My eldest had a fantastic idea for a cosplay costume and I volunteered to help. (Ok, I may have begged, and “I’ll be in charge of this part” may have passed my lips. I’m definitely a Zelda fan, especially Tears of the Kingdom.) One of the parts I claimed was an elaborate panel that hangs on the front of Zelda’s Zonai dress. The panel has two layers, a silk banner and a copper beaded piece. To make the copper pieces light, I wanted to use EVA foam sheet and paint them. I cut shapes from paper first and laid them out on a banner of green/blue recycled silk.

To transfer the paper pattern to the foam, my Mom suggested dusting the pieces. I laid them out on paper on the EVA foam, and used tapioca flour and a cotton ball to dust the surface.

The flour settled where the pieces weren’t, leaving a dark outline that was more precise than tracing. When I do this next I’ll use a foundation brush or something other than a cotton ball, because the cotton caught on the edges of the paper and did not lay down an even coat of flour.

I was able to cut out most of the pieces using the flour shadows, and only on a few needed to use the original paper piece.

I’m going to break this project into several blog posts. My apologies to those who are not Zelda fans, I’ll be geeking out for a while. I hope there will be some techniques you will find interesting or useful.