Back with more expanding foam

Rebellion's blade has been coated in foam and I've finally finished carving it down to size. It's a big sword, but I'm loving how light it is so far!
I was a little apprehensive about cutting away at it at first but, despite the fact that my rug has developed goliath dandruff, I found the process to be a great exercise in stress relief. Is that weird? Probably. But it was kind of nice coming home from a long day at work and taking out a little frustration while knowing I was being productive. This is what the blade looked like when I finally got it down to a thickness I was happy with:

Rebellion tapers from a seam in the middle of the blade straight down the sides without multiple... layers of beveled edges I guess. I'm not well versed in swordmaking terminology. What I mean to say is that the center of the blade is the highest point and it slopes down to the sharpened edges instead of being predominantly flat and then sloping sharply down at the edges of the sword. I hope I didn't totally mangle that explanation.
I started shaving the sides off to recreate the desired look, and that part actually did make me nervous. I was afraid I was going to shave too much off and be left with an uneven surface. Once I got as close to symmetrical as I could, I took some medium-grit sandpaper and rubbed down the sides of the blade. It really smoothed them out, although I would definitely recommend wearing a mask if you do this. Little foam particles do get everywhere.
Here is the blade so far. I got it from two different angles in the hope that you'd be able to see the defined edges.

I'm going to be working on the hilt soon, so I'll update then. Thanks for reading!

DMC Dante Cosplay Progress

I started working on Rebellion this weekend. It's my first time working with expanding foam, so I'm sure I'll make a bunch of mistakes, but it's exciting to be working with another material. So far, I've sketched up a template on parchment paper, transferred it to cardboard, cut out the notch down the middle for the pvc pipe core and hot-glued the core into place. I only bought one can of expanding foam at the store (Great Stuff brand) and didn't realize or really think about how much I'd need. Turns out there was just enough to cover 3/4ths of the blade in one layer, so I guess I'll be making another trip to the hardware store.

I'm still thinking of ways to create the skeleton part of the hilt. Anyone have suggestions?
Til next time and thanks for reading!

Gogo's Mace Completed!

I finally finished Gogo's chain mace today! I'm so excited to post the pictures and I love seeing it hanging on the back of my door. Can't wait for the full costume to come together!
If you've got time, please leave me a comment and tell me what you think. Thanks for checking out the blog!

Elven Circlet painting and aging!

Hey guys! This is just going to be a picture-heavy follow-up on my previous post. Enjoy!

That elven light, amirite? :P

A recent side project

My apologies for the silence! I've been out for the past week, courtesy of a sinus infection that's knocked me on my ass. I'm starting to finally feel a bit better so I thought I'd post pictures of the side project I'm currently working on. A friend of mine is doing an elven ranger cosplay but couldn't find a circlet that fit the image in her head, so I've attempted to help out.
I can't stress enough that I really don't have any experience making something like this, so I thought it would be an interesting challenge. I actually really struggled with cutting the worbla evenly... so much so that I took a detour and resorted to lining the worbla with a soutache ribbon to see if that would force me to keep my lines straight. That plan backfired pretty quickly and I went back to stage one but, if nothing else, I'm finally becoming comfortable wielding scissors.
My friend said she wanted something similar to the simplicity but stature of Galadriel's crown and so I researched my images and got to work. My poor styrofoam head is rather the worse for wear, having been melted by the heat gun too many times and I think it might be about time to pick up a second one, but I still found it manageable. I didn't prime the surface with anything before setting the strips of worbla on top of it, and I think that might have been what salvaged the project: it didn't budge from it's perch atop the mannequin head until I pried it free.
I'm pretty sure I'm teetering on the edge of a ramble here, so I'll just post the pictures. As always, I'll be more than happy to answer any questions that are posted in the comments. That'll mean that someone is reading this, at least :P
Okay. Picture time!