From furry foxes to partying princesses, there was nothing but costumes and cosplay at the second annual Figments and Filaments convention in Kansas City this past weekend.
This lovely Artemis was a cosplayed and volunteer for Amanda Lynn Chainmaille Creations.
My grade school days are so far behind me, I remember very little about any sort of science experiments. I vaguely recall something about adding food coloring to water to turn white carnations different colors. BOR-ING. If I had Andrew Gatt for a teacher, I think I would have some pretty epic science memories.
As the lower school science specialist as a school in Raleigh, North Carolina, Andrew started building paper roller coasters in the late 90s as an activity in his 5th grade classroom. He continued refining his designs over the years, and started making presentations of his designs at teacher conventions and eventually started selling the templates and directions. These days, he teaches science to 7th and 8th graders and uses the templates with his 7th graders each fall. The templates are available on his website.
Homeschoolers and science aficionados rejoice! Andrew offers three lesson plans to use with the paper roller coasters, which are available for free download on his website, PaperRollerCoasters.com. “The lesson plans show how paper roller coasters can be used to teach about speed, acceleration, potential energy, and kinetic energy,” says Andrew. “It’s also a great structural engineering lesson in which students have to build a sturdy structure that will hold up the tracks.”
See videos of paper roller coasters in action on Andrew’s YouTube channel!
Up to the challenge of building your own coaster? We’d love to hear about your efforts and results – feel free to share a link to your creation in the comments below! Go forth now and SCIENCE!
Belinda Christie has created the ultimate in Cinderella costumes: one that transforms from Cinderella’s poor, tattered dress into her ball gown. Other than this magical Cinderella get-up, Belinda recently also won the “Best Sci-Fi/Movie/Animation Cosplay” category at a convention in Salt Lake City. She was dressed as Merida from “Brave.”
Check out this Kickstarter campaign. Xander is raising capital to start a business making screen-printed nerdy pirate flags, and he has some great designs!
not quite, entirely unlike tea
From the site:
“Pirates are cool! Aside from being covetous, rum-swigging, no-rules-having bad-asses, you know what makes them so freakin’ awesome? Their flags!
Take the Jolly Roger—one of the most iconic symbols in recent history. It was flown by men and women of fortune to show the world that they would not be ruled—that they were free.
I want to make the same statement. I’m opening a pirate flag screen-printing operation to create personal Jolly Rogers to sell at comic conventions, Renaissance fairs, art shows, and other events.”
He only has 3 days to go and has just about reached his goal! Definitely worth checking out!
Are you planning to attend any cons this year? Have some cosplay in mind? This World of Warcraft (WoW) leather armor tutorial by DeviantArt user OrangeMoose may be just what you’re looking for. Check out her cool leather armor bodice.
OrangeMoose has stepped out her armor-making process from pattern to cutting to assembly, including several pro-tips along the way, such as buying the leather in person instead of online, to be able to inspect for hide defects, and using an old bra to help draft out the chestpiece. She also steps out her process for making the Regalia of Faith shoulders from Styrofoam.
One thing she didn’t go into was how she created the pattern – my guess is she took a screenshot of her World of Warcraft character (perhaps using the WoW Model Viewer?), and then highlighted specific design details in a photo editing program. Looking at her tutorial, how do you think she created her pattern?
Be sure and check out her Gallery for pics of the cosplay in action. Amazing attention to detail.
What cosplay projects do you have lined up for 2014?
Links of Interest:
Caleb from Hackaday wanted to make his own Thor’s Hammer. But not just any Thor’s Hammer, oh no, Caleb’s version of Mjölnir contains a mini Tesla Coil that packs an 80,000 volt, lightning strike punch.
Click the image above to see Caleb’s video that demonstrates what I’m talking about. The hammer is pretty big, but in a cool, over-sized kind of a way, and would make a great talking point at any convention. There’s also a good video where Caleb shows how he made both the hammer itself and his pretty effective version of Thor’s armour, which appears to have only taken a few hours. Check it out: DIY High Voltage Thor’s Hammer: How it was made.
