MeltingMirror Cosplay

I brought the sea goddess to Mechacon, and I was happy with how well received Tia Dalma was.

​Friday was busy since I was doing craftsmanship judging for the masquerade for the most of the day. I was amazed at the amount of talent I saw in the cosplay competition. After a few hours of that I went to the opening ceremony with my fellow cosplay guests Chinasaur and Starbuxx. I was really impressed with how well produced the opening videos were for the event in addition to the talent on stage since many of the musical guests preformed throughout the ceremony.

Afterward we had a meet and greet with the guests (ambassadors) and VIP con guests. It made for a great time to meet new people and socialize. It set a great tone for the weekend.
I wrapped up the evening by grabbing dinner at a great Colombian restaurant and calling it an early night.

On Saturday, I wore Kida. Earlier in the day I was judging more entries from the cosplay contest then I got to spend some time at my booth. I met so many interesting and nice people. Thanks again to anyone who stopped by to say hi and buy a print.

Later in the day I got to watch the cosplay competition and boy was it intense. There was a crazy amount of craftsmanship on display and it was hard narrowing down the winners. I'm also used to having lengthy deliberations to determine the awards but we had to pick the winners within 15 minutes! In the end, we came to a consensus and the contestants really put on a good show.

After the con I got to catch up with Hane Cosplay over dinner and frozen rosé. Yum.

Sunday was the most relaxed of the weekend. I was mostly at my table in my Ducklett costume. The AC is not a joke at this con so I was sporting a jacket most of the day. 

I had a great time socializing with the attendees and the other guests in the guest table area. I've got to say that Queen D is a great cosplayer and a joy to be around. I would love to see her MC a Canadian masquerade.

Chinasaur and Starbuxx were lovely and I had a great time hanging out with them over the weekend. Also thanks to Most Flogged for swapping X-men stories and taking me to the aquarium on Monday.

Stay awesome New Orleans!

Anime North is my year tradition and it was a whirlwind like every other year. There are not enough hours in a day to do all the things you need to do at AN.

I'll keep my blog brief so you can all enjoy my shaky cellphone photos instead :)

First of all, I would like to thank Pop Expo for inviting me as a judge to the event. I accepted the position before I found out Heroes of Cosplay was going to be at the event. I decided to stick with it since it would ensure the judging process and criteria would stay as close to the usual as possible. Attendees and participants in the masquerade got a heads up (about 2-3 weeks) that filming was going to occur at the event, because PopExpo posted details on their Facebook page. Since I did take part in the filming process my report will be a little less detailed than usual but you can most likely glean information from others who attended the event.

It was PopExpo's first year and I am happy that the event was sustainable with over 7,000 people attending. They have already confirmed there will be a PopExpo 2014. 

Myself and Miss Calamity (aka Valkyrie Gear) shared a table over the weekend and it was a nice place to run into all the attendees. We also had a clear view of the wrestling ring for the entire weekend, so we got an earful.

I was very impressed with the costumes present at the event. I was worried the cold snowy whether would keep people away. The gallery below includes cosplayers who did not compete in the masquerade.

On Saturday, I wore Tia Dalma (Calypso). The first half of the day was spent manning my table and checking out the event. The other half was spent at the masquerade.

There were four judges for the event: Frenzy Wonder, Nailo Syanodel, Yaya Han, and myself. Three out of four of the judges were local. All of which have judged using the ICG rules at other events and we all agreed to do this before finding out the filming was happening.  The judging was basically the same, the main difference being there were cameras in the greenroom and judging area. We ran into some delays because there was no lighting in the judging area when we arrived but we managed to get back on track before the show started.

The masquerade went well except for one hiccup. The only difference in the setup was the lighting directly on the judges. Normally we are hidden in the darkness along with the crowd, so I'm sorry if that threw anyone off. Immediately after the show we went straight to deliberations which were also filmed. We deliberated on the awards (some had a cash prize attached) that were presented that night: Best in Show, Master class awards, and our judges choice.  After we made our decisions we returned to the stage and presented the awards immediately. All other awards and honourable mentions were decided afterwards with more deliberations and presented at the award ceremony on Sunday morning.

Side note #1: Judge's choice are relatively rare at Canadian events. Normally, we find some other award or Honourable mention to give the  participant.
Side note #2: Cash prizes are even rarer. Normally ribbons and certificates are handed out.

Sunday
The award ceremony was first thing in the morning at 10:15, so it was no surprise that so few people were able to make it. In the end it lasted maybe 15 minutes. We handed out the awards and congratulated those who were awarded the day before again. I also welcomed all the contestants to come chat with the local judges to get some feedback on their costumes and performance. It was a positive experience and the majority of the people said they enjoyed the masquerade.  We spent an hour and half talking to the contestants and that was quite possibly the most productive thing I did all weekend. The rest of the day was spent quietly behind my table.

Now I get to play the waiting game along with everyone else to see what kind of edit I get in the final cut.
A special thanks goes out to all the staff and crew of the masquerade for making it through all this.
FYI: I will most likely have my glasses on with my Tia Dalma costume for the most of the show because I have an eye problem so I couldn't wear contacts and my eyesight is horrible without them. Looking good comes second to properly judging the costumes. So please no comments about costume inaccuracy.

I barely had time to actually enjoy the convention and the city of Montreal but Otakuthon is a staple in my convention lineup, and overall I enjoyed myself. I didn't have as much fun as previous years because I had many commitments.

I got to meet the special cosplay guests and my fellow masquerade judges Riddle and NadiaSK.

I also got to hand out some Crunchyroll swag to some special congoers.

I owe a special thanks to my friends, especially Cosplay Calamity and Tamar Wolfe (my table partner), who really helped me by looking after my artist alley table over the weekend.

Anime North is a staple in my convention schedule and it seems I get busier every year. It didn't help that I had to avoid contact lenses and put in eyedrops once an hour. As a result I don't have that many photos to post but here's a rundown of my weekend.

FRIDAY
I arrived in Toronto at 3 along with Cosplay Calamity after an all-nighter of working on Alicia. I went straight to the Crafter's corner to set up my table with Tamar Wolfe after getting dressed in book 2 Korra. I was a slow day. People were mostly settling.

After wrapping up I went straight to working on my costume again. I even brought my sewing machine. But once 1am hit I was exhausted and I gave up on finishing the costume.

SATURDAY
I wore Korra again and went straight to the Crunchyroll booth to help int he morning. I had a blast and I was happy to help represent Crunchyroll at their first Canadian convention. Afterwards I had a quick photoshoot with Elevethphotograph, then back to my table for the rest of the day.

The good thing about having a table is that your friends will eventually drop by, no need to search through the crowds. The afternoon was lo key. I had dinner at Milestones and celebrate good sale with a belini, yum (It's an alcoholic slushie). The rest of the night was spent doing touch-ups to Ms Fortune.

SUNDAY
It was a disaster to get ready. I forgot pieces of my costume in the hotel room, the body paint was smudging and stained my shirt, my nail glue dried out. So opted to wear a trench coat version of Ms.Fortune, thankfully I brought the jacket in case I got cold. I worked the Crunchyroll booth again in the morning, followed by another shoot.
The cosplay troubleshooting panel went pretty well. I'm grateful that many people showed up and the panel was full of ideas and ready to help the audiences with all their cosplay questions.
I spent the last of the day manning my table then passing out in the car ride home, exhausted from the weekend.

Special thanks to my awesome roomies Zacloudseth, Tamar Wolfe, Cosplay Calamity,  and Thornrose, and to all my friends who dropped by and said hello.

See you next year!

This was my first time travelling alone by plane and to New York city no less. I had a great time in the Big Apple.
Here are the highlights: Fabric shopping, Times Square, Huge Con, Loads of Goodies, Karaoke, Archery, and Good Friends.

Small and sweet. Unplugged Expo was a great first year convention. Everyone was friendly and the people who attended the panels had genuine interest in the topics.I got to catch up with many of my Toronto cosplay friends. I did two brief shoots, one with EleventhPhotograph as Korra and another with Rocky, a newcomer to cosplay photography, and I can't wait for the photos of my Karako Nurse.

VickyBunnyAngel and I hung out for most of the weekend as we did several panels together plus judged the masquerade. Tamar Wolfe was a great friend and helped me out at my table.

I just want to say thank you to everyone who attended the panels I was running or assisting. A great thanks to the con staff who were stellar and very helpful.

Otakuthon has been a yearly tradition for myself for the last 6 years. Many of my cosplay friends are regulars as well, so it always makes for a fun weekend.

This was my first time in the dealer's room/artist alley for the whole weekend, and my third time judging a masquerade.

Highlights: Meeting Adella and Alodia, selling at my table, some Korra antics, masquerade jugdging, and hanging out with friends.