Hey SG land! @missy @rambo This is a long overdue blog post all about the keyblade I made! It's the Destiny's Embrace keyblade, which is Kairi's keyblade. For those of you who are not familiar, this is from the video game series Kingdom Hearts, which is my all time favorite video game series. I made her keyblade because I decided to do her as my first ever cosplay (and first ever cosplay set). I know I've posted about it here and there, but I wanted to show you guys the entire process that I documented! Here we go!
First pieces cut out and attached! I used foam board and layered it 3 layers. I attached it to a 3/4 inch PVC pipe that my dad and I cut to be about belly button height on me, with white duct tape.
Here I drew out and attached the wave piece of her keyblade. I attached it using a hot glue gun, and also layered it with 3 layers.
Here I just laid out the vines to get a feel of how I wanted them to look when I attached them.
Getting ready to paper mache !
Paper mache, a success!
Vines were attached with white duct tape after the paper mache had dried. I waited a few days before I attached them. I used paper clay, which is a super specific type. It's not as heavy. I kinda didn't know how to apply it, so I used a whole pound of clay on that bottom part. Which I definitely didn't need to do lol
With the heart pieces, I started with the side that didn't have the wave. This time I used tiny amounts of clay instead of huge globs, and it worked out so much better. It came out way smoother and lighter in weight.
In this pic I have completed the entire clay application for the heart pieces, including carving out parts for the wave. Which I just decided to do on a whim. I also made and attached the cross / crown on the very top of the PVC pipe.
Before I spray painted it gold! I was so nervous haha. I have a video of what it looked like when it was just all gold. Among lots of other videos but I'm not entirely sure that I can upload them to this blog? I'm not the most tech savvy lol
Front and back of the wave side after I painted it. I used an assortment of acrylic paints that I got from Walmart for 50 cents each. I also watched a couple video tutorials on YouTube about blending techniques when using acrylic paint. I wanted the colors to melt seamlessly into each other.
Just a picture of the crown in the process of being painted.
Full view after I completed painting the PVC pipe. Her keyblade goes from dark red to red, red to orange, orange to yellow orange, yellow orange to yellow, and then it kinda goes into this super faint yellow. I did a lot of paint mixing and blending for this part. But I think I ended up doing a really good job at it.
And here is the final product. For the paopu fruit I made it entirely out of paper clay, let it dry, and painted it with acrylic paint. I used several strings of red embroidery floss braided together to attach it to the crown.
I had some leaves originally on the bottom part of the keyblade on either side. Unfortunately I didn't attach them until I was ready to spray paint. So I hot glued them on, and they ended up just falling off. So I used fake flowers to cover where they had been attached. I kept the same pattern of flowers on both sides. The flowers were attached with a hot glue gun.
Also super important! I sanded everything down before I did any sort of painting. Paopu fruit included. I used a super fine grit sandpaper. For the most part I got everything pretty smooth except that bottom piece, which was fine since it's covered in flowers anyway.
Here are the reference pictures I used during the entire construction of my keyblade.
I also had watched this YouTube video which helped me immensely when making my keyblade. And that's about it guys! How do you think I did? I'd love to hear your feedback! Also gonna tag a couple people I know have been waiting for this blog! @raguelit @icera1n94
Thanks so much for checking this out! It was a lot of work and took me about 6 months to do. Mostly because I had to wait to buy and get some supplies. I know it's not perfect, or exactly like the pictures, but I'm pretty damn proud of it. I'm definitely a crafty girl, but I've never done anything like this before. So to see how well it turned out makes me super happy.