Hi~
Thank you everyone who left a comment! I really appreciate it and I read all of them :) !!! I figured I’d better update this so that everyone’s questions will be answered! I decided to divide the “how to section” into similar parts so that it’s easier to describe the type of materials used and such. If you don’t find the answer that you’re looking for you can PM me and I’ll try to reply as fast as possible.

Hat/Boot Covers
The hat and boot covers are made of mostly paper mache. I’ll upload a couple of “progress shots” soon! I used a tofu container as a base and then used wires and bristle board to construct the shape of the hat and then places paper mache over it to smooth it out. Even though the hat was the first thing I made (started in December~) I just let it stew until April and then realized it wasn’t what I had wanted at all. Blah. Me and my non brilliant schemes. I tried to make the hat so that when I look straight ahead the hat looked tilted since when ever Magician’s Valkyria looks straight ahead her hat is amazingly pointing to the side ;) the wonders of anime~! But yes, it was a very strange idea and sort of worked against me for a long time. I grew to like it in the end though.

Body Piece/Arm Pieces/Leg Pieces
These pieces are created out of fabric. The body piece is actually a bra with a piece of fabric attached to the torso. I had to hand sew it together X3 and it resulted in painful fingers for a week. (Not fun~!) The fabric is backed by interfacing and then painted on top of with acrylic paint. This was a plan which worked out better than I thought. I’m big on colours so I wanted all the pieces to be uniformed in colour. The gold trim is craft foam which is hand sewn onto the fabric. It was very tedious ;_; but I love craft foam~ so I find ways to work with it.

Shoulder Piece
This was constructed with three layers of bristle board with craft foam on top to give it that smooth look. The corners are re-enforced with bamboo sticks (stolen from my mom’s kitchen) and gems are Styrofoam balls. The gold trim is craft foam as well.

Skirt/Back Piece
The skirt was tricky for me. I decided to get some silky fabric because I loved the colour~ but it was hard to work with X3 so I interfaced it as well. In order for it to stick up, like Magician’s Valkyria does in her card photo, I decided to wire it. I had problems sewing wire directly to the fabric so I taped the wire to bristle board and slipped it in between the skirt “petals”. The back piece was made the same way.

Staff
I love my staff~ I made a small boo boo (which I shall not reveal~!) while making it and it drove me nuts. I’m one of those anal, picky, detail oriented people so all the little things bug me. Anyways, the paint job was the major challenge, I wanted it to look very 3D with the proper shading and everything and let’s just say that painting it took me a very long time. It’s made from insulation foam, sanded down and carved out by hand, attached to a PVC pipe. The gold bottom part is made from insulation foam as well. It’s not very sturdy so I had trouble carrying it over the weekend the whole thing is attached together by clay, white glue and bamboo sticks. Special thanks to Jae and Kosa *muah* for helping me carry this all weekend!

A special thanks to Michael as well for taking majority of my photographs, and to Mishie for being my sexy male Dark Paladin. I just want to say I love Yu-Gi-Oh! as I watched it lots while in Junior High. Dark Magician Girl has always been one of my favourite characters and a dream cosplay of mine. I’m so happy I finally managed to do a variation of her~!!! Thanks for reading this ;)