Hello everyone and welcome to WarCraft Press’s first interview and what a way to start! This month we are doing our first interview and as an introduction to our interviews we are doing this one as a bonus of sorts for you.
We had the distinct privilege of meeting the lovely Shelby E. Russell of Tejnin’s Creations. What is Tejnin’s Creations you ask? Its a shop that does cosplay costumes, bikinis, props and more. You can find them on several websites including Facebook, Etsy and more. Shelby is a 24 year old woman that’s always had a love and passion for costumes, cosplay, and all that it has to offer. She can even be quoted as saying “I have been obsessed with cosplay my entire life!”
We asked Shelby “when did you get started in Cosplay? and why?” her response was full of enthusiasm and excitement as she responded with “I got started in cosplay, so long ago I can’t remember. I had a rough childhood dealing with bullies and abuse that I always wanted to be someone else. Halloween was amazing… Anything I wanted to be, I could. When I got to college, I befriended someone who invited me to go with their group to a convention and I was hooked!”. I could almost see her smile through the phone, and it felt very contagious. Shelby went on to say “I became addicted to making costumes and every new one seems to be more challenging than the last one! That’s one of the coolest parts, besides showing off my love of my craft and the passion I have for the characters I dress up as, possibly the coolest part of cosplay is challenging yourself.”
After asking “If there is one aspect of cosplay you enjoy more than any other what is it?” Shelby replied “The people I’ve met are amazingly kind, passionate, nerdy, and fun. I’ve made friends for life and it’s amazing how many of them share similar backgrounds!”
I then asked Shelby “When did you start Tejnin’s Creations?” Here came that audible smile through the phone again as I could hear her light up, she replied “I started Tejnin’s Creations as a little hobby. I bought a nerdy suit from a popular store at the mall and the first time I wore it, I wiped water off and the screen printed design peeled right off… I was so disappointed. I did a lot of research and found out that heat sublimation printing was chlorine safe! I started working with a fabric company, but after they constantly, continuously failed me symmetrically, I moved up and on to self dependency… If you want something done right, you’ve gotta do it yourself.”. That’s what makes the world go round. If you want something, anything you have to do like the Nike commercial says and “Just Do IT”. “Way to go Shelby!”
When I asked Shelby about the mission of Tejnin’s Creations and what the mission was she simply stated and I quote once more “My mission, bring nerdiness to everyday fashion and make everyone confident and happy in their bodies. I insist on having models of all shapes, sizes, backgrounds, etc.”. I love it.
As the interview progressed we talked about some of the goals she has for Tejnin’s Creations and let me tell you she has a fair share of irons in the fire. She stated that her long and short term goals were very similar and the she wants Tenjnin’s Creations to get big enough she can retire from her “Muggle Job”, makes me smile with nerd nirvana. She is actively working to get additional licensing rights and informed me that the feeling she gets when someone tells her that her work is good enough to represent them is almost unreal.
We wanted to know what events Tejnin’s Creations was was participating in this year and she said “Oh my, lots of events, including this years Colossalcon” which at the time of this interview was less than 2 days away. She went on to let us know it is an anime convention at a water park in Sandusky, Ohio. Tejnin’s Creations had a booth and she ran a fashion show. She also stated “I’ve got several fashion shows all over the US, upcoming, too, including Denver RAW! It’s very exciting!”
Remarkably, Shelby also has an, as she liked to put it, a “Muggle Job” when we spoke on the phone. This begged the question “With all your doing with Tejnin’s Creations, your muggle job, etc, do you have any hobbies?” She casually explained “I do have a muggle job, as it’s an expensive hobby and I put a lot back into the business to help it grow (traveling to shows, investing in machines, stock etc.), so my heart goes into that” So there you have it Tejnin’s Creations is her hobby! She also informed us that she doesn’t know how she manages her time, and that one example of making sure she gets done what she needs to is she only slept 2 hours in 3 days in preparation for the Colossacon and that she can sleep when she is dead.
We wanted to know what it takes for her to prepare for an event, so we asked her what rituals or steps does she take to prepare for events she is involved in. Shelby chuckled and said the preparation is a phase of utter chaos and some of the things she has to do to be prepared for each event include: Wrangling models, she provides an assortment of models for her shows. She also has to make sure all the pieces she needs have been created and are working around custom sizes and designs, Travel, accessories(wigs, capes, props, etc.).
with all the chaos and events you attend I asked “What is your biggest fear when attending any event?” Shelby stated that her biggest fears when attending events are few. There’s been a problem with objectification of the women and insults based on weight etc. But, she says “I’ve gotten really skilled at kindly and professionally telling people to take a lesson from thumper… “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all”! You tell’em girl!
Shelby also states “There’s also people who get joy out of destroying costume pieces of others… No idea why, and it’s not that common, but it does happen and terrifies me… My friends have been victims.” I find that to be a bit disheartening. But she also told me that, that kind of thing does not happen often. Sadly in a post a few days ago on her Facebook page she shared a sad example of this kind of destruction only it was done by the TSA! Apparently, they suspected a bomb in a battery powered Halo Spartan helmet for one of the costumes she had created.
In closing of our interview to asked her to pretend she was talking to a third grade and explain how someone would go about getting into cosplay and if she offered any kind of tutorials or advice to which She replied with “For getting into cosplay, which I love encouraging people to do, start small. Salvation army is your best friend. Look for characters you love that can be made with salvation army stuff and move up using YouTube tutorials to help with sewing, wood work, etc. They’re very helpful. Hopefully I’ll be starting making some, soon!
Thank you Shelby for taking time out of your crazy schedule to chat with us. We wish you the best of luck in all your adventures.
All images in this post were provided by Tejnin’s Creations
Tejnin’s Creations Interview Hello everyone and welcome to WarCraft Press’s first interview and what a way to start! This month we are doing our first interview and as an introduction to our interviews we are doing this one as a bonus of sorts for you.
