Team StarKid Australia

We're two ladies from Australia with a great deal of love for Team StarKid! We hope to meet fellow Australian StarKids through this page and maybe even organise a couple of meet ups! This page will contain strong language at times so if that kind of thing upsets you, you may want to turn right around and

[teamstarkidaustralia]

Guys I am so sorry! I completely forgot that these hadn’t gone up and I am certifiably the worst. 

This is what was supposed to post (I honestly thought it was queued) after the last post had gone up:

Here we are! The final Firebringer post ever! We are reasonably pleased how these turned out and looking back, I (Amy) am astounded that we got it all done. Please note that in the last picture, I am wearing a ring that we made in our first crafting session. Because Jemilla/Zazzalil might be the best ship ever. 

[teamstarkidaustralia]

Part 10: The Night Belongs To Us

“The feeling is indescribable, we are here and it’s undeniable.”

DISCLAIMER: We were both Kickstarter backers and have seen the show several times so if you want to totally avoid spoilers, please don’t read this (or any of our costume progress posts). As a courtesy, we will be putting the bulk of the post under a “read more”.

I honestly cannot tell you how I felt waking up on the morning of Halloween and knowing how much we had to get done that morning. It was completely horrific and I seriously cannot believe we got them finished. The photos will be in a separate photo post after this one goes public. 

With Jemilla’s costume mostly finished the girls were hopeful that they would be able to complete the remaining parts of Zazzalil’s costume and relax before the Halloween evening. They were wrong. Upon looking closer at what they had to do, the girls shuddered and tried to think of any other way that they could procrastinate. But there was no other way. This was it. 

Shakily, Amy started to cut the points in the top of Zazzalil’s dress, careful not to go too low. This was a process that could easily have ruined the entire costume and she had to take about twelve nervous pee breaks. As Amy finished this, Danielle cut the jagged bottom of Jemilla’s skirt and fixed up Zazzalil’s ankle cuffs. As they hot glued the felt and fur combination to the bottom of Zazzalil’s dress and fixed the interfacing to the top points, they felt cautiously hopeful. Could this be it? Had they really finished? This had been a long process and they had made many mistakes, some of which I have not dared to mention. Ultimately, the girls were proud of what they had achieved, although it certainly wasn’t perfect. 

It was with immense relief (and a little discomfort) that they put their costumes on, having only just finished at 5pm. Danielle had to literally tape Amy into her costume, and it was quite an adventure getting it off afterwards. Some of that tape stuck to her for several days. It’s strong shit. 

So that’s it! As I said, the photos will be up shortly, but thanks so much for sticking with us and giving us a platform to share this adventure with you. It was taxing and we still have a couple of costumes in the works (That have legitimately been in the works for 18 months) and we are not going to be rushing them. Unfortunately, Danielle will be going on exchange in August so we will not be spending Halloween together this year. We hope that she has oodles of fun though, and I’m sure you can expect more craziness from us, if not as regularly as we had initially hoped. 

[teamstarkidaustralia]

Part 9: We Are People Now

“This is the dawn, the dawn of our time. We are womankind...”

DISCLAIMER: We were both Kickstarter backers and have seen the show several times so if you want to totally avoid spoilers, please don’t read this (or any of our costume progress posts). As a courtesy, we will be putting the bulk of the post under a “read more”.

Everything in this post occurred the Thursday before Halloween (the 27th) in a blur of panic.

Brimming with anxiety, Amy and Danielle set this day aside for Zazzalil’s dress and a few odd parts of Jemilla’s costume that needed fixing up. Amy lost count of how many times she had to unpick and resew Danielle’s costume and relief that they felt when the dress fit was indescribable. Unfortunately that was only stage 1. The dress still needed to have feathers coming out of the shoulders which required many more adjustments. They spent the day burning themselves accidentally with hot glue guns, trying desperately to get the feathers to match up with the shoulder length. Finally they succeeded. Then they had to get the damn things to stand up. This was much more difficult than they had first anticipated, however they persisted and fought and cried (only a little) until they won. Here is Danielle’s relief at having the feathers attached and her fur and interfacing lightly pinned to the bottom. 

LOOK HOW STRAIGHT THEY ARE!!!

Also, I realise this post is short, but honestly, that’s what happened all day. It literally took all freaking day, guys. Please appreciate it. 

[teamstarkidaustralia]

Part 8: Climate Change

“I’m a shithead, okay?!”

DISCLAIMER: We were both Kickstarter backers and have seen the show several times so if you want to totally avoid spoilers, please don’t read this (or any of our costume progress posts). As a courtesy, we will be putting the bulk of the post under a “read more”.

This was when we felt like shit was finally starting to come together. We were kind of in that “Oh man, I really wanna high-five you about this but I feel like that’s going to jinx it so can we just look knowingly at each other and slap our feet together?” Don’t judge us. It’s a foot-five. It’s a thing that is real.

One thing that hasn’t been mentioned in previous posts are the shells on Jemilla’s costume. These things are the spawn of Satan. As the girls looked closer at the costume, they realised the shells must have been sewn on. They were dedicated, so they proceeded. It started off looking like this:

The girls felt brave, and continued dow this road. Some time into the process (after the armbands and at the end of the bottom of Jemilla’s top), Amy started to lose her mind.

Danielle was eager to help, but with her work from university piling up, there was little she could do but offer moral support. When Amy tried the top on and found that the shells hung too low, she let out a primal scream and started clawing at the sewn on shells. Amidst many streams of curse words, the decision was made that the shells would be hot glued on instead of sewn as time was quickly running out. Desperate to finish something, Amy hot glued shells onto the top and the skirt, and unpicked the small shells from the armbands, replacing them with larger ones. This was tedious and caused Amy to let out several shrieks that sounded something like what you might imagine a Velociraptor sounding like.

Eventually this was finished. Meaning there were a few remaining touches for the whole costume left. This was the exact point where Amy and Danielle started to get cautiously excited. I say cautiously because they were very much aware that the remaining tasks left were ones they had delayed for a reason. 

[teamstarkidaustralia]

Part 7: Do It Together

“What are you doing? Get your butt up here! If we’re gonna do this, we’re gonna do it together!”

DISCLAIMER: We were both Kickstarter backers and have seen the show several times so if you want to totally avoid spoilers, please don’t read this (or any of our costume progress posts). As a courtesy, we will be putting the bulk of the post under a “read more”.

This was the time period where we realised there was very little time left until Halloween and we just had to do it. It was scary. I’m still having nightmares.

The day that Amy and Danielle decided that they would just have to bite the bullet and get shit done was exhausting and stress-inducing. One evening before, they had started work on Jemilla’s necklace:

As it turned out, this would be a prototype that they later would hack apart and stick onto the least comfortable part of a costume Amy had ever worn.

On this evening they talked about the costumes and how they were progressing. Panic stricken with how little they actually had done, the girls agreed they needed to set a whole day aside just to focus on cutting fabrics, painting the rest of the feathers, hot gluing things together, and nervous peeing. This is what that day looked like.

With the dress pinned, the girls felt confident in their abilities but still wary of what may happen. 

[teamstarkidaustralia]

Part 6: Paint How You See Me

“What if I did something more than what my people bargained for?”

DISCLAIMER: We were both Kickstarter backers and have seen the show several times so if you want to totally avoid spoilers, please don’t read this (or any of our costume progress posts). As a courtesy, we will be putting the bulk of the post under a “read more”.

This is where shit got tough. We were painting silicone beads (an incredibly bad idea, please heed our warnings and never, ever try to do this), stiff feathers, fluffy feathers, and the occasional bone shaped piece of polymer clay like our lives depended on it. And it felt a little bit like they did...  

The girls spent so much time on painting these objects and it still didn’t get finished until one day when they decided they had to bite the bullet. But that’s a story for another time. As the girls painted, they realised how difficult it was to make paint stick to silicone beads. To a normal human of average intelligence, it might have been obvious that the silicone is not designed to be painted, but seeing as the girls were not in their right minds, it took them several weeks and various levels of frustration to come to this conclusion. Nevertheless, they persisted. Below are pictures of some of the methods they used and some of the difficulties they came across. 

Danielle found ways to dry her feathers on a conveniently placed shelving unit.

The utter horror of painting the beads and realising how different they looked from the clay when they dried...

FINALLY IT MATCHES!!

Jemilla’s finished earrings. One of the very first things that was done in this project and was super easy so it gave us a false sense of security.

[teamstarkidaustralia]

Part 5: I Don’t Wanna Do The Work Today

“Fuck a duck. What am I gonna do???”

DISCLAIMER: We were both Kickstarter backers and have seen the show several times so if you want to totally avoid spoilers, please don’t read this (or any of our costume progress posts). As a courtesy, we will be putting the bulk of the post under a “read more”.

Honestly, I (Amy) really avoided all my responsibilities for a good chunk of time when it came to the actual sewing of these costumes. I have very little faith in my abilities, especially now that my tremors are almost constant. The idea of actually cutting into the super expensive fabric and make the real costumes terrified me. Here’s how that went...

As the fabric for the costumes lay folded in their Spotlight bag, Amy did literally everything she good to try and avoid her responsibility of actually cutting into the real (and very expensive) fabric. For example, did you know that paint does not stay on silicone teething beads? No? WELL GUESS WHAT?! “What a perfect way to waste hours and hours of my life,” Amy thought. “What else could I possibly be doing other than repainting these beads because they looked a lot better online that they do right now?” Let’s be honest, Amy and Danielle are professional procrastinators (don’t try this at home, kids). Other than trying to answer the age old question of how to make paint to stay on silicone teething beads (the answer is mod podge, toothpicks, and an excessive amount of patience), the girls also battled with feathers. Trying to paint soft fluffy feathers was excruciatingly difficult and was a tedious process. Naturally, Amy handed this project over to Danielle once they realised that there was a mere six weeks left until Halloween and they hadn’t even cut the fabric. Finding time to be together for costume fittings was even more difficult. When Amy had sewn the mock up for Danielle’s Zazzalil costume, Danielle tried it on. Both girls thought the same thing at that moment: Fuck. We screwed up.

For some still unknown reason, the pattern that had been so carefully crafted to Danielle’s measurements, made her look like she was wearing a very big, very ugly, brown sack. The pattern had to be altered and with only a few days available for Danielle to come over and be fitted again, Amy was ready to tear her hair out. To avoid a personal meltdown, Amy worked on her Jemilla costume. The pattern was shockingly easy compared to Zazzalil’s, but the costume came with it’s own set of problems later on. During this time, Danielle painted and blow dried feathers: Purple for Zazzalil, blue and brown for Jemilla. She also made Zazzalil’s anklets while Amy procrastinated making the rest of Zazzalil’s costume. 

Pictures of the painted items and a little more detail on the process will be in the next post!

[teamstarkidaustralia]

Hi all,

I know, I know. Promises, promises. We suck at delivering promised posts to you guys and keeping this all updated. I apologise.

The only explanation I can offer you is that Dee has been busy and my health has been very poor. I suffer from several chronic illnesses and my body has not been responding to treatments and medications as well as we had hoped. This has left me with minimal energy and I have had a significant decline in my cognitive function. Having said that, I still have my good days and my bad days. Right this second, I'm okay. Now, I'm not planning on using this page to talk about me (I have a blog for that!) but I wanted to give those of you who notice us some explanation as to why I didn't deliver on those posts.

So I'm not going to give you a date or set a deadline of when these will be posted. But a promise I can keep, is that you will get them sometime. They are all on my to do list and I have many scrappy little notes hanging around, waiting to be turned into actual posts. In the meantime, watch Firebringer on YouTube, get your merch here (I've still got my eye on that duck), and let us know your thoughts!

Love to each and every one of you!

A xxx

[teamstarkidaustralia]

Firebringer is out on DVD!

Hi all! 

Exciting news came to me this morning - Team StarKid’s Firebringer is now available for purchase on Ann Arbor Tees! It’s available separately for DVD and Digital Download purchase, and in the combo pack too. Some cool new t-shirt designs have also been released for the characters Ducker (Joe Walker), Tiblin (Tiffany Williams), Shwoopsie (Jaime Lyn Beatty), Chorn (Jamie Burns), Grunt (Joey Richter), Molag (Lauren Walker), and Smelly Balls (Brian Holden). I’m excited for these new releases and hope some of you will be too! 

[teamstarkidaustralia]

Part 4: Light That Flame

“Stay back! I mean it, it looks better from far away!”

DISCLAIMER: We were both Kickstarter backers and have seen the show several times so if you want to totally avoid spoilers, please don’t read this (or any of our costume progress posts). As a courtesy, we will be putting the bulk of the post under a “read more”.

It wouldn't be Firebringer without fire! So Amy and Danielle needed some of that. Creating fire was one of the most tried and tested aspects of the costumes. The process started with the possibility of paper mache however this was quickly dismissed when Danielle could not remove the dried paper mache from the tea cup she had used as a mould. It was also discovered that paper mache was not strong enough or transparent enough to suit their needs. After much thought Danielle decided that plastic would be the best option as it was transparent, however the next problem came with being able to shape the plastic. A plastic juice bottle seemed to be of a similar shape to what was needed. This led to the idea of plastic cups. Following hours of cutting, taping and shaping plastic cups, Danielle had achieved the perfect shape for fire. Using lots of Mod Podge, and several rolls of coloured tissue paper, the fire began to take shape. Unfortunately the torches that had been sourced for the flames were red and this would not do. So these were painted black and attached to the plastic cups using more Mod Podge. Fire had been created and humanity would never be the same again...

[teamstarkidaustralia]

Part 3: Welcome To The Stone Age

“You know that spear you invented? We need more of those…”

DISCLAIMER: We were both Kickstarter backers and have seen the show several times so if you want to totally avoid spoilers, please don’t read this (or any of our costume progress posts). As a courtesy, we will be putting the bulk of the post under a “read more”.

The quest to find the perfect material for the spears had begun. Danielle thought it would be a fantastic idea to create the spears from car sponges, however to her dismay when she tried to paint them (the sponges were yellow and this would not do for spears), the sponges soaked up the paint and would not dry. So this idea went back to the drawing board. Next up for the spear test was styrofoam... So another trip to Spotlight later, two circular pieces of styrofoam were purchased. Unfortunately another problem arose. How does one get a spear shape from a circle? The answer? Carve it! However the only carving tools available at that time was a bread knife, so that's what Danielle did. The mess that was made looked like a cyclone had come through the house. Next step was painting.... Using black and white paint to make the perfect charcoal grey, this was then painted onto the spearheads. Things were starting to look pretty good. However, one thing was missing... To make a spear from a spear head, one needed a stick! So a trip to Bunnings (big hardware store) was needed. Here Danielle purchased two dowel rods which were then painted black and voila! The spears were complete, ready to slay some mammoths.

[teamstarkidaustralia]

Hi all!

I am so sorry we have been slacking on the updates once again. Dee is away right now and I’ve been very unwell. Having a good day today so I will try to get the posts we owe you out!

Hope you’re all well!

A xxx

[teamstarkidaustralia]

PSA

I know our page still has the Spies Are Forever thing on it. It’s staying there. Mostly because I can’t remember how I put it up in the first place and therefore have no idea how to take it off.

[teamstarkidaustralia]

Part 2: Just A Taste

“Yes there are risks but I’m willing to take them. Rules put in place but you bet that I’ll break them.”

DISCLAIMER: We were both Kickstarter backers and have seen the show several times so if you want to totally avoid spoilers, please don’t read this (or any of our costume progress posts). As a courtesy, we will be putting the bulk of the post under a “read more”.

Alright y’all, last time we left off, we were hunting for the perfect fabrics. Here’s what happened...

After many intense Google sessions and trips to Lincraft and Spotlight, Amy and Danielle settled on purchasing a cheap fabric to create mockup costumes. This was a smart move as they make frequent mistakes and were creating these patterns entirely themselves (with very little skill). Having bought this fabric and cut out the pattern, they started to get really excited about this project. Things were happening! The shoes arrived and were perfect and comfortable. They ordered bits and pieces for the costumes such as feathers (both stiff and fluffy), silicone beads, shells, other beads, and bone shaped hair clips. They mixed up paint colours and bought polymer clay to sculpt the bead shapes that they couldn’t find. They had sourced things so well that they thought they weren’t going to have any problems putting the whole lot together. They had never been more wrong.

Amy slowly started to pin the patterns to the mockup fabric and sew the pieces together while Danielle crafted other bits and pieces (the process is covered in the next two posts). The girls sighed in relief and tentatively high-fived when the first costume mockup worked out well. Again, they thought things were going well and were excited. Shit didn’t really start to hit the fan until Amy started sewing the second costume mockup.

Here are some pictures of a time before Amy and Danielle started tearing their hair out over costuming:

[teamstarkidaustralia]

Part 1: Into The Unkown

“Way back, back to a time when...”

DISCLAIMER: We were both Kickstarter backers and have seen the show several times so if you want to totally avoid spoilers, please don’t read this (or any of our costume progress posts). As a courtesy, we will be putting the bulk of the posts under a “read more”.

For those who know us, it comes as no surprise that we love dressing up. Every year in high school, we went all out for book parade. For those of you outside Australia, we have National Literacy Week where for one day students are allowed to dress as their favourite book character and parade around the school grounds. It’s cooler than it sounds. We have also always planned Halloween together for many months in advance (usually 4-6, but one year we threw a party that was 12 months in the making. We won’t be doing that again.) and spend many sleepless nights fretting over how we’re going to finish our costumes. We have always dreamt big when it came to our costumes and have more often than not had to come to terms with the fact that we’re just not that talented. 

This year has been no exception...

One pleasant evening in July, Amy was in Chicago having dinner on her bed and having a Skype catchup with Dee. They chatted about the Firebringer live stream from Gigity and what had changed since the first few shows Amy had seen. At some point during this two and a half hour conversation, they decided that this year’s Halloween costumes would be from Firebringer. I believe the exact words were “We’re doing it right?” “Yeah. We’re doing it.” At this point Amy decided that she would spend the next few Firebringer shows studying the costumes to the best of her ability. Amy has vision problems. It’s hard, guys. 

As is their custom, they got started right away. Amy wrote notes on costumes and ordered the perfect shoes to be shipped home. They researched fabrics and accessories. This period is referred to as The Hunter/Gather Phase also know as The World’s Most Tedious Google Search. Upon Amy’s return to Australia, costume sketches were done and further searching for materials was undertaken. In the meantime, measurements were taken and rough patterns were drawn out on butcher’s paper. They had no choice. There’s no existing pattern that was even remotely helpful. After many, many attempts, a final pattern was created. Now all they needed was the right fabrics...

Stick around for Part 2: Just A Taste! 

[teamstarkidaustralia]

Halloween is here.. . And it’s HOT!

Well, we were working on these costumes and props right up until 5pm today, but THEY ARE DONE AND WE ARE DRESSED!! We’re sitting here chilling out in our costumes (with a few of the more uncomfortable parts now missing) and we thought we’d check in and take you back to the dawn of time... Posts of the mammoth process - which was excruciatingly long and often caused physical and emotional distress - will be appearing over the next week or so. Tonight, we will be putting up the very beginning before we sink into a sugar coma. 

We’d love for this project to inspire you all to create your own StarKid costumes or crafts and encourage you to share them with us. Let us know what you most want to create and why!  Or if you want to talk it out with someone, we’d be happy to give you all the help we can. We’ve made several StarKid costumes in the past (which have improved over time) and definitely made some mistakes that nobody should ever have to make again. Ever. 

Follow our journey as we attempt to recreate some of the magic that was Jemilla and Zazzalil from Team StarKid’s Firebringer...

[teamstarkidaustralia]

Hello friends!

There has been a lot (and also not very much) happening over here. With Halloween a mere six weeks away (HELP HELP HELP), Dee and I are in full planning/crafting mode. The two of us have been working our cute butts off trying to create costumes and props from FIREBRINGER! Let me say straight up that we are nowhere near as talented as June and I would seriously sell several of my organs to be able to wrangle materials the way she does. Having said that, things aren’t going too badly and if all continues to go to plan we will be bringing the heat on the 31st of October! We have been documenting the process to the best of our ability (a little halfheartedly, I’ll admit) and when the work is all done we will be sharing it with you here. A lot of blood, sweat, and tears (and nervous pee) has gone into this project but it looks like it will be worth it! 

Sidebar: I did some work on part of one costume today that had me wanting to claw my own eyes out just so I wouldn’t have to finish it. It’s been a day y’all.

A xxx