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k-times-two — Fifth Generation

Published: 2012-07-28 04:54:03 +0000 UTC; Views: 4656; Favourites: 191; Downloads: 36
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Description So, two things to show off here. First, the piece de resistance-- the life-size needlefelt Yamask. The product of too many hours of work (as always), he ended up slapping me. A lot. That was the most annoying part of making him-- he slapped me. A lot. Anyway he is posable, with a complete wire armature in there.

Yamask is by far my favorite pokemon from the 5th gen. An overall strong generation, but quite a few personal favorites from here (if I could have felted a life-size Scolipede, you bet your bottom I would have). Yamask is consistently rated as the top scariest pokemon for all-time, and it's easy peasy to see why. Not only does it showcase that humans and pokemon are more alike than would have previously been assumed, it looks at its old face and cries. I mean come on. It's got all the cool egyptian thing going on, too, and it's got the blood-red eyes/tears.... A Pokemon that would be the talk of the town for philosophers, if there are any in the Pokemon world. Since I'm interested in that stuff, well yeah. =w=

Second, my Toukou/White cosplay. Made for Kumoricon 2011, I wore it there for a bit. It's my first-ever cosplay, and I originally wore it while carrying my life-size Mew (fav.me/d3djbdh and fav.me/d3ihnss ). Now that the Yamask is done, though... 'v' Here, it's worn by my sister, MyNameIsKaliK, who was gracious enough to be my model (for a small fee, of course). There's a c-gear in there, though you can't see it at all, which is... well, I worked a lot on it, anyway. Should've taken a picture of it, but oh well. It even has an interchangable screen with pictures for Black, Cheren, Bianca, and the Professor...

The reason I'm not in the outfit is because I cut my hair since I wore it-- and while it was the right length before, now it's a bob cut, so... my sister was easier to get to than buying a wig. And then I wouldn't have a photographer, if I was the subject.

Overall, I think a successful shoot.

Photography © k-times-two
Art/Cosplay © k-times-two
Model -- MyNameIsKaliK
Pokemon © Nintendo

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The yamask was made with a type of crafting called needle felting. Basically what happens is I take a bunch of loose (i.e. roving) wool and jab it with a needle (many, many times). The wool bonds to itself, slowly getting firmer and firmer. Eventually, it's firm enough to stand by itself in a sculpture-like way. By adding more roving wool, I can sculpt a creature or a person or whatever out of the wool.

Needlefelting is a relatively new craft, having only been invented 30 years or so ago. It's similar to the process of wet felting, but instead of using water, needles are used.

My needlefelt creations almost always include a wire base, so they are extremely posable, and I find the freedom of sculpting and the resulting plushness to be everything I could have asked for in a medium.

I happily take commissions, and my prices range from 20 and up, depending on the complexity but mainly on the size.

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Comments: 56

k-times-two In reply to ??? [2012-07-28 05:38:41 +0000 UTC]

Haaaah, yeah, I have no solution. Generally I just felt and then they're "art dolls", not meant for heavy use unless you don't care. My first Mew has been a needlefelt plush in my bed for around a year now and it's held up pretty good. I mean it doesn't look as awesome as it used to but it's only important to me in that it's a life-size Mew and I can hug it.

The sheer volume of wool tend to keept itself together. That being said, my first mew is a denser needlefelt than I usually do. I could probably experiment with that.

The best solution to the fuzz, at least at the outset, is wetfelting, but since I'm not too keen on inviting mold to grow in my things-- besides which I'm simply lazy and don't have the space nor the desire to let my house smell like a barn. Other than that, touch-ups are a fine solution if you need it looking good. Of course I always have extra wool and needles laying around, so for me that's no problem, but for others.... I did try an art fixative once, but it didn't help that much. I really should investigate more about it.

And needlefelts smaller than a foot tall are hardly becoming beloved dolls. Least, the types I do. Without as much touching/finagaling they stay just fine in my opinion. Of course I never really aimed for that "perfect no-fuzz" finish in the first place... as desirable as it may be. Again, I really should experiment but for now I'll just do as I do.

Thank you for the imformed question, by the way. Always a pleasure to share my opinion. Though that's a fool's errand, some say... Mind if I hear your thoughts? ouo

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xBrittneyJane In reply to k-times-two [2012-07-28 08:43:49 +0000 UTC]

Thanks for such a comprehensive answer

I haven't experimented too much with needle-felting myself, mostly because it takes too long for my patience Though I agree that it's so fun/easy to sculpt and shape things, and have them come out looking super accurate.

As for the fluffing, I bought a little hand-sized cutie from ~spinphase about two years ago, and he sat on my shelf for over a year just in the open. He got slightly dusty, and as I gently wiped it away it still couldn't help but disturb the fibers out of place. If I ever bought/made needle-felts, personally I think they'd be great in a plastic box/container to sustain them.

I love the larger pieces too, though. It's always cool to see things bigger and bigger, most needle-felts I've seen are rather small/average sized.

Thanks again for the information

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k-times-two In reply to xBrittneyJane [2012-07-28 08:58:15 +0000 UTC]

You're welcome.

Aaaah, now that would be a trick. I need to get myself in cahoots with some plexiglass box company. That'd be a great way to store my pencil/crayon carvings, too.... hmmmm.....

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Obnoxious-Canary In reply to ??? [2012-07-28 05:04:52 +0000 UTC]

YEEEYYYYYYYY! YAMASK! I totally want one, but I has no cash monies... ;w;

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TheMaleCosplayer In reply to ??? [2012-07-28 04:54:56 +0000 UTC]

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