Yeeah so of course I had to go get the last minute idea to make a San cosplay from Princess Mononoke in time for NärCon on 25 July. Normally I would wear my jiuweihu hanfu set, but I've worn it to a few cons already (mostly Comic Con) and I have been wanting to do a "proper" cosplay for some time now. I figured doing Princess Mononoke again would be a good start. I did cheekily look at the cosplay competitions for NärCon but it's too late to enroll. Comic Con Winter, however... that's still open.

Then I'll just make as much as I can for NärCon, no pressure on me to finish everything. And really touch it up to enroll in the Casual/Novice cosplay competition for Comic Con Winter. If worst comes to pass, I'll just wear the hanfu again 😅

San - Princess Mononoke - Cosplay Components

• Mask
• Cloak
• Blue dress
• White apron
• Spiky Necklace
• Arm/Headbands
• Earrings
• Shoe wraps
• Dagger

Mask

I want a wood carved effect. I don't like how "clean" most San masks are, or that exaggerated wood texture carved out of foam. If San existed in the real world, I imagine her whittling the masks out of wood. I will take inspiration from real life wooden Namahage and Balinese masks. I plan to use good old cardboard and paper mache. Pot lid as a mold to get the general shape.

Cloak

I do not want that flat shiny white faux fur that's found everywhere. I want soft, plush, realistic fur with depth (grey ends or roots) but that is too expensive to ship here in time. I need depth to the cloak, I don't want it to look sad and flat. Until I can get the good stuff, I bought a secondhand faux fur vest from Sellpy and I'll alter it myself. I picked one that looked less flat? But we'll see. I saw some amazing luxury faux fur in the shops today, it looked just like an animal pelt. It's not exactly white, it's more grey and brown, but I'm okay with fhat. Unfortunately it's 300SEK per kilo and it's not exactly light... maybe, just maybe...

Dress

Again, why is simple dark blue cotton so hard to find here? So much easier to buy and ship from Taobao. Again, until I have more time to actually ship things from Taobao, I'll just modify a dress I thrifted off of Sellpy.

White Apron

Not sure here. I need to find some cloth or burlap thingie to make it. I imagine it being very rough spun. If I can't find it in time, I'll just use plain unbleached cotton cloth and rough it up like hell.

Spiky Necklace

Air dry clay. Do I stay true to the design or do I make it like realistic large animal teeth? I kinda want to do the latter...

Arm/Headbands

The headband appears to be a black band(suede leather?) with a decorative element - a cabochon with a round border and the band tapers off into triangles behind the cabochon. The arm bands are black rings with the band attached to both sides - easy, can paint a large O ring black or I could make a faux whittled wood ring out of EVA foam I suppose

Earrings

To me it seems like some sort of porcelain or maybe mother of pearl? Maybe polymer clay...? I am not sure if I'll have time to figure out faux mother of pearl with polymer clay in time. For now, painted EVA foam will have to be it as I'm not sure my ears can handle the weight of air dry clay.

Shoe wraps

I'll find a pattern online to make shoe covers. Maybe the same burlap/canvas fabric as for the apron. Find some leather cord and tie it around my ankles.

Dagger

paper mache my beloved. Again, whittled wood effect like the mask. Maybe paint it more to look like unbleached, pale wood.

A bag??

In the earliest watercolor concept art, San has a little bag or dagger sheath. Not the highest priority, but it sure would be nice to have a costume-compatible bag to carry all my things!