Completed January 2004 – Best Craftsmanship Ohayocon 2004

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Inspiration
What is not to love about this design? It’s outrageous. It’s hideous. I love it. I must admit I’m more of a Paine fan, but somehow I got stuck with Yuna. Over the years, she’s grown on me. Like a mail-order bride, I learned to love her.

Construction
I made my armor and hat out of paper mache and Paperclay. This was my first experience with making armor and I think I discovered I had a knack for it. I made my wig and earring which got lots of usage with my other Yuna costumes. A friend sewed the cloth patterns, while I worked on details like gradient dying our fur, stuffing the paws, gluing/sewing claws, etc. I painted the design on the bodysuit with textile paint. For the body paint, I used crayola markers that I set with loose powder. It’s cheap and accessable and it works really well. I recommend it.

I learned a very important lesson about making props. Do not sand indoors. This seems kind of “duh”, but sanding outside is very difficult in the middle of winter in downtown Chicago in a highrise. Anyway, health reasons aside, dust floated all over the apartment and got over absolutely everything. Mirrors, tv screens, even months after we thought we’d cleaned everything we would find dust on yards of fabric and such.

Photos by R. Williams, Kyle Johnsen, Erik Smith, Lionel