Friday, June 25, 2010

Latex Emily

I think that latex underwear with a "Hello Kitty" decal is way too cute for some, so I chose a different and more counterculture character for this tutorial post: Emily the Strange from Cosmic Debris Etc, Inc.

You can see the image I selected to recreate in latex in the lower left corner of the first picture. Above is a (inverted for no particular reason) copy I printed onto a piece of adhesive label.

You also need some latex leftovers in black (0.25mm here), red (0.4mm) and white (0.4mm; not shown on the picture) and some cutting tools of your choice.

I started by glueing the adhesive label to the (cleaned with thinner) piece of black latex. Then I cut the contours of the Emily image with my cutter and the small scissors (use the tool you feel most confident with). As the character is quite complex and has very thin contour lines, this took a while and required patience and concentration during work. You can see the finished black part (without some face details) from the backside on the second picture.

I repeated the process with the red piece of latex, where I cut out the slingshot and the small ball. Because the red parts are later glued behind the black parts, there is no need to cut the the inner contours of the slingshot (see third picture).

On the third picture you can see, that I glued the black pieces (including face details) with the adhesive label side to a piece of paper with a mirrored print of the original motif. This fixes all parts in position and makes the addition of the red parts easier, especially when cleaning all surfaces with thinner.

As a last step I glued the black/red piece onto a small sheet of white latex.

Normally I would clean both parts with thinner and also apply latex milk onto both parts before I let them dry and put them together. For the creation of decals it is sufficient to apply the latex milk to only one part (here the black one) so you do not need to remove the glue from the other one (the red and white ones) later.

It is still necessary to cut the white latex into form. I followed the black contours and the right arm (I transferred it with another printed adhesive label) with the cutter and used some thinner to clean the decal from glue leftovers. The thinner has the additional benefit, that the edges of the black contours kind of "melt" to the red and white parts below. This gives the decal a cleaner texture.

On the last picture you can see the final work lying on a black background. I have talced the decal to preserve it until later (you might notice the matt look and the talcum powder in particular within the slingshot contours). I will show you a polished version later.

Caveat: you will notice that my contour lines are not as thin as the original ones. The reasons are, that on the one hand I might have been too anxious of cutting the contours too thin and spoiling my work. On the other hand the "melting" with thinner also added some width to the contours.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Cute and glossy

This one is cute.

I made these women's panties from white latex (0.35mm) with neon pink edges and black pleats. Making Latex Clothing has a pretty good tutorial on how to make pleats.

To the front side of the panties I attached a "Hello Kitty" decal I created from black and pink latex (Yes, the "Hello Kitty" is made of latex and glued to the panties).

BTW: Dear Sanrio, I used an image of your "Hello Kitty" character for this creation, without asking for your permission. I'm sorry if you are offended by this and will remove the picture immediately on request. I promise, I will never sell any items containing copyrighted material from you (or others). This is just a tribute to your character.

Do it yourself

I started doing latex clothes myself about half a year ago. The idea itself was a bit older and lurked within my brain another couple of months.

I learned quite a lot by reading and viewing some inspiring tutorial websites like RubberHans (an older page with some basic instructions, but still a good starter) and Making Latex Clothing (a great tutorial site by Latex Kitty) and finally began my work with one square meter of 0.40mm black latex, a bottle of latex glue (both from LatexFeeling) and a very simple pattern from RubberHans.

After a couple of "experiments" I created the set of woman latex underwear you see on the pictures in this post -- and yes, it was the first of my creations, that was good enough to be shown to a broader audience. So I also decided to start my blog of latex creations with this one.

This underwear is made of 0.35mm Neon Pink latex, which I ordered from Blackstyle, a latex online shop from Berlin. They sell quite a lot of colors and I suggest everyone to order their color set (54 colors).

I added a small (8mm) edge from black latex strips (0.4mm).

As an eye catcher I glued black elastic lace to the bra and the panties. I prepared the lace by painting the part that's normally sewn somewhere with liquid black latex.

The shoulder straps of the bra are cut from 1.2mm black latex strips (10mm wide).