Blasting into the arena

When starting the Green Arrow costume I knew two distinct things..and was told these by my friends Steve and Becca.

1) The costume was aged now, so parts will be hard to find the right ones.

2) The Leather would be pricey.

Undaunted I began looking for parts, and I wanted to start with one of the harder peices to find, and thats the sunglasses.

Sunglasses for me lately have been interesting. I used to be fine with anything under $5. But Costuming has shown me some spectacular glasses that are better made and last a long while...plus I need them for costuming. So I now have so many different styles!

In Smallville, rather than go with masks and whatnot for Superhero alteregos, sunglasses were used to hide identities. With sunglasses being made in interesting styles now, the team at Smallville found and converted a pair of glasses to work with the character.

 

I never looked too closely at them, but I was told they were a brand called Zeal, and the style was Blast.

So I went looking around online and found them, at huge prices...Smallville didn't do anything cheap. I have seen them rangeing upwards to $150. These sunglasses are favoured by performace oriented consumers, like hikers, cyclists and whatnot.

The design is pretty sweet, and kind of futuristic looking, enough to really appeal to a 21st Century Vigilante.

The glasses pictured above are what was used by production, with brown lenses (other choices are available to those who want something different), and painted green.

I was not content with spending alot of the glasses, so I hunted around and found a great sports store online that has fantastic deals daily. Sierra Trading Post. They had the glasses and they were pretty cheap, $60 with shipping (Shipping to Canada was more than the item itself!)

But I think they look perfect! All that is left is to paint them green!

Arrow

One costume I have always wanted to do was a Superhero. Amoungst the Jedi, The Doctor, Stargate etc styles I have done, a Superhero has been wanted since I was a kid.

A few things have ALWAYS stood in my way.

1) I just don't have the body aka chest for spandex,
2) Not really fitting the mould for my favourite heroes (Spidey and Superman)
3) Wanting to do it Justice.

I have always been more of a fan of DC Comic heroes, but nothing was more motivating than watching Smallville and seeing the Green Arrow in that show. Very different, and somehow realistic (as much as you can be). I liked the Character and costume but shelved the idea.

A few years pass and my interest still hangs on on doing this costume, and the costume crew revamped it to look even better. I wanted to do this costume, but stayed back looking at it anything seriously until...well I procrastinated it.

And then I tried on a friends costume, made by the same makers as the above costume. WOW! My desire is blown to a full flame of desire!

 

And thus begins the hunt, for all the peices that don't exist any more!

In the Beginning

Onwords! I've tried this too many times to count, but I am going to give this a go.

I have  recently been thinking that I really need to give some thought to a diary/project centre to discuss my hobbies and little meanderings of life. Whether anyone reads this, or stops by often, I am going to try and post as often as I think about it.

My biggest hobby is Props and costumes from TV shows, as well as creating them for various movies that my production team makes. (Site plug www.key-pixel.com).

I also really love to take patches made on TV and movies and replicate them to the point where none would recognise them from their actual film prop. As a graphic designer, all the nit picky details of certain patches in the market always bugged me, so I took the reins myself.

So in the next few days I will post some specifics and some of my items to share and start some project posts as well!