Swancon Pt I: Paul's Costume

Thursday, May 05, 2011 - 7:36 p.m.

One of the main reasons I went to Perth at this particular time of year was so that I could attend Swancon. This is the annual science fiction convention that's held in Western Australia.

This year, Paul had a costume.

He along with his housemates Tamara and Scott transmogrified him into a lizard.

Here are some pictures.

The first step was to color the fabric. The fabric has built-in three-dimensional 'scales', so the effect was pretty good:

Next, Tamara measured Paul and cut and sewed the shape of the lizard, and then Paul draped it over the cat tree on the front porch and painted the stripes:

Below is a close up of the detail of the face. It's sitting on my bed in the hotel room, because that turned out to be where the final costume construction and eventual deconstruction was going to be taking place. Scott had installed a little servo motor in the jaw, which when switched on, activated a cooling fan that blew air on Paul's face.

And here is what the finished costume looked like when Paul was wearing it:

Strangely enough, the children at the event thought Paul was a dinosaur, and kept trying to either fight him, or hug him.

Here he is, being confronted by an itty bitty Jedi:

However, the encounter was not fatal, and we ended up over in the Ballroom, dancing to the Time Warp:

The costume was warm, but not horridly so, but after about an hour, Paul threw in the towel and we went back to my room, and got him peeled out of it and back into normal clothing.

He didn't win a prize, because those were awarded later in the night than it was feasible to stay in an ornate costume. Lots of other excellent costuming went unacknowledged, simply because it was too warm to stay dressed until the awards.

However, it was still a successful evening for Paul and Tamara and Scott, and I really thought the costume turned out beautifully.

Next time, general pictures of Swancon stuff!

See you then.

---

what you missed - what's next - leave a note
first post - cast page - diaryrings - top ten

THE LEGAL STUFF: All content on this site that was created by me is copyright 2003-infinity by Brin Marie McLaughlin. Steal my stuff and I'll squash you like a bug. All incoming email or any other form of communication with me is subject to publication or other distribution by me in whole or in part at my sole discretion. This diary features the sole opinions and experiences of one person, namely me, the person who is paying for this space. In the interest of safety and accountability, no anonymous input will ever be allowed here, ever, for any reason in the entire history of ever. Whenever there is a comments section appearing in this diary, it's to be considered part of my paid presence on the web, and shall be used by my readership to supplement the things I have written here with relevant information in a polite manner. Comments that do not fall in that category are subject to deletion at my whim. Your visit to my diary along with your use of my comments section constitutes the understanding of this statement. Anything else on these pages including any comments belongs to whoever created it. All external links are current as of the date of the entry in which they are first featured, but at no other time. News excerpts used here are for educational purposes and are permitted under the Fair Use Doctrine. Hold hands when you cross the street, and play nice.