Cosplay year 2016 - the year of major f*ck ups

The title tells it all. This is the summary of the cosplay year 2016.

This was the year when I got absolutely nothing done. Yes, I ordered a shitload of new wigs and lenses + bought new fabrics, even started to make new costumes, but this year turned out to be more hectic and stressful than I could have imagined and cosplaying wasn't my priority number one.

(Btw, picture credits can be found on con summaries.)

But let's see what I actually did in 2016!

Yukicon 3.0 was held in Helsinki in February. I almost decided not to attend it since my physical health wasn't very great at the time but since I had been selected to host a lecture there I had to attend it... And I don't regret it.
Hosting a lecture for the first time was, of course, quite stressful and made me nervous but somehow I managed to stand in front of the audience for half an hour. And that's going to happen in Yukicon 4.0 too - I will be hosting a lecture about StarStable Online with my friend Merezone (who kindly recorded my lecture in this year's Yukicon)!

(The lecture is only in Finnish but basically I just spoke about the psychological and philosophical issues in the game series called Starshine Legacy.)

My costumes in Yukicon were these two:

Josh from Starshine Legacy in Saturday.

Gijinka!Darkrai from Pokémon in Sunday.

 I didn't make almost any effort for these costumes - like I said, my physical condition was shit and on top of that I was working as a helper teacher at the time I still think that all the symptoms I had were caused by stress so I didn't have that much free time either.
Anyway, I enjoyed this year's Yukicon a bit more than last year's, probably because it was held in a different building. When the con took place in Espoo the building there felt always very crowded and small. In Helsinki that problem didn't exist. Despite my constantly nauseous and tired feeling I enjoyed my first con of the year!

I was supposed to compete in Tampere Kuplii 2016 and that would have been my main reason to go there. Sadly I didn't manage to make my costume ready Chikane Himemiya, you're still my greatest enemy and it meant no competing for me. Anyway, I had already told my friends that I would attend it, at least for one day, so I couldn't skip it.
And yes, I attended it only for a one day and that was quite good decision - I didn't feel good at the con. I still don't know why, I just felt restless and tired at the same time for the whole Saturday. I'm not saying that the con itself would've been shitty or anything, I just wasn't feeling up to hanging out etc.

This year Tampere Kuplii was held in Tampere-talo (in the previous years it was held in the Finlayson area) and the change was... At least interesting. Well, I'm positive that things will be easier to organize there from now on.

My "cosplay" in Kuplii was casual!young!Severus Snape. I just didn't want to put on any "real" cosplay. You get what I mean.

I don't have anything else to say about Kuplii. Quite nice con, like it has always been. Hopefully next year I will get to compete there again.

Cosvision. Oh, Cosvision...
I don't think that I'm the only one thinking that the con itself wasn't very good. The location was good but Verkatehdas is simply just too small place to hold a convention if you actually want the convention to be big, For a smaller con the building would have been just fine, but... Ghh. Let's just say that I attended this con just to meet people whom I usually see, like, once in two years. I enjoyed their company but, sadly, I didn't enjoy the con almost at all.

I like the surrounding areas of Verkatehdas though; there were parks etc. in which it was easy to have photoshoots!

My cosplays for the Cosvision weekend were these:

2p!France from Hetalia: Axis Powers.

Ayame Sohma from Fruits Basket.

I didn't make anything myself for my 2p!France cosplay, I just bought everything for it(and actually the jeans belong to my Josh cosplay). I didn't even order a wig since my own hair was quite good for this cosplay at the time.
And Ayame... Well, it's one of my "if I don't have anything else, I'll take this with me" costumes. Nothing else to say about.

So, Cosvision was one of those "hang out with friends" cons to me. Except that this one was more expensive than the other "hanging out" cons I attended this year...

Tracon was held in Tampere-talo in September. It has always been one of those "I have to attend it!!" conventions since I begun cosplaying in Tracon 2012 nostalgia is strong with this one. I actually managed to make a costume for Tracon - sadly I'm not very pleased with it. You see, in the fabric shop I had to choose the fabric by color and not the material...
And I fucked it up at that point.

I also hosted a lecture in Tracon about Hetalia. I never found any kind of video material about it - it would've been nice to see it afterwards and look for things to improve but no can do. Maybe I'll learn with time.
This year, however, I didn't enjoy Tracon that much. I don't even know why; the con was well organized etc., but for some reason something felt very off.

Anyway, the cosplays...

North Italy from Hetalia: Axis Powers.

Ebony Darkness Dementia Raven Way from a fanfic My Immortal, written by Tara Gillesbie.

I made Italy specifically for Tracon and, well... It could've been worse but it could've been better. I'm likely to improve the costume, make-up etc. in the future when I find time and energy for it. Right now I don't feel up to it.

I bought a new wig for Ebony (I will link the store later if I find their website again) and improved her make-up. I also decided to wear different shoes this time. I think that I managed to improve her pretty well... Even though this was one of the most uncomfortable costumes I wore this year.

I also attended Kitacon this year; I happened to be in Northern Finland when the con was held. The con itself was one of those small cons where you just hang out with your friends. Sadly I just wasn't in the mood of attending the con and my own mood (a bit tired and a bit anxious) took revenge on me in the shape of anxiety attacks and feeling sick. I just don't like small places with a lot of people... Perhaps I'll get used to it at some point.

I still liked the con itself - if I happen to be in the north the next time the con is held, I will attend it. I can't let one bad experience ruin it for me.

I cosplayed - once again - Ayame Sohma.

Skecon - perhaps my favourite con this year!

At first I wasn't even supposed to attend it but, in the end, I decided to go there - and I haven't regretted my decision at all. The campus area was simply a great place for a convention, people were kind and the most important thing: I had fun.

This was also the first con in which I slept in a dorm can't find a better word for it and not in anyone's apartment/in a hotel room. At first I was a bit afraid to try it because my back and my left leg ache chronically but I found out quite soon that sleeping on a floor doesn't damage them any further.

The cosplays for the Skecon weekend:

Japan from Hetalia: Axis Powers.

...well, you know this snek quite well already.

I also competed with my Ayame costume; I didn't place (to be honest, I didn't even think that I would place) but I had fun - it was quite nice to compete after such a long time! I had actually forgotten how much I love to be on a stage. <3


But yeah, there it is - my cosplay year 2016. Hopefully 2017 will be at least a bit better - I already have some plans for it. I will also finish some other costumes when I have time and when I feel up to it. Hopefully I'll also get more pics of my costumes because I've been a bit lazy with photoshoots once again, oops...

But yeah, see you next time!

-Firith

Cosvision 2016 - it scarred me.

(Or actually Cosvision didn't but I'll tell you more about the title later.)

Cosvision is over now and I'm super tired but I'm trying to write this blog post before I forget everything I have in mind.

So, on Friday I left work a bit earlier than usually (half an hour or so) and went home to wait for Lawi with whom I would travel to Hämeenlinna. After 4 p.m she and her mother (also known as our driver) arrived at my place and we started our trip to Hämeenlinna.

The weather was kind of... Interesting. Everything between snow and rain poured down to the earth and I have to say that I was in a little panic. Luckily nothing bad happened to us but I guess that it tells you enough about the weather that someone had actually driven off the road so... Yeah.

We arrived to Hämeenlinna in the early evening and went to our hotel. They had a room on their own and I had booked two rooms for Shiro Samurai, Frozen Angel and Sacchan. They would arrive later so I had promised to inform the hotel about the late arrival etc. Anyway, I got the key card for one of the rooms and took my stuff there. 

We had decided with Lawi and her mother that we would walk around Hämeenlinna and get familiar with the city. We were very happy to notice that Valintatalo (a market) and the convention place itself were pretty near to the hotel! There were also many good places nearby for photoshoots. 

After our little walk (and visiting Valintatalo to get something to eat and drink) I decided to go and sit in the hotel room. I also tried to make a vlog but my camera decided not to cooperate with me (fuck you camaro). 

I was pretty happy to have my laptop with me because I would have been bored as hell without it while waiting for my company to arrive.

At some point I decided to have a glass of wine and Lawi kept me company for a few hours. We laughed our asses off because she said something like "the abuse of coca" while meaning Coca-Cola... We were pretty tired. xD

Twenty to twelve p.m I had a small heart attack when my mobile phone decided to tell me that it's alive - in other words, Frozen Angel called me and told that they were in Hämeenlinna and would arrive to the hotel soon. I went outside to greet them and believe me, I was super happy when I saw them - it had been AGES since I had last seen them! ;__; 

We had decided that Shiro Samurai and Sacchan would sleep in one room and Frozen Angel and I would take the other room. We all decided together that we would wake up at 8:00 a.m. and then we decided to get some sleep - well, I managed to fall asleep at 2:30 a.m. or so...


I had decided to cosplay 2p!France on Saturday. Even though I didn't make anything myself for that costume it nearly drove me insane because I just couldn't find a right kind of a dress shirt for it but luckily Frozen Angel had managed to find one for me so I didn't have to cancel my plans. It took us a few hours to get ready but it didn't bother me that much - I enjoyed just spending time with my company.

Hashtag selfie addict.

When we arrived at the con I immediately bumped into Trixena (who had actually tried to contact me but I haven't had time to check my phone, oops) and we begun talking about the con. The area outside the building seemed to be a bit empty but I thought that it was because of the weather which was not that great.
But then we went inside...

There was much lesser crowd that I had expected. Really. I had expected a lot more since Cosvision is that one convention focusing only on cosplay and then... I don't even know what to say. I spent an hour or so chatting with Trixena and greeting Päivi who was in a hurry because of the cosplay competition but had time for a little small talk.
Finally I met my company again and we decided to go to check the Dealer's Hall. There was this guy from whom I've bought a few T-shirts and I decided to go and check his table. And what's the first thing I see? A PERFECT LORD VOLDEMORT FIGURINE. ;__; It cost something like 35 euros so I decided to buy it - I would have felt sorry for myself later if I didn't buy it.

I also bought a Deathly Hallows necklace from Purple Octopus and I just might have ordered a customized Malfoy family crest necklace from her.

After that we were going to see a lecture but then we noticed that it had been cancelled so we didn't have almost anything to do. At this point I think that we decided to visit Valintatalo, buy some food and go to the hotel. Shiro Samurai and Sacchan stayed outside at the ruins nearby the hotel and Frozen Angel and I decided to go to our hotel room...
And at this point I noticed that I had forgotten my jacket at Verkatehdas - the convention place.

In other words that meant that we had to leave the hotel again quite soon and go to Verkatehdas again to get my jacket. We decided to check out the photoshoot places though since we wanted a good place to have a photoshoot of France and Prussia.
It's funny how nobody recognizes 2p!-versions of Hetalia characters, especially if their design isn't that much out of ordinary. For example nobody recognized my France - not that I expected anybody to do that but I find it quite funny in some way.
Anyway, we found good places nearby Verkatehdas. At this point we went back to our hotel room and decided to eat something. Salad and beer, that's my diet. :DD
I also had some kind of an anxiety attack for some reason and I was so lucky to have Frozen Angel with me (Shiro Samurai and Sacchan had gone somewhere for a food hunt)... Those anxiety attacks can turn out to be hellish and it's not nice to be alone when you get one, I can tell you that.

Pretty soon it was time for a photoshoot!
It was freezing as hell outside without my jacket - my arms were frozen, my feet hurt and posing for camera felt almost an impossible task to do. For some reason (probably because of the dry skin) my chest was very itchy and because I'm known for my intelligence I decided to scratch it... Doesn't sound too bad yet but wait for it.

At first we decided to photoshoot my France. Here we go!
(And remember kids, never start smoking. It kills you. Slowly but surely.)

Lying on that staircase killed my back but I love how well the pictures turned out! ;__;

After this shoot it was time for the France/Prussia photoshoot.
Note; Frozen Angel and I are just friends. Very good friends indeed, but just friends. And if you definitely dislike PruFran/FranPru pairing, scroll past these pics. I'm not forcing you to watch them. Thank you.

All of the pictures above © Shiro Samurai.

After taking these pics everybody was so frozen that we could have found a choir and start to sing "Let It Go" so we decided to retire back to the hotel. Shiro Samurai and Frozen Angel decided to go to the rooms while Sacchan and I decided to have a glass of white wine - tasted damn good!
When we tried to take the elevator upstairs (the rooms were in the 3rd floor) we noticed that Sacchan's hotel room key card had somehow broken and we couldn't make the elevator work. We decided to call Shiro Samurai who kindly came to rescue us.
Then I went to the hotel room, begun to take my costume off... And noticed something very interesting.
I told you that I had been scratching myself during the day. You can't actually see it in the pics since the itching area was under the shirt. And now I have two, almost 10 centimeters long scars on my chest (this explains the title of this post)! The wounds were bleeding a bit and I just stared myself from the mirror like "Eh..!?". Also my shoes had killed my feet pretty badly and walking properly is still out of question.

Cosplay without pain is pretending.
We decided to wake up at 7:30 a.m. next morning. I was so tired that I felt like fainting and fell asleep surprisingly early - 1:30 a.m. 0__0

On Sunday I had decided to cosplay Ayame Sohma. Shiro Samurai had told me that he would cosplay Hatori Sohma but then shit happened and he couldn't do that. Well, someday we will make this pair cosplay - won't we? >:3
He had also bought me some lenses - one pair for Ayame, one pair for Italy from Hetalia (wait for Tracon - I kicked Cicero out of my cosplay list since I haven't got time to make that costume this year) and one pair for Tetsuhiro Morinaga from Koisuru Boukun/The Tyrant falls in Love. I will review the pair for Ayame soon so stay tuned!

Since it was Sunday it meant packing our stuff and so on. For me it was a pain in the ass since my stuff was almost literally EVERYWHERE. I will never learn.
Anyway, this is the first time I managed to make the make-up for Ayame just the way I've always wanted to make it. I'm proud of myself.

Bonjour, madames et messieurs. 

At 12:00 I had finally packed my stuff into Lawi's mother's car and Frozen Angel and I were able to start our walk to the con place - the other two had went there with a car.

At first we just walked around the con place randomly and then we found Lawi. I chatted with her for a while. Then we decided to take a selfie - there's always time for one. Even when you're looking for your photographer.

Believe me or not, we're not related in any way but we look kinda same - excluding the nose thing though since my nose has been broken two times. :I

Soon after we found Shiro Samurai and Sacchan. Since it wasn't raining at that time we decided to go and take photos of my Ayame cosplay.
Photographer © Shiro Samurai.

I'm very pleased with these pics - I just love them! I also noticed that I haven't had a solo photoshoot for Ayame yet - well, that one quick photoshoot in Tracon 2013 doesn't count right now. This is the first real photoshoot I had... And I'm going to make some other Aya's outfits too! The red coat is one of my plans next year... x)
After taking the pics we headed inside to look for Sacchan and Frozen Angel whom we found in the Dealer's Hall. We spent time together for a while and then I decided to visit Valintatalo again since I was running out of cigarettes. When we came back Sacchan went... Well, somewhere and Frozen Angel and I headed back to the Dealer's Hall. There we ran into Trixena, Päivi and Satu. We chatted for a while and Trixena kept us company quite a long while - it was nice to have her around since I don't see her that often either.
There was this epic Dalek cosplayer once again. I had been longing for a chance to speak with him and finally I had that chance! ;__; He was a very nice guy and he had a great sense of humor.

The rest of the con was spent speaking about different topics... And this thing happened: when I was about to say that I was going to get the costume off me someone came and asked if she could take a picture of me! ;__; I was super happy since I'm very pleased with Ayame as a costume but hardly anybody has asked pics of it and now it happened! ;__;
Then it was time for me and Lawi to leave Hämeenlinna. I almost started crying when I had to say "goodbye, see you soon" to my company since I had been missing them so damn much and then suddenly I had to leave again and ugh ;__;

My feelings about the con itself, you ask?
Well, it could have been better but I've also attended worse cons. There could have been more lectures and panels but otherwise the atmosphere at the con was pretty relaxed. I still don't know if the large crowd missing was a good thing or not... But anyway. I had pretty much fun in Cosvision and I would attend it again! There's some things they could improve but I still enjoyed attending the con, meeting my friends and spending time with them.

Some bonus pics...

It was completely freezing and Frozen Angel decided to hug the hell out of me when I begun to feel like I had been made out of ice.

Eyes please, could you even try..?

"There's a fucking branch in my wig! Damn birch! :I"

See you in a next WIP post - or perhaps in a lens review post? ;)

-Firith