Tutorial: Vocaloid – Senbonzakura Haraegushi

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 Haraegushi or Onusa is a wooden wand used in Shinto  rituals. It is decorated with many zig-zagging paper streamers it is waved left and right during purification rituals. In Senbonzakura, The Haraegushi uses the shape of cherry blossoms to replace the zigzag streamers.This tutorial will show you how to make Hatsune Miku’s Cherry blossom Haraegushi. For my tutorial I used various types of pink fabrics to create a look with more depth instead of the original with one colour. Feel free to just stick to one colour or experiment with various.

What you need:

  • Various shades of light pink fabric [if you want a dynamic look]
  • Light pink flower petals. This can be purchased off ebay if you can not find it at the stores. You will need over 300 petals
  • Sewing machine
  • White fabric [felt]
  • Red wool
  • Wooden rod around 70-100cm
  • White Ribbon

Steps

  1. If you wish to create the dynamic look start at this step if not continue to step 4. Cut4cm wide and 40-50cm long strips of pink fabric. It is up to you how many strips you want.
  2. Sew a straight line straight down the middle of the stip and cut petal shapes into the strips.

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3. The darker pinks will be on the inside of our wand so sew all the pinks together at the top. When sewing it together lay an extremely long strip of white ribbon under. This will help you hold the strand easier.

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4. Now we sew the petals together. So, start with one petal and overlap it with another at the end. Continue sewing petal after petal until you reach a similar length to your strips or a length of 40-50cm.

5. Once all the petals have been sewed , continue to attach it to the ribbon strip we have above.

6. When all the petal strips have been sewed together they should form an extremely wide curtain of flowers. Wrap the darker end first to the wooden rod. If you don’t have the darker pinks just wrap either end.

7. Cut a small square that will be able to fit around the top of your bundle of petals with extra space to spare.

8. Grab the red wool and tightly coil around under where the ribbon is, this is the thickest part of your bundle and make many knots. And we are done!

Senbonzakura Photography by LMKusanagi

Cosplay by Mixiao

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Easy Cosplay Tutorial – Vocaloid: Poker face Horns

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Here is another simple tutorial to help you create clip on horns for any cosplay, however this tutorial will focus on the Vocaloid Poker Face art.

Photography by LMKusanagi

Miku Cosplay by Springroll

Luka Cosplay by Mixiao

Haku Cosplau by DanniTee

Kaito Cosplay by Kei-U

 What you need:

  •  1x 25mm diameter foam ball
  • Air dry clay. Here I am using Fimo Air Light
  • Pen Knife
  • Cutting Mat
  • Nail polish. It can be any colour (we will use spray paint after) or the colour of your desired horns (if you want to skip spray paint)
  • Spray Paint of desired colour (Spray Paint will help with an even coating)
  • Hot glue
  • 2x Alligator clips
  • Small cup of water

Steps:

  1. Cut the foam ball in half. Using the cross section of the ball will help you keep the horns the same size.
  2. Take a small pinch of clay and cover one half in a layer of the clay. It is best if you keep the remaining clay in a zip lock bag as you work so it does not dry out. IMG_4456
  3. Slowly add a bit of clay at a time and shape it until you reach a desired height. I recommend it be around 3cm in height.
  4. Use water to smooth out the clay to create an even surface.
  5. While it is still moist, bend the horn to create a slight hook.IMG_4459
  6. Repeat the same steps for the other half of the ball.
  7. Let the horns dry out over night.
  8. Once both horns are dry coat the horns in a layer of nail polish as a cheap varnish alternative and let it dry. It is up to you if you want to coat the horns in the colour desired as this will save you the next step of spray paint. However I still advise you use spray paint to get an even coat. You can skip 10 if you do not want to use spray paint.
  9. Now using hotglue, stick you horns onto the alligator clips. Make sure you have the clips reversed when gluing the horns on so that you have a left and right horn.
  10. Now coat the clips and horns in a layer of spray paint and a second layer if desired. Let it dry and we are done!

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How to care for your cosplay wig

Thanks Erin to Submit this tutorial to us 🙂

You’ve just received your wig! How exciting, you pull it out of it’s package and its… limp, kinked, all together not very appealing. Although anime’ hairstyles are hard to pull off in real life with a little wig care you’re sure to get winning results.
You should take a picture now, because when you’re finished you’ll want to see how much improvement you’ve made 🙂  If your wig has clip in extensions do all these steps to each part separately.

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1) Wash

The first thing you want to do is wash your wig,  try to comb it out with your fingers as best you can before and after washing the wig, but don’t get too rough yet. I find the most convenient solution for me is to bulldog clamp it to the top of my shower screen, however a bath, a plastic stand or anything that involves getting the wig wet and not you is good. Remember to have the water WARM not boiling hot.

You don’t always have to shampoo your wig, but if it’s particularly ratty, you can use a grape sized amount of shampoo, you can get special wig shampoo but as long as you thoroughly wash it out I find regular stuff works just as well.

 

2) Comb

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Now your wig is all nice and dry it’s time for the most horrible part, wig combing, I recommend only combing one inch sections at a time, about the thickness of a texta. You can use any brush or comb you like, but try not to get bristles or teeth that are too fine, and always try to brush from the bottom, then move up in sections. Don’t be too stressed if a little fibre falls out or gets stuck in the comb, that’s totally normal.

Separate your first combed piece now ONLY IF YOUR WIG IS HEAT RESISTANT, you can straighten it on the lowest setting with either a hair dryer or hair iron. I personally like this step and think it makes the wig look a whole lot better, but if its not heat resistant don’t even try it or it’ll just melt and go gross. Of course skip this step if your wig is curly although you can re-curl it later. Now if you run into some nasty territory such as the pre curled section of my sailor moon wig here, don’t be afraid to not only trim your wig but to thin it using special thinning scissors that look like this.

(thanks google) you can pick them up very cheap from eBay or your local beauty shop should have them for around $10.

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 Ahhhh nice and combed.

3) Style!
now you’ve painstakingly combed and straightened each section, now put them all together for one last little brush through. Your wig looks better already (well it had better after all that combing you just did!) now styling of course need only be done if you are wearing the wig I won’t get into styles too much during this tut as it’s for basic care but my hot tip is curls react great to curl formers and a garment steamer, that’s how I did the ends of my wig.

Now if any major mishaps have happened during the combing process don’t worry too much, you can make wefts out of extra hair and clever sewing with a curved needle can cover up a lot of bald spots.

So If you want to wear your wig break out the scissors, hair spray and whatever else. But if you’re just setting your wig up for some peaceful storage, the best way of course is to leave it pinned to a foam head with regular combing but we don’t all have the space or understanding friends to have our wigs hanging about all over the place. So for long wigs plait the ends into two to four sections and pin them up to the base, then put it back in a zip lock bag, for short wigs the same minus the plaits. Make sure to place them in a spot where they won’t get to messed around, I like to stack mine on top of each other in a cardboard box up the back of my cupboard.

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And here’s a goofy picture of me I snapped in my hallway.

Good care will greatly extend the life of your wig, not to mention improve its re-sale value and of course make it look better and be much more manageable.

Take care of yourself and your wigs! All the best ^_^

P.S. Pro- Tip- Don’t wear your wig out to the pub or you’ll have to repeat all these steps and your wig will smell like smoke and beer.

Author Bio:Erin Kirkup, a twenty year old, Australian cosplay fanatic.

Easy Cosplay Tutorial – Vocaloid: Hatsune Miku Clips

This is a super fast and easy tutorial for those who purchase the Hatsune Miku Cosplay Costume or those that have lost their hair clips. If you purchase your costume from Miccostumes you would have notice you received hair clips that are not solid like Miku’s but are made from fabric. This tutorial will help those cosplay perfectionists out there looking for a cheap alternative.
What you need:

  • Black foam board
  • Red 1cm width ribbon
  • Hot glue
  • Alligator clips
  • Pen knife/ utility knife/stanley Knife
  • Ruler
  • Pencil

Steps

  1. Measure out 8 rectangles with width 2.5cm and length 10cm onto the foam board.
  2. Cut out the rectangles with your knife.
  3. Glue the sides as shown with hotglue.
  4. Roughly position your red ribbon in the center and apply hotglue as you go. Wrap the whole clip and cut off the end.
  5. Using hot glue, glue the clip on the side as shown. This way the hairclip holds to your wig hair rather than the pony tails.
  6. Repeat for the other side and you’re done!

Hatsune Miku Sandplay Singing of the Dragon Wig is sponsored by Miccostumes, cut and styled by me.