Modesty's Costume Closet

 I was in a fey mood and decided to try out the pattern pieces I cut. I have some silver minky and just cut and stitched it all together. Then put it on the model. Here are the results.  This is the good side. Here's what it looks like with the jawset.  The left side has too much puckering around the eye.  I'm balancing the jaws on my fingers. And with a nose and eyes.  Thee eye holes are too small. But it is looking cute. Here's naked face with the eyes! Looks much happier and livelier!  The 3d lids had a little lever on them but they would not fit inside the head. So I cut the levers we'll see how the mechanics turn out. I'm starting to plot out the internal bit with foam.

Progress Report Time! The beginnings of the puppet are taking shape. The focus has been on getting the head infrastructure in place.  3D model by Tioh So this was kind of the "easy" part. I resized the models to fit the sketch size and then just let it print. I mean nothing too fancy. I've temporarily attached the lower jaw with zip ties but I'm not mad at how it's been working so far so I may just keep the zip ties on. 🤷  I did the same thing for the eye mechanics Original by Tioh The mouth was also resized and printed. These were so tiny but proportional so glad I didn't have to sculpt them.  A beautiful fit! Now the models still need some work. The eyes and teeth need to be the proper colors. The inside of the head needs a few things to prepare for internal mechanics. But before getting into all that, I will have to create a pattern for the fabric covering the head. I'll be taping down masking tape or painter's tape over saran wrap. The tricky part

 Since I have settled on a front-carrying design, I started delving into more research on making hand puppets in general.  Size Reference Diagram The Plan (Currently) Most of the sculpting will be done with 3D printing instead of clay. I just prefer to do things this way. The body framework will include armature wire, EVA foam, and I will most likely sculpt the paws from clay. I plan to cover the body with a mix of felt, Minky, and brushed-out acrylic yarn. The puppet will open and close its mouth and blink.  Prep Work  So far I've been doing a search for 3D models and finding the scale. Once I found a good base for the head, I had to figure out how big this thing would be. I found my oversized drawing paper, traced my arm in the "puppet position", then started building out the puppet around it. I will use the drawing as a guide when creating the frame of the body and sculpting the paws.  3D Models I'm using several free 3D models by Tioh on Thingiverse including the

 🎃 Halloween creeps up quicker than we like! We are halfway through September, and that means all the stores are finally displaying their spooky supplies.  This year for Halloween, I'm going for a scary costume, the wendigo or not-deer inspired costume that will also be a stash buster. While I have made some purchases for the costume, most of it will be made from leftover scraps from other projects.  3D Printed Parts The 3D printed parts include:  Skull Mask Claws Antlers + Headband Raven skull necklace These have all been printed and assembled for the most part. The mask has elastic on it to keep it on, the antlers detach from the headband so it can be easier to insert them through the fur hood. I'm using tiny rubber bands to help keep the claws on my gloves.  Boots I ended up purchasing these boots from ChaosCostumes . The hoof size compared to my 3D printed buck is much larger. Safety matters! The shoe is a tad too big, so I have purchased some heel pads and a detachable an

So spooky! The idea for this costume came from my brainstorming on what to wear for office Halloween. I do have a couple of already made costumes I could use that I haven't worn yet, but I was hit with this idea when I remembered that I 3D printed a fox skull mask and found my "shaggy" faux fur fabric. I have so much scrap material around that I'm just "saving for a rainy day". Well, the rainy day has come and I wish to use up my scraps and clear out some of my closet. So...the spirit of greed and starvation the Wendigo.  Components  The costume was in part inspired by another person's 3D kit on Thingiverse . It used a variation of the fox skull, added antlers and long claws. So, what I'm borrowing from that design is:  Skull Mask Antlers long Claws Fur Hood Where I will differ is I'm using this as an excuse to finally make those Hoof Boots I wanted. I am also making the cloak part more like a Ring Wraith or Dementor cloak.  Body long-sleeved shi

 I saw a thing on Etsy that I sort of wanted to buy but didn't because I thought I could make it. An LED edge light lamp with various scenes or figures. I figured I could 3D print some stencils then use that as a template for painting or etching. While it IS possible, (see video below) I kept screwing up my stencils. The lines and details were getting lost. But the video does detail how to make an etching without having to modify your 3D printer. (To be fair, I was printing on the default bed and not onto the glass directly. I have never printed onto acrylic glass before so...something I may need to try.) Turned into a whole thing. But here's where I've ended up. (Currently, this is untested by me. I will update this post once I give things a go.) UPDATE: I have tested some of these methods with great success. See my Art Blog for details about these projects.  So CNC machines like the Cricut can cut vinyl and engrave things like acrylic glass or leather in some cases. So

 When I was getting started with 3D printing, of course the first big decision was "which machine will I get". It's one of those things where there's not necessarily a wrong answer, but there could be a best choice.  I am very pleased with the machine I ended up with, but I think this was partially dumb luck. It's hard to know what you don't know! And therefore...it's hard to know where to start without a guide. (My guide was a YouTube channel dedicated to printing miniatures for Table Top games, not costumes.) If by some cosmic coincidence this blog is your first exposure, then allow me to make some suggestions on where to start and some of the questions to ask.  What do you want to 3D Print? Oddly enough this will be a major decision factor into the machine (or machines) you decide to purchase. What kinds of things will you be 3D printing a majority of the time? While you can do pretty much all things with a 3D printer given some proper adjustments, some

  Three Finished Swords Took most of the weekend but I finished the work I wanted to do on the Demon Slayer Swords. I could do a tinge of touch up but I'll get to that later.  To see how these blades started see:  3D Printing Sword Adventures . I'll start with Tanjiro's blade as it took arguably the least amount of work.  Tanjiro's Sword Most of the sword is black in color with some silver trim and a touch of red. The whole thing was printed with black PLA. However, I still coated everything with the grey filler primer. Globbed on gesso and after sanding down the first coat, applied the 2nd coat of filler and sanded that down.  All the parts in black were sprayed with Rustoleum Glossy Black. I filled in the red handle decor with red color shift paint.  Used a bit of nail polish top coat as a base. The silver bits were sprayed with a lovely chrome spray paint. Very reflective! After things dried, I assembled the sword parts. Added a touch of glue and called it finished. 

 One of these days I'll return to writing about Kitsune costumes, but this is what you get with me. Moments of planning and sticking to a routine, then a few weeks of chaos where I write what I feel like writing! Today I'm starting yet another series of blog posts. This one is going to be about my 3D printing prop journey. I will plan and write more practical and advice-style posts later. (Sometimes I plan things like a proper writer. Most the time it's off the cuff though.)  Anyway, 3D printing has been THE method for me to create costume props ever since I decided to invest in one. In the past I have tried to recreate props out of EVA foam or clay or other things.  Swords I think have been the thing I commonly print as props so I'm going to focus in on that. Lets get into it! The First Blade Now the first prop sword that I seriously considered making was Prince Lotor's sword from Voltron: Legendary Defender. I was going to follow the steps I had in my making props