Wild Wild West Con 4 Part 2

Besides the fact that the venue for Wild Wild West Con is really cool and the concerts are wonderful (and held in the old saloon!), I love the make and take panels at this convention.  I went to a number of panels such as the Basics of Thermoplastics and Patent Medicines and Cures as well as demonstrations and panels by the League of STEAM in addition to all the make and take workshops.  I am a huge crafter/costumer and I love the Make and Take Panels.  I did 4 of them this year.  They do cost extra but are usually quite reasonable and usually result in a fun piece and a bunch of new knowledge for me.

 

The Tea Cup Headband Make and Take was with Dee Astell and involved making a real china mini teacup into a headband.  I was super excited for this project both because it was cool, but also I did not have any headwear for the second day of the convention.  I actually made this teacup headband on Friday.  The glue did not completely work during the Make and Take but I was able to fix it with my costume repair kit and wear a new piece on Saturday!  This workshop was a bunch of fun and everyone ended up with a completely unique piece.  There were very few repeats in the cups so for the most part the cups were unique.  Secondly, the ribbons and tulle were just put on a table and we were given free reign to design whatever we wanted.  Some ladies even covered their headband with ribbon or tulle, which is an idea I love and completely did not think of! Dee was available the whole time to help with any issues and everyone had a new piece to take home.

The remaining Make and Takes I took were all from the same teacher, Mike Syfritt.  In fact, he is the gentleman who is pictured below as the steampunk Joker.  He also has a webpage, MadPropps, and a etsy site by the same name.  All of the kits for the Make and Takes are also available on his Etsy site.  He was super helpful and the classes were so much fun.  

 The first Make and Take we took with Mike was the Leather Gas Mask.  The leather was all laser cut ahead of time and the plastic pieces were vacuum formed.  The pieces fit really well together and this kit went together very smoothly.  Mike showed us a glue I have never used before which made the assembly a breeze.  We did have time to rub and buff the plastic parts.  I did my central detail piece gold.  I have actually never used rub and buff before, so this as new to me.  I am waiting to rub and buff the canisters for later.  He also had both brown and black stain which were optional if we wanted to stain the leather.

The only complaint I had is that the organizers only allowed 1 hour for this class.  It was a huge stretch to get this done in 1 hour.  However, some people did complete it in one hour.  I did not.  I am somewhat glad I did not finish it.  The canisters shown to the left and right of the mask get added to the side.  Mike made the canisters 2 pieces so with a bit of work I can add LEDS to my gas mask and hide the batteries in the canisters.  I may also add some other detailing to make it more my own.  Overall this class was amazing!


The second class we took with Mike Syfritt was a foam mini top hat class.  I actually do make hats using traditional millinery skills and was completely intrigued by the idea of a craft foam hat. My husband and I both made the mini hats.  If we had preordered, Mike has full size hats as well.  The foam was all laser cut, the pieces were well designed and the hat glued together fairly quickly.  There was one issue where the brim did not quite fit right, but Mike helped all of us fix our hats and said he would update his pattern.  Now that the hat is completed, I just need to paint it or decide I really need a steampunk leprechaun outfit.....  I will say that these hats are remarkably resilient, I crushed mine in with the props to drive the 7 hours home and it popped right back into shape.  Mike said the only downside to these hats is they can be very very hot as they don't breath at all.  

 The final class we took with Mike was a goggle make and take workshop.  Again, the kit was very well designed and the goggles went together very quickly.  The leather was all laser cut and the pattern fit exactly.

Mike even had some really fun etched plexiglass lenses for purchase to help us customize our googles.  My husband used the plain ones, but I bought some blue Cthulhu ones from Mike for the class.

Mike even had a Cthulhu stamp to decorate the sides of my goggles!  The lenses are held in place with plastic braces, which I rub and buffed silver here.  Again we could have stained the leather either brown or black, but I decided to keep mine natural colored.  Since everyone could pick cool lenses, different stamps for the side, stain brown or black or leave natural and there were 3 colors of rub and buff the goggles all looked really unique.

All of these make and take classes were a blast and I got to try out so many cool new things.


Below are some pictures I took of the amazing costumes from the convention.  There are just too many to share and so many I missed taking a photo off.  Here at least are some of the images.  If any of these images are of you and you would like the picture removed let me know and I will take the picture down!  Also, if this is you and you would like credit for your work, give me a name or a link to a blog and I will post it!

I know this last picture includes myself, my husband and a friend, but I am cheating and including it here since I love the details on this very nice and talented dancer's outfit.

I love seeing all the amazing work these costumers did, there were so many amazing details and wonderful work.