Doing it Facebook Style!!!!

Hey guys and Gals sorry I haven't posted in a little while but it has been busy, busy, busy around the Sixpence household. I wanted to share with you guys that I have started a Facebook Page for Sixpence Costuming to help spread the word and get us out there. Make sure you come buy and give us a like and some love!!

https://www.facebook.com/SixpenceCostuming

I will still be updating the main page here with all all the cool builds that I am working on. The main thing I will be posting on here now are complete build walk through and Convention news. The Facebook page will be used for a lot of small updates and also for day to day pics! SO make sure you follow us on both so you can keep up on where to see us at and what we are working on!!!

Back from the Holiday Break......

Hello again lades and gents!

Wow I apologize for not posting anything since October, Seems that the holidays, school and real-life got the best of me,lets see if I can change that for you guy. The holidays are all over and yet I got some awesome new tools to help me out with all my costuming and prop making. The coming year is another big con year for me and I hope to get myself involved with a few more costuming contest and also costuming panels There are a few Cons here n GA that I will only be attending for 1 day and others that I will be attending the whole convention. Here is what my Con schedule is looking like for the current year:

• Anachracon  (http://www.anachrocon.com/) February 22-24th 2013: This is a great Steampunk/Alternate history convention here in Atlanta and is moving to a new hotel this year since it has gotten so big. I will prolly only be attending 1 day of this Con due to work.
• TrekTrax Atlanta (http://trektrax.org/) April 19-20th 2013:  This is a small Trek con that is in its third year and is still getting better. The hotel that they are in is a great hotel and a great crowd. I will be attending this one for the whole con due to the fact that I will be on staff for it and also I will be on a few panels. I am also planning participating in the costume contest.
• TimeGate (http://www.timegatecon.org/index.htm) May 24-26th 2013. This Con is a great combination of Dr.Who and StarGate. The big highlight of this Con this year is the they are going to have a Doctor this year! Colin Baker (The sixth Doctor) will be attending this year so that a big thing to look forward to! We wll prolly only be attending 1 day of this Con due to my work schedule.
• Sci Fi Summer Con (http://sfscon.tripod.com/)June 7-9, 2013 This is a small Con that focuses on a lot of local writers, costumers, and media stars. I am planing on doing another cheap costuming panel at this Con but will prolly only be attending for one day  due to work.
• Dragon*Con(http://www.dragoncon.org/) August 30 - September 2nd 2013: I will be attending all 4 days of this great Con. If you have never attending Dragon*con then you don't know what you are missing. I Am hoping to be invited back to be on another panel this year. I will also be walking in the parade in full Klingon gear and also be in the Friday night costume contest.

Dragon*Con Part 2

Hello again guys and gals!

 Sorry that tomorrow turned into a few weeks later but between work and school things have gotten busy. SO where was I...... AHHHHHHH yes Dragon*Con on Saturday. If you have never made it down for a Dragon*Con then saturday is the best day to come and check it out. Just to start of your fun filled day we have a huge parade that marches, dances, walks, and yells its way down Peachtree street. This year we had 3500 people in the parade along with 50+ vehicles. In the parade there are costumes from any fandom you can think of all the way from Star Wars to Harry Potter. The group I march with is the Obscurus Crusade group (Warhammer 40K). We had 30 people in our group this year that marched in the parade.

 After the Parade this year I spent most of the time exploring the dealers room and on a personal mission. I decided after speaking to Voltaire year and finding out that he was a Warhammer 40K fan I decided this year that I would get him to sign my plague banner. So after missing him all day friday I was finally able to catch him at his table on saturday afternoon. After a short chat he totally agreed to sign the banner and even said he was "proud to sign it and felt honored"

After the Voltair mission was accomplished me and the wife spent the day walking around the con snapping pics and also window shopping and ohhhhhhh-ing and ahhhhhh-ing at stuff.

Not the best pic (dang Iphone)

Later that evening I had to redress in the Plague preacher costume to get my picture taken and also get interviewed by CNN. The CNN interview (here is a link) was part of an I-Report program called Dragon*Con Before and After. They interviewed a lot of costumers and Cosplayers that were coming to Dragon*con and asked them to send a before picture and then at the convention they would finish the interviews and take the after picture.

So ladies and gents that was the highlights of my Dragon*Con experience...... I hear the voices out there asking but the Con was 4 days long, what about Sunday and Monday?? Our Sunday experience was spent checking out the dealers tables and art galleries and seeing friends and we didn't attend on Monday due to me having to work that evening.

 So ends Dragon*con 2012 but just wait 2013 is just around the corner and boy do we have some costume ideas in the work to show ya and can't wait for you guys to see them.... so stay tuned, spread the word and just to tease you here is a peek at 2013:

Dragon*con 2012 part 1

Hello all!!!

Wow two months and no post form me, bet you guys thought I didn't love ya anymore huh? Well guess what.... I'MMMMMMM BACKKKKKK! Sorry for no post in august I was spending most of the month doing finishing touches on my Plague Preacher costume and getting ready for my panel. So today's post is gonna be a short one and filled with pictures from the convention:

Day 1 (Friday)

 Friday is the first official day of the convention and we started it out nice and early walking around and watching the convention fill up. We spent most of the time just killing time till I had to go and help set up a meet and greet with my Warhammer 40,000 Costuming group Obscurus Crusade

After a great meet up and handing out some parade passes I had to take off early from the meet and greet so that I could make it to my very first Dragon*Con costuming panel. The panel I was invited to speak on was called "Costuming on a Shoestring Budget".  I walked in and wasn't expecting to see that many people there but was really surprised when I walked into a full room. I have to say was a new experience sitting up on the stage looking out on the crowd:

The panel was a lot of fun and got asked lots of questions. Thanks to Lee Cox, The director of the Dragon*Con costuming Track for inviting me to be on the panel.


Well after the costuming panel we had a few hours to kill before me and the wife had to start getting me dressed for the Friday night costume contest. It took us about an hour to get me dressed in my costume and off to the contest. The Friday night costume is set up like this: you check in the at the room and sit and wait for them to call your name to go see the judges, you get 3-5 ins with the judges to show them the costume and all your work in progress info and answer questions, then you go an set back down and wait for the judging to finish so they can line you up to go out on stage. While you are waiting they have a photographer in the back to take nice pictures of you. After you go on stage you wait behind stage to see if you won or not.

Turns out right before we were supposed to go on stage I was informed that the judges were impressed with my costuming skills and moved me out of the Novice ( for attendees age 15 and up that are new to costuming or have never won an award for costuming at a major convention that promotes or focuses on costuming. This level is for newbies: the ones that have talents, want to learn more and be judged on their designs and efforts.) category and into the Journeyman ( intended for those that have been working at the art of costuming for a few years and have entered and/or won any number of costuming contests in the past. Even if they have been away from making costumes or entering contests for years, they are still considered a Journeyman (or higher) based on past skills and efforts.)category. I didn't place in the main categories but did win an award for Best Representation of a Literary Character

Friday Night Costume Contest winners

After the costume contest we walked around the convention for a few more hour before we ran off to a late night panle that me and the wife wanted to attend called A Steampunk Guide to Sex. Was an awesome panel "geared" (hu hu see what I did there) towards some more adult themes. After the panel I was able to get my picture with Sara Hunter AKA Lady Clankington:

 Well guys tomorrow we cover the biggest day of Dragon*con........ SATURDAY!!!!

Plague belt

Hello once again readers,

 Sorry things have been so quiet here on the blog been a busy last few weeks and month. I just started college for the first time (wish me luck) also have been working on a lot of projects getting ready for Dragon*Con 2012.

 Also got some awesome new on Wednesday (7-18-12) I have been invited to speak on a costuming panel at Dragon*Con! This is my second appearance at a Con as a costuming panelist,  and my first (hope not my last one) one at Dragon*Con so wish me luck. The panel I have been asked to set on is Creating on a Shoestring Budget and is Friday august 31st at 1 pm. So enough about me tooting my own horn on to the costuming:

Ok so the project we are gonna cover is the very cheap plague belt I made for my costume. This is pretty much the total bits I used for the costume:

2 empty water bottles-- $2.00
7 containers of neon green slime-- $7.00
1 foot plastic tube-- free from work
 1 Thick cardboard shipping tube -- Free
4 popsicle sticks-- Free (just ate the popsicles)
1 web gear belt-- Free ( my collection of military gear)
1 box carpet tacks-- .89
assorted paints
modge podge
Gauze
total cost= $9.89 

The first thing I did was cut the cardboard tube down to the size of the water bottles. I cut it just the size to hide the water bottles.

I actually had to use my Dremal to cut this cardboard tube due to how thick it was. Lots and lots of cardboard fluff flying around. Once we got them cut down we had to decided on the design that we wanted so that you could see the holder and also see the bottles inside. so here is the design we went with:

After everything was cut I started to reinforce the cardboard with what I had laying around the house.......DUCT-TAPE!!! I decided to support the neck of the design with a few popsicle sticks to make it a little stronger. After I glued in the sticks I added a layer of tap of them to lock them into place:

The water bottles had nothing special done to them except that I drilled a small hole in the top to insert the plastic tubing in. I filled each of the bottles with 4 bottles of slime each:

After I made sure the water bottles fit in the holders I spray-painted them with black paint. After the paint dried I noticed that the paint was not sticking to the tape so I decided to use a little gauze and glue to mimic the skin look I have used on my mask hoses:

After looking at how they looked I realized they looked a little plain so I took some carpet tacks I had laying around the house and used them to look like rivets. I had to use a small pair of wire cutters to trim off most of the pin back to make them fit without poking into the water bottles:

I know a few people are wondering how I got the green goo into the tubes and also got it to stay. Well the way I did that was that actually had to suck the goo into the tube (yes it taste horrible). Once I got the amount i wanted in the tubes I took small pieces of tape and rolled them and stuffed them in the end and then put a layer of Epoxy resin over the top. This was about the time I realized that I could not clue the hoses in the bottle or the skull because it would gut down on a lot of my movement. So what I did to fix this problem was I still drilled the holes to insert the hoses and once the holes we glued shut I took a small zip-tie and pulled it as tight as I could around the end of the tube. When you cut off the extra it leaves the small locking piece and it keeps the hoses from pulling all the way out:

Please pardon how rough my thumb looks; many years of biting my fingernails and hard work!
Ok sooo here we are with the complete mask layout with the belt attached to the skull. I will tell you now that the belt will be changed in the future. The web belt just does not fit into the total costume:

Just to give you an idea of how everything looks on me here is a quick picture:

The goggles and the mask are 2 separate pieces so that its not one whole mask. The only issues I have seen so far with the mask is that it kills all my side vision and limits my movement just a bit. Well ladies and gents I'm gonna close this up and get back to work. I am going to try and get a few more post out before Dragon*Con. If you see me walking around the Convention in the costume come by and say hello... I have goodies to give out:

Dirty lil Icons (plague banner part 2)

Hey guys!

Sorry for the long time between post but with Dragon*Con 2012 fast approaching its been busy, busy between costuming, Con, and work! This last weekend was a great weekend I was invited to present a panel on cheap costuming at a small local Con called Sci-Fi Summer Con. I had myself, my wife and another friend all talking to a small gathering (10+ people) about ways to do very cheap costuming and still look good. The below pic is from the sixpence Costuming blog panel on Budget Costuming

Sci-fi Summer Con Atlanta 2012, Atlanta GA (John Stump, Dana Stump, Linda Voronden, and Kim McGibony)

OK so on to our topic today. I told you back in part one of the plague banner that this part would cover all the extras that I made for the banner. So away we go, I'm gonna break this into sections on each part:

PLAGUE CENSERS :

Finished censers

These were actually some of the cheapest props to make. You could use these as censers or as a flail. If you haven't figured out what they are yet......WIFFLE BALLS! You can get a bag of 4 of them at the dollar store. A word of advice here before you glue them together make sure you paint the inside of them or your gonna have a heck of a time painting it. I used a small amount of Epoxy resin to glue them together. After they were glued together i spray painted them with a hammered silver spray paint ( Krylon Fusion for plastics). After the paint dried I used a method of stressing called the Vaseline method, then I spayed with with a hammered copper color. This method is done by taking a small amount of Vaseline and tabbing it on the places you want to the see the undercoat then spraying on your next coat. When the top coat drys you take a rag and wipe off the Vaseline and it takes the top color with it showing you the base color.

After wiping off Vaseline

 On these what I did was once I wiped away the copper paint to expose the silver. Once everything dried I used the "Dirt method"

 I posted a few back to add some grunge to it. After everything was nice and dry I took it outside and splashed it with a black paint wash to make it look nasty and also to make the "dirt" stand out. When all this was done I took a large amount of the dirt mixture and rubbed it in my hands and rubbed it all over the chains to make them look nasty also. the plan later is to add a glow stick and cotton to the inside to make them glow.

SQUIGGLES THE CAGED PLAGUE DEMON:

This is another of those awesome after Halloween finds and also a Dollar store find! I know I have said it many many many times in this blog but I'm gonna say it again...... DOLLAR STORE IS YOUR FRIEND. They tend to have some of the most awesome Halloween decorations for cheap. When I bought Squiggles he was just a bony skeleton in the cage:

SQUIGGLES naked

As you can see very plain and simple. The first thing I did was free him from his cage by cutting the edges of some of the bars with an X-acto and pulling him out. then I removed his hips and legs (don't worry he didn't scream that much) after the hips and legs were removed it was a simple task of breaking out some Sculpty clay and making some tentacles for him and a horn ( yes my sculpting skill need LOTS of work):

 After the clay was dry I put Squiggles back into his cage and clued it shut with a few small dabs of Epoxy resin and tied the whole thing down with rubber bands to help it dry. After the cage dried I took a small foam pad and dry-brushed on a small amount of silver paint to make the chain a cage look worn:

SQUIGGLES the plague Demon

OK guys I'm gonna wrap this one up and start on the next installment on how I made my banner pole (very simple). SO until then thanks for reading and please keep Spreading the word about the blog!!!!

      UPCOMING ARTICLES:

• Plague mask
• Goggles
• Banner pole
• Uniform
• Cloak

Let your chaos flag fly Part 1 (plague banner)!!!!

Hello guys and gals!!

Sorry for the long break in post been a busy few weeks with Trek Trax Atlanta winding down (pictures for all to see) and a wedding coming this weekend busy, busy, busy.  Thought I would share with you guys the 99% complete plague banner and how it was built. So here is the completed banner:

Banner outside home

So this banner started off with humble beginnings:

• 2 pieces of PVC pipe ($2.25 at Home Depot)
• 1 L-joint ($.50 at Home Depot)
• 3 wiffle balls ($1.00 at dollar store)
• 1 yard of duck cloth canvas ($7.99 at walmart)
• 2 lengths of plastic chains from Halloween
• 1 Skeleton in cage ($1.00 at Dollar store)
• 1/2 cube of Sculpy clay
• Skull beads
• push pin backs
• 1 can textured paint (stone)
• 1 can beaten copper paint (krylon fusion)
• few handfuls of "dirt mixture" (see past article)
• assorted paints
• 1 box teabags ($1.00 at dollar store)
• 1 Awesome printer gal at Kinkos/Fed-Ex

The 2 biggest things with this banner was trying to figure out the symbol for it and also the material of the banner. The symbol was not very hard since there are really to main symbols for nurgle in the 40K universe The fly symbol and the triple circle symbols"

triple circle

Fly

The material for the banner was a different story. We looked at a few material before we decided to use the canvas material so it wouldn't flap around as much.

After decideing on the material and symbol I took a JPEG file of the fly symbol to my local Kinnko's/fed ex store and had them enlarge it and print i out for me on standard paper, all said and done cost me $3.25 for it. I took the enlarged picture home and cut it out to make a stencil to lay on top of the banner:

I actually used a crap load of pins to stick it to the cloth so that it would not move while i painted it on with black Fabric paint, I also put a layer of plastic under it so that the paint would not bleed thru:

painting

Let the paint dry for a few hours before I removed the stencil and touched up the edges:

After the paint dried so that I could touch it I took the circles i cut from the patterne on the wings and used them to trace circles back on the wings and painted them with a rotten flesh paint I have used on a good bit of this project

Now I know some people are prolly saying "well i see some mistakes here and there" or "oh i see paint smears"  Yes those were all mistakes but added to the banner cause well its a banner to the plague god and nasty is good!!

 Now what banner to a chaos god would not be complete without some mystical looking writing and symbols:

All the symbols and such were either made up or mixed and matched from other symbol groups. They were all traced in pencil then gone over with black fabric paint.

During this time A few freinds were talking to me about dyeing the canvas a color to get away from the bright white color it was, so after talking to a few people I attempted the method where you dye cloth with tea:

As you can see BIG difference! so after much worrying about paint peeling an such I brewed up 2 gallons of tea and dumped it in a big tupperware box and dropped the banner in and soaked it for a few hours and this is what i ended up with:

so after seeing how well this worked a took the extra material I had and soaked all of it in Tea and let it dry. I then decided a needed a few dedication papers for the banner so off I went back to the symbol writing board, Again all the symbols were drawn out in pencil and traced in black or red fabric paint:

The one in the middle was actually soaked in mustard and green paint for a few moments to see the effect.

After the banner was finished everyone  told me I need to "stress" it out a bit aka mess it up sooooo back out side I went, I used a charcoal lighter, a bowl of water and paper towels to ft the burns on the cloth. They were made by ripping the cloth and then setting it on fire and letting it smolder anf then smothering it with wet paper towels before it burst into flames. The rips on the bottom were made by making a small cut and ripping the cloth by hand. The stains on the cloth were made by a small amount of paint and water in a cup and then slung on to the banner with a foam brush:

Well ladies and gent this is finishing part one of the banner!!! tomorrow part two is gonna give you the hints i used to make the banner pole and all the extras for the banner, until then thanks for reading and sharing!!!