NärCon 2014 - Duo Performance

Hi everyone! I'm back from Närcon, that was organized in Linköping, Sweden. Because the convention lasted a total of 4 days, I decided to write about my experience in two parts. The first part is about travelling there on Thursday and our Duo Performance on stage! All photos are taken by Cidi unless otherwise told.

Travel

Our flight to Sweden was so early, that we had to travel to Southern Finland on Wednesday. I started my trip straight after work, when I took a train to Jyväskylä. From there we got on bus with Minorea and traveled to Helsinki. Because we were staying at a friend's, we had to take the train once again from Helsinki to Riihimäki. :--D

When we got there, it was already 11pm and we were super tired because both of us had tried to finish our costumes in time. But no, it wasn't enough and we had lots of sewing ahead of us. We kept working on our cosplays until 4am and managed to sleep about 1,5 hours that night...

In the morning our friend took us to the airport by car and we met there with Satu of Uruhara FC and Cidi of Exciter's Momentum. ^_^ Because our props were pretty huge pieces of wood I used an old trick - my guitar bag! It works very well for carrying big vulnerable items. I couldn't fit it in completely, so I protected the rest of my scythe with foam. To my fortune an old friend from school was working at the airport and I got my guitar bag in as special baggage. It got carried on the airplane more carefully and our props got to Sweden undamaged.

From Arlanda airport in Stockholm we took the Arlanda Express train that takes about 20 minutes to the centrum. From there we found really easily the Närcon bus and our trip to Linköping began! It took about 3 hours to get there, but the trip was nice. A person working for Närcon was with us and we played funny games and were amazed by his magic. xD

When we arrived to Närcon we met Päivi of Uruhara FC and then hurried to our hotel by a taxi. Our hotel, Elite Stora Hotellet Linköping, was about 4 kilometers away from the university area, but it was really nice! It was in the middle of the city and looked gorgeous. The rooms were high, all the room numbers were hand painted on the walls and our room was really spacious with comfy beds. The room didn't have air-conditioning, but we could open the windows and walk on the roof under our window. We could also see some pretty church towers from the window. And the breakfast... oh, it was the best breakfast I've ever had at a hotel! They had everything from blue cheese to different kinds of melons and pancakes to smoothies. <3 From the hotel we either walked or took a taxi or a bus to Närcon depending on how tired we were and how high heels we had. xD

Duo Performance - Preparation

When we arrived to NärCon, the first thing we did after getting our tickets was registering to the cosplay contest. This  happened in the cosplay workshop, a classroom with sewing machines, needles, hot-glue guns and pretty much everything you might need in making cosplay. It was both good and bad thing - our cosplays got rescued by all the stuff they had, but some people seemed to spend their whole weekend there... Finishing their costumes at the con. I hope they didn't miss the whole event because of it, I didn't see their costumes even on Sunday...

Uruhara FC putting my cosplay together while Minorea's posing for the camera.

In the middle of our last-minute sewing we had to run to the stage and do our rehearsal. It went pretty well expect that I broke my prop during it! After that we hurried back to the cosplay workshop to get our costumes on before judging. We would have never been on time for the judging if Satu and Päivi hadn't helped us. You have no idea how grateful I am for all your help! I seriously felt like crying the whole time you were helping us, and I told Minorea that I'm gonna cry the moment I get off the stage because I'm so moved about their help. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! We would have never been able to make it if you hadn't been there for us <3

"Mistress will be very pleased."

I'm so offended!

Duo Performance - Judging

(c) David Johansson

The judging went quite well in my opinion. The judges didn't really look at our cosplays. They asked us to tell something about the costume (i.e. material choices, making etc.) and what kind of things we're proud of. We told them we made our props from wood because we're going to use them for real and they need to be made from material that doesn't break from one hit.

(c) David Johansson

(c) David Johansson

I still need to do many changes to the costume because I run out of time. For example the underskirt is not even with the dress! And I need to do some slight edits to the wig too.  I was also mad at myself, because in the hurry I had forgotten my headband at the hotel. Luckily that was the only piece missing in my cosplay! Next time I'll have everything with me.. :D Other than that I'm happy with our costumes and performance! We asked the judges if we could get feed-back on our costumes and performance after the contest. They seemed rather surprised, but told us that it's possible. I'm waiting for their answer now~

Duo Performance - On Stage!

It was time for us to gather to the backstage and get ready for the performances to begin. The performance contests were the last part of the NärCon opening ceremony, so there were a lot of people following it. With just 1,5 hours of sleep I didn't really realize what was going on, so I didn't feel too nervous. First they had Solo Performances, and after that started our Duo round. I just got on stage and started to do what I was supposed to do. When Minorea got on stage I saw nothing but her and felt super good being on stage. Especially when the adrenaline started to flow and both of us looked like we're going to kill each other! xD I broke my scythe completely, it's missing about 5cm from the tip and it has a few other cracks. It was totally worth it and many people asked afterwards if we were supposed to break our weapons, because it looked cool. "Way to go girls!!" was the first comment I got after getting off the stage. Even though I forgot one knee kick and did a really sloppy kick instead I'm happy about our performance.

(c) David Johansson

And one more shot of the very same scene.. This one seemed to be popular. :D Photo (c) Emma Andersson

On the video our performance starts at about 1:16:00.

A couple of broken props and enormous amount of bruises left us very pleased with our performance - and hungry for some more. I bet you'll see more of Tentacle Girls on stage in the future. :D

Maid from the Netherworld - WIP

Närcon is getting closer, we're travelling there next Thursday. It's the first time I'm going to a cosplay convention outside Finland so I'm excited to see what's it like. We originally planned to go there to cheer on Päivi from Uruhara FC, but I ended up registering me and Minorea for Närcon's Cosplay Group Performance contest.. whoops! The contest is on Thursday, the 1st day of the con.

So, as I earlier revealed I'm going to cosplay Airi from Queen's Blade. I'm usually really shy about showing lots of skin, but it's starting to look like that as long as I'm going to compete with the costume, I can wear revealing cosplays... So Närcon's visitors are going to get some pantsu shots, wohoo!

I was the most worried about the scythe, but luckily we got help from a carpenter that Minorea knows. He let us use his tools and told us what to do with them so we wouldn't hurt ourselves. I used to study woodwork for 6 years in elementary and junior high school, so it was really fun to work with something like this after such many years (and with better tools too). I added details from Apoxie Sculpt and started the paint work. :3

It... it looks like a scythe! So pretty!

Sculpting the handle. I used Apoxie Sculpt because it's so handy! It's really soft to sculpt and dries in air in about 2-3 hours. It gets really hard and after that you can sand it, saw it or drill it! :) It also gets attached to pretty much anything, which is why I covered the scythe with sticky-backed plastic.

The handle is drying. I had to balance it with a cutting board (that I made in elementary school ;D).

The sticky-backed plastic worked and I could remove the handle! Yaaay! Now I can separate the prop into smaller pieces for easier transport. ^_^

Sanding the handle.

Priming paint!

Spray painted scythe. After it dries I will add darker paint to the edges for more contrast.

I also got the wig and cut the bangs right away. It was harder to get the piggy tails done than I expected, but they look rather nice. I still need to make the small tufts on top of them and add some fibers to the back side. But it's nice and red, red is always good! <3

Make up test.. I think I look really scary (and cross-eyed) like this! xD But Minorea told me it looks cute, lol.

The dress itself is more complex to make since I still have no idea how to sew clothes. I've managed to make the skirt and cut out all the fabrics. There's so much ruffles and little details everywhere, even though I thought it's a simple costume to make. Oh noes! Currently I feel like the time is running out and I even sewed at work at the hotel reception... orz

It's still not finished, but looking good so far! The last time I attempted a puffed sleeve it looked.. not so puffed. But this time I edited the pattern and it came out just perfect <3 Also, a piece of my ruffles..

I've never done a ribbon before, but it turned out pretty~

The underskirt weights a ton alone. It's going to be so hot wearing this costume... T__T

My cosplay at work. I didn't notice one customer coming to the reception and had to show him what I'm sewing. xD

I still feel kind of positive that I'll finish the costume in time, even though I had only one day off from work in two weeks before a convention. I have to say I'm really looking forward to finishing the costume and the contest, our performance is going to be awesome because our audio is great already (so great that even neighbours came to the backyard to see what the hell we are doing). x3

My little helper got tired of all the pieces of fabric and ruffles.