My Cosplay Beginnings

 

Photo by Kenton M Pryor Photography


Hello, fellow cosplayers, creators, and friends!

Welcome to my personal cosplay blog. I wanted to create this blog as a time capsule for myself to document my cosplay experiences. I have fallen in love with cosplay over the past few years and am excited to share my love of cosplay with you all in a new format. I have been active on a cosplay social media pages for a few years now (@JediVariantCosplay if you want to look for me other places), but with some recent changes in the social media realm I decided I wanted to start compiling my experiences in a slightly more permanent format. And maybe my little blog will be of help or inspiration to some of you out there looking for tips and tricks or just a place to share in our joint love of fandoms, characters, and all things cosplay and crafting. 

I thought I would use this introductory post to share about my first ever "cosplay." I don't really know where I was first introduced to the term cosplay. I have always loved putting together costumes for Halloween growing up and I enlisted the help of numerous family members back then. In high school, I remember being heavily involved in the planning stage for costumes but enlisting my mom's help with a lot of the actual creation. I bring these Halloween costumes up because these did not feel like cosplays to me. I did not even know cosplay was a thing at this point in my life and I feel that I really switched over to the "cosplay" realm when I began to put a lot more effort into researching the character and crafting techniques. These were purely just Halloween costumes for me which felt a bit different... if that makes any sense. I consider my first cosplay to be one I put together right AFTER I graduated high school.

But before we get in to my first cosplay, I want to take a look back at some of the costumes I made in high school. I love to look back on these Halloween costumes because they remind me that we all have to start somewhere! And also as a reminder that it is probably not the best method to just wrap parts of my body with duct tape for the costume... 😅

Wonder Woman

I put together a Wonder Woman costume for Halloween my Sophomore year of high school. I purchased a shirt, leggings, and tall red socks that I wore over a pair of shoes. We made the bracers, headband, and belt out of cardboard wrapped in strips of gold duct tape. We used even more duct tape to create the white stripes on the socks. I can't remember how we made the W logo on the shirt since it has been so long. I think my mom cut it out of more tape? Even though we used some strange methods, I did enjoy this Halloween costume.

Halloween 2013

Cat Woman

My Cat Woman costume was made up of black clothes we already had around the house. I did purchase some gloves and enlisted the "help" from my great aunt with making the mask. But lets be honest, she just made it for me with my fabric and design input. Thanks Aunt Gwen! I also took a bullet belt from an old Nerf gun and spray painted it black to use as a belt. One fun fact about this costume though is that when I wore it I trimmed my fingernails into spikes so they looked like claws. That was definitely the inner cosplayer Rachel peeking through. 

Halloween 2014

Violet - Incredibles

And back to the duct tape... Neck detail? Duct tape. Glove attachments? Duct tape. Belt? Duct tape. I purchased a body suit, gloves, the mask, and a pair of black underwear. Pretty sure my mom did all the work on the logo - iron on material colored with sharpies!

Halloween 2015

My First "Cosplay" : Rey

After I graduated high school I decided I wanted to keep making Halloween costumes more independently. I consider Rey to be my first "cosplay." When I decided to make Rey, I put in some research online, watched some videos, and read some online forums to get ideas on construction. This was where I learned about EVA foam for the first time! I still used some premade parts, but put in more work trying to make pieces mach references as best I could. I ordered some pants and a bag, thrifted a base shirt, and used some old Ugg style shoes as the base for my boots. I bought some fabric from the craft store to sew together into strips for the sash and arm wraps and glued some other fabric over the base boot. For the staff, I used an old PVC pipe from my grandpa's barn, fabric scraps, and layered up craft foam to create the raised details. I tried my hand at weathering for the first time by mixing some acrylic paint into a spray bottle with some water and sprayed the pants to make them look more warn and dirty and hand painted some rust/dirt onto the staff. 

Halloween trunk-or-treat 2016 (ft. my mom as Kylo!)

I made a few updates to the cosplay after I wore it that first Halloween (refined some sewing, remade the arm wraps, added some velcro connections...) and even wore it to my first convention! I convinced my mom to go with me to Fanboy Expo Knoxville in 2018 and became even more inspired for cosplay after seeing all the amazing cosplays at the convention. I even did my first cosplay photoshoot that year!

Photo by Kenton M Pryor Photography

Photo by Kenton M Pryor Photography

I am so glad that I got out of my comfort zone and went to that first convention. I was in awe of the work that everyday people were able to create to share their love for a character/fandom. I was so inspired by everything I saw at that convention and I wanted to do more. I have always enjoyed random crafting and artsy outlets, but I never felt that I hade one specific hobby that I was super connected to. I have found my passion in cosplay and I love that with cosplay I can continue to explore all kinds of crafting and art methods! I love the mixed media aspect of cosplay construction, the ability to wear and show off my work at cons and in photoshoots, and the community I have become so connected to through the past few years.

I have so many cosplans on my list, and I don't anticipate an end to this hobby any time soon. I am looking forward to sharing my builds, convention experiences, photoshoots, and more through this new blog. Stay tuned for many more posts to come!

Thanks for reading!
JediVariant  - Rachel 🧵

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