Anime North 2012 schedule!

Anime North 2012 is only a couple of weeks aways!!
I am both anxious and excited!!

I still have a lot of things to do, but im confident that if I organize my time correctly, things will work out.

Where can you find me?
If you want to come see me I will mainly be at my table in Crafter's Corner selling my accessories alongside Aya of Dolly Pink.

On Friday, I will be selling my used J-Rock goods and anime stuff in Nominoichi!! Its from 7:00pm to 10:30pm.
I have a lot of goodies to sell.
Aside from the usual manga and dvds etc, I have J-rock magazines like SHOXX, Arena37c, GAB, jrock flyers, Miyavi fanclub stuff, and LOTS OF POSTERS!!! haha~
i also have some rare Japanese anime figurines too :3 but you'll have to come see me to find out what they are ;D muhahaha..
Saturday, I will stay at my CC table, but im hoping to have someone sell some of my j-fashion clothing
Sunday, I will be in the fashion show! Not as a model this time, but as the leader for the Visual Kei/Jrock section! I'm kinda nervous but excited. I have a pretty epic outfit planned, inspired by Sisen's outfit in his Seileen project that he did with Selia ^^ (Try saying that ten times fast)

If you're unfamiliar with the look, this is what i mean (Sisen is the one in purple) :

I've been kindof obsessing over this concept of horns and matted hair and decadent clothing for a looooong time now and what better chance to pull together an outfit like this than for a japanese fashion show!

Admittedly, I really wanted to participate in the Gyaru show, but I think just one category will be a lot to handle on its own.. (also i think im too chubs to wear skimpy clothing on a runway at the moment ^^;)


Speaking of outfits, this is my plan so far:

• Friday: Himegyaru! - I have this beautiful pink JSK from Angelic Pretty called 'Pure angel frill' and I bought some priscilla wig pieces. (Update: they arrived in time!)
• Saturday: Lolita - Coord with Aya! We're supposed to be somewhat matching, but I'm still not even sure how it's gonna go down cuz i keep changing my mind =_=;
• Sunday: Gothic - The Sisen inspired outfit i mentioned ^^

I got my Priscilla wig piece from my mbok order and styled it with another wig. I'm still experimenting though, because its difficult to make the colors match. This will be for my Hime outfit.

My friend thinks it doesnt suit me, but i dont care I want to have fabulous hair *___*

So, what's in the works for Alice, Dear?

Right now I'm working on the display design! I know its a little late heh, but from doing it last year, I feel that I can pull it together in time :) Last year I cut it really close, and ended up finishing it by myself at the last minute, which was not ideal but i learned my lesson :P

My final sketch from last year's design.

This year, I get more of my style  in the design, since last year I wasnt really an official artist and was only sharing partly with Pinku Project and Dolly Pink. But since this year half the table is officially mine, I get half the say in the display!

Aya and I had talked about the concept quite early on in the year, and originally we'd thought to do a bear & bunny theme.

But we both agreed that the sides were too bulky and might cross into another artist's space so we changed the design to a castle.

I refined the idea further, and at last we've come up with our final design-

I'm going to try and finish it before Monday if I can.. even though I have two night shifts in a row =_=


But aside from the display, my crafting is coming along slowly. I dont have nearly as much stuff as I had wanted done by now.. I still have to make some lucky packs, signs for prices, and take inventory. I'm quite stressed about it, mainly because my work is giving me more shifts this week than they have ALL SUMMER and its pissed me off to no end why they waited until the WEEK BEFORE Anime North to give me hours. It's ridiculous. I had to give away my thursday shift because it was a closing shift the night before Friday of AN... like wtf.

/rant

I probably won't update until after AN, but who knows. My Etsy store also won't be shipping items until after the convention to minimize my stress LOL

If you're going to the convention, please come say hello!! ^^
I'll also be at Fanexpo, but just as a cosplayer since tables are very expensive there ;w; More info on that later ^^

Miyavi Cosplay Tips!

MIYAVI COSPLAY: Tips and Tricks from Gen

So you wanna cosplay the meevster, huh? Well, maybe I can help by sharing my experience cosplaying the world famous NEO SAMURAI Japanese guitarist.

'Who the f*** are you?'
I'm Gen. Hi. Due to a few years of excessive fangirlism, i managed to pull together a few Miyavi cosplays and created a successful fanpage because of them. I've been featured in music Japan plus, Five For magazine, and am generally well known for my unabashed camwhoring, cosplays etc. Needless to say, I'm pretty happy with the response i've gotten!!

I won't be able to cover ~EVERYTHING~ but I might do a second post if there is a demand.
I kept this stuff to myself for a long time, mostly because I was lazy and also because I was afraid people would judge me when they saw how obsessive and meticulous I was @_@

I should also mention that I don't cosplay Miyavi anymore, so if you want to know about future myv cosplays i'm planning dont get your hopes up kay? ><''

Lastly, this is by no means the only way of cosplaying. I encourage experimentation! I didn't like the tutorials I found online so I built most of my cosplay through trial and error.

aaaanyways tl;dr

#1 THE LIP PIERCING

It took me three different attempts to find the right spiral lip piercing. I'm not kidding.. it was really difficult lol. The reason is, most of the twisters always spiral the wrong way!!! Make sure you pay close attention before you buy, because most of the time they aren't cheap and you wouldn't want to waste money.

CORRECT

INCORRECT

I bought all my piercings from Body Jewellery Shop, which i highly recommend for their affordable prices and fast delivery :) (and no, they didn't pay me to say that)

My lip piercing is gauge 14, black titanium. I am unsure of the internal diameter, so I wont write something that could potentially be wrong :P

MYTH: I once read somewhere that Miyavi has a vertical labret piercing. Meaning, not like a normal lip piercing but a little closer to the surface. I don't believe this to be true ><. It may look this way in some pictures, but really... its more likely just a regular lip piercing that migrated a little over time. Piercings due that on occasion, so I dont believe whoever pierced him originally made a mistake etc. etc.

#2 HAIR

Okay okay, so Miyavi has had every fucking hairstyle under the sun -- and then some. So I'm just going to focus on his moehawk for now ^^;

Honestly, having my moehawk was the best :D Since my hair was quite long, I could hide my shaved sides whenever i needed to be proper, and then put it up in a ponytail to spice things up. It was such a versatile and unique haircut, I loved it very much :']

When i got the first side done, the shaved section stopped above my ear. I later noticed that Myv's moehawk goes past the ear and behind so I corrected mine to be more accurate lol. Just a tiny detail incase you care that  much :P

When I put my hair in a ponytail I used clip in human hair extensions to give it more volume since my hair wasnt that long. I positioned the clips directly under where the ponytail would be so as not to show.

I also could reuse the clip in hair extensions (including the hand dyed ones) to make Miyavi's loose hairstyle (when he was on tour and travelling etc.)

Temporary color hair spray can also be used since his hair had silver-ish accents. I sprayed some lightly on my ponytail and then separated chunks to make it look more like highlights instead of one big spot of silver :P 

Pink and blue spray can also be used since he has those colors as well. However, I hand dyed some blonde human hair extensions and used those instead (its less messy and faster in the long run)

I eventually accumulated a whole collection of temporary hair color sprays, since I also used them for my Freedom Fighter Cosplay.

Be warned: This stuff is MESSY! and it smells nasty too. It's best to do it outdoors. 

#3 CONTACT LENS

I spent a long time trying to find the right style.

My first and favorite lens was Neo Vision's 'Sunflower' series in grey. Boy did they ever sparkle!! I had been looking for something with a thin black limbal ring and that didnt enlarge. i also wanted a design that showed the flecks and lines running through the eye as opposed to flat opaque color. 

 (Once again, I was major perfectionist when i first started cosplaying xDD)

In later cosplay, I opted to use EOS's 'Adult' series in Grey. It also has an almost unnoticeable enlarging effect and give the eye that 'sparkle' look because of it's shimmery design.

I hope that helped a little!! Feel free to ask me questions~

I may or may not make another post. I still have a lot of tips to share regarding;

• Tattoos
• Other piercings
• Clothing
• Makeup
• Possibly other things lol

Happy cosplaying~!

-Gen Ishihara