NERD OUT
It’s that time of the year again, folks. Each year I attend the FanExpo convention that’s held here in Canada and I try to cosplay. Previous years when I went I dressed as Nana Osaki during my first Expo, another time I went as L from Deathnote. Last year I didn’t get a chance to do so, but this year I planned a special one when I found out that the main female cast of RWBY by Rooster Teeth were coming to visit! I decided to cosplay as Blake Belladonna. Her character is one of my favourite, from her love of books, introverted life style, and her damn weapon the Gambol Shroud!
She has such a cool weapon, fans still don’t fully understand how it all works. It’s a sword with a sheath that’s also a blade and she has a gun-a-rang mode for long distance shooting with the sword. One of the things I really love about RWBY is how their weapons are designed, it’s too epic. They can all transform from one thing to another, a multipurpose weapon and I’ve always wanted one. The process of gathering my materials for this weren’t as easy as I thought it would be.
I decided to cosplay volume 2 Blake Belladonna as it wasn’t too revealing nor was it too layered of an attire to wear. I have to thank Lore and Michael’s for having the materials I needed for this cosplay. My friend Lore went through all the trouble of purchasing the materials for me from her work and take the transit home, with all these foam board and craft foams. I tried to take photos of my process, but I ended up just taking photos of the materials I used for my cosplay:
- Tulle for the second layer of the butt cape ( I keep calling it that)
- Two yards of fabric for the butt cape’s first layer
- Craft and Foam board for the weapon
As for the clothing, I purchased them as is. The Intruder jacket was the toughest one for me to find materials for, especially since I didn’t have a sewing machine and I wasn’t planning on sewing these hands on.
- White quarter sleeves top from Stitches
- Black leggings with white stripes from Forever 21
- Bow ears from Hot Topic
- Arm Wrap from a dress belt
- Black boots from Call it Spring
- Black belt from a romper
The bow headband I bought had two layers of bow, so I spread them on top of one another using glue gun to make it look like a big bow/cat ears. I added the lavender tulle underneath the fabric, though I did end up cutting it too short. I used glue gun, craft glue to stick the materials together and Acrylic Paint for the added details. As for the boots, I just used an old one that I had. The process was tough, especially cutting the foam board but at the end I was quite happy with the results of my cosplay.
Here’s the Gambol Shroud:
I made two pieces, using the template provided by the generous and talented man on Deviant Art, Tatsutetsu! He has most of the weapons template for the RWBY characters, the instructions are pretty clear. You just have to choose your own materials to use. People actually recognized my cosplay, one vendor said she liked my bow. A few people took photos of me and I realized afterwards that I never got to ask them to tag me on it. So now they’re just floating around the net or in their gallery.
Here’s a photo my brother took:
I didn’t actually get to do much this year at the Expo, we went on a Friday. I was guiding and showing my boy friend everything seeing as it was his and his cousin’s first Expo. We went through the merch building where the celebrity signings and photo ops were at. My friend Lore went to go see Zachary Levi and she told us to tag along, so I got to meet him for a bit. He shook our hands and asked us our names. Such a nice guy, I have yet to watch Chuck though (I know, I know!).
Then we went through the Artist Alley, that one took a while to go through. Sadly, Nolen Lee the Punching Pandas artist wasn’t here this year so that was one artist down from my list to see. Saw Sakimichan booth but she wasn’t there, had the chance to see Angelina aka Albinwonderland. I finally had to courage to visit her booth and talk to her. I congratulated her as a newly wed, and I also got to leave a message for my friend Allison to Betty Felon! She is adorable, her style is so cute and Allison thinks she looks like Blake Belladonna with her unlimited bow styles and colour choices 😛
Then I stopped by Amanda Martin’s booth and finally introduced myself to her and she gave me a hug! She had saved me a Corked enamel pin, and I ended up purchasing one of her Contained bookmark from her Inktober series last year. They’re gorgeous! I did however forget to purchase her MerMay and Inktober booklets to have them signed as well, but I was too nervous and I only grabbed what I could remember 😭 Once they’re available online, I will grab a copy for myself!
You should check out Amanda’s work, they’re beautiful, she recently opened up an Etsy account as well so check that out! I then also ended up looking for the jewelry booth with the cool rings, I realized a few days after that it was the same vendor I purchased my Amazon ring from Ad Astra (click here for this post). I purchased a white stoned ring this time, she also had to resize it for me because I have small and thin fingers 😝.
After the Artist Alley, my brothers and I separated from my boy friend and his cousin as they had to leave. We went to line up for the RWBY cast panel, as we waited we were told that the cut off line was already made. The room was filled and not even half the people lining up were inside yet. Apparently, people already started lining up 5 hours before the panel and VIP members got to go in without needing to line up.
I was sad that we couldn’t attend, but at the same time I was super happy that RWBY was so popular at the Expo! We decided to just eat some poutine while waiting for the panel to end, 10 minutes before it ended we were heading for the Autograph and Photo-op and a line already started. We were so nervous, at first I only wanted an autograph then I realized I need to have a Photo-op as well. Barbara was chowing down Timbits and waving at the fans after eating one, she’s so funny. I wanted to see Arryn (obviously), my brother Matt was there for Barbara and Piolo wanted to meet Lindsay, because he’s a huge fan of the Achievement Hunters.
Arryn was such a sweetheart, I told her the story of my cat wanting to attack me with my bow ears on but once I took it off it’s like I didn’t exist. Then she told me she loved my Evenstar necklace and my ring (which was the one I purchased at the Expo) she showed me all her rings and said she loved rings. She made me choose which photo I wanted signed, and I asked to claim my hug and she stood up to give me one! As she was coming up she said she didn’t want to hug me too tight, because “I don’t want to ruin your Shroud!”. Then she asked if I wanted to take a photo, I told her she could do it as I suck at taking selfies. She took a selfie using my phone and then she took 3 selfies of both of us. I’m glad I decided to take a selfie, even though I looked silly in them. It was also cool that my brothers and I saw different people, If I had enough money in my budget for this Expo I would’ve asked for a group photo with all 4 of them! This was my first autograph and photo op from the Expo and it was pretty special 😀 Thanks, Arryn!
Here’s a photo of all my purchases at this year’s Expo:
maestyle 