gale583

Sorry I've been so bad at updating my gallery lately. I haven't been getting many high quality photos of my cosplays the past few months, so it's hard to get the motivation to post anything. I've added a couple from my backlogs, and I hope to get more awesome shots at Dragon*Con to make up for the lull.

Speaking of Dragon*Con, I am SUPER excited. I've gotten together a smallish group of girls to make costumes based on the Disney Dressphere series by . It's not as many people as I'd hoped, but it's a start, and next year we'll certainly have an even bigger group!

I'm also doing another DeviantArt inspired group arranged by : The Pokemon Princesses series by !

I'll be joined in both these groups by my dear friend who will also be participating in the reprisals of Shiva's arranged Rainbow Brite Color Kids and Legends of the Hidden Temple groups.

But that's barely the half of it!

In honor of the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who, I can't possibly attend D*C without a Whoverse costume, therefore I plan to attend the 50th Anniversary Ball as Lucy Saxon with my boyfriend as the Harold Saxon/Master. Vote Saxon!

For the first time since I started attending D*C I'll also be participating in the Parade! At this point I'm thinking of wearing Kaylee Frye, though I may change my mind.

Finally, my big debut is to be yet another version of the Disney princess Ariel: the 2013 franchise redesign (her green dress). If all goes according to plans I'm really excited to debut this costume! Less than a month left...better get working!

I've started a new series within the Cosplay Safety Project. It's called Cosplay Horror Stories and for it I am taking cautionary tales from cosplayers' real lives and sharing them. You can submit under whatever alias you like, and while I'd prefer photos if you'd like to remain anonymous you may skip that bit. I'll be accepting any safety related stories, be they about construction or things that took place at conventions. I'll be posting most stories on the Cosplay Safety Project tumblr and selecting a few to feature in a panel I'm working on.

Even if I know your story already please send a submission so I can have it in your words. The point of this project is to use personal experiences to emphasize the lesson being taught, something which I believe is lost slightly if recounted as an event that "happened to a friend of a friend" or something like that.

If you have a story you'd like to share, please fill out the form here: cosplaysafety.tumblr.com/post/…

Dear cosplayers,

It sucks that we lost our dedicated cosplay profiles the other day. Especially for those of you who used them more than your private ones. But I urge you not to fight this and re-open a new profile. Technically we did violate the TOS, and I'm really afraid that many of you are setting yourself up for the same thing to potentially happen all over again.

I see it time and time again,
nerds do not like things to not go their way, and when it happens to a lot of them en mass they feel like they've been unfairly wronged. I'm sorry guys, but this time I do not agree. Facebook has it's reasons. It is NOT just being the evil empire and discriminating. We skewed it's numbers and took up excess bandwidth, and now we've paid the price.

I know a lot of you are adverse to fan pages because you "don't have fans, [you] have friends!" Yes, I gave that same argument when I first made my profile and not a page. Stop getting hung up on the name! It is honestly a lot easier to manage a page than two profiles, and when interacting with other pages (which we'd all be doing if we all had pages) it functions much the same as profile to profile interactions. Think about it, a cleanly split from real life, easier to manage page. Way easier than logging out and back in every time you want to switch and no confirming of new friends (most of whom you don't even know anyway) or the other maintenance hassles of an extra profile.

I know mine is an unpopular view, but I urge you to think on it. You'll be making your life easier and playing (heaven forbid) within the rules.

New post on my blog (EffectiveCos) and x-posted to the Cosplay Safety tumblr. It's about the importance of pre-planning in costume construction. You should really check it out. effectivecos.blogspot.com/2012…

Follow Cosplay Safety for tips on costuming safety. cosplaysafety.tumblr.com/

Follow EffectiveCos for general cosplay advice. effectivecos.tumblr.com/
EffectiveCos is also on Blogger effectivecos.blogspot.com/

One thing you may have noticed if you've been following me over the past few months is my creation of something I like to call The Cosplay Safety Project. A cause I'm trying to promote pertaining to keeping safe while creating and wearing costumes, including (but not limited to) topics such as cosmetic lenses, personal safety (aka not getting assaulted), protective gear for tools or dangerous substances, etc.

I've got some big plans for this project, which you can follow over on my Tumblr: cosplaysafety.tumblr.com/

The main reason why I'm writing here, though, is that in order to publicize my cause I need a good logo, and I am not quite all that talented in graphic design. I'm wondering if any of you artsy people are interested in helping out. Also, before you bitch me out, I am NOT expecting anyone to do this for free. If you're interested you can contact me here or via facebook and let me know how much your services might cost me.

Thanks a bunch!
-Gale