【COS】 Witches 魔女子

West Witch Majoko @ Akihiko Michaelis

East Witch Hime @Molly Eberwein

North Witch Ruiko@ Maro CH

photo thx Lee Mazaki

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This was taken 2 years ago, the last shoot I had Molly and Tsu when I was leaving Penang after finishing my studies there. We had plan for Zone-00 shoot for quite a long time, but never get to do any of them, until this when I can finally get everyone to do with me just before I left the place. It has really been a while since I had such a good time cosing with people I like to work with very much. After I moved back to KL, it is quite hard to get a group of people that work as smoothly as them here.

Zone-00 was quite a popular manga back then when it first came out and a lot of nice cosplay were done that time. Most of the character are very attractive, while Ruiko among all are my favourite. This version is one of the illustration that was highly appealing. We did have a Sara, the North witch when doing the planning, but she was not able to make it that day. It was a pity, but I still had fun that day. It was the longest photoshoot I had among all the cosplay photoshoot so far. 6 hours in total and I wasnt feeling very well that day, sinus suddenly went wild and decided that I should sneeze the whole day. It was terrible but I managed to make it through without messing up my makeups. \\^v^//

I was thinking of posting the tutorial for that Japan ghost mask intially. Somehow I lost the progress pictures when my phone had problem and didn't managed to post it up. Basically its made with paper clay and some cardboards, its not difficult. If any of you would like to get the tutorial please just leave a message, I can give simple tutorial of it, if this can help. 

Love, 

Maro 

【Tutorial】Wig Dyeing Tutorial with Marker Ink and Fabric Dye

Wig dyeing is always a big problem, especially when cant get the perfect color of wig. In the end I try to dye the wig to get the closest color I can. Rather than a tutorial, this is more likely a review of how I dye two of my wigs. I would say that its not a very good method, and the texture later differs from how it usual be, however, the colour is perfect somehow.

FABRIC DYE METHOD

The first wig I tried to dye is Miki's from Secret Time After School. Its like pale pinkish orange kind of color, which I cant find any that time from taobao shop (Now, they have similar color though = =, right after I finish my photoshoot.....). I tried to dye a light pink wig into the color using a Orange Fabric Paint. Below here I compared the target color and the results of the dyed-wig.

The type of fabric dye I used

The light pink wig is the same I used for Love Ward Luka (below):

The pink color is slightly lighter than the picture here. I dilute the dye with water and just paint on the wig with big brushes, layer by layer. The degree of the color depends on the dilution, had done of a bit of trial and error with lower parts of the wig. I directly blew dried the wig after applying the color and washed once with conditioner, dry with blower again and iron it. The color is much closer to the original photos than any of the commercial orange wig I can find THAT TIME . ( I am kinda  down when they come out with Miki's wig as similar as this only AFTER I had my photoshoot. Still, I think my antenna is much better looking than the commercial wig =w=, and yes am satisfied. )

FAQ that people ask about wig dying:

(i) Does the color stays?
-Yes, it stays even I washed with conditioner. BUT, it stained my costume, a little bit, I found orange stains at the collars and also edge of the sleeves, still acceptable.

(ii) How is the texture?
-Well, its rough and easily tangled. A little fussy, since I tried to smoothen with the wig spray which did not worked at all, I tried with hair treatment oil, not working as well. If you are able to make the wig smooth enough, then this would be a perfect method to dye wig.

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MARKER INK METHOD

The next wig I tried to dye is Science Girl Miku Wig. This time, its my unreasonable weird persistent that drive me to this. I thought I was late for ordering from taobao, which was not, and badly wanted a dark blue wig to pin up ponytail for Miku. Later, when I looked back at the character design, its not dark blue, but a cobalt blue wig, which I again cant find the color for pony tail on taobao.

 A few ideas actually popup in my mind:

(i) Acrylic paint ----> failed -- I dilute cobalt blue acrylic with water and soak overnight, not working, wither because I used a pale blue wig or because it just don't stay.

(ii) Semi-permanent hair dye conditioner --> failed -- its the Directions dye I am using here which I used for my real hair. Apparently it don't stay on wig or just that the wig color is not pale enough?

(iii) Marker ink --> well this is the one that seems to be most fitting that time.

I wet the wig first, smeared a bit of ink on my fingers and brush it through the wig, bits by bits, layer by layer. Blow-dried it after brushing the ink through all parts. Must make sure the wig and fingers are wet, else the ink will stain fingers instead of the wig. It took quite some time to finish the whole thing, 2-hours per pony tail since I separate the day dying them. Do everything once again if the color tone is not dark enough. I repeated twice for both pony tails. Iron the ponytail at last.

Left- original color (slightly greener than this)

Right -  Dyed color

Left- dyed color

Right- well this is how it looks like originally

Type of Marker ink i used, whiteboard marker

The same miku wig I used for Cheerful 39 Miku, its kinda messy that time when I want to dye it. So I washed the wigs with conditioner first, blown dry and detangled the wig before I dye it. Since its whiteboard marker that I am using here (I cant seems to find permanent marker ink nearby here), I cant wash it after that.

FAQ that people ask about wig dying:

(i) Does the color stays?
- I am not sure, but I think no.. It should be able to washed with shampoo, because its whiteboard marker ink. It stained when brush through the wig with fingers, and a bit on Miku's lab coat.

(ii) How is the texture?
- Much better than the fabric dye method, still smooth but fuzzy though, cant seems to settle the top part of the ponytail which makes it look a bit messy there (or its me that do not know how to handle it). 

P/S: Don't ever ever ever mix marker ink with Rubbing alcohol... it don't mix.. it will accumulate... I tried... and I am stupid to try with half the bottles of ink... OTL...

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That's at least the methods I had tried before, will upload more if I have the chance to try. I heard that Rit Dye works well, but I can't seems to find them in Malaysia. Might give it a try if I can buy it somewhere. Lastly, do feel free to ask questions if there is any doubt :). 

【Tutorial】Simple tutorial for pleated skirt

Its been ages since I last posted something. I've been working for my thesis for the past months, and now finally finished up the 1st draft for it~ 

I have the time finally to fill up what's left out for the past months. 

Now, since I made the pleated skirt for Project Diva F Science Girl Miku, I might as just write a tutorial for this. Pleated skirt is quite commonly in a lot of characters, any highschool uniforms, and quite a range of female characters. The procedure is quite simple, I took around 3 hours to complete the whole skirt. 

How the end product looks like. It would be better if I iron it more thoroughly : )

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~Simple Steps of Making Pleated Skirt~

Step 1: The cloth. 

I use some left-over from my Alice dress. Its around 150cmx 60cm

Step 2:  Cut your cloth

Measurement taken from you waist until middle of the thigh. Mine is around 35cm including allowance for seaming.

The whole lenght for the skirt I used around 150cm(standard width of the cloth, 60 inch) + an extra
85cm, total around 2meters and 35cm.

Step 3: Fold the ends

You can either seam it or I personally prefer to fold it.

Step 4: The pleats.

Each pleat is about 2 inch/5cm thick. Depends on your own preference. I think 4cm would be better....

Pleat and iron at the same time and pin at the top of the cloth to hold it.

Bottom pleat is 1.5cm each sides, as shown in the pic below. 

For better look, its recommended to do 2.5cm bottom pleat. Since I would like to save cloth, i used slightly shorted bottom pleat.

Step 5: Join the cloths. 

Just sew the two pieces together. 

Overall lenght I got from the 2m35cm cloth is around 90cm of the whole pleats. 

Step 6: Waist band

Cut two piece of rectangle shape, snips the ends off as shown below.

Measurements: 14cm x waist/2 . 

Sew them together. 

Fold it in half and iron it.

Fold in the ends and iron, to keep the loose ends in.

Step 7: Join the waist band to the pleats.

First, sew a line through the top of the pleats (where the pins are) to fix the pleats.

Insert the pleats in the middle of the waist bands, pin them.

You'll get something like this in the end.

Before sewing it, join the ends of the of the pleats, leaving at least 5cm space. Important, because the hips might not fit in if there is not space left. you can choose to put zips here.  

Any extras of the pleats, just fold and tuck it in at the end of the waist band. Sew the waist band on. Put on a button / buckle. ITS DONE!

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Although I would like to put how it looks like in the real photoshoot... somehow.... I didn't get proper full body shoot....... 

Of course, there are other pleats pattern. You can try to pleat all in the same direction. Just the middle with double pleat and sides are all in opposite directions. 

Next project I am going to do on Tonari no Kaibutsu-san, Shijuki's school uniform. I will do the single side pleat skirt instead. Will upload the progress after I finish it. =w=

【Tutorial】How to make Merida's (from Pixar BRAVE) bow and arrows?

Merida is my first Disney Princess, and well, not like typical Disney princess story about all those romantics and adventures, Brave is more like a Mother's day special. Thanks to Alex (A.R.C. photography) for inviting and got such a wonderful results  （＾ω＾）

I would say I suffer quite a lot when trying to figure out how to actually make the bow. First I was thinking of using plywood, but after getting advice from Jerry, I suppose that is not a good idea. The problem with plywood is that its very hard to carve shapes especially without a wood grinder. Especially when I don't have that strength and time to carve it slowly with saws or blades. 

I did try to search a better way in the internet, but I can't seems to find any that would be easy and fast ( mostly are plywoods... OTL) , imagine my desperation especially when its like 2 weeks to the photoshoot. At last, Yuu gave me the inspiration of using wires instead, and I think it worked pretty well, though not perfect, but it saves time and was considerably cheaper. 

Hence, I want to share my experience here with a simple and fast way of making a bow out of wires and tapes, hope it helps people out there looking for a simpler version of bow-making tutorials. 

Here is the tutorial on how I make Merida's bow:

BOW

Materials:

(i) Thick Wires ( I used those for fencing purpose) - hard enough to stay in shape but not too hard to be able to shape =w=

(ii) Thin wires ( for coiling purpose)

(iii) Pliers

(iv)Masking tapes

(v) Cellophone tapes

(vi) Measuring tape

(vii) Scissors

(viii) Newspaper

(ix) PVA glue / wood glue/ white glue

(x) Acrylic paint (I use Alpha's Raw Sienna, and White, and some Burnt Umber + Black)

Step 1: Shape the bow.

Use thick wires, shape until u are satisfy with the bow shape ( Please refers to the original picture (google it ) to make sure that the shape would be as similar as Merida's bow). Get two of them, overlapping both of the wires and tape them together at the very end. Make few coils from the thinner wires, stuff it in some critical points of the bow shape ( as shown below with the masking tapes on), and tape with plenty masking tapes ( I make five points here). The diameter of the coils is based on your preference if the thickness of your bow. Make another two bow shape from the thinner wires ( well if u prefer thick wires, go ahead), and stick them at the up and down of the wires. It should look some thing like below.

The coils, mine is around 1 inch diameter.

How to coils looked like when stuff in the bow shape.

Thickness of the bow will just be nice to hold.

 Step 2: Insert coils into the bow shape
Now, coil as much of coils as possible, you'll have to insert to the whole bow. The purpose of this step is just to fill in the the empty spaces, so when holding the bow, it would be firm enough. Try to stuff as packed as possible. ( I was in rush hence I tried to finish as fast as possible).

I thought of using newspaper only after I had done with this... well, since its just to stuff it in to make  sure that its stiff enough, I think if exchange the coils with newspaper might be good as well, but it will definitely be heavier. =w=

Step 3: Cover the whole bow with masking tapes

Use as much masking tapes as possible, covered all the parts that exposed, until you get something like that at shown below.

Taping the whole bow with masking tapes

Results after taping all with tapes

I left the end of the thin wires out (both sides) , and made a hook from it, for the bow string of course.

End of the bow, to hook bow string

Step 4: Cover the whole bow with newspaper + glue

I was very used to newspaper + PVA glue, since its the cheapest and most convenience way of making a surface. Though it might not be perfect, it gives rough surface =3=.

PVA glue:water = 1:4  

Covered the whole bow with stripes of newspapers ( Yes, tear the papers into rectangular strips ahead). Put bundle of PVA glue mix make sure that it is sticking thoroughly on the bow, which means paint the whole strips with glue until its totally soaked wet. PVA glue had the properties of making papers and tissues harden and that's another reason I like it so much.

Step 5: Paint the bow with Acrylic paint 

I mixed the two color Raw Sienna + white to get kind of pale wood color. Paint two layers. 

Step 6: Add on some details:

I used some brown papers, torn from some old exercise books. wrap it nicely on the middle parts and also the end of the bow. 

Paint with Burnt Umber+ Black Acrylic paint.

Step 7: Put on some details

Tie gold/ brown strings on the end of the bow, and also some little details in the middle part.

That's all for the Bow part!!!!!!!!! Just tie on the bow string will do. I use some elastic band in dark blue color. 

Final results of the Merida's bow!!

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Quiver

Materials:

(i) Something as the base ( I used the roll of finished masking tape)

(ii) Manila Cards

(iii) Colour Papers

(iv) Glue

(v) Scissors


I used the roll of the finished masking tape as the base, since the size suits well, draw a circle 1cm larger then it, then glue it on.

For the body of the quiver, I used manila cards, paste a layer of brown colour paper on it (or if you prefer to paint it instead). 

Now, there is total 3 pieces for the quiver. For respectively size, please refer to the tiles, one tile = 30cm x 30cm. 

Left piece: the top part of the quiver, a piece of rectangle with the edge slightly slant. I fold it half, to fit in the top part of the quiver.

Middle piece: half the rectangle than the left piece, for the bottom of the quiver.

Right piece: the body of the quiver. Diameter of the body depends on thee base. 

Just fix everything on place, then its done. Draw some details if necessary.

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Arrows

Materials:
(i) Cane ( yes, those that parents use for caning the kids =w=)
(ii) Black threads
(iii) Papers ( here I would recommend cards, or anything harder)
(iv) Cellophone tapes
(v) Water colour ( Brown, white, black)

Step 1: Tie the edge of the cane with black thread

Step 2: Cut the papers ( or cards) into the shapes below.
Draw a rectangle, snip the papers based on the red line below (left) to get the shapes of the fletching ( right)

Step 3: Paint the fletching with brown and white.
In one arrow, there are 3 fletching: one with brown strips, 2 plain white.
Try to paint out feathers texture.

Step 4: Stick the fletching on place with cellophone tape.
3 fletching per arrow, adjust yourself =w=.

Fletchings for the arrows

Step 5: For the head of the arrow, cut two diamond shape from colour papers and paste them together. Insert on the tip of the cane, and its done~

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This is how to results looked like. I painted the body of the quiver with a darker shade of brown, to distinct them apart. I hang the quiver on my belt through the loops there. 

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Few comments on the product:

(i) Its not a professional way of making props I suppose, BUT, I always prefer things the easiest, fastest and cheapest way.

(ii) Using wires did not give a very stiff bow, hence have to be slightly careful when handling with it ( i suppose if I could bring the bow and archery set all over the botanical gardens for 4 -5 hours, jumping here and there, then it should consider quite tough right? =w=).

(iii) Acrylic paints tends to wear off if scratched, hence, might recommend a layer of protective sprays to settle the paint? I can't ensure the results since I never try before, but worth a try ~

(iv) PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE  REFERS to a picture of either the original bow or a real bow when doing this...

HOPE that this could help someone out there troubling with bow-making tutorials (At least I suffered). Cheers!