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Pam's Visas


Twi'lek Pam

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Hi, all.

I wasn't planning to talk about or post pictures of my Visas costume until I was happy with the final results... but I have so many irons in the fire right now, it's probably going to be a while before I can finish the costume. It has been sitting untouched for a couple weeks now, still only about 75% of the way done. I've been feeling bad about not sharing the technique I used for adding the pinwheel patern to my outer dress... so I've decided to post some pictures of the stenciling process for now. Eventually I hope to post pictures of my completed costume, but in the meantime perhaps this tutorial might help others as more Visas costumes are created!

 

Pam :-)

 

 

All credit for the pinwheel pattern goes to the wonderful folks who discovered, enhanced, and posted the pattern images. I simply took what they shared and worked from there.

 

 

I started my project by enlarging the pinwheel pattern to the size I wanted. While the pinwheels in the reference pictures are not uniform in size, they're fairly close to the size of Visas' palm, so I sized the pattern to fit a similar relationship to my own palm.

 

Starting with the central pinwheel (the brightest one in the reference pictures), I copied that one circle. Then, opening a new file, I pasted the circle into the file. I pasted in a second copy, making this one less opaque so I could see through it. I lined the two circles up as accuratly as possible and then merged them. A copy was made of the double circle, and then I pasted that in several more times, making each pasted circle transparent so that I could match them to the previous circles. The size of the pattern grew quickly since I was soon pasting entire lines and then several lines at a time into the file. Before long, I had a completed square that was about 18"x18" in size. In order to save ink I created a negative so that the pinwheels became black and the background turned white. I then printed it on multiple sheets of paper and taped them together, making sure to line everything up as perfectly as I could. When that was finished, I taped the pattern onto a sheet of styrene and used carbon paper to trace the pattern onto the plastic.

 

 

 

Tracing.jpg

 

 

 

 

Once the pattern was transferred, I used carving bits on my dremel to cut out the lines. It took some experimenting on scrap styrene to find out which bits created lines in the size and look that I wanted.

 

As anyone who has ever used a dremel can vouch, the thing can sometimes jump when you least expect it. Normally that is a problem... but this time I WANTED a rough edge, so I held the dremel loosely and let it snag and jump about as I cut the lines. I had to leave connections between the various pieces of the styrene, but I kept the bridges small and randomly placed so that they became part of the design itself. The process of cutting so many lines began to weaken the styrene, so I covered each area with blue painters tape as I worked. If I didn't, little pieces of the stencil tended to vibrate and flex until they broke off. If you use this technique you MUST wear safety goggles, as the dremel will throw pieces of hot styrene all over the place. (If you're smarter than me, you'll wear more than just a bikini top and shorts while you work, also. Chunks of molten styrene landing on bare arms, legs, and tummy burns just a wee bit.)

 

 

BlueTape.jpg

 

 

 

Here's the back of the completed stencil. (You can see the blue tape still on the other side.)

 

 

FinishedStencil.jpg

 

 

 

For the overdress I used vinyl fabric from Stretch House. It has a leather pattern on the surface, and is surprisingly heavy. The vinyl had been stored in my closet for over a year, so it was badly creased. I cut the pattern pieces out, and then placed them in the sun. As it heated, the vinyl became very soft and flexible. I straightened and smoothed it until every crease was gone, and then moved it into the shade to cool again. Once it was smooth, I set each piece of vinyl under the pinwheel stencil. Everything else was covered with a protective layer of newspaper, and then I sprayed a very light coating of Presidio Gray SEM vinyl paint over the stencil... making sure to hold the can a foot over the stencil so it would create a light coating with fuzzy edges. When the first coat dried, I moved the stencil down, lined up the top of the stencil pattern with the bottom of the painted edge on my fabric, and then I painted the next section. Each piece of fabric took about 4 moves of the stencil before they were covered completely with the pinwheel pattern.

 

 

Stenciling.jpg

 

 

 

It was challenging to give each section exactly the same amount of paint, so some of sections came out a bit more heavily painted than others. I also felt that the finished pattern was brighter than it should be. In the game renders it looks far more subtle.

 

 

Pattern1.jpg

 

 

 

So.... I gave the whole thing a very light overspray coating of black vinyl paint, holding the can about two feet over from the fabric and keeping it constantly moving. It served two purposes... not only did it tone down the intensity of the pinwheel patterns, it also toned down the shiny midnight-black quality of the vinyl itself and made it look more like leather.

 

 

Pattern2.jpg

 

 

 

 

Happy Costuming!

 

Pam :-)

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Looks great! We did a stencil around the same size for my gf's Visas, but we only did one wheel instead of several (may have to switch to several, looks less time consuming).

 

visas_stencil.jpg

 

Glad to see this stencil working. Great job!

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I had been hoping to finish my Visas costume in time for WonderCon, but I don't think it is going to happen. Visas needs to go back into her storage tub for a while because I'm having a hard time balancing work obligations, our farm's upkeep, detachment projects, and everything else. I have made some more progress, but it's not going to be enough. (Especially when I only have one week left, and that week is also going to include a week-long visit from an out of state relative, report cards due by Friday, prep for parent conferences the following week... and a lot of general stress and grumpiness!) I'm still planning to go to WonderCon, but I'll be taking my Mara costume instead. Sometimes the tried-and-true option can be the best choice, even if it's a bit disappointing.

 

I am happy with the progress I've made on the veil. I couldn't figure out how to shape the material while it was on my own head, so I dug an old clay self portrait out of the closet, and that helped a lot. We've been joking that now Mother Mary is watching over the project for me.

 

Mary.jpg

 

 

I was holding this a bit off-center, but it was just a test to see if my eyes would show through the mesh during flash photograhpy. I'm happy with the gold design and the opacity... and the color match between the mesh and the upper fabric was a lucky break, too!

 

VeilTest.jpg

 

 

Pam :-)

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Guest Anonymous

Ummm.. I know it kinda a old topic But.... the pics are not working for me :oops: I have reloaded a few times. My girl friend wants ME to start work on her costume. So I need all the pics I can get :P

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Guest Anonymous

Ah, you lucky man!!! :wink:

 

Yeah, I can't see most of the pics anymore either; maybe Pam moved 'em. Her pics are great though, so they'll be fantastic resources for you once you can access them

 

Good luck!! Let us know if we can help.

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Ack! More bad links!

 

Sorry about that. We switched web hosts a while back, and I've been hunting down photo links to change ever since. I never realized how many pictures I'd posted here on the forum until I suddenly had hundreds of links to update, and they're scattered/hidden all over the place!

 

Links updated. Thanks for letting me know that I'd missed them.

 

(Speaking of the pinwheel pattern... Marcella, I LOVE the way you integrated that pattern into your signature banner!)

 

Pam :-)

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Guest Anonymous
Ack! More bad links!

 

Sorry about that. We switched web hosts a while back, and I've been hunting down photo links to change ever since. I never realized how many pictures I'd posted here on the forum until I suddenly had hundreds of links to update, and they're scattered/hidden all over the place!

 

Links updated. Thanks for letting me know that I'd missed them.

 

(Speaking of the pinwheel pattern... Marcella, I LOVE the way you integrated that pattern into your signature banner!)

 

Pam :-)

 

Thank you. Oh. In case i read over it. How big should 1 section of the stencil be??? CD sized??

 

Thanks again, also any other types of fabric you found to be the best please let me know. Thanks

 

Oh...1 more thing? Did you leave the blue tape on the back when spraying the paint??? also How did normal spray paint hold up? Did it flake off after a while??? I was wondering if I should just some how use fabric paint of some kind

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Thank you. Oh. In case i read over it. How big should 1 section of the stencil be??? CD sized??

 

Thanks again, also any other types of fabric you found to be the best please let me know. Thanks

 

Oh...1 more thing? Did you leave the blue tape on the back when spraying the paint??? also How did normal spray paint hold up? Did it flake off after a while??? I was wondering if I should just some how use fabric paint of some kind

 

The circles are about the size of my palm. A bit smaller than a CD.

 

I haven't tried any other kind of fabric, just the vinyl. I used the "pleather" stuff because it looked good and I happened to already have plenty of it on hand!

 

I took the blue tape off before I sprayed the design. The stencil itself is pretty strong with general handling... it just needed a bit of extra support while I was cutting it.

 

The paint I used is called SEM. It's made for vinyl, so it doesn't flake off. You can get it at many auto paint supply shops. (They use it on car seats, so you know it's strong stuff!)

 

Pam :-)

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Guest Anonymous
(Speaking of the pinwheel pattern... Marcella, I LOVE the way you integrated that pattern into your signature banner!)

LOL, thanks, Pam! That credit goes to my boyfriend. We figured that since the pinwheels had plagued us horribly for what felt like a friggin' eternity, that we would commemorate them. 8)

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Well, it looks like I'm continuing my tradition of taking nearly two years to complete each costume that I make for myself. The two year mark will be coming up for Visas this year, so I figured I ought to get the darned costume finished! I enjoyed making the stencil, and I enjoyed the painting that was involved in making this costume.... but I truly hate to sew. I kept getting frustrated and putting the costume away when my sewing abilities failed me, but I was determined to finish so it would come back out of it's tub again and again. This costume was made purely out of stubborness that I WOULD finish it... eventually!

 

There are still a few details that I need to clean up before I can submit the costume for membership (such as the red fabric showing under the veil), but I'm finally beginning to see that light at the end of the costuming tunnel!

 

VisasConceptArt.jpg

 

VisasTest.jpg

 

 

Pam :-)

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Guest Dark Flower

At some point I might do Talon and so I might be talking with you Pam in the future regarding the lekku (sp?). Your work is great!

 

I have to check with my optometrist first to see if I can wear the FXcontacts. I am diabetic and have to watch my eyes.

 

*DF*

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Thank you, everyone. (I'd like to deliver some great big hugs, but I've been told that Visas isn't supposed to smile, so hugs are probably out as well.)

 

I finished up some more details on the costume, and took a few more pictures. There are still some things that I'm not entirely happy with, but overall I think it has come pretty far. If I were to do this again (which I probably will), I would use a better pleather for the outer dress, and a fabric with some stretch for the inner dress and veil. Sewing heavy pleather with a leather style top stitching was a learning experience, and I managed to mess up the bottom edge of one seam so badly that I had to make the dress a bit shorter than I wanted it to be. (But that's probably safer for walking in!) Getting the veil to fit was also a challenge: that thing has four pieces of fabric, four pieces of interfacing, three darts, three pieces of wire, one length of weighted cord, and seams that have been sewn, ripped, sewn, ripped, sewn, ripped, sewn, and so on. The veil difficulties were mainly caused by using stiff, non-stretch fabric... it just wouldn't drape naturally or conform to the shape of my head without puckering. I had to battle it into shape every step of the way. (I think it won most of the battles, though. It's an evil thing, that veil.)

 

A bit of photoshop fun:

 

 

VisasPaintingBackground.jpg

 

VisasMarr2.jpg

 

 

VisasMarrBack.jpg

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Excellence my Captain,

 

¿Now may I recommend sharing this with a post on the Legion Board?

 

It would serve the detachment both by providing an example of the quality expected for this character, and reminding viewers--GML's and GWL's in particular--about The Flagship Eclipse's existence.

 

Thank you for sharing, I look forward to seeing this in person.

 

Be well,

Thomas

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