Costuming

Today has mostly been devoted to a hobby other than writing (though writing has also happened in a minute amount today). Today I have been concentrating on something that's purely fun for me: costuming!

Every year, I attend Dragon*Con, the biggest science fiction and fantasy convention in the southeast and almost the world (we're outdone by Comic*con by attendance but not by programming). Every year, I go in some sort of costume, either cosplaying as some fantasy or science fiction character (from "Lily" in Legend, to "Tifa" in Final Fantasy VII to "Fran" in Final Fantasy XII) or a generic fantasy costume (steampunk, to zombie, to renaissance). I sometimes spend more on my costume each year than others (buying reasonable anime facsimiles versus me reconstructing existing pieces into a "Mad Scientist"). But every year, I love the opportunity to become something new with the convention.

This year, I have already started preparing costumes. I usually leave my costumes to a last minute scramble, in which I order an anime cosplay or throw together components of an already existing character. But I will do better this time. It's only March, and I'm already sketching, gathering components, and combining an amazing series of costumes.

Normally I use my creativity to my writing, but within the past few years, I've found, my ability to craft something from my own two hands holds as much value. I am not gifted visually: I cannot sketch or draw or paint or sculpt what I hold in my head. But I'm finding, I can combine existing patterns and sketches to form what I already hold in my imagination. And then I can combine them in unique and unexpected ways to form interesting and imaginative costumes. And I plan to continue this, now that I've discovered it. Now I'm just trying to find the best costumes to create.

I have ideas about a steampunk Tinkerbell, with working wings, but I want to go beyond that. It's one thing to do a costume; it's another to have a whole persona and performance based around it. And as I have way too many friends who do burlesque nowadays, I think I've found the routine I would do, IF I ever decided to do burlesque... I think one of my ultimate desires is to have someone play a Tom Lehrer (Masochism Tango) song and have me perform a humorous but totally sexy burlesque number to it.

A dream right now. But I have a very pronounced talent for making dreams become realities.