We caught up with the brilliant and insightful DecoDolphin a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, DecoDolphin thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
Overall, I’m mostly self-taught! When I started cosplaying back in 2012, I had no sewing experience. I received my great-grandmother’s sewing machine to start practicing with, and one of my first costumes involved rough pattern-making and stitching it together. During the first few years, I was determined to keep practicing, even taking a sewing class one semester in high school, to become more familiar with basic techniques and tools. I started doing more research on my own, following online tutorials, buying store patterns and making garments, purchasing thrifted items to modify them, and styling wigs to match the characters’ appearance. My dad got me a new sewing machine one year, which allowed me to experiment with more techniques, my projects also aided by my mother’s experience from her Fashion Design degree. Fortunately, cosplay was starting to become more popular, and I was able to rely on help and support from other cosplayers online to keep pursuing my goals and practicing making costumes!
Looking back, something that could have helped me speed up my learning process is buying the right tools! I would have invested in some equipment to make the steps a little easier. I also could have spent more time practicing drafting patterns, so that it didn’t take me so long now to do so!
The most essential skills to me are wig styling, and sewing. While either are not required to cosplay, both have been very important in helping me achieve the desired look for my own costumes. Learning how to style a wig, to both meet the characters’ design but also fit the comfortability of your own head, can be complicated and challenging, but oh-so-rewarding. Knowing how to sew has also been incredibly helpful, from tailoring bought garments, to fixing holes in seams, to making fitted gloves. I’m still growing in both areas, but I’m so grateful that I took the time to learn them!
An obstacle that stood in my way was funds. I didn’t have a job until after graduating high school, so I relied on completing extra chores, helping my dad with his job, or my parents’ help in buying cosplay materials. I think that’s typical for a high schooler’s situation though, and it definitely didn’t prevent me from still enjoying the hobby I love!
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My name is Kelsey, or as I’m known on my social media platforms, DecoDolphin! I grew up in a small town in Montana, where throughout school I was focused in theatre, art, and music. I attended college for five years, studying theatre education and illustration with an emphasis in design. I’m passionate about creating, Dungeons & Dragons, video editing, and cosplaying. I also enjoy video games, particularly ones with a captivating story line and fun character design! I’ve been cosplaying for 12 years, since the summer of 2012, and attending conventions since July of 2013!
I got into cosplaying in 2012, by discovering someone cosplaying Yusei Fudo from Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s, one of my all-time favorite animes. I had never heard of such a hobby, even with my love for Halloween and dressing up in cool costumes, so I looked into it more, and learned all about it. I went to school the next day, sharing my discovery with my friends, all of whom were also just excited to hear about such an activity! I planned my first cosplay shortly after that: a human version of Navi, the fairy from The Legend of Zelda game series. The following year, I attended Nagu Con, my first anime convention! Since then, I’ve traveled to a variety of cons in a few states, learning more about cosplay throughout the years and growing more serious in participating in the the hobby.
The type of creative works I provide are convention vlogs, work-in-progress (WIP) photos of my current projects, and photos of my completed cosplays. I do this to share my love of the hobby and to interact with others who have similar interests. It’s a fun way to meet new friends, and connect with those around the world who loves a character or series just as much as you do! Through this, I also hope to inspire new cosplayers, as well as be a positive light to the community.
I’m most proud of my Rey cosplay, from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I made or altered each piece of the costume, including the staff, all of which took me over 67 hours to complete. I tried new techniques and applied various skills to achieve certain results (dyeing, patterning, foam work, painting, and sewing), and there’s something so cool about putting on the cosplay afterwards, looking at yourself in the mirror, and thinking, “Hey, I MADE that”.
The main thing I would want potential followers or fans to know about me and what I create is that I love cosplaying because of the friendships and enjoyment it brings into my life. I’m so glad to be apart of a community where creativity is shared, where we hype each other up as we work on projects, and where we accept one another as we explore ourselves through cosplaying fictional characters. I hope, at the end of the day, others would know I value the diversity, ingenuity, and beauty in what we bring to life, and that I aspire to make the community a better place for all.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
I think society can be better about accepting creative expression! Art is subjective, sure, but that doesn’t make someone else’s art less of an art because it’s not something one may personally enjoy. Cosplaying may appear odd from an outside perspective, but to those within the community, it’s a hobby combining all sorts of skills and talents into one end result: bringing our favorite characters to our world.
Not only that, but I think society can adjust to understand that those who take a creative route through that of content creating. Often, I’ve heard it described as a “quick grab to fame”, or a “desperate attempt for attention”. So much goes into creating content for others online, most of which is behind the scenes, like video editing, the process of recording, scripting, travelling, planning, just to name a few for example. People create and share all sorts of things, but the most common reason I’ve seen is simple: to share joy and love for something. I think, as a whole, we can learn to accept others for their preferred format of creative expression, and that in turn, positively affect the creative ecosystem by encouraging creators to pursue their own happiness.
Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
Absolutely! I would have loved to visited thrift stores more often, to have a better chance of finding certain materials that might come in handy. I also wish I would have known about helpful books that other cosplayers have created, sharing tutorials, advice, and where to find particular products to aid in creating costumes. Online, there are plenty of resources for finding what we need, even if it comes down to asking another cosplayer how they did something. But I wish I had been braver about reaching out to others! So many cosplayers in the community are eager to share their progress and learning experiences, and I could have been able to lean on their support more if I had reached out earlier on in my cosplaying career.
There are also so, so many online stores that provide endless types of fabrics, and I wish I had done more research to find them, and learn about the uses different fabrics have.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/decodolphincosplay/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/decodolphincos
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnsLxDzOGB3MVIrHwe2_WKg
Image Credits
@onestitchfromhell @rosaleigh_arts