alive the Grand Masked Ball, the joy of costume. It’s art, a man who probably doesn’t wear a tie with a suit doesn’t know anything about elegance

kisukoneko asked: where do you buy floral spray for painting boots? im trying to find hot pink

Michael’s should have it!

Cosplay and Obeying the Law

elfgrove:

So a local cosplayer acquaintance got kicked out of a mall in San Diego, CA for showing up in full face make up today. Let me explain why this happened.

CALIFORNIA Penal Code Section 182-185
It shall be unlawful for any person to wear any mask, false whiskers, or any personal disguise (whether complete or partial) for the purpose of: One—Evading or escaping discovery, recognition, or identification in the commission of any public offense. Two—Concealment, flight, or escape, when charged with, arrested for, or convicted of, any public offense. Any person violating any of the provisions of this section shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor.

The economy sucks. It’s the holidays. Crime, particularly theft, and general people pulling stunts are on the rise. Nobody contacted the mall ahead of time to inform security about there being a cosplay gathering. People just met there in costume. Now, having met up with that group once, most of them don’t do anything very over-the-top to the point of concealing their faces, most in this group don’t even use wigs. So her costume stands out.

Her silver make-up, is identity-concealing and thusly a large potential risk were she a thief or if she caused any form of trouble. — Just because you know and your friends know you won’t cause trouble, has no bearing on law enforcement. — Additionally, the hat, sunglasses, gloves, and body concealing clothing add to the effect.

The cops/security are well within their jurisdiction to require you to either leave or remove any costume when you enter a venue, especially in cases, like the above, where your identity is concealed by them. Technically, it is only by charity and leniency from law enforcement on this code of the law that you are ever allowed to walk around in public so disguised in California. They’re not required to allow it at all.So at any time, they can ask that you go somewhere and change or just go home.

Groups wanting to do events involving elaborate costumes should get in touch with and keep security and law enforcement in the venue informed in advance of such events. Small scale things like cosplay gatherings usually are not held at shopping malls where they stick out so much and pose a security risk without at least calling ahead to make sure this level of costuming is acceptable with the property owners. Even events a things like parks are often well-advised to get advanced permission in case there are restrictions on permits for gatherings of significant size or fees in relation to professional-level photography sessions.

Please check your local laws for sections regarding costumes and masks in public. Here’s a good starting point.