celticbard76

Hello my friends and fellow deviants!

For the purposes of this blog post, I’ll be affecting a Scottish accent, so, you know, when you read this, just pretend that you hear me speaking with a lovely lilt, okay?

So, as some of you may have guessed already, a new blog post = a new cosplay. Yay!!! Told ya I’d be working my fangirl butt off this winter creating new costumes, with or without the cooperation of my lousy, lazy stomach, who, by the way, has taken me to E.R. two times already this year. Naughty, naughty!

Yeah, I won’t lie or try to be glib, things have been rough lately. Bleh. But at the same time, so many of you have been incredibly kind in offering your support and encouragement while I try to deal with this thing. You guys are truly inspiring and every message/comment/fave I receive just makes me want to persevere with my cosplaying no matter what. Thanks! I really hope you enjoy my first cosplay for 2014. I’m dedicating it to all my wonderful Watchers and friends here on DA.

All right, so on to the actual cosplay! I first had the idea for this costume last summer when I was attending the NY Renaissance Faire and I saw one of the attendees dressed as Merida from “Brave”. I’ve always thought Merida was cool, although I only saw “Brave” once when it first came out in theaters. But as far as archers go, my favorite is definitely Katniss Everdeen from the “Hunger Games” series. I did do a Katniss cosplay last year, but since I have my longbow, arrows and quiver on hand, I thought, why not try a new cosplay? And as long as I’m doing another archer cosplay, why not include another character? Then it came to me…Katniss & Merida, I could try to cosplay them both!

Things moved rather quickly after that as I began to design the costume. The biggest challenge was trying to make sure that each character was represented in the cosplay, but not so much as to overpower the unique style of the other character. When it came down to finalizing the look, I tried to concentrate on little details (some of which, unfortunately, didn’t show up as nicely in my pictures as I would have liked) that would complement both Katniss and Merida individually, but still tie them together. Anywho, here’s a basic run-down of the costume’s components:

The dress: The dress was actually a mass-produced item that I purchased, took apart, heavily altered, and finally, sewed the darn thing back together. The style of the dress, of course, is medieval, something that Merida might wear on her many dress-down days. The blue color of the gown, however, reminds me of the dress Katniss wore to her first Reaping.

The ruana: The ruana was sewn by me, using a rather odd lining fabric that almost feels like cashmere. (No kidding, how strange is that?) Even though Merida wears a cloak in the movie, I wanted a simple outer-garment that would also fit-in with District Twelve’s vibe. Additionally, the cream color of the ruana was my attempt to pay homage to the awesome, chunky-knit cowl Katniss wears in the first scenes of “Catching Fire”.

The ruana pin: Gosh, I really wish this had showed up better in the pictures! In case you can’t tell, I mounted Katniss’s Mockingjay brooch to a small Celtic-style medallion.

The belt: The belt is mostly Merida. I sewed it myself using a pretty jacquard trim, adding a gold thistle pin in the center to represent Merida’s Scottish heritage.

The hairstyle: I’ll be honest, one of the main reasons I wanted to do this cosplay was because I knew I wouldn’t have to wear a wig. Basically, I curled my hair in some braids overnight, and then, on the day of the photoshoot, I styled it into a loose/messy Katniss braid.

And that’s about it. I’ll be posting the pictures I have of this cosplay in my DA gallery, although I am hoping to photograph the outfit once more and incorporate a few different poses and some new backgrounds. Unfortunately, the day of the photoshoot was a bit of a mess. I decided to take the pictures in our local park, but when I arrived, my digital camera just whacked out and I only managed to get one picture off the memory disc even though my dad took at least a dozen shots. The rest of the pictures were done in my backyard just to test my new digital camera. Although I plan to return to the park, the weather hasn’t been cooperating AT ALL, hitting the city where I live with a couple of snowstorms and a lengthy cold snap that just doesn’t seem to want to end. Grrr!

But besides all that, I’m really excited to post the few pictures I do have here on DA. And now that this cosplay is complete, I can devote more time to next cosplay, which should be forthcoming in the next several weeks. Until then, be well and have a great winter, everyone!

Best,
Lee Anne (aka celticbad76)

Wow. I should be embarrassed…posting a New Year’s blog two weeks after the actual holiday. The sad thing is, I originally wrote this blog on New Year’s Eve and intended to post it that same day. But then I just got lazy and I started to procrastinate and to procrastinate some more and some more. And now that I’ve finally gotten back to my blog post, I thought I should really rewrite, I mean, isn’t it a little silly to post a New Year’s journal so late after the holiday? Hmm, probably.
So I thought, okay, I’ll just do some quick revisions. Shouldn’t take too long. But then I got lazy and then I started to procrastinate. Yeah, you all know where this is headed.

In the end, I thought it might just be easier to pretend that it’s still New Year’s Eve and post the blog as is, so get your champagne out and put your party hats on. On my DA page, it’s still 2013.Yay.

And in the long run, this whole turning back the clock thing makes the most sense, because I have a bunch of things I want to talk about and I’d like to lump them all together in this post and stick it under the “Happy New Year” banner just to make things seem cohesive, hehe. Cool with you guys? Good.

Okay, first topic: my recent Christmas in Lothlorien cosplay. I never, ever expected this little cosplay to get so much attention and I’m thrilled (so yes, a part of this blog is to thank everyone who took the time to fave and comment on my pics) with all the positive feedback I’ve received so far. I wish I could say that the cosplay was a result of months of careful planning, diligent sewing and location scouting, but to be perfectly honest, I dreamed the whole thing up about a week before Christmas. In fact, I had so little time to complete the cosplay that I wasn’t able to properly finish the cloak or the green sleeves. And on the day of the shoot, the wind kept blowing my outfit and hair all over the place and my dad (the photographer) totally wasn’t in the mood for my habit of nitpicking every shot and I was feeling really lousy and just wanted to get the whole thing over with. But thank goodness, most of the pins keeping the outfit together held and we made it through the shoot and now, I’m just deliriously happy at how well things turned out.
Speaking of which, the “Galadhrim Gold” shot was just featured in a cosplay article in Bleeding Cool. Here’s a link to the page if you’re interested: link

So yeah, I’m very happy with the Christmas in Lothlorien cosplay for a bunch of obvious reasons and one not so obvious reason. This cosplay marks the debut of my original character, Amanthoniel. It seems so strange to type her name out, because she’s a character I developed mostly in my head over a stretch of about ten years, since the first LOTR movie came out. At first, I felt very strange having created a character only in my mind, especially since I never sat down and wrote an actual story with Amanthoniel in it. But then, I saw that my friend Mistgod had created an OC of his own MelianMarionette and was not at all shy about sharing her right here on DA. So for this “new” year, I decided to take a leaf from his book and finally give Amanthoniel her rightful place in my geeky life.

A little bit about Amanthoniel’s history: In her very first incarnation, she was the other half of a Haldir/OC pairing, a typical Mary-Sue created for one of my first (and worst) LOTR fanfictions. Her name, in fact, is an example of pretty bad Elvish, although after all these years, I’ve decided not to change it for nostalgia’s sake.

Fortunately, after receiving several frank and critical reviews from readers, I dropped the story and worked as hard as I could to revise my writing style. Amanthoniel was dropped as well, but she didn’t disappear. She stayed in my head and grew and changed and was knocked around a lot until she became a part of me unlike any of the other characters I’ve created over the years. While keeping her Tolkien-roots, she cropped up in the dozens of different fandoms I’ve been interested in. And as time has rolled by, she’s developed her own colorful history, a complex personality and maintained that same stubbornness that has kept her alive in my mind for so long.

But now that I’ve brought her out into the open, what can I possibly do with her? I certainly can’t write a story for her, since her story is always changing and rewriting itself. And unfortunately, I have not been gifted with the talent to paint or draw or sculpt, so there will be no portraits of her posted in my gallery anytime soon. Still, I am determined to find some outlet for her, a creative channel that can bring her to life, because after ten years, I think she deserves it.

Well, I suppose I could try…cosplay?

It makes sense. At least, I think it does. I’ve always had a passion for writing stories, but I’ve never tried telling a story through costuming alone. It’ll be a challenge, of course, and take a good deal of time and effort and an appropriate amount of nerdiness. Still, I can’t think of a better way to start my “New” year.

While Amanthoniel has made her debut, I’ll admit, there is relatively little information about her in the Christmas in Lothlorien shoot, except that she is a Lorien-based Elf, though not necessarily from the Golden Wood. Yes, I know, I’m being annoyingly tight-lipped, but that’s only because I am working hard on my next cosplay, which should make her occupation clear and also include some of her backstory. So be patient, please! and know that I am pushing my geeky creativity to the limit to share Amanthoniel’s story here on DA.

And, of course, I wouldn’t be satisfied if I focused solely on this project. Apart from my Amanthoniel/LOTR Elf cosplays, I’m currently working on numerous projects in different fandoms. In the coming weeks, you can expect to see the following cosplays:

A Katniss/Merida mash-up

Katniss’s Catching Fire Hunting Outfit

A Modern femme Loki

And a cosplay featuring Loki’s wife, Sigyn.

Speaking of Loki…yes! My Loki/Sigyn fic “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” is still very much alive. I honestly love writing fanfiction and will probably be brainstorming new fics well into my nineties, if, God willing, I make it that far into the future. Sadly, 2013 wasn’t a really good year for my fanfiction habit. My health was bad and I couldn’t concentrate on what I was trying to write because my ever-present symptoms were overwhelming. In 2014, I know I will still have to live with the same symptoms day in and day out, but I am determined to take what I’ve learned from being chronically ill and apply it to my writing, if only because I need an outlet like fanfiction to keep my sane while my health saga continues.

Which leads me to the final subject of my blog: my health. For the most part, I try to avoid mentioning my current medical situation here on DA, but my illness has this annoying habit of affecting everything I do and I know that I am going to have to learn to live with it, at least for the time being.

So, in brief…

Things are better than they were in October/November, but not great. I had my first 2014 trip to the E.R. last week and my docs are increasing a bunch of my meds and piling more meds on top of those, to see if they can somehow control this beast. At the same time, my father and I will spend most of the winter touring the Eastern seaboard to visit various specialists and experts outside of my home state. So yeah, at least I’m moving forward, although sometimes I feel like I’m on a treadmill.

Gee, this was a long blog post. I should probably spend more time working on the aforementioned cosplays and fanfics instead of writing this massive journal entry. But hey, it’s the New Year and I most certainly did not make a resolution against being long-winded.

So yeah, Happy 2014 everyone! At least we made it through the Mayan apocalypse, right? Oh yeah, that was two years ago…

Best,
Lee Anne