Cosplay & Anime: May 2011

wind wizardry (zephie), on your toes!

Finally an update on my Zephie cosplay that seems to have taken forever to finish. No pictures of the completed cosplay until July though, for Anime Expo! There is a cosplay meet-up for Magna Carta 2 cosplayers that weekend though so I'll upload photos with other characters/cosplayers then :)

Real quickly (quickly? Who am I kidding this is an insane amount of photos), here's a brief post about how I made these weird shoes. I'm sure this was not the best way to make them but they did the job (as being fancy crocs, I mean). I'll have to work with different materials next time as I didn't really like working with canvas; it was not sturdy at all (but it was comfy and light!)

Basically, this write-up below is the noob version, I'm sure the next cosplay I make that requires a custom shoe will be a legitimate shoe and not something I tacky-glued all up in this place.

I drew the sole of the shoe on Illustrator and glued the pieces to insulation foam (2 pieces, glued together to form the required thickness). My dad helped me cut the shape I drew on the computer, using a band saw.

Before painting over the foam with white paint though, I had to coat the foam with a couple layers of liquid gesso to smooth out the surface, otherwise the foam will just absorb the paint like a sponge. Luckily it dried fairly fast so this process only took a day of work (on and off).

I decided to use a red terry fabric for the padding of the shoe, I just glued it with tacky glue. You can see I still haven't finished coating the foam with gesso, heh.

I am now going to apologize for the lack of high quality photos because I seriously rushed the rest of this process and I took camera phone photos at some point.

I guess I could say I was lucky that there weren't any clear photos of Zephie's shoes, which meant I was free to interpret the general design of the back. I think there were 2 straps of some type at the back, so I cut one strip out of leather and one strip out of a white canvas fabric.

(why do these look SO DIFFERENT FROM EACH OTHER?! FRUSTRATION.)

(pattern pieces)

This was for the back of the shoe, I also cut this out of red canvas and I literally just measured my foot, I got really lazy >>;

This next part was trickier, I actually used satin nails to attach the fabric portions of the shoe into the foam platform. After I secured the position I took out each nail one by one, dipped it into tacky glue and re-applied it to its previous position. It got a bit messy but I was watching anime at the same time so all is good.

I realized I didn't take any photos of how I cut out the front part of the shoe. To be honest I didn't really measure anything except for the length and height so I didn't even really want to explain it. It doesn't look that great and if I had the time I would remake it.

I used paper clips at another point to hold everything in place, heh.

To clean up the edges of the shoes I cut out 1" leather strips to glue along the edges. (You could also see the details of a brown trim on the rendered artwork which I was referencing)

I threw in some studs to make it look like I put some effort into the shoes. And voila. Meh.

(I should have painted over the foam more because you can still see that I used 2 layers of foam, sigh)

The Meaning of Yoga and the Eight Steps of Astanga

Yoga literally means 'to link'. In the ancient Indian teachings there are many different ways to link oneself with the Supreme. For example, karma-yoga means that you offer the results of your work and activities to God. Bhakti-yoga means connecting with the Supreme every moment through loving devotional service. In jnana-yoga you cultivate philosophical knowledge for spiritual elevation.

The word 'yoke' - the wooden thing that links up two oxen - comes from the Sanskrit word yoga.

Asta - 'eight', anga - 'steps'

I started thinking of all this because the other day I was reading Patanjali's Yoga-Sutras. Yoga-sutras are the basis of astanga-yoga, or mystic 'eight-fold' yoga. The practice of astanga-yoga begins with various lifestyle regulations and duties (yama and niyama) such as vegetarianism, honesty, celibacy, abstinence from intoxication, and so on. These are followed by postures (asana - 'yoga' as we know it in the modern world). Then follows the controlling of the body's energies through breathing exercises. When you are able to merge the incoming breath with the outgoing breath - meaning when you stop breathing (!!) - then you gradually move through total sense control to concentration and finally, meditation. The last, eighth step is the state of self-realization, samadhi.

The eight steps once again:

1. Yama - prohibitions

2. Niyama - duties

3. Asana - postures

4. Pranayama - breath control

5. Pratyahara - withdrawal of the senses

6. Dharana - concentration

7. Dhyana - meditation

8. Samadhi - trance

In astanga-yoga the breathing exercises must come before meditation because breath is intimately connected with the mind. The airs that move in the body move the mind and thoughts within it. So following the astanga process, as long as you have not merged the airs and stopped breathing, you cannot fully focus your mind.

Step 5 means the yogi learns to draw all his perceptive senses from the outer world, detach from it and focus on his inner life only. Kind of like a turtle who can pull all its limbs under the shell.

The Goal of Yoga

The goal of the eightfold mystic yoga is not good health or a flat belly but detachment from the material world. Yoga is meant to detach us from the matter and connect us with the spirit, the Supreme. Doesn't "real yoga" sound intense?! Actually attaining samadhi through astanga-yoga is intense to the point that it's practically impossible in today's world. Previously meditation would rely on the purity of the prana (ether, air, lifeforce) for yogis to sync their consciousness with the Earth frequency. The yogis would drink water and eat nothing but the pure, clean air. Even if today's aspiring yogi or yogini had the willpower, dedication, physical qualities, excellent karma, long life and everything else astanga requires, the ether is so full of disturbing elements that the type of meditation required to progress in astanga couldn't physically happen. When I say physically, I refer to the subtle physical matter such as radio waves, cell phone and wi-fi signals, radars from satellites, airports and motion detectors, etc. This clutter is everywhere and affects the mind too much for astanga's "mechanical" approach.

As you can see, astanga-yoga is a mechanical path to self-realization. It's a strict, exact science and requires perfection at each level to move forward. Astanga-yoga was meant for those who had the nature of a yogi, for those to whom all this came quite naturally and who had such qualities that they wouldn't have wanted any other approach to spiritual life and linking with the Supreme.

Umm So How Do I Get to Samadhi?

The Vedas foretold human's future scope of abilities, attention span and other qualities and so recommend a slightly simpler yoga process for the current age for attaining self-realization - one based on the attraction of the heart to spirit, rather than ascetically restraining the senses from matter. Many ancient texts describe how just by sincerely chanting and hearing the transcendental sound vibration, all else will come in time, almost automatically. Hello, Om! Om is "a seed of transcendental realization" and one of the spiritual mantras you can chant.

We're staying in the country in North Carolina at the moment and fixing the van (yes once again), getting ready for summer festivals and tour. Not much internet, actually have to hurry away now - more about om tomorrow!

Tiny takes from the weekend

While I sewed Yoki’s costume she worked on her belt buckle. Sadly we didn’t take any photos from the process, but maybe next week Yoki will make a post about her accessories.

After some minor hood problems I finished Barriss' cape. The fastening is still missing and I need to do a separate collar piece. The print looks great!

I tried Luminara's make-up. I’m really happy how the lips turned out, but the diamond markings still need attention. And I think I bought eye shadow with too subtle golden tint.