New Updates: Harpy Costume

Been quite a time since my first blog! I'm going to try to get better at these, and I have several drafts I never posted because I never finished them. If I make smaller goals, I think I'll be more successful with this... hopefully. I've actually been kinda depressed over the last month, work had limited my hours to four a week, basically one shift. Two months ago I had 16, and they slowly took away a shift every week or so. I was severely frustrated. I had talked to my scheduler and he basically said tough luck to my need of more hours. Well, good news, I'm back up to 12. Its not 16, but hell, 12 is a lot better then four. Hopefully they aren't giving me false hope and I'll be able to stay around 12.

In my first post I mentioned that I was going to try to publish a book, and I'm still planning on doing that! I'm just putting it aside for a while, until after July.

Other news... we are registered for Comic-con 2011!!! http://www.comic-con.org/

We went last year, and had a great time! This year however, I want to bring a costume with me :)

Over the last two years I've wanted to make this costume of a character of mine, who happens to be a harpy. Now, my version of harpies are actually very animalistic, and their human form is stretched, and their necks are longer then humans. This harpy was born with a disease called Sapienism where she has the same proportions of a human, perfect for a costume when I can't be 7 feet tall! So she is more like this:

These are just basic models of my harpies, the red is where there downy feathers and obviously the wings are where the ovals are. So it would be fairly hard for me to make a costume of one of my other harpy characters, just from sheer impossibility. So Seirakyn Swift will be at comic-con, IF I can finish the costume in time.

Now for this costume I'm obviously not going to be naked (lol like they would allow that anyway) I'm going to create a top and a skirt like bottom, very tribal with a few animal skulls, beads and some fur in places. I want to buy a rabbit skin bag to accessorize, but we'll see. (http://cgi.ebay.com/Large-Rabbit-Fur-Purse-Leather-Tribal-Medicine-Bag-/310297946518?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item483f32e996) The wings I plan to make out of fleece, and until I find another way, I'm going to use sharpies to draw in the markings. She's an osprey type, so shes mostly white and brown. The feet are also going to be made out of fleece, the toes will be cut from furniture foam with replicated acrylic bear claws for her talons (http://cgi.ebay.com/12-Grizzly-Bear-Claws-Claw-3-inch-Reproductions-Coyote-/310243562287?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item483bf5132f). I'll cover the foam with fleece circles laid over each other to look like scales, and pen in shadow to give it definition. I'm thinking about sewing them into tights and wearing that, with a base of flip flops. I can add foam to the back of my heel to make it look like my feet are longer and bent like a birds. I'm still working on a wire idea for the wings, so that when I extend my arms the feathers won't drop because of the fabric! Wish me luck! This idea is a dream of mine I've had for too long, and it has kept me awake at night, maybe this will help me sleep better.