Painting boots, FaceTime with Christine, Kyoko’s 95% finished costume, a box of soul gem bits, Mami’s buckles, Sayaka’s triggers, decorating Sayaka’s sword, Emmy putting clips in Mami’s wig.
We are about 85% done Sayaka, 98% done Mami, and 95% done Kyoko.
Madoka Sewing Day is Monday. Expect ten thousand pictures of Jenn weeping crystals of cotton candy and pink sparkles.
- Jenn
Progress day; mostly little invisible things like hook and eyes, snaps and clips, but we’re in the home stretch.
- Jenn
Sometimes I can’t believe people need to be reminded about things like this…
It’s not particularly surprising given the anime convention community’s history and demographics. Most people get into the hobby and community in their mid-teens, when they are young and still learning social skills and etiquette, and given that the anime community is constantly being replenished by young new faces, it’s almost like the high school that never ends. That’s why ludicrously inappropriate things seem to happen despite their obvious affront to developed social etiquette: look at the ”yaoi paddle” craze, which had anime fans striking each other with wooden paddles/boat oars, often without any warning. You got paddled with one and then were expected to do something “yaoi.” Or the popularity of glomping, essentially a running-tackle-hug –– part of the glomping craze was that it was considered okay and affectionate for people to slam-hug into others without permission. Or less insidious, “free hug” lines, where huge masses of people would stand around asking for free hugs from all passer-bys, and people who declined were called fun-ruiners or bullied/cajoled into joining in. I think the free hug zombies are still loafing around somewhere, but I haven’t heard about glomping and yaoi paddles (which were banned at a lot of conventions!) for years.
Young people who are still learning to navigate social situations often come into convention environments and the illusion of a horizontal community of anime fans, geeks and nerds makes them feel like they’re in a place where “normal” social etiquette is suspended. Then they are shocked when they get backlash, forgetting that social etiquette was never suspended at all.
Yes, some older folk are responsible for this as well, but I find it’s by-and-large an issue where inexperience leads to young people not thinking about potential repercussions. For many, it’s their first hotel stays without an adult guardian! They haven’t learned to budget and might not remember that they’re paying for the hotel. There’s a cleaning service in the hotel so they assume that cleaning is just a thing that will happen on its own, the housekeeping staff out of sight and out of mind. Things can get ridiculous pretty fast.
Then they get older (or just mature some more) and have more experience, and then they become the ones gasping at the way hotels and convention spaces are treated ;)
- Jenn
Sometimes it’s inevitable. Wigs with lots of hair can be very heavy, and if that weight is all at one place, as your Kyoko wig is with the ponytail, it’s probably going to want to slide right off your face.
Get yourself some good wig clips. They’re the kind that extensions usually come attached to. Good ones will have a little plastic guard on it, too. They come in different colours, too; black, blonde, brown, etc.
Sew these suckers into your wig, around the edges — for our Kyoko wig, we did one over each ear, one at each temple, and two at the crown of the head. We also put some underneath at the back to anchor it at the base of the head, too.
They are tight and they hold fast. Don’t ever try to just pull the wig off without undoing them first! We usually take a T3s/some ibuprofen before we put them on because they are uncomfortable, and there’s basically no way to MAKE them comfortable; it’s a heavy wig attached to your scalp! But at the very least, the wig clips will make it a heavy wig with the weight dispersed more or less evenly around your scalp.
- Jenn
I never post on Tumblr, so I’m hoping my few followers can help me get this word out by reblogging…
I work for a hotel that hosts a major US con every year. I love anime and I go to cons myself, but I am going to be blunt about some of the problems we have and how we deal with them. I don’t…
An excellent piece on improper hotel etiquette while at conventions.
I disliked the original casts, so I made another set tonight. They are so much clearer this time. Madoka’s will never be crystal clear because it’s a power over a liquid dye, but it still shines bright like a diamond.
Emmy suffering emotional trauma at the hands of the Madoka manga.
Angrily, she screeched, “Why do they have this here?! Are they trying to kill us?!”
If you’re familiar with Yotsuba!&, know that Emmy is an oversized Yotsuba.
- Jenn
Emmy moved in with me! Here she is explaining to me why she packed a toque in the suitcase we are taking on our Florida/Disney adventure next week.
She’s so Canadian it hurts.
- Jenn
