Final Design.

I settled on my final piece design to be a steampunk variation of Hawkgirl. Admittedly she wasn't the superhero I would have chosen at the beginning of this project, but I'm still happy with the finished product; I changed her green and yellow colours to a rusty yellow and brown to give it more of the steampunk aesthetic.

Designing

I started designing based on what I learnt from tracing the characters and their clothing. I broke it down into sections and incorporated different outfits the character had depending on whether it came from a movie, video game, comic or cartoon. and then adding elements of steampunk that I learnt from my research.

I like the way some of my designs had turned out and I started focusing on redesigning the characters we know already as if they were being remade into a new movie, one based in the steampunk universe and decided then that my final piece will be a popular character re-made into steampunk.

I realised while in the process of designing that I had run out of time to fully design and develop; this was due to me focusing too much on the research part of my project. but I am still happy with the outcome of the designs I did create.

Steampunk Catwoman by Me.

Development work

Once I had collected and compiled all my research, I started tracing popular superheroes and villains to get and idea of the shapes in their clothing, for referencing when I start making the patterns for my final piece.
This was really useful for me because the way that I personally design is very realistic, and I focus more on my designs being a guideline to the garment's construction, rather than the aesthetics of it for a show. Tracing their outfits helped me better understand how the garments were made, and within this process i had to deconstruct everything from the beginning to the end.

Test Tophat

I followed one of the tutorial videos that 'Lost Wax' has on his page, to make a steampunk top hat, I made it to see how easy and time consuming it is incase I wanted to use this knowledge towards my final piece.

I started by making the main body of the hat out of yoga matt foam and then covering it with smaller squares of foam to make it look like plates going around the top hat.

I then hole punched the thinner sheets of foam to make the rivets that will go around each plate.

Painting it in 3 layers of black paint for the undercoat colour.

And then finally using bronze metallic paint, I used my finger to smudge the paint around each rivet and plate to give the rust metal effect.

In conclusion, even though the hat alone took more than a day to make, I still love the outcome of it and will be using this as a part of my final piece.

MCM Expo

I went to MCM Expo, which is the UK's biggest comic convention; it is a traditional for the people going there to dress up as their personal favourite characters, and I thought this was the perfect opportunity to see how people create their costumes and bring their own twist to each creation.

I found this very useful because it has been very popular to make steampunk variations of peoples favourite characters, regardless of where they originate.
my favourite costumes from the Expo were a trio that went as steampunk versions of three batman villains The Joker, Harley Quinn, and Poison Ivy. I was able to talk to them about how each one made their cosplays, and this really helped me get an idea of how to start remoulding each character to better fit into the steampunk world.

MCM Expo Group, Facebook

Trail and error Earrings

I found a place in London that sells clockwork gears for a very cheap price, so I decided to do a bit of trial and error experimenting and see where it led. This resulted in me making a pair of steampunk styled earrings; I found this quite challenging because the gears were exceptionally small and were very difficult to hold while trying to glue them into the correct place.
I decided that if I am going to work with clockwork gears in the future that I am going to get the correct tools to hold them in place, and find a more effective glue that doesn't take too long to dry so I can create my work faster.

Workshop

During my time on the FMP module, I managed to get a job in a workshop that specialised in making props and costumes for stages and film sets. This has helped me so much with my work for my FMP because I had learnt how to make many new things.

The first thing they had taught me was how to make mold for resining. It was my first time doing both of these techniques but the outcomes came out better than expected, and I was told that I was already a pro at making things out of resin. I plan to use this new skill towards my final piece too because you can make very lovely things very quickly.

My boss Gareth showing me how to mix and pour resin into the moulds.

The outcome of the things I made out of resin.

Alongside the resin stuff, I learned how to make many other things along with techniques such as plaster mould, fibreglassing, and carpentry, all at a beginner level.

Here is a few other things I helped make in the workshop.

The 10th Doctor, Tardis

A steam punk styled street lamp

And we are currently building out own version of the Narnia wardrobe.