Ballin'

Does anyone else go through various cycles or phases in their special interests? (I’d consider cosplay a special interest of mine, much as vintage was a few years ago.) When I first get into something, it’s about consuming as much information as possible, building a collection, getting to a point of feeling like an expert.

Then you relax a bit, and deconstruction and remixing becomes super exciting. I think I’m entering a cosplay remix era, because suddenly I’m all about making sporty versions of characters that I want to cosplay.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is one of my recent anime faves. It follows the journey of a 1000 year old elf named Frieren, who, 50 years ago, journeyed with a group of heroes and defeated the Demon King. Now, as her companions are shuffling off the mortal coil, she’s coming to realize how much of an impact they had on her, and sets out to reconnect with humanity once more.

And in my version, she plays pickleball!

(Honestly, it just seemed like an easy and fun thing to make her mage’s staff from, which it indeed was.)

I bought the skirt and top at TJ Maxx; the skirt just needed a bit of gold paint, which I plan to retouch before I wear the cosplay again. The pickleball set was ordered from Amazon, and I did a little customization on it, including gluing half a ball to it to imitate her gem! Unfortunately a guard dropped the paddle as I was going through security and it fell off, but I’m already thinking up ways to make it more secure for the next time.

My next big con is DragonCon, in September, and that one is all the way in Atlanta. It’ll be my first time flying out for a con, and I think “sporty version of [character]” is my game plan at this point. i can’t wait to come up with more ideas!