Since studying Japanese in year 7/8 of my first high school I have loved absolutely everything about Japan from the culture to the food, geisha, harajuku girls, the Lolita goth subculture, drifting, Tokyo and my favorite part the Japanese anime scene and Studio Ghibli. I especially like Mononoke Heim or Princess Mononoke with the tale of conservation and humans realising the detrimental effect they are having on the world around them and knowing they have to change if they want something to live for and somewhere to live.
So naturally I decided I wanted to do a cos-play of San for my first foray into the world of cos-play and therefor I'm planning (and have already started) to make my San costume for Comic-con.
The Character
(Picture from this link and found via a Google search- http://www.nomarket.org/princess-mononoke-desire-marry-prince/)
(Picture from this link and found via a Google search- http://animatedfilmreviews.filminspector.com/2013/01/princessmononoke.html)
(Picture from this link and found via a Google search-http://geektyrant.com/news/2013/10/17/princess-mononoke-best-of-cosplay-collection)
This is the back of someone's fantastic San!!! I want mine to look at least half as damn good!!!
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(Picture from this link and found via a Google search- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Mononoke)
(Picture from this link and found via a Google search- http://sakimichan.deviantart.com/art/Princess-Mononoke-Prints-for-sale-275280478)
Just a really gorgeous image of her that I adore!!!
The Cloak
I'm quite OCD with costuming and reproducing things in that something which may not bug someone else will easily bug the crap out of me- especially when it's something I've made and ESPECIALLY when I know it's not quite right.So that having been said so far my biggest struggle the last three weeks has been scouring the net and ringing textile stores to try and find white, long piled fake fur without ribs! (So many places had white fake fur with ribs, or fake fur with a long pile and no ribbing but it wasn't just straight white)
My WONDERFUL mom ended up finding and buying my fur for my costume so I could stop freaking out and obsessing over it. Of which my partner was very grateful and which reminds me- I still owe mom $60 ish for my fake fur.
Now I have my fur and I have drawn up my pattern pieces for my wolf pelt cloak ready to pin and cut.
The Mask and Ears
http://www.instructables.com/id/Princess-Mononoke-Costume/?ALLSTEPS
This is my personal favorite tutorial and in particular for how she made her mask and ears. I plan on following her tutorial for making my mask.
The Earrings
http://www.instructables.com/id/Princess-Mononoke-Costume/?ALLSTEPSIn STEP 4: Mask Part 2 - Details (step 2 of this part) this chick says when she cut out the eye and mouth holes of her dry mask she kept them to create San's earrings and the attachment on San's headband.
The Make-up
I have bought some new face painting brushes, a little pot of red face paint and a pack of face painting crayons to test out which method is best for San's war paint. I may end up taking the face paint crayons with me to Comic-com for easy touch ups during the day.
The Fang Necklace
(Picture from this link and found via a Google search-http://www.citymama.typepad.com/citymama/page/84/)
Because of all the photos that I have seen seem to have San seemingly picking up and dropping fangs off her necklace (I've seen one where it is just three fangs and round black beads, one with a single fang on either side of the crystal dagger and one picture with fangs going right around her neck) I am basing my version of her fang and round bead necklace off this picture.
I will be making my fangs from air hardening clay and I have already found some large round wooden beads for stringing in between.
Ashitaka's Crystal Dagger Pendant
For my dagger pendant I bought an reproduction arrow head off a medieval products company off eBay who's store link is below. I'm still waiting for it to be sent out to me but I did only buy it a couple of days ago. I will post a picture of it when it has arrived. However for now below is their product picture of it.
http://www.ebay.com.au/usr/medieval_shoppe?_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2754
(Picture from this link and found via a Google search- http://yellercrakka.deviantart.com/art/Princess-Mononoke-Hime-Crystal-Dagger-Necklace-358100662)
Because Ashitaka's dagger pendant looks more blue and pearlescent I will be having to paint my arrow head over the top but I thought the arrowhead I bought may be a better base for building colour on than my previous disastrous attempts of the past in recreating colors for paper machie projects.
I will also have to craft the wrap that sits on top of the arrowhead. I have bought some ADC clay (Air drying clay) that I will also be using for making the fangs for the necklace so I might use a little of the clay and some super glue for the red wrap that the cord sits on.
The Apron Top
A white, long sleeved top that I bought in an op shop for $3 will be the base for my apron. I'll post a before picture with it on and on a hanger in PART 2 before I start cutting into the shirt.
I plan on chopping off the sleeves and cutting a section out of the sides and re hemming so when it's unfolded it will look like a long rectangle. From the sleeves I will cut 4 long strips which I plan to hem into ribbons and sew back on the sides so that when I slip my rectangle on to wear it as the apron I will have my side ties like the picture below of San's top.
(Picture from this link and found via a Google search- http://www.moviecricket.com/top-10-best-anime-movies-of-all-time-34075/)
The Dress/Top and skirt combo
For this bit I am actually cheating a bit... In the pictures San is seen wearing a basic tunic style dress in (depending on your brightness settings on your tv) a navy or darker blue or sometimes black.Considering I couldn't find a simple dress like that in a dark colour on my op shop hunt and I didn't have one in my wardrobe I started hunting for skirt instead. I will wearing one of my (MANY) plain black tank tops and a black, knee length skirt I found for $4 in (guess where?!) an op shop.
The Boots
For my boots, because I don't have a lot of money, I went op shopping and got a cheap pair of ugg boots in fairly good condition for $5 which have a fur rim around the top of the boot. I'm planning on wrapping a dark colored twine around the outside of them when I put them on for the cos-play. However I am also still trying to source images that show how she had her boots.
And I'm also planning on wearing socks in my boots... :) My obsessiveness will have to shut up on those imperfections.
The Dagger/Spear
(Picture from this link and found via a Google search- http://gallery.minitokyo.net/view/398334)
In this picture there is a tan strap visible of the bag that San's wears over her shoulder sometimes. I'm tossing up whether to make a hip bag with a tan shoulder strap that I can put my dagger in or whether to make a dagger and hip belt with a sheath for it. However as she didn't get sown with a sheath or belt I'm leaning more towards her bag as I can also store my mundane stuff in it such as phone, wallet, keys, money, etc.
The Headband and Arm bands
For my head and arm bands I have bought a couple of meters of black velvet ribbon, some snap fasteners and some ugly cabochon pendants that were on clearance and had a similar look to the jewels on the headband and armbands. I just need to pain the center stones black on two of them for the arm bands and a third with pearlescent white on top of the stone for the center of the headband.
The link below is from another chick who did a really cool San cos-play and I thought her idea for using spare bra straps for the armbands was really cool.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Princess-Mononoke-Costume/
So it's probably well established now that I'm an obsessive geek-freak and I simply ADORE op shopping! :)
The blog of another really great San cos-player is below. She spent the time making her ears out of clay and then carving them to look like wood and the results are great!
http://www.meagan-marie.com/mononoke/
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