Yuuko Ichihara - Foxy Lady #11

soaking Yuuko's wig in warm water with Soflã

The other day, when I wore the Sakura Robe for the Japan Cultural Day, I noticed that the freshly washed robe was again dirty on the outer back. There was only one explanation, the wig must be dirty, and it's a fact I haven't washed it in a long while. So, I dipped it in warm water with Soflã, a wool and delicates detergent (which smells like roses 🌹), and let it stay for about 30 minutes. When I took the wig out of the basin, the water was brown! I rinsed it in cold water and it is now drying in the bathroom.

After it is dry, I will thoroughly comb it, and then, with the help of my new toy, the vapor tool, gun, whatever you'd like to call it, I will straighten and style it into place. It's a tedious task, but I should wash my most used wigs more often, it keeps them from tangling so much.

+ Yuuko's wig will be nice, soft and scented after washing, ready to style for the Foxy Lady costume

- washing and taking care of long wigs is a boring and tedious task, but helps them last longer

THE CUNNING PLAN 

After taking care of the wig, store it properly and take it to the new house.

Yuuko Ichihara - Foxy Lady #10

 

this project's buys. project prints and modelling tools.

Early this week, I took an afternoon to make cosplay errands and buy materials and tools for this costume.

I had the sceptre, and the flat ruby printed, bought painter's tape, to make the shoe embellishment patterns, modelling tools, and found silicone brushes, wooden balls and cheap foam clay at a Chinese store. I also went to Dagol, to try and buy red transparent plexiglas, but they were out of it. They usually only sell big sheets, but if they have leftovers from big projects, they cut and sell the smaller pieces to random customers like me. I'll have to keep phoning them, asking if they have it back in stock.

left: the new mock up; right: the old mock up 

I also had the flat ruby printed on card stock and cut and glued it for a new mock up. As you can see, it is wider, taller on top, and curvier on the bottom. I'm currently happy with this shape. I also decided to buy some wood and have it shaped with a lathe machine. I can buy the wood at a nearby wood shop, and I found a place with a lathe to shape it, Sardinha em Lata, an animation studio, which is also nearby. An they're not charging me either! I know, wood can be a problem with security at cons, but I'd rather have a sturdy prop.

+ I found almost all the materials I need for the sceptre and other accessories, and some cheaper than I thought they would be.

- Bummer the red plexiglas was sold out, but the shop isn't far, I can go there any time. The sceptre's wood isn't very cheap, but it will work much better than the alternative PVC tube and clay.

THE CUNNING PLAN 

Make arrangements to shape the sceptre.

Yuuko Ichihara - Foxy Lady #9

glueing the cardboard ruby

Made the sceptre/cane design and the flat ruby design in Freehand, but as my printer has no ink, I took note of the ruby measurements and made a mock up in cereal box cardboard.

the finished 1st mock up

It wasn't perfect, a few millimeters off, but good enough to see if the measurements were proportional. I realized the wider part needs to be wider, so I corrected the design in Freehand, by adding a few millimters to the wider width and a few millimeters to the height of the triangle row. I'm going to have the new ruby design and the sceptre printed and will make a new mock up. If I like it, I'll go buy the acrylic, and have it laser cut at Imaginação das Cores.

+ making a mock up for this is really important, as I need to have it perfect for when I have the acrylic laser cut. 

- making it out of cardboard is easy, but I'm dreading the acrylic glueing, as I need to have the sides at an angle, and that I'll have to do by hand...

THE CUNNING PLAN 

Make the new Ruby Mock up, to know how much acrylic I need to buy. Have the sceptre printed, to decide what to use as a base. I still don't know how I'm going to make the shapes on the cane part... Ideally it would be made out of wood and shape it on a lathe machine... maybe I'll ask around if anyone has access to one.