Cosplay Family Spotlight: Dkreations

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, 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 Derek Kat of Dkreations.

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?

Dkreations:

Nicole and I are a blended family, each bringing a child to the family. Currently, three out of the four of us cosplay, Nicole (30), her daughter Maddie (12), and me (28). My son is five, and we are starting to get him into conventions, though his birthday is Halloween so he gets a few costumes to wear, and he also enjoys dressing up as pirates for medieval fairs. Only I currently have a cosplay page, but it won’t be long before Maddie has one.

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?

Dkreations:

Sailor Moon and Mini Moon. Photo by Derek Kat.

Nicole started it. Loving anime, she would dress up when going to conventions. Then soon Maddie followed in her mother’s footsteps with their first cosplay together being Sailor Moon and Mini Moon. I spent 13 years going to conventions and never dressing up until I met Nicole. Our love and passion for all things geeky brought us together and the itch to cosplay infected me, but like all my hobbies, I went full out for my first cosplay making a full Heathcliff armor from Sword Art Online which I then won a craftsmanship award at the Anime North Masquerade in the novice division.

GeekDad:

Do you have a favorite cosplay of yours? A favorite group cosplay you’ve done as a family?

Dkreations:

Nicole’s favorite cosplay is being dressed as Gun Sinon from Sword Art Online, and her favorite group cosplay was Sailor Moon and Mini Moon.

Maddie’s favorite group cosplay was the recent Skyrim which her costume earned her an honorary mention, and her favorite cosplay was being Asuna from Sword Art Online.

My favorite cosplay was my Commander Shepard Mass Effect/Dragon Age armor. It was the costume that elevated me into the Masters division skipping past Journeyman. My favorite group was our Sword Art Online cosplay.

Though Ryker hasn’t “cosplayed” before, he has been Batman, a spider, and a pirate all for events/birthdays and loves dressing up. He really wants me to dress up with him as just the Voltron cats (new show).

GeekDad:

Speaking of group cosplay, do you always try to cosplay together? Or do you all do your own thing?

Dkreations:

We usually try to match. But we each have our cosplay wish lists that don’t always overlap.

GeekDad:

Do you have a favorite piece that challenged you?

Dkreations:

Maddie’s most challenging piece to her recent cosplay was her shoulder pads and finding the right scale size.

Commander Shepard in Dragon Age/Mass Effect armor. Photo by OCC Photography.

My most challenging piece was my chest armor for Mass Effect. It was tough to find the right shape and resulted in many breaks.

GeekDad:

What’s your favorite “medium” to work in (sewing, EVA foam, resin casting, etc.)?

Dkreations:

After using Sintra, Worbla, EVA foam, and styrofoam, EVA still dominates in our house for being the cheapest and most forgiving.

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?

Dkreations:

Any of my modeling experience comes from Warhammer. When I was a kid, I enjoyed making and painting them over playing them.

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?

Dkreations:

‘Sword Art Online’ Group. Photo by Derek Kat.

Find something your kids enjoy that you could dress up as or make a prop [from]. If they like Star Wars, making their own lightsaber, letting them pick the parts and where they go, and you helping them to make it. Let their ideas drive the project. They have better imaginations than we do. To encourage them to dress up, tell them tales of your adventures of dressing up. Let them know there are tons of geeks out there like us.

For me, growing up my father passed his loved of sci-fi and video games onto me just by spending time together watching Star Trek and playing Mario Golf on N64. Back then it was still tough to be a nerd growing up, and I learned to surround myself with others that have similar interests. This is where kids and adults can thrive, feeding off of others’ geeky and nerdy passions. Look for events at your local comic book store, find a local group on facebook for a show you love, and go from there.

Ultimately, kids just want to have fun. If they see us having fun, they want to do what we are doing.

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?

Dkreations:

For myself, I am the ultimate geek. I love everything–comic books, video games, sci-fi, anime, board games, D&D, Heroclix. My favorite show growing up was Stargate SG1. I even have my own Stargate tattooed on my leg.

Nicole enjoys a little bit of everything geeky from the Andromeda to the fantasy world of Eragon to Justice League and X-Men, but anime is her passion.

Maddie is a geek when it comes to Minecraft, LEGO skills competitions at school, watching anime, and medieval fairs.

Our entire house is decorated with signed photos of actors we have met, maps from Game of Thrones, and even swords. The geek is strong in this family.