Completed For: Fanime 2002
Worn at: Fanime 2002, Baycon 2002
Awards Won: Craftsmanship Merit (Group) and Artistic Superiority (Novice Group) at Fanime 2002

Why I Chose This Costume:
I am short and I am tough! Well, half right! Shayla-Shayla is the youngest of the three priestesses of Mount Mouldoon. She has the power over fire, and sometimes even uses it for noble purposes. What attacted me to this costume is that it was a very dynamic character and costume, and would allow me to have a bit of fun. However, Kel and I decided that their costumes in the anime were a bit boring, and decided to design "battle costumes" for them. The original design was inspired by a "Cry for Dawn"  concept art. However, by the time we finished we had gotten pretty far from the both the concept art, and the original anime source! The only thing the same was the wig on my costume!

How I Made This Costume:
Our original design for the armor was to be sculpted armor (out of paperclay) with fiber optics details. After rejecting that idea as being unworkable, Kel came up with the idea of "stained glass." The difficult part was finding/making clear plastic armor shapes to build the stained glass on. After trying thermoplastics, and fiberglass, we lucked out and found easter egg containers, that with a bit of shaping with the dremel, suited our purposes. We went to every dollar store in the Bay Area for clear plastic colored items that could be cut apart and glued to the shapes. After much thought about our electrical engineering skills, the armor is lit with mini taplights. The "bodice" is a corset made out of a two tone acetate, that had a great liquid look when light. The keyhole front was make out of a light swimsuit lining spandex, so that it would be modest, and give us something to glue the jewels to, but give the appearance of an open front. The top of the keyhole front was batted so that the armor wouldn't dig in so much (should have used more, however). The skirt was a circle skirt made our of an iradescent organza, with a short train in the back. To accomplish the flame effect, I cut approximately 300 flame shapes (about 1 foot long) out of 7 different colors of organza. The top several feet of the skirt had the flame pieces sewn on all sides, while the bottom, plus a bit of overlap, were glued on the top corner, so that they would give the illusion of movement when I walked.

My Thoughts on this Costume:
Like everything I do, I am not entirely happy with the way the costume turned out. Mostly, PAIN! The armor weighted about thirty pounds (mostly from the batteries!) all of which was transfered onto a single point above the shoulder blades. Also, while the way we came up with attaching the armor to the costume worked, and allowed arm movement, when we put our arms down, the armor should shift dramatically (usually off the back of our shoulders). So, we had to use a lot of duct tape to prevent this, and then couldn't move our arms above the elbow at ALL.  So, it wasn't the best solution, and the most ineffective battle armor, ever! :) So, before these are worn again, I hope to solve the pain problem, and come up with a better and more secure way of attaching the armor.