Further Confusion 2010

[furtech]

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FC was going to be a new experience for me in several ways: new hotel, no Steve and new layout. The hotel was just fine: lots of room and great access to a variety of food sources (and they let Prius' park free!). The layout (a rat-maze) was not nearly as nice as the Doubletree, but far better than a convention center. Not having Steve G. to hold my hand meant that I needed to prepare a lot more: I got my display racks (thanks, Dwight!) and worked on how to best display my work (Steve is a genius at this and I miss presence). I even found a good use for the photo frame I got on impulse at Costco last year: a nice way to display my portfolio and construction photos.



The part of any convention I enjoy the most is getting to hang out with friends and people I sometimes only see once a year. It was great to spend some quality chat-time with beetlecat, skorzy, thornwolf, brokkentwolf, jonnywoof, whiteyfawks, mistahbojangles, calicougar, as well as Andrea and Cary! It was neat to see lionboogy there, too: can't wait to look at his pics!

This was also the first year that I put a lot of work into preparing for my panels. I spent a day designing "A dirt-simple balaclava" pattern to give out at my main panel (Exotic Materials). I also went to several vendors of materials and got cards and brochures and Google'd reliable sources for purchasing (by mail or in-person) many of the exotic materials that I spoke about. I put this in the hand-out for those hardy souls who attended that panel (I think it was one of the last ones of the convention, on Sunday evening). Huge thanks to Whitefox for all of his help! Thanks to preparation and Whitefox's help, these were the best panels I've run yet.

Oh-- the costumes! Such costumes! Every year they get better and better! The most fun I had at the convention was hanging out with oats_a_plenty and crocuta on Saturday night costume-spotting. We spent several hours just watching the never-ending parade of people and costumes that went by. It turns out that oats_a_plenty is a master-costume-spotter (kind of like train-spotting, but ID'ing the maker of the costume going by). This led to a funny-embarrassing incident where my senile mind was exposed: I had seen a cheetah partial costume several times previously at the con, but I was never able to ID it nor get a good picture of it. I liked how the head looked very cheetah-like and how the maker had cleverly designed the head/neck to look longer than is usually possible in an eye-looker. Excitedly, I pointed it out to Oats and while she couldn't ID it either, she didn't hesitate to run up to the costumer to ask. She returned with a sardonic look, like she'd been tricked. It turns out the person who made the head was... me. Uh...oops.



Turns out that this was the head that I had made in a frantic rush in order to finish it for the Eurofurence Charity Auction and I'd never had time to take pics of the final piece. Belatedly, I do remember how much I liked how he came together: I'd wanted to make a cheetah for a long time and had put a lot of the ideas into his construction. That was also the year I nearly burned out on costume-making (several large convention masquerade pieces), so many things got lost in my head. I also nearly didn't recognize the German shepherd head I'd made for the same auction... oy vey.

Getting back to costumes...
There were nine characters that I absolutely adored: great designs, construction, etc. and they made me either laugh or "Ooo" every time I saw them.
*Qarrezel had made a gold and white Kirin that was a head-turner: elegant and glorious!
*There was a yellow dog with snaggle-teeth that always made me laugh: I -love- his "Gnar-gnar" expression!
*The beefy bull-canine hybrid was definitely one of my favorites: I love the muscles! Excellent job, especially with all the darting.
*There was an adorable springer spaniel that I liked a lot: good character performance, too!
*What can one say about Beetlecat's Targ? Just amazing: such striking colors and she even walked the parade in it! Hardcore.
*Cute black-backed jackal: when you consider how many cute canines there are out there, it takes a lot for one to really turn my head. This one did: -very- cute expression and all-around construction/design. It was one of the performer's first costumes, too! Very nice!
*Blue Sloth: deceptively simple design. Huge props for executing this so well: adorable, doofy and big. Best use of sparkle-fur I've ever seen.



My two favorites of my favorites:
The gloomy raven that glomped around on Saturday night. He reminded me of the minah from "Inky and the Minah" or the raven from Disney's "Sleeping Beauty". Huge costume, fantastically executed. Best bird feet ever. Great characterization! Fantastic!



And my favorite costume of the con? The merle Border Collie miner forty-niner! Made and performed by matrices. She did a fantastic job one the whole character concept! First of all, merle border collie (yay, border collie!); second, she fit the con's theme (Goldrush!) perfectly and did a bang-up job with the accessories for him. She was enthusiastically in-character all the time. Her feet were adorable-- it's her own style and I love them-- so round and happy! Plus, she gave me a really nice piece of chocolate! (Not really a bribe-- I don't think my opinion is worth a cheap bribe, let alone a piece of chocolate gold!). Great job on a great costume, Matrices! Check out her tutorials, too: she's very generous with her costuming knowledge.

Comments

[skorzy.livejournal.com]

I see some dude in the background taking pictures of the Targ! Oh wait... that's me recording the whole damn parade!

Also liked that raven thing. Liked how it had this sulking, hunched posture all the time that wasn't just the wearer leaning over. It was built in.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Yes, I saw you and envied your foresight: by the time I got set, all the good spots were taken. My spot wasn't bad, but I wasn't using a flash and the pics suffered from the spill from one of the dealer's floodlights.

Raven: yeah! That posture was fantastic! The whole design was amazing. It's the kind of costume that could look highly entertaining no matter what it did-- dancing, skulking, standing there looming over people-- that's a great effect!