Puddygeeks Cosplay has a fantastic variety of costumes ranging from instantly recognisable pop culture icons to more obscure characters, each as detailed as the last! Full of bubbly enthusiasm, PuddyGeeks truly puts the “play” into cosplay.
Age: 27
Location: Reading
Favourite food: pancakes and Nutella
Who or what first inspired you to start cosplaying?
I came across cosplay on the internet probably about 5 years before I actually got into it. I was really into fancy dress as a kid, and as I got older I was always that friend that would use any excuse for dressing up; birthday parties, fundraisers, anything I could. Eventually a few friends decided to give comic con a go and invited me along and I just knew it was finally time to do it.
What would you say is your favourite part of the costume making process?
What was your first cosplay? How does it compare to some of your more recent work?
My first cosplay was actually Harley Quinn, I’d known for absolutely years that I really wanted to be her when I eventually went to con, obviously having no idea it was going to completely take over my life! I couldn’t sew at all then, so I bought it from Escapade. All things considered it could have been much worse, it didn’t particularly fit well, but at the time I was super excited by it, and I put a lot of effort into getting the hair and makeup right to make up for it. I was also very fortunate that my lovely brother put a solid week of work into helping me make a Harley mallet, it was his very first prop, and it was just a great experience for us both. In recent years, I feel like my cosplay has developed a lot, I actually make all of my own cosplays now. I spent a year working at an upholstery factory to improve my sewing but other than that I’m completely self taught. I’ve mostly come away from comics and I tend to lean more towards video game and anime characters now, but I still try to stay true to my initial intention of cosplaying characters that I really love. I would say I choose much more complex costumes now than I ever thought I would be able to, they don’t always work out how I want but with every one I’m learning more and more.
Moving from past cosplays to future ones, do you have a dream cosplay that you’d like to work towards one day?
I don’t have a specific one actually, but I’d say I’d generally like to be able to make some of the cosplays from Dragon Age to a higher standard than I do now. I see a lot of intricate beautiful cosplays from that game in particular, and that keeps me inspired to keep learning so that I can maybe do that too one day.
If you could go back in time and offer newbie PuddyGeeks one piece of advice, what would it be?
I guess worry less, don’t spend so much time comparing yourself to others and don’t hold yourself to such high standards. You still have so much time to grow and learn, and it’s absolutely okay that your costumes aren’t perfect. Try to remember that you do it for the fun and the people and to spend more time relishing in that. Also not to get sucked into the toxic side and the pressure to always need to release new costumes. Just cosplay your way.