So we finished Macross 7 and the Macross 7 movie this weekend and I thought it was super nifty.  It lacked some of the emotionality of Frontier, but considering Frontier is my first Macross, I'm probably going to be biased.  I've decided that my favorite character in ALL of Macross 7 is:



EMIRIA JENIUS!!! Seriously, look at her go at it with Basara! She's a freaking Meltran wall of singing glory!  AND SHE'S A JENIUS, so she is just entirely made of WIN!

And, she's certainly got better pipes than her sister, Mylene, but I forgive Mylene because she's still kind of cool.

Unfortunately, she only makes one freaking appearance and that's in the movie. Lots of lame. She's too cool for that. Her duet with Basara, "Heart and Soul" is just amazing and is easily my favorite song from 7.

I've also been watching Macross Plus, but it's put me to sleep every time it's come on Syfy. I think that I might just watch the movie so that I can at least see where this is going and keep myself interested.  Needs more Sharon Apple.

She's so poised and she answer questions like really answers them. she knows what she's doing and how to market herself. She's incredibly in love with her fan base and her projects. Her career is her life. Love her or hate her you have to admit she's more genuine and serious about her art than most artists are these days. Maybe its because she writes her own music, designs, her own outifts and has a serious hand in all her projects. I wish more famous people were this serious.

 

( Beautiful, handmade cameos für Punk, Gothic, Classic and Sweet! )

I'm in the money crapper pretty bad - so I go to Craigslist and route through the "wanted" ads.  This guy says he's looking for an artist to make a lightweight mask for him.  I'm like, "Okay, I've done this before, and I've made a bit of stuff.  I can probably do this".  I did a "commission" (and I use the term VERY lightly, as it was just sewing two outfits together for someone, dirtying and cutting up the one side) for a friend of my sister's for $40 - and he really liked how it turned out.  So I email him, and at first, I thought he was a furry, since he said he wanted a full head "mask" (which isn't really a mask per say, more like a helmut, but I give him the benefit of the doubt that he's probably not very knowledgeable about this stuff if he's going to Craigslist for it).  He sends me a picture of what he's looking for, and wants to talk on the phone.  I HATE the phone, and besides, I'm not comfortable talking about pricing until I ask some more questions, since he wants it "as cheap as possible".   My

So I suppose the best way to describe how this turned out is to just post the emails.


Response 1:

Here is the deer head I am looking for.  I think you can click and follow the link for a clearer bigger pic.




My response:

Thanks for the reply - before we talk, I'd like to ask a couple of questions (I'm horrid on the phone).

1)  Are you looking for the full headpiece, or just a mask to go over your face?
2)  Does it need to have this expression, or is this merely a rough reference?
3)  How much visibility are you going to need?
4)  I'd need a ballpark figure of what you're looking to spend.  The only reason I ask is I keep cost of supplies separate from manpower to produce things.

Hope to hear back soon :)


He sends:

1 - full head piece
2 - rough ref -- looking for better antlers too
3 - I have some ideas - need to breathe and see better.  Want to be able to drink a bottle (beer type bottle) thru the mouth.
4 - What is roughly your price to make a head mask between ?---?

 

 

So off the bat, I know that drinking anything through a mask is just kind of a bad idea - both for safety, and the possibility of ruining the piece itself.  But I figure, this is good, I at least know what I can start referencing.  So I visit a couple of sites - I go to Ebay, and watch about an hour's worth of Fursuit-head tutorial videos.  No sweat, I've done similar things before, and now, I'm a little more confident that I can do this.  Next, I start thinking of ways I can cut cost for the guy - I.E. use something other than an expensive fur to cover the piece, etc.  I decide that if I'm going to do this, I want at least $100 for the labor - a number I determined after visiting a couple of custom fur-suit websites and comparing prices.  They seemed to range from $300-$500 - depending on what the quality was.  Now I know damned well that I'm not a professional fursuit maker, so I'm sure as hell not going to charge as much as them.  So, I decide to send back a detailed response that shows my research, so he knows I'm not just making numbers up:

Okies - this actually kind of helps a bit in determining some things.  I'm researching some things right now, and upholstery foam is the way I'd go about something like that.  Pros are that it's lightweight and breathable (and I really wouldn't recommend drinking through anything like that though, regardless of how it was made).  Cons of that are upholstery foam can be expensive.  I put together a costume that required about two yards of the lower density, and it still, even on sale, can run about $12-30 a yard (it's been a little while since I got it though, so I can visit a joann's tomorrow to recheck on that pricing).  As for the antlers, there's this AMAZING stuff called Model Magic that Crayola puts out that's EXTRA light - I've made armor parts from it before, and I barely even felt it!  It can be easily broken, but I've coated mine with epoxy or polyeurothane, which for a pair of head wings I made for a costume, have done me nicely for a while.  I'd probably use wire for a base/shape, and the antlers would take 2 - 3 packets to make.  I know that stuff's roughly $3.69 or thereabouts per pack.  The snout can be made from craft foam, which is rather inexpensive AND lightweight, and the coloring for the head could be done with felt, which is also inexpensive per yard.

( Read more... ) 

HURRAH!

When Mags said she was having trouble commenting on my blog, I finally decided to try it out and realized that I couldn't either!

Which means that other people wouldn't have been able to as well. D:

But it's fixed now~ Go visit!

http://aurorahime.blogspot.com

 ( Starry Night Theater OP )

( Read more )<input ... ></input><input ... >

I still haven't found my camera OTL but I did finally unloaded a bunch of pictures from my phone... Poor quality, but I guess I'll be using my phone as my camera temporarily.

2009.08.17

At the pet store, where I bought my second rabbit (but ended up taking her back :( )
I have more pictures from this saga; they're on another hard drive... I'm too lazy to go look for it now =w=

( Read more... )

Also, earlier tonight, Leonard and I saw Astroboy! :) It has been a while since I've read/watched any of the older stuff/originals, so it was kind of like watching a completely new movie, to me =w= I thought it was freaking adorable! The only thing that bothered me was Nicholas Cage's voice doesn't really match Tenma... But oh well. IT WAS SO CUTE!