Cosplayers fall into the hobby in different ways and for different reasons. For Stephanie Ruehl, it happened about five years ago. She was at her first ever C2E2 and loved seeing the creativity of cosplayers so much that she wanted to join in. She enjoyed learning about how cosplayers made their costumes, the process they used, etc. She started out by dressing as a casual Kitty Pryde from the X-Men, then a casual Rogue (also from the X-Men), and finally went as Catwoman in a full catsuit. She talks about how the experience was surprisingly comfortable for her at The Addison Recorder.
She also talks about the costume she wore at this year’s C2E2: Xena! The Warrior Princess has a very distinct look and Stephanie knew she’d need learn to make armor for the costume but was up for the challenge. She got resourceful and used cardboard:
I’ve also seen excellent armor made from layers of thick paper, and at my job at the comic shop, all our books come packed with thin cardboard liners. This gave me an idea. I started taking these cardboard liners home and playing with them, seeing what I could create. The first thing I made was my chakram for the Xena outfit. With the exception of a ring of foam core in the middle, it’s made entirely of cardboard.
After that it was a matter of playing around with it while it was wet, cutting it and folding it, and seeing what happens when I cover it in masking tape and wood glue. I went through four 12-oz bottles of wood glue, dulled three Exacto knife blades, and a bunch of sandpaper, and I created two breastplates, greaves, two sets of bracers, a back plate, pauldrons, arm bands, a belt, and a sword. Everything was made by me, and about 90% of it is cardboard.
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
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