More ship things from Shadesmar. (harhar, pun intended). Kaladin is stealing the show. Again. And Adolin lamenting about Kal's hotness to Pattern is just kind of endearing.
Don't get me wrong, I am all in for some positive polyship representation. The text does not give me vibes for it to happen, though (at least at this point... since Kaladin is like the typical beauty that is mostly unaware of her effect on the people surrounding her). Also I always will prefer solid friendships before unnerving love drama. It's not like the world around them is not peril enough...
Don't worry, Adolin, Bridgeboy here might be so passionate that the drama is coming out of his ears, but anyone who has a good sense of aesthetics, gives back massages AND great hugs has already like 5 gold stars in my books.
Shallan evolves more and more into a gibson girl...
Also the beards are back on, hooray!!!
Pattern cracks me up.
So I tried asking this over messenger but it wouldn't let me, but I was wondering how I'd go about making a beard for my Obi wan kenobi cosplay?
Huh. Don’t know why messenger is being weird, but there are a few main ways to make Obi-Wan’s beard for cosplay, depending on what sort you’re going for:
1. Buy a pre-made beard. Higher end costume shops often have a variety of premade beards, either of the strap-on variety, or of the lace-variety which you need to glue on. I don’t generally use this option, because I don’t like the selection or the fit of most pre-made beards, but it is a good option if you don’t have much time.
2. Make one out of craft foam - I only recommend this approach for clone wars Obi-Wan, where you are trying to immitate the animation style.
3. Using prosthetic glue, glue crepe wool directly to your face in the right style. This is less work than the next option, but it means you spend a lot of time applying it each time, and it’s hard to re-use.
OR (and this is the option I’d go for)…
4. Ventilate the beard yourself.
This option is the most time-consuming by far, but it creates the best looking and most reusable beard. For this, you will need:
– Wig-making lace that matches your skin tone (also called swiss lace). This brand is what I have used in the past:
– Hair in the color you want the beard to be, and least twice the length of the beard you want. Some people use crepe wool for this, or braiding hair from a beauty store. If you are also ordering a wig for Obi-Wan, you can sometimes buy extra matching wefts of hair, to get a precise match. That is what I did for my Baris dwarf lady beard. Wigisfashion definitely has this option, and I think Arda might as well.
– A piece of plastic wrap
– A permanent marker
– Tailors chalk
– Sewing pins
– A wig head (optional, but very helpful)
To create your beard, first find a place with a mirror, and put the plastic wrap over the part of your face where you want the beard to go. Draw the lines of the beard directly onto the plastic wrap, matching the shapes and contours of your face.
Next, lay the plastic wrap out flat, and place your lace on top of it. Trace the shape of the beard onto your lace with tailors chalk.
Pin your lace over a round, vaguely face-shaped surface. Preferably, this should be something in a contrasting color that is a little bit pliable, but not something your needle can easily catch on. I used a leftover piece of dark green knit fabric stretch over a styrofoam wig head, though for next time, I will probably get a wig head in black canvas.
Take a small segment of your hair. Make sure there are no tangles in it, then loop it so that the mid-point of the hair is roughly over the index finger of your non-dominant hand.
Now you are ready to actually start ventilating. I watch a lot of youtube videos about how the ventilating physically works (like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBaTImiNUTA) but honestly, you mostly just learn it through practice.
Some tips I learned about ventilating while making Baris’ beard:
– Make sure to ventilate more thinly at the edges than further in. This gives you the natural fade appearance of hair
— Don’t attach more than three or four hairs in a single loop. Close to the edges, don’t attach more than one or two hairs.
When you are done ventilating your beard, use your scissors to trim it to the desired length, then trim off most of the excess lace around the beard. For a light-weight beard like Obi-Wan’s, your beard is now complete. If you were making something heavier like a dwarf beard, though, you would want to attach some ribbons to the sideburn area so you could tie the beard up under your wig.
To wear your beard, just glue it to your face using spirit gum or pros aide (I prefer pros aide, because it holds better, and is hypo-allergenic). Use your make up to blend the edges naturally to your face.
And that’s everything! Next time I make one of these again, I will totally do a more detailed photo tutorial, but this should be enough to get you started.
