oh, hello there.

cosplayer, librarian, cat parent, lover of sweets. pronouns: she/they looking for posts of my costumes? search 'firespuncosplay'

[lliveonthesunn]

i get why people don't believe in marriage as a social construct but legally it is the best and easiest way to say "this is who i trust to take care of me when i can't take care of myself" and i'm so glad gay people fought for that right bc when shit gets scary at least i know im in good hands

[lumiipika]

[fillianore-moved]

so metropolitan museum of art has a register of books they’ve published that are out of print and that you can download for free! they’re mostly books on art, archeology, architecture, fashion and history and i just think that’s super useful and interesting so i wanted to share! you can find all of the books available here!

[anyataylorjoys]

The Watermelon Woman (1996) dir. Cheryl Dunye

[seeveekat]

Hey this movie is really important in queer history! It was the first feature length film directed by a black lesbian! You can watch it here for free!

I really recommend you do because while it is a rom-com (and a drama), it also looks at how the stories of black queers are over looked in history.

[20dollarlolita]

After quite a while of operating on a very scaled-back inventory, Amphigory.com closed up shop last month.

Amphigory was a very fun site that, in its prime, sold cosmetics, hair dye, incense, cool jewelry, and wigs. They did not manufacture their own wigs, and instead they were a distributor for several wig brands. They existed long before Arda and Epic Cosplay Wig were selling their own lines of custom-built wigs for cosplay, so a lot of cosplayers had to make existing costume wigs work for their cosplay.

The thing that set them apart was that they very thoroughly documented every wig that they sold. They would have pictures of the outside from all angles, the inside, and text about things like the size of the skin top, how easy it was to dye, and if there was crimped fiber in it.

Lacey Costume (also called Morris Costume as far as I can tell) is still around, so you can still purchase a lot of the wigs that you would have bought through Amphigory from other sellers. A lot of shops actually are selling Lacey Costume brand wigs at discounts or clearance. The problem is that most Lacey Costume wigs have a single stock photo, that may or may not be at a useful angle.

For example, this is their ONLY picture of this red ponytail extension.

A lot of the Lacey Costume wigs are available on sites like Amazon and Walmart.com, and it's not hard to search around and see if any of them are on clearance. I bought a pigtail wig for an upcoming costume for $9 and it arrived in less than 2 days.

Amphigory renamed their wigs to match their own line. I can't blame them, because you'll see how the manufacturer names are kind of terrible. I have wanted to match up Amphigory's detailed pictures with their manufacturer names, so that people buying these wigs from other sellers can know what they're buying. Even though they'd stopped selling wigs, I still didn't want to repost their content while they were still in operation, because I wanted to let them have a chance to bring this product line back. However, with the site fully closed, I don't feel so opposed to it anymore.

So, here's some of the classic Amphigory wigs and their equivalent names from their manufacturer.

Long and pic-heavy under the cut:

Their three most popular wigs for cosplay were the Femme Fatale, the Innocent?, and the Enchantment. All of these wig matches are confirmed on Amphigory at some point in time. I've been all over the wayback machine for this.

Femme Fatale and Enchantment are both full skin top wigs that are made of smooth fibers with no crimped hair. Back when Katie Bair was doing wig commissions, most of her wig styles started out with a Femme Fatale.

Femme Fatale is Lacey Costumes 1960's Prom Pageboy.

Enchantment is Lacey Costumes 1448 or Long Cher No Bangs

Innocent? is Lacey Costumes Little Women II. This wig feels like a modern "pre-crimped" cosplay wig; the fiber isn't slick and smooth. When you take the ponytails down, the sides are just short fiber. It looks good up and you can take the ponytails down and re-tie them to get it to fit your head better, but it's not a wig to be worn in any non-pigtail style.

Sweetness is Lacey Costumes Little Women I.

Z (Zigzag Part) is Lacey Costumes Gina

FIngerwave is Lacey Costumes Fingerwave Short

Bad Girl is Lacey Costumes Teased Up Beehive

5-Layer is Lacey Costumes Zebra Lady

I'm pretty sure Suzi is a Character's Costumes Yuki (which I think has changed slightly over the years).

.

.

I was going to keep going with this but something has come up and I can't keep sitting at my computer doing this.=. So, if anyone is interested in doing this yourself, starting in like 2017, Amphigory started putting the names of the models of wig on their sites. I'm grabbing those off the Wayback machine, checking through the years for the best photos and descriptions, and then using the general internet and cosplaysupplies.com to confirm the brand name. I hope this is helpful to someone and I'll come back later and add more if there's demand.

(Also everyone please be aware that I don't think any of the Lacey Costumes wigs are heat-resistant).

I'll talk to y'all later. Bye!

[sin-aestheticx]

being silly with your partner is incredibly important actually

[wha-archive]

Hehe, Brushbug. New episode of the anime tomorrow! Shirahama posted these to her twitter today.

[amazonmandy]

Linktree has decided they’re going to farm everything from your account starting July5th…I dropped them (and tile them why lol) and got on Everlink!

[banchie]

i've been phasing the phrase 'google it' out of my vocabulary and going back to 'look it up'. fuck you youve lost your generic trademark privileges

[yamino]

I would love to make this happen, but I don't have a lot of experience organizing something like it. Signal boosts and volunteers appreciated 🙏🏻

[yamino]

✨I made an OFFICIAL INTEREST FORM! ✨ Please apply if you are interested in joining either as a Roleplayer, an Organizer, a Guest... or anything else! 👇 https://forms.gle/46Q97f7FhSKC5QvZ9

[yamino]

⚠️ If you filled out this interest form, please click through again to add your contact info. I had forgotten to add that very important section 😅

[pseudomantis]

[friendlyfrankenstein]

needle/pin sharpener.

no really, squeeze it. Does it feel like it’s got sand in it? is’s sharpening sand. Stab the tip of your needle into it back and forth and it’ll help put a sharp edge back on a pin or needle that’s been blunted by use, or has a little bit of rust on it. It can’t fix anything worse then a little of either, and won’t work on something REALLY blunted, but its a lifesaver.

[anais-ninja-bitch]

also it is a pepper

[vinceaddams]

It's not a pepper and it's not for sharpening!!

It may seem like it should be a pepper, since that would go better with the flavour of a tomato (and the mass produced modern ones are admittedly more pepper shaped), but it is and has always been a strawberry. Here are some antique emery strawberries, which are much more strawberry shaped, and some of them have seeds.

(source)

(source)

(Home Needlework Magazine, 1899)

And it's for cleaning needles, not sharpening them. I can't imagine how jamming a blunt needle point around in a bunch of loose grit could possibly sharpen it in any significant way, and all the historical sources I've seen only talk about cleaning.

"Every sewer's work basket or work box should contain an emery bag, as shown in Fig. 2, through which to push a needle when it becomes rough, squeaks, or sticks in the material. An emery bag is usually shaped like a strawberry and consists of a rough denim bag filled with emery powder, which is a very hard material used for polishing metals. Such a bag may be purchased for 5 or 10 cents in any store that sells sewing materials. Needles often become rusted from the perspiration of the hands or from being left in damp places. The beginner may use a small emery bag to remove rust; or, a small piece of emery paper may be used instead."

-Woman's Institute Reference Library, 1916.

"Use an emery whenever your needle does not slip through the cloth easily."

-The Improvement of Educational Administration in Massachusetts, 1916.

"An emery bag is inexpensive and is useful to keep needles polished and smooth. If the hands perspire and it is difficult to push the needle through the cloth, running the needle through the emery will relieve the condition."

-Boys' and Girls' Clothing Club, 1915.

"It was very hot to sit and sew. The needle would get sticky in spite of all the little emery strawberry could give it, and Beth's fingers had never felt so clumsy and uncomfortable."

-The Unitarian Register, 1908.

"She polished her needles to nothing, pushing them in and out of the emery strawberry, but they always squeaked."

-Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, 1910.

This patent from 1873 mentions an emery slab for sharpening pins, which is quite different from a cushion, and which sounds like it actually would work for sharpening.

"C is a slab of emery or other sharp and fine grit, for sharpening needles or pins"

Then later down the page it also says

"E is an emery cushion, secured in the body of the holder A, and is used for polishing needles and keeping them smooth."

So. Strawberry for cleaning. Not pepper for sharpening.

[elodieunderglass]

Gentle reminder - modern sewing tools are made from treated or plated metal, or stainless steel. In terms of human civilisation, this is a wild advance of technology. Needles are some of our oldest tools; rust was formerly ubiquitous, and attacked every form of everyday metal. A rusty needle tears fabric, or worse, stains it. The luxury and technology of rustproof needles and pins - forgotten in a few generations of human memory - and yet it is remembered in the strawberry. Memory is stored in the strawberry!

[hollyevolving]

memory is stored in the emery

[amazonmandy]

“𝐈 𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐛𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞. 𝐈 𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐭 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐬.” This is either the greatest or stupidest cosplay photo I’ve taken. Maybe both. . This was in Zion National Park, and it was the LAST photo I wanted to take in the shoot (bc I knew my wig was going to get smashed up and need restyling). I decided to throw the coat over my ass like the anime, the manga seems a lot hornier than I am prepared for in this outfit. Scoundrelrun is an endlessly patient photographer with my antics. MORE PHOTOS COMING I swear but like…not a ton of serious ones. Because I did a shoot of those already. Can’t be serious all the time.

[youngerfrankenstein]

To put it very bluntly.

You will always make a better impact helping people who need it than trying to hurt people you think deserve it.

[fabrickind]

Something I'm curious about.

To overexplain what I mean: If you didn't know the term "cosplay" until you were older, when you learned the term, did you then retroactively consider any previous costumes of pre-existing fictional characters to be "cosplays"? Such as dressing as a Disney Princess or Darth Vader in 3rd grade, etc. If you knew the term from a young age, same question applies.

Did you consider, or reconsider upon learning the term, dressing up as fictional characters (for Halloween, parties, etc.) as a child to be "cosplay"?

Yes, known about cosplay <5 years

Yes, known about cosplay 5-9 years

Yes, known about cosplay 10-14 years

Yes, known about cosplay 15-19 years

Yes, known about cosplay 20+ years

No, known about cosplay <5 years

No, known about cosplay 5-9 years

No, known about cosplay 10-14 years

No, known about cosplay 15-19 years

No, known about cosplay 20+ years

idk what cosplay is

Voting ended onMay 27

I wish I could get more granular and overlapping statistics, like "your age" and "how long you have actively considered yourself a cosplayer" because I have a feeling that would change the way the results are read a LOT. (I suppose also "how long you have been going to cons/cosplay events" and "if you parents are cosplayers" to catch outliers like my friend in roughly my age group whose mom wrote a still really good furry tutorial in the 80s LMAO) I actually went back and forth on "how long you've been cosplaying" and "how long you've known about cosplay" but I feel like the latter is more to the heart of what I'm asking?

Back in my day (lmao), pretty much no one would have considered that type of thing cosplay. I first learned the term circa 2002? and did my first cosplay in 2003 (at a con), but things are VERY different these days. I've noticed that at least in help spaces, it's much more common for parents to be asking about making or buying cosplays for their kids or helping their kids with Halloween cosplays, etc., and I'm curious about how the term has been used over the years.

Maybe I'll make a full survey that can capture all the nuance I want eventually LMAO for now? Tumblr poll.

[fabrickind]

To even more overexplain, just in case someone misunderstands:

I don't mean "is it cosplay in some objective sense," I mean "did you personally consider it cosplay"

Definitions are slippery! This is why I'm asking. there's no official arbiter, and these things are edge cases that everyone defines differently.

This is purely to sate my own curiosity about how people define these things haha

[figofswords]

i miss my beautiful wife joann fabrics it feels as if eons have passed since i last saw her. this guy michael keeps waving her visage in front of me and saying she’s living in his house but he is lying to me. i know this because i went into his house and found only fragments and memories of my beautiful wife joann and pictures of her shadowed face labeled “online only”. michael won’t even let me order swatches from him

[hewoweens]

u can be boiling alive in your mind for months and then on a random tuesday ur head gets so clear and life is worth living again and you're like damn what was all that about then

[lumiipika]