Cosplay Prop Making
Once you’ve chosen and crafted your basic cosplay outfit, you may find you need a few props. When that happens, you enter the wonderful world of cosplay prop making.
Cosplay props are those extra little details you add to help really finish off the costume, usually something you carry. Something that’s not necessarily attached to the costume, but that the costume just wouldn’t be complete without. What is Captain Kirk without his phaser, Dr. Who without his Sonic Screwdriver, Darth Vader without a lightsaber, Frodo Baggins without the One Ring, or Thor with his hammer Mjolnir? It just wouldn’t quite be the same without those finishing touches.
These days it’s not hard to find ready-made props to go with popular characters, but I find there’s still something extremely satisfying (and often more affordable) about creating ones own props. In fact, as my cosplaying progressed, I found I like prop making even more than the actual costume making.
While costume making is predominantly fabric sewing and armor making, prop making allows a cosplayer to get really creative in their crafting. When you train yourself to look at the world through a costume maker’s eyes, suddenly even the most mundane, everyday objects become the perfect cosplay props with a little touching up. Fortunately nerds have a natural tendency to see the world like that anyway, so most cosplayers are already on the road to prop making right from the start. They seem to have an inherent ability to “play” with anything, and turn it into something else in their minds.
Think back to all those times as a kid (and admit it, as an adult too) that you flipped open a box of tacks and told Scotty to beam you up, wielded a gnarly stick as Gandalf’s staff, used a water pistol as a stand-in for Batman’s grappling shooter, a pitchfork as the sea king’s trident, or your mom’s old makeup container as a turtle com. Now just carry that thinking into your current cosplay prop making. Soon you’ll see future props in everything you look at and you’ll find that something that would normally cost you $30 for a store bought replica, can be made from something you already have for a fraction of the price. Not only will it save you money, it’s a great way to recycle and reduce waste as well.
By Amber Reifsteck, The Woodland Elf
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