Advice For Making Cosplay Props’ Accessories By Alice Hana To make delicate accessories, the most important part is to select the proper materials. It’s commonsense to use foam or plastic to make your stuff light, and use fiberglass or metal to make it tough. Wander around your home for things suitable and proper for your props. There is no strict rule on objects made by certain materials, but only free mind in looking for the most ideal raw material to make the most vivid costumes. MATERIALS Polymer clay: there are two popular brand-FIMO and SCULPEY, which is nice choice for accessories and jewellery. They’re easy to manage, quick dry and sold in various colors. Only problem is things made by them could be a little bit heavy. Foam core: foam core is kind of a craft board, which consist of stiff foam come in between several layers of cards. You can find it in any art supply store, and use it as a base to build papier-mâché. Technically, it isn’t strong enough to build hard object. It’s best use is to strengthen large pieces with two or three layers. Foam core can be cut with knife and scissors easily, and be carved to some extent once you replace the paper surface. Papier-mâché: it’s a inexpensive and extremely light material. You can pulp or strip with this kind of stuff. You may be familiar with the strip way-simply rip it up into strips according to what you need, then moisturize and color it, attach it where you need. There’s one little tip: shape something into what you want, and then cover it with papier-mâché. Pulping is another method to form different shapes. But it cost time and it’s really troublesome if you’ve tried, although things made by this way is vivid and adorable. Paper clay: it’s a alternative to Fimo or Sculpey. The make process is same as before, shape, dry, sand and paint. The prior advantage with paper clay is it can provide smooth effect after finished. Be advised that paper clay shrinks as it dries, so unless the piece has room to shrink, seams on it will appear. These can be fixed up with more clay. Plaster strip: it is kind of strips made of open-weave fabric covered in plaster, water-reacted. it can be fast to set it, but it takes lots of time—at least a day, to dry it thoroughly. This material is the ideal one for making body model for its feature, but be sure to move the model off the person before it gets too hard for scissors. The cast could be extremely strong, but too much heavy if you apply several layers. Remember it can’t be easily sanded to make it smooth, because plaster strip is based on loose-weave fabric. If you want to make it nice and glossy, you can apply other material such as polyfilla or spackling compound and sand that layer smooth. There’s other caution about working with plaster. Because the plaster hardens gradually, you may have to use a rubber bowl to mix it. When it hardens while you’re busy working with it, just squeeze it a bit to remove the dried plaster. Plastic: If possible, you can choose a latest product called Wonderflex, which is like thermoplastics but becomes pliable at a lower temperature. The most advantageous and healthy feature is you can use it with your own hands without being contaminated by poisonous chemical substances. Same, there’s another new material called Friendly Plastic. It becomes malleable in hot water and can be managed by bare hands, which is best companion for Wonderflex and for sculpting small items. Styrofoam: it’s a quick and easy based material to build pieces, but it requires some preparation before painting. If you just spray the hue on the surface of Styrofoam, or use brush on it, you’ll soon find it dissolved. So the best solution is to cover it in gesso, acrylic or latex paint. Even a small gap in between the coverage and the surface could lead to a big mess as it’ll dissolve under the paint. Upholstery/Craft Foam: Foam is a good selection if you need your props to be light and flexible. Upholstery foam could be found in a fabric store, or in an upholstery repair shop. It comes in thick blocks and can be carved and shaped to whatever you need, then covered with fabric. It can make perfect armor, esp. the knee pads. Another foam is craft foam, which is available at craft stores and shaped in thin sheets in different colors. You can cut it into various shapes and attach or sew it on. In some specific situation, you can use it to decorate surface on you items, or make great armor coated with sheet plastic or strengthen with glue. Skills Sanding: use a coarse grit sandpaper(50) to remove large lumps. To make porcelain effect, start with medium grit sandpaper, 80 or 100 will be ok. Then sand it with fine grit, 300 or 400. Work it in different steps and you can boldly use finer grits. Painting: first is to make sure the surface is smooth. Until the surface is nice and fine, you cannot paint it evenly. Use fine sand paper to make it smooth. When paint the props, you can choose acrylics, for they are quick-drying, easy to handle, waterproof and can be cleaned up with soap and water. Glue: although there are many glue available, choosing the right one for your need is crucial. The underlying theory is that 5-minute epoxy comes in two tubes and you mix it together to make it work. It’s strong and versatile for most needs, but isn’t flexible when dry, the same as Superglue. To deal with flexible materials like leather and attaching boot covers, shoemaker’s glue, available at shoe repair places, is extremely apt, but when used in a well-ventilated area, it gives off hazardous fumes. For attaching things that don’t fit perfectly, 2-part epoxy putty is helpful because it fills in the gaps and can be filed and painted. If you want to glue plastic, there are special glues available at hobby stores that can heat and fuse the plastic together. Of course there’s old fashion hot-glue–it’s invaluable for last-minute repairs, but normal hot-glue is vulnerable on durability because it will melt in summer heat and often falls off completely. While not working well on smooth surfaces like metal, hot-glue works fabulously on foam and other porous materials, however, you want to make sure to get a high-temperature glue gun and hi-temp glue. The hi-temp glue is much more durable, but watch out when it is VERY hot as it can burn yourself badly. Finishing Tricks: There are many ways to make your piece look more professional. The truth is that most crafting materials, even made into the right shape, still just look like crafting materials. A necklace made out of gold FIMO will look like a FIMO one, but not a gold one. Fortunately, means are available to avoid this. An important step, especially for metallic surfaces, is breakdown. This term refers to stressing or emphasizing the surface details of a piece. The easiest way to do this is to apply a thin wash of dark brown, black or blue paint. It will run into the recessed areas, creating artificial shadows. This gives the piece dimension and makes it more realistic. To gain more control of your piece, you can manually paint in the shadows and highlight some parts. Doing this, you can completely customize the look of the piece and change a flat, boring piece of clay or plaster into a shiny and three-dimensional one. Even something of right color, like FIMO, can benefit from these artificial shadows and highlighting. Once the painting is all done, give the finished piece a couple coats of clear spraying lacquer (available at hardware stores, in the paint section). Glossy lacquer is the most durable lacquer, but if you want your oiece to be matte, then apply a layer of gloss for protection and then a layer of matte lacquer on top. Make sure to let each layer dry completely before adding another one. Article from cosplay classes which provide the useful resources about cosplay costumes and Accessories for cosplayers

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