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Michelle Sleeper Creates 'Gaming, Comics, and Pop Culture Based Props'
If you go to a sci-fi or gaming convention you'll see people in exotic "character" costumes, often holding exotic props, with some of the most popular being futuristic firearm mockups of one sort or another. Who makes all these cool fannish items? A whole bunch of artists and artisans, including Michelle Sleeper (who says she got tired of jokes about her name many years ago). She's not only one of these artisans, but is also a committed 3-D printer user, since 3-D printing is how she forms a high percentage of her props (with the word "props" being used here in the theatrical rather than the nautical sense). To keep up with what Michelle is making, you should check her blog. One of her most interesting posts, titled Atlanta Mini Maker Faire: On missing deadlines, failure, and triage, is about preparing for the event where Timothy Lord met and interviewed Michelle.
Even if gamer gatherings and SF conventions aren't your thing, the interview (along with the links above) gives a nice glimpse into the life of an independent artisan who uses technology to create a lot of her art. (Alternate Video Link)
Even if gamer gatherings and SF conventions aren't your thing, the interview (along with the links above) gives a nice glimpse into the life of an independent artisan who uses technology to create a lot of her art. (Alternate Video Link)
Michelle Sleeper (who says she got tired of jokes about her name many years ago)
I see what you did there.
Try going to a halloween party, where your costume is a girl on your back, and you're a snail.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Who makes all these cool fannish items? TFS (because there isn't a TFA) would love to have us think it's Michelle and folks like her... But I suspect that the vast majority of the time, it's the guy (or gal) carrying it around or one of their close friends. If not, it's a cheap Chinese knockoff from an online store, or a less cheap (in dollar cost anyhow) Chinese version from Toy 'R Us. Vendors and tailors like Michelle selling detailed props and costumes of any significant quality are actually pretty rare.
Outside of the pop culture hype and exploitation machine that is Comic-Con, there's a strong self-Maker culture among fandom and it's one that's also usually deeply concerned about budget. Not mention that most of fandom doesn't give a hoot about whether or not your costume is perfectly accurate (they leave that for the SCA*), it's the attempt that counts the most.
*I kid, I kid... I'm a long time player in the SCA.
Check out the blog, she usually constructs 3D models manually herself from lower quality images/models.
And the first blog example where she used an existing model, Fallout 3's Pip-Boy 3000, she spent "about 12 hours" cleaning up the 3D printed model.
She's a crafts-person, old school style with new school tools (similar old school tools would have involved molds, similar to using an existing 3D model). Pretty cool stuff in my opinion.
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