Happy Sunday everyone! Here we are again this week featuring another cosplayer. Firstly, thank you for all the positive feedback from the earlier interview with Kaz De Lioncourt. Today, let’s move on to another Overwatch Heroes Cosplayer!

Since we love overwatch so much, this lovely lady has so much talent in cosplaying overwatch characters and oh, not only overwatch heroes but also her impressive cosplay of

Hatake from Naruto as well.

Among her overwatch heroes cosplay works? you can see D.Va, Mercy, & Pharah which were stunningly remarkable. She did Edward Elric too from Fullmetal Alchemist, the most recent one is her cosplay of Zelda, and many more.

Thank you so much again for taking part in the series! We’ll surely support you and your future projects! Let’s welcome Ms. Jenni Bacci, Australian/American Cosplayer!

Overwatch Heroes Cosplay

My name is Jenni Bacci, I am a cosplayer residing in Florida, USA, but my parents are from Australia so I have dual citizenship! I mostly attend Florida conventions like MegaCon, TBCC, Holiday Matsuri.

But I also plan to attend Dragoncon and Katuscon again and would love to venture out to more conventions.

Apart from Halloween, I started dressing up and role-playing at around 7 years old. My friends and I would dress up as the Spice Girls and dance and sing like we were them. It was pretty lame and the photos are very embarrassing.

The time between discovering cosplay and becoming a cosplayer was virtually nonexistent for me. When my friends and I decided to go to Tampa Bay Comic Con (my first con) and heard that people dress up, we decided to wear group costumes for all 3 days of the con.

With only about a month or so ahead to work on them, I started researching how to make costumes, and it opened up the whole world of cosplay for me! What drew me in initially was the ingenuity behind creating a costume yourself with everyday items.

I was cosplaying Leela from Futurama one of the days and I could not find a tutorial for the eye that I wanted to try, and then I had the idea to use cabinet liner. I felt so inspired when it worked that I wanted to make more!

First Convention and Experiences

My first convention was Tampa Bay Comic Con 2014 and it was one of the best weekends of my life! It was also my first time cosplaying at a con, and my 4 other friends and I were all doing group cosplays together all weekend.

None of us had any idea what we were in for, and we were shock when people wanted to take our picture!

The farthest convention from me is Katsucon in Washington D.C. The venue is beautiful, the weather is a nice change from Florida, and most of the people are there just to have fun!

My worst experience was when I was at a convention far from home and realized I forgot a crucial piece of a costume! However, I tend to over pack and had an extra casual cosplay to wear instead. I am super thankful to have been pretty lucky overall.

Costume/Gear/Props/Armor

The first costume I sewed myself was Alice’s dress from Madness Returns. I taught myself how to sew with a 20-year-old sewing machine and YouTube tutorials.

As I became more familiar with the cosplay community and saw people making armor and props, my boyfriend and I started researching how to make them ourselves.

Later we discovered Kamui Cosplay, Evil Ted, and Punished Props who all produce amazing tutorials on YouTube. My last big project, Valkyrie Mercy, was a bit of a challenge for me with sewing, but so much more challenging in other areas!

Right now I struggle with wig styling the most, and I’m still a novice with makeup. My favorite parts of fabricating costumes are prop making, detailing with foam/worbla and painting.

I try to make as much as I can by myself, but with a full-time job, it’s tough!

Admiration

The cosplayers that inspire me the most now are Kamui Cosplay, Alyson Tabbitha, and Emma Rubini. My cosplayer friends have been through meeting them at conventions and keeping up with them through social media, messaging, etc.

In my opinion, Kamui Cosplay is the epitome of excellent craftsmanship, but I also love how she and her husband are a team they are adorable! They are fantastic teachers and make their tutorials entertaining at the same time.

Alyson Tabbitha brings a new wave of positivity and ingenuity to the cosplay community, I have met her a couple of times and she is always so humble and sweet. Not to mention her cosplays are spot on! I would consider her my role model cosplayer now.

Emma Rubini pumps out progress crazy fast, plus her unique approach to cosplaying characters really inspires me to be creative. I would recommend interviewing her next!

Definition of Cosplayer

Cosplay to me is simply wearing a costume and role-playing. It’s about showing your love for a fandom and connecting with others in the community that share the same interests.

I love seeing people’s creative ways of representing characters, whether it be through gijinkas, genderbends, etc. One of my favorite aspects of cosplaying is getting to do videos and photo shoots where I can personify the character.

It’s so easy to feel pressure to be perfect but it’s most important to just have fun! The best things I’ve experienced as a cosplayer are the friends and memories that I’ve made.

Achievements

Just having someone ask for an interview is an honor! I have never competed in a cosplay contest, but I consider it an achievement to have many people tell me I should! I have been invited to a Con once, but my biggest achievement would be to have the support of so many cosplayers I admire.

It would be incredible to be a professional cosplayer, I would love to travel the world, attend foreign conventions, and even cosplay characters from those countries to stay on them!! Or even to have enough of a following on Twitch or YouTube, since ultimately I am gamer first!

Piece of Advice

My advice to amateur cosplayers is don’t be afraid to make mistakes. The best lessons I have learned while making costumes have been through messing up and having to start over.

Tutorials can only do so much, but until you put forth the work you’ll never learn yourself! With that in mind, allow yourself to have the time to make those mistakes, don’t beat yourself up.

I cannot tell you how many times I procrastinated or set unrealistic deadlines and then felt immense pressure to do things perfect the first time because I felt like I didn’t have time to make mistakes. Con crunch can ruin cosplay for you if you let it!

Open Message

I did enjoy doing video game let’s plays and streaming on Twitch but did not receive the same feedback as from cosplay, if this is something people would like to see more of I’d love to know!

See me at Holiday Matsuri in Orlando and Katsucon in Washington D.C.

You can follow me on my accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Twitch and YouTube.