A-Kon Fun

We're home from A-Kon, but I had to get back to work on my swap stuff for the Paper Cowgirl Altered Art Retreat, so haven't had a chance to update.  My daughter had a great time at A-Kon 21.  I enjoyed seeing the creativity and skill the attendees applied to their costumes and outfits.  It was amazing, and often startling!  The adorable mushroom couple above based their awesome outfits on the dancing mushrooms in the classic Disney film, "Fantasia."  I used Photoshop to trim away the clutter of the registration area and placed the image on a backround of a 1954 Japanese yearbook, courtesy of the Flickr Textures for Layers Group.

My daughter wore her first "Steampunk" outfit, put together with some lucky thrift store finds and a newsboy hat from Elements.  Her goggles were her major purchase at A-Kon, and are handmade with real leather strap, brass hinges, authentic lenses and padded eye-cups.  Her "gun" was converted from a Nerf gun--she sanded it down, painted it with primer and rubbing compound, then I added Jacquard Lumiere paints and Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Powders to give it an aged look.

I think the gun turned out as nice as the ones we saw for sale in the Artisan's Alley--all we need to add are some gears or other bits to make it look totally steam!  According to the site, "The Steampunk Workshop," Steampunk "fashion runs the gamut from the purely Victorian to the raggedy post-apocalyptic. Steampunk fashion draws inspiration from many modes, it is usually (but not exclusively) constructed on a 19th Century base and weaves in cultural threads from around the world and throughout time."  Those who make Steampunk gear incorporate recycled, salvaged or re-purposed items, along with Victorian (1850s to early 1900s) objects and materials.

I needed a break from the frenzy of 8,000 anime fans, so I went to "Curiosities," located in Southeast Dallas, to spend a couple hours selecting trinkets from the amazing trove of artifacts and oddities stocked in this amazing shop. Curiosities stocks antiques and folk art of all sorts--record albums, linens, prints and maps, outsider art,  toys, dolls.  There is so much to look at!

I bought some Victorian scrap, some trade cards, two Viewmaster reel sets (both about the Apollo space missions) and a box containing a nearly complete United States puzzle.

I love puzzle maps, and own several versions.  Enjoy these vintage images of Texas, California, and Lousiana!

Off to A-Kon

I am heading out this morning with my 16-year-old daughter to A-Kon, one of the longest-running anime-based convention in North America. Celebrating it’s 21st year in 2010, A-Kon is held at the Dallas, TX, Sheraton and will offer a weekend filled with non-stop gaming, anime-films, cosplay, meet-ups, shopping and other pursuits designed to send anime fans into a nerdy tizzy.

My daughter has three different outfits planned--an elegant Steampunk affair (think Victorian style without the bustles, and with grungy gears and lots of black), a cosplay (costuming as a character, in this case, as Kiki, the good little witch from "Kiki's Delivery Service) and as a Sweet Lolita (which has nothing to do with with Nabokov's book other than the fact that the dresses look like the frilly concoctions you once yearned to put on your three-year-old).

I'm the adult-in-charge.  I'll be there to watch out for her, hand out money, make sure she eats, and in the mean-time, I'll be chatting up the unique folks who attend these cons (as they are called) and taking photos.  We're staying nearby, so I'll get a break from the frenzy.  And it will be frenetic.  I was a proto-nerd as a child, but we didn't have the Interwebs, so I ouldn't find all those other kids who were weird like I was.