Cosplay Family Spotlight: Sweet Destruxion Cosplay

Cosplay is becoming more and more popular around the world and at conventions. I’ve personally found a lot of joy and personal confidence doing cosplay at conventions, and the number one reason I started was as an activity with my son. After seeing a great panel about Cosplay Families at Rose City Comic Con a couple of weeks ago, I thought it would be a great opportunity to talk to parents and families who cosplay and spotlight them here on GeekDad!

Cosplay Family Spotlight is a new recurring segment where I interview and spotlight a cosplay family. This week, I interview Michelle from Sweet Destruxion Cosplay.

Interested in participating? Leave a comment here or reach out to me on twitter @billythebrick.

GeekDad:: How many members of your family are involved in cosplay?
Sweet Destuxion Cosplay:: We all do cosplay. My name is Michelle, and I am 35. My husband is Toby, and he is 42. My oldest is Seth, and he is 14, Nadine is 9, and Gage is 8. I do have a new page I just put together, Sweet Destruxion Cosplay, so there is not much on it, but I am working on trying to find past photos for it.
GeekDad:: How did you and your family get into cosplay and prop/armor making? Did one particular member start it or did you all jump in together? What was your first cosplay?
Sweet Destuxion Cosplay:: Sans from ‘UIndertale.’ Photo by Sweet Destruxion Cosplay.

I have been putting my kids in costume since they were born. I have always loved to dress up and make my own costumes. I talked my husband into it, eventually, to match my costumes. And then we had the kids and the cosplayer in me was like, “Hmmmm, the perfect cosplay accessories!” They love to dress up as well, and while I love doing family cosplays based on the same theme, I do not force them into any of them and let them go off into their own fandom or not dress up at all if they so choose. With my oldest son, he would go along with us until he turned 12, and then all of a sudden he was too cool to be seen with us. Ha! Now he is 14 and will cosplay, but he makes his own or does a theme with his friends which is totally fine with me. My daughter is 9 and younger son is 8, and usually they go along with whatever or cosplay together, but they still have their times they want to do their own thing too. Our first cosplay together at an actual convention was from the show Legend of the Seeker because I am a huge Terry Goodkind fan, and some of the actors from the show were going to be at DragonCon, as well as some of the members of our Goodkind fan group. I had about four days to put something together, so I made us all costumes from the show. I loved the convention scene and was automatically hooked. We then went on to do cosplays from other shows and cartoons together.
GeekDad:: Do you have a favorite cosplay of yours? A favorite group cosplay you’ve done as a family?
Sweet Destuxion Cosplay:: Grell from ‘Black Butler.’ Photo by Sweet Destruxion Cosplay.

I am on a Black Butler kick right now, so mine is Grell Sutcliffe. I have made every version of her so far and a few of my own. Toby usually gravitates to Captain Hook from Once Upon a Time. Seth really liked his Sans from Undertale. That was a literal last minute cosplay made the night before a convention that he worked on that was made from paper mache and had a LED light in the eye. Gage’s is his Kylo Ren and Nadine said any of her evil costumes, haha! She is like me and always wants to be the villain. My personal favorite of a group cosplay was our Once Upon a Time cosplay. I was evil queen Regina, Toby was Captain Hook, Seth was Henry, and Nadine and Gage were Hansel and Gretel. We got to meet a lot of the cast at a convention, and they really loved it.
GeekDad:: Speaking of group cosplay, do you always try to cosplay together? Or do you all do your own thing?
Sweet Destuxion Cosplay:: I like to cosplay together, but if the kids want to do their own thing I will help them make whatever costume they want. I think it is something that should not be forced on anyone to do. If they don’t want to join that particular fandom cosplay then they can be their own thing, or even not dress up at all.
GeekDad:: Do you have a favorite piece that challenged you?
Sweet Destuxion Cosplay:: ‘Once Upon a Time’ cosplay with Sean Maguire. Photo by Sweet Destruxion Cosplay.

I think the most challenging costume was Captain Hook. I had never worked with leather before, so I had to read a lot and get help from a leather working friend of mine. Plus all of those grommets! My hands were sore for a week from putting all of those in for the lacing. But it was totally worth it.
GeekDad:: What’s your favorite “medium” to work in (sewing, EVA foam, resin casting, etc.)?
Sweet Destuxion Cosplay:: Dual Daryls. Photo by Sweet Destruxion Cosplay.

I sew all of our costumes. I have done a few things with resin casting and foam, and even learned a little metal working for a small piece of a costume. My favorite part is the sewing, though.
GeekDad:: It’s been awhile, but I used to do quite a bit of scale model building and I see a lot of similarities in techniques between small-scale building and prop and armor building. Have you ever done any scale modeling or smaller scale builds?
Sweet Destuxion Cosplay:: My oldest son was actually interested in scale modeling for a while, and he put together a few things.
GeekDad:: Most of our readers are parents and, like me, want to share their geeky interests with their kids. I’ve been doing father and son cosplay with my son since he was born. Do you have any suggestions on how parents can get their kids interested and involved with cosplay and fabrication?
Sweet Destuxion Cosplay:: Anna from ‘Frozen’ running from Pac-Man and ghosts. Photo by Sweet Destruxion Cosplay.

Take any show or book or game they like and show them how they can bring it to life! Let them help with the building or sewing or painting. My oldest son has made several cosplays himself using foam for armor and paper mache, and you can tell he is very proud of his work and enjoys his cosplay more than if I just make it and tell him to wear it. My kids love going to conventions and getting to see all of their favorite characters. My daughter really gets into it and gets people she likes to pose with her, like the Pac-Man cosplayers that she wanted to “chase” her and the Sugar Plum fairy that she wanted to make scary faces with. You really just have to consider their interests and what part of cosplay, or any geeky interest, they like the most and go off of that.
GeekDad:: Something along the lines of “Being a geek isn’t about what you love but how you love it,” is sort of the new geek mantra. Do you have anything, besides cosplay, that you consider yourself a geek about?
Sweet Destuxion Cosplay:: Kylo Ren and Rey. Photo by Sweet Destruxion Cosplay.

My main thing is cosplay, but I guess sewing would come into that as well. I see an outfit on a show or cartoon and I am like, “I need to make that now!!!” So I guess fashion design would be something I geek out about. My oldest wants to be a video game designer and is already taking classes in school to help him with that. My daughter loves to draw and mostly loves drawing manga type art and she does very well and has even had her art entered into art shows.
GeekDad:: What upcoming conventions do you have on your schedule that people could see you at?
Sweet Destuxion Cosplay:: We always do DragonCon–that is a must for us. We usually do Conooga, and this year we are doing Momocon and Heroes and Villains Atlanta. Maybe AWA and a few small ones that will pop up. And even though it is not a convention, we always do the GA Ren Fest in Atlanta as well.