N“There is no such thing as impossible. I love to look at characters and figure out how to make them wearable creations, even if the task seems daunting. The word impossible doesn’t exist in my vocabulary.”
NICHELA TRABER, ARTISTS AVENUE COSPLAY CREATOR
ichela Traber, a Bellingham, Washington native and the creative force behind Artists Avenue Cosplay, is rewriting the rules of costume design with her fearless approach to cosplay. Equipped with a degree in Costume Design and a passion for upcycling, Nichela transforms everyday materials into jaw-dropping creations that blur the line between art and fantasy. Whether she’s crafting intricate period pieces or bringing beloved characters to life, Nichela’s work is a testament to the idea that there’s no such thing as impossible. Her infectious energy, combined with her innovative techniques, has earned her a place at the heart of the cosplay community—where creativity knows no bounds.
It’s time to buckle up for a captivating interview where creativity meets craftsmanship in a cosmic collision of fabric and flair.
Nichela: Thank you so much for having me. I’m very excited about this.
Nichela: I feel like this statement has driven me in much more than just cosplay. I used it a lot in my everyday life as well. I have never been one to think that a task for creation is impossible. It never made sense to me when people would reply with something like that. It resonates so much in cosplay though, because I love to look at characters and pick apart how I could possibly make this into a wearable creation, even at a young age, and seeing people make fur suits, intricate armor, or make a remote-controlled prop that moves or sings or talks gave me enough motivation to know that the word impossible does not really exist in my vocabulary.
Nichela: What really started me down the road into cosplay was seeing my cousin going to our local convention in Seattle called Sakura-Con. At the time, I was simply too young to understand that she was just coming back in costume. She was dressed as, like, Neo-Queen Serenity from Sailor Moon. And at that point, I feel like I was dressing up regardless of knowing the word cosplay anyway, especially with Halloween being my favorite holiday. But every time she would come back from this magical place bearing gifts of games and anime, I was super into it at the time and I was immediately hooked. Of course, I was too young to go at the time, so I didn’t really end up going to a convention until I was probably like, 14 or so. Instead, I would have cosplay birthdays and have cosplay contests during them. My grandma would make me cosplays, and the first one I officially wore was Link from The Legend of Twilight Princess. That was my first cosplay officially. And my grandma had made most of mine from that point up until I was old enough to go to Sakura-Con. And my second year attending, I made my first cosplay myself with only a little help from her, which was Midna from the same game. I’m a big Zelda fan, if you can’t tell. And she was just making all of our costumes at that point. And it wasn’t until, like, a few years later that I started to really learn from her how to sew and make the costumes myself because I was seeing her make them all, and it looked a little stressful. So I was like, “Hey, let me just bear the burden with you, and I’ll just help make mine.” You can make my cousin’s as you go along. And, at that point, she was just making my cousin’s at that point, and she kind of grew out of it, but I just kept going. My grandma taught me everything I know up until the day that she passed. And, yeah, it’s just kind of gone from there. It started out with small things, just like making a shirt or some, like, little costume pieces to now I’m making period pieces like corsets and ball gowns. And I don’t think she thought I would be getting this far into my costuming career, but I know she’s probably looking down, being like, “Well, hey, at least you learned something from me.”
Nichela: I really like that because I feel like it truly has become a movement and a community in my opinion. At first, when I came up with the name back in probably early stages of high school, it was simply because I wanted a name that was easy to remember for me and had to do with the fact that I am an artist and a cosplayer. Before this, I had social media, but they were stupidly all named differently, and I really didn’t think anything of it because I wasn’t popular or anything, but it was becoming a hassle to log into different social media with different names, and it was annoying, and I figured if I kept going with this, I might as well have some consistency. So, at the time, I was super into Avenue Q, the musical. So, I just combined that with the word artist. But even though it started out with a singular person and a name, I think it was really destiny that brought on the fact that artists is not a singular word. A lot of people get tripped up when they say the name or write it out because they want to write it as just me, as a singular person. But adding the “s” at the end truly makes it feel like I have fallen into what I wanted to do all along, which was teach people and be a part of this community that I have loved for so, so long, and have been a part of for so, so long.
Nichela: Originally, I went into Costume Design for theatre because I wanted to be able to have a degree to show people that I knew what I was doing. Ultimately, I really don’t care what other people think. I know my talent and what I am capable of. I know my grandma taught me very well, so. But on a business standpoint, when I figured out I wanted to be able to do this full-time, I knew I had to have more credentials than just winning competitions or hosting panels. It was amazing going through the course because I feel like it strengthened my wanting to teach people how to do this before – as most cosplayers do anyway – I was simply working by myself and making everything myself. But the theatre program really teaches you how to work with a team. One costume will be made by multiple different people working on different pieces of the costume, which was so fascinating to me. You can design all the outfits for sure, and that’s what a costume designer does ultimately. But in actuality, you are not making them all by yourself. It’s a big group of people working towards one goal. As for the AECI course, which is the Arts Enterprise and Cultural Innovation, this was interesting because I was their first-ever cosplayer they worked with. A lot of their curriculum lessons had to be somehow translated into what my profession would be and how I would be able to sustain myself while doing this profession. A lot of their curriculum was like, music-based or just regular painting or artist-based. So it was kind of like a team effort between me and the two professors to kind of figure out how that would translate into cosplay because it’s such a niche career. I always kind of described it as, like, you’ve heard of a starving artist; we’re kind of below that because it’s not really like a profession yet. It’s slow-going because it felt like we really had to start from the ground up for me. But they helped me pinpoint ways I can go about making this business without hurting myself financially in the process, as well as reaching out to different people to kind of like, pick at their brains and figure out how I can make this happen. And that’s how I kind of came into, you know, having that storefront or having a little studio so I can teach people how to do it – which is ultimately what I wanted to do anyway.
Nichela: Of course. So usually I figure out whether or not this is going to be just a cosplay where I am portraying the character as is; the outfit is already a creation; the character has the set look; and I just need to make it? Or is it going to be a character that I want to do a redesign or a different imagining of them – like characters that aren’t human – that I want to turn human – or a character that isn’t human or anthropomorphic, but rather a creature? Both cases, I end up breaking the costume into pieces. The designing from scratch part takes a little longer. If I am designing a piece, I do my research on what exactly in my head I am looking for. Is it going to be a different time period piece? Do I want elements of certain dates, or the game, or the anime, or whatever to be represented? Or am I making something that has nothing to do with that and simply just want to showcase different skills to challenge myself? With regular characters that already have a set design? Sometimes I enjoy drawing out the different pieces as well – especially if it is a complicated piece. Taking things apart and putting them back together to see how they work is a good foundation to think through when making a cosplay, and makes the task seem less daunting if you have anxiety or ADHD like I do. Often times, when I am doing this from a drawing standpoint, I like to go somewhere that isn’t my own home. I know I am super weird, but I cannot draw in my own home for the life of me. My go-to is to find a coffee shop nearby that will let me stay for a long period of time. I actually have like some coffee shops that know me and will let me do this – just use their Wi-Fi but also buy some coffee – put in my headphones, and immerse myself in drawing for however long I need. From there, it’s good to know whether or not you plan to make everything from scratch or if you can thrift items as well. Cosplays don’t always have to be 100% handmade; and I will stand by this – especially if you are just getting into it or if you aren’t competing and just want to have fun. And once I have had a lot of the planning done, the making itself comes naturally, really. I know it sounds kind of boring that a lot of my cosplays are research-and-designing based, but that’s how I base a lot of my work – and that is what I really enjoy doing is the whole entire process – not just the making of it.
Nichela: I have! In fact, a lot, when I think about it – a lot that comes to my mind are a good chunk of the Five Nights at Freddy‘s characters as well as Detroit: Become Human. It’s super fun to be able to create robot characters because I get to play around with lighting, if or if I feel like the cosplay calls for it. For my Connor cosplay from Detroit, I made his jacket light up in different places and a majority of the characters from the game, I created an LED light system from like on the sides of their head, like in the game that I hid the battery pack in my wig. As for others, I am doing a lot of Five Nights at Freddy’s characters right now, or have for quite some time too. So really, without thinking about it, I have cosplayed quite a bit of robots. So what draws me to characters, though, truthfully, is just a love for them and the challenging aspect. I love to look at a character and think, “Wow, how would anyone be able to turn that into a cosplay,” and just I start spiralling into a thought process of how I could do it. Sometimes it’ll be in like the middle of the night and I lose sleep because of it. Yeah, it’s not, not the greatest process, but I know in my profession, making cosplays of more current stuff and trending stuff, which I do plan to do with some new cosplays coming up. But I have always found myself leaning towards more nostalgic or older characters that would really, like, bring a smile to some people. I love going to cons and just hearing, “Wow, a so-and-so cosplayer in 2024. That’s awesome.”
You know, I recently cosplayed Kiki from Kiki’s Delivery Service and it made so many people happy because they were just like, “Oh my God, I haven’t seen a Kiki cosplayer in so long.” Like, it isn’t, it isn’t so much of a popularity thing. I don’t care about stuff like that. I will cosplay characters that are popular at the time, but there’s something different about putting on a cosplay that brings a tear to people’s eyes and just makes their day because they haven’t thought of that fandom in so long. Then putting on a costume and being like one of a million other ones that are there, which again, is no big deal. I do that all the time too! It’s really just what you feel like doing in the end that matters.
Nichela: Oh my gosh. I love wig styling, which was honestly a surprise for me looking back on what I was brought up with. I didn’t use to style wigs in any way, really. It wasn’t until high school that I even figured out hairspray could be used on a wig. And then a few years later, finding out what got to be hairspray even was. I loved styling them, but a lot of them never really withstood cons. And it wasn’t until I made my first Princess Peach wig that I started researching more and more ways to style wigs. My first attempt at Peach was bad. Then after researching, I went back and restyled it to make it more like gravity-defying because that’s what I was trying to accomplish in the first place. Just didn’t know or have the right tools and means to do it. At that point, I started playing around with taking apart wigs, sewing in wefts, and sometimes glueing them on. I did kind of do that in the beginning with my Zelda wig, but it was mainly, like I said, it was a rough patch where I would just, like, slick the hair back with some just, like, hairspray, generic hairspray you’d get at, like, the Dollar Store or something, and it kind of worked at the time. And then, you know, I sewed in and, like, glued in wefts for the front pieces, which I guess, in my standpoint, that was, it was a super simple process, but to other people, it’s, like, scary for them. A lot of people say that wigs, they just don’t delve into because it’s too scary, too risky, which I’ll be your wig master. I do not mind. But that was kind of how it, like, delved into or started with. So I have done it before, but just didn’t think anything of it because it wasn’t, like, a major styling. I just made it look pretty, braided it, glued on some accent pieces, and good to go. And now she is a hot mess, and none of it’s staying together. But that was, like, my first go to into that type of world. My Toga wig was my first big build in doing that, where I was cutting the whole wig entirely and glueing the wefts back on to make the two side ponytails, to, “kind of make it look natural.” I even made space buns with two styrofoam balls that I glued onto it. It was a big, messy process because I just really didn’t know what I was doing. I was getting really into the groove of it at that point. I started dyeing wigs like my Ballora cosplay and making huge builds like my Junko wig, where I made a structure underneath using wire and worbla to help it keep its shape. And each side had, like, PVC piping and foam around it that I glued the wefts onto. And I styled it big and massive, like her hair. And I have so many other big plans as well, like, starting the process of making a helmet wig, basically a permanent fixture of a wig, rather than a normal, loose flowing one that doesn’t really, like, stay in its shape for, like, the whole con period. I plan to remake my Junko wig using that method for, like, a lip sync battle that hopefully I get accepted into. But my wig that I have for her now just will not work. I need, like, a dance method one, as well as other builds such as like Baby from Sister Location, which I think would really work for the helmet wig to make that kind of robotic look, and Celestia from Danganronpa as well because I love the big spirals that she’s got going on. It’s like building a structure on your head rather than a costume on your body, which is even more exciting that I am able to make things from my head to my toes now.
Nichela: I feel like I get inspiration from just about everyone and everything. Being in the costume design program really helped me branch out in that sense. I love to be able to think to myself of whether or not I could make that into an actual costume. Like for example, Siren Head or BurnTrap from Security Breach. And I know both of those are kind of horrific examples, but I am a huge horror fan and a lot of works in that realm tend to have stuff that seem so near impossible to do, which is why I gravitate towards them a lot. I’m also the type of cosplayer that cosplays characters I embody with the most as well, or ones that truly mean something to me, or are my comfort characters. I feel like I get inspiration from other cosplayers when I see their rendition of that character I plan to cosplay. It’s so amazing to see what others can come up with and maybe even give you a different interpretation of how it can be done. Plus it gives you like a boost of confidence knowing other people have the same passion as you and want to show their creation with the world as well.
Nichela: Ooh, okay. Funniest occurrence I have had was probably a combination of a bunch of times this happened and one time in which was super embarrassing. But I laugh at so hard now, because it was years ago and I can just laugh at it now. Anytime I seem to cosplay any version of Princess Zelda or even Link, I am automatically expected to get serenaded to apparently. One time I was cosplaying as Link and walking down the street from a local small con that we had. It was like a little comic con or something, and a man across the street started playing the Zelda theme on his guitar. Me and my friend were honestly so freaked out because it was like nighttime at this point and there were other people around, but it was still kind of freaky. Like, it was, like, downtown area. We were just like, “We just want to go to the corner store and get some chips or something.” I mean, it turned out fine, though. We actually had a really great conversation with him. We gave a few dollars in his guitar case and moved on. But at the time, it was just, like, super freaky because he was, like, calling us over, like, “Oh, Link” and whoever my friend was cosplaying at the time, I don’t remember. And it was just, like, super weird, especially for us. It’s like, you know, I think we were minors at the time, so it was just. It was freaky. But a few other times, at conventions themselves, I was given a full serenade on a kazoo when I was like, Gerudo Link, one time. I was given an ocarina serenade by a link when I was Twilight Princess Zelda. So, this happens quite a bit when I’m either Zelda or Link or I guess, any Zelda character. I just can’t escape it at this point. But the most embarrassing one was when I was Goddess Zelda from Skyward Sword. I am going to truly embarrass myself here, but I love this story regardless, and I tell it to just about everyone. So, it’s not like a secret. Don’t think I’m just like, you know, it’s like “Oh, it’s so embarrassing, I can’t tell you, you know?” Okay, so as a plus size cosplayer, even when I am wearing dresses, I always wear shorts underneath because I don’t want my thighs to rub together and cause chafing or chub rub. It’s super uncomfortable and hurts so bad if left untreated or not doing the necessary things to prevent it. So, I’ve always made it a case to wear shorts underneath dresses or skirts because no one wants that male, female, nonbinary human being. You don’t want chub rub, don’t want chafing. It hurts. So, with that said, I was outside at Sakura-Con one year, waiting for my cousin, but I needed to adjust the shorts that I had under my dress while I was waiting because they were rolling up and being super annoying and just, yeah, it was uncomfortable. But, as how I was in the corner where I thought no one would see me, I faced the corner to lift up my skirt and adjust the shorts. Nothing was showing, though, so don’t worry there. Like, it wasn’t that kind of embarrassing. But, in that moment, I guess a Link decided to serenade me on one knee with his flute and play Zelda’s Lullaby. I flipped out, and I quickly dropped my skirt, and I turned, and I smiled, and I prayed. No one saw anything because at that point he was serenading me and there was just like a small crowd farming, and I was like, “Oh my God!” The beads of sweat from embarrassment were real. And although I am absolutely sure no one saw anything, the anxiety and just the perpetual horror I had, I still think about it to this day and I laugh so hard because it was just set up so perfectly. Oh, gosh. If it could be animated, that would be amazing because it was just an occurrence of quickly drop, smile, make sure no one saw, everything turned out fine.
Nichela: Honestly, the one award I’m super proud of, and that gave me so much joy was Chibi Chibi’s lip-sync battle. I think the reason for this was because it was honestly just a last minute decision to do it. And the previous year, I had seen my friend do the lip-sync battle, and it honestly just looked like so much fun. To me, it wasn’t like there was any actual singing involved, nor was there any anxiety involved with like, a cosplay competition, where people are asking you questions, and poking and prodding at your costume. It was simply pick a song, pick a character, go up on stage, perform and be silly, have fun, walk off! It was such a big confidence boost when I did this. I decided to be Roxanne Wolf from Five Nights at Freddy’s Security Breach. And I went with a song that I felt like really resonated with Roxy and was also a popular rock song in the eighties, which was ‘Call Me’ by Blondie. I really didn’t rehearse it too much, just a few areas here and there and honestly, I even messed up a little on stage, but no one seemed to notice. And I just had fun rocking out the whole time. That I ultimately got second place in the end, it was a huge surprise! And my friends still tell me how surprised I looked to this day because I really didn’t go up to win, just to have fun and be goofy as one of my favorite characters. Like, we were even, like, ready to leave and go look at the Artist Alley, when they suddenly just announced like, I think I even remember some of the words they said where it was just like, “Second place goes to someone who really rocked our socks off. Roxanne Wolf.” And I was like, “Excuse me, what? What?” So really just did not expect it, just wanted to have fun, but it sent me down a spiral and now, I am wanting to do so many lip-sync competitions. Every con I’m going to, I’m seeing if they’ve got one up, and seeing their rules, and sending stuff in because I’m just like, “Ah, I want to do that again.” It was so much fun! Regardless of winning or losing, it was just a huge confidence boost, and it really brought back the joy of cosplay, but also performing and just having fun. I loved it!
Nichela: Definitely judging them. By no means am I saying there is no enjoyment from competing at all. But ever since judging a few of the last competitions I have done, I just found myself having so much fun doing it. I feel like there is just so much anxiety on the other side when competing. Not necessarily from me. Sometimes, yeah, I do get anxious, especially if there is a chance I could possibly place or I intend to sign up to try and place. But the anxiety from everyone around you when you speak to others, it’s, it’s, yeah, it’s worse. It’s a little disheartening to hear from other cosplayers that this is all they have been thinking about and being absolutely perfect in everything that they are doing, which is perfectly fine, especially when that is what you do as a cosplayer. But oftentimes, it brings out a lot of nasty or malicious behavior from people. I have met cosplayers that will badmouth judges for their choices, or act like they are better than everyone, and stand off to the side so they don’t have to talk to anyone. I have even tried going up to those people thinking they were just lonely, but instead had a very nasty behaviour, and blatantly expressed they didn’t want to talk to me. There could be other reasons behind these behaviors, I will give them that. But the amount of people I have met who simply had a disgusting ego about them need to realize something. I grew up in the generation where cosplay was for fun. We had competitions, yes, but it was all in fun. It was only when actual money and prizes came into play that it became more serious. So, I think the reason I love being a judge more is because I get to be with fun people, and be a judge, and talk to the cosplayers about their process and making things. I love to hear the passion people put into it, and it is very obvious when there is passion and when there is not. Yes, we know when you are just there for a prize or popularity. I hear it in your voice and oftentimes, it really doesn’t sit well with us. I have more fun being with my judges and interacting with people than I do competing and seeing the side of the community I don’t really want to be a part of.
Nichela: Each judge has their own specialty, I have noticed. Most of the time, there are two to three judges, and each one has, like, a designated thing that they ask or focus on. As an example from KuroNekoCon, me and @crypticsodaa handled a lot of the sewing and crafting portions of the questions. We checked the seams, the stitchings, while Maddy Kate specialized in wig styling. So she handled those questions and process of each of the cosplayers. Oftentimes, this is kind of determined before, like, the judging for, like, pre-judging even starts. So we just kind of know and we aren’t like, bumping into each other, being like, “Oh, I gotta look at the seams. No, I gotta look at the seams.” And, well, just kind of like, collectively share things. I think that kind of happened at Chibi Chibi Con. We all collectively were really good at sewing and crafting and wig styling. We all kind of had, like, an equal amount of our specialties. So we just kind of shared the process and kind of gave our opinions afterwards. But sometimes there is a case where each judge has their own specialty and we kind of break it up that way. So that way there isn’t, like, overlapping or, you know, taking too much time in pre-judging because ultimately, at the end, a lot of the con staff is like, you guys kind of need to hurry up. We’re, like, going over time, and the cosplay contest is about to start soon, and then it becomes a huge mess. So, there definitely needs to be communication between the judges beforehand on how this is going to play out. Not a lot of us necessarily specialized in props or armor at KuroNekoCon, so we all collectively asked about props and came together on decisions about that portion. For my portion, at least for a lot of these, as well as @crypticsodaa, in that case, was whether or not seams and stitching were clean. There wasn’t any loose threads. There wasn’t any bulk and fabric or overlay in fabric that didn’t need to be there. What kind of tools did they use, material, and if certain fabric types were handled properly, those combined with the judging of wig, makeup, and props or armor ultimately gave us our thoughts and decisions for who was likely going to win. We do also look at behavior and passion for their builds. As I said in the previous question, if you aren’t passionate about what you do or don’t show us the amount of time and love you would put into this cosplay, that does lose points, at least for me. To me, then you are not here to show me the passion you have for this character. You are here to win and win alone. But like I said, that is just me. I’m a very, like, I put my heart and soul into my cosplays. I don’t necessarily, like, make cosplays to truly just make money or win competitions. So, yeah, I’m very much the cosplayer in the judging panel that if you’re not showing me any passion, you know, it’s, It’s gonna lose points for me, even if you’ve done, like, the most amazing job in the world. Because I’m like, I want to see that you love this character. I want to see as to why you chose this character, because ultimately you’re spending a long time on that character. So why did you choose them to begin with, you know? So, yeah, that, that’s just me. I can’t speak for any other judge that is on their own accord. But, yeah.
Nichela: Obviously, I feel like I need to say my sewing machine. I think that is an agreement for any seamstress or cosplayer that makes their stuff, it’s always going to be a sewing machine. But if we are taking that out of the equation, because it is such an obvious answer, I feel like my go-to tool at this point is my serger. I feel like everything changed for me once I had that machine in my grasp. My fabric was finished and clean and it looks so professional, like it just came off the regular shopping sale rack in stores. And it is a pain in the butt to rethread if I need a different color. But I know in the end it will make me happy knowing I took the time to rethread it and make my fabric look so nice and finished.
Nichela: Ooh. Now see, I could break this up into two sections. Superpower that would help me during the making process of my cosplays would probably be something along the lines of like thread making. I kind of use superpowers like in My Hero Academia. Superpowers can be like anything. So, when I look at a character like Best Jeanist or something like that, I feel like a thread power, where I can make the exact fabric type and color that I need, would be absolutely tremendous. It would save me a lot of research, time, and energy on finding the right fabric. But another superpower I would love to have for when I am at like a con would be telekinesis. So that way I don’t have to either hold my stuff or get someone to hold my stuff and be my handler. I always feel bad having people hold my stuff. Even though I do have designated handlers at times, I always feel bad about it.
Nichela: I honestly use household items all the time in my creations. Even back in my early days of cosplay, I would make cosplays out of like curtains or bed sheets. I would use Christmas ornaments for jewelry. You name it! I was pretty much using like anything in my repertoire that I had. I think the best one I have done recently was the staff I made for my Amity cosplay from The Owl House. Her staff is her palisman, which is like a familiar. “Ghost” is the name of it, and it’s a cat that turns into a solid figure when on top of her staff. The cat was such a prominent shape, like a very refined version of a cat just sitting down. So, recreating that took some time. What I ended up doing was taking a round screw-on cap from a plastic water bottle. Not like one of those crinkly kind, but just like an actual water bottle. And using that as the base, I had PVC pipe already, so the staff itself was covered. But I took the water bottle cap and I put tin foil inside of it and built it up so that way I could make the shape, just like the base shape, of the cat. Afterwards, I covered it in modeling foam and used a rotary tool to shape it down. It was perfect using the bottle because I installed a PVC connector at the bottom and attached it so that way I can easily take the staff apart into pieces for easier travel.
Nichela: I want to introduce new cosplayers the same way I was introduced, with enthusiasm, imagination, and showing them that anyone can cosplay. So, no matter who you are or what you look like, skin tone, body shape, you know, who cares? You can cosplay. As we all have probably seen, the cosplay community has really gone downhill after the years with rise of social media platforms and influencers putting a bad taste in people’s mouths about the community. Cosplay is not meant to be a beauty pageant and have so much standards placed upon it, where people think they have to look a certain way in order to do it. This culture was based upon the fact that cosplay is dressing up as your favorite character and showing your love for that fandom or character. It’s not a competition of who looks the most like Sailor Moon, or who did the best version of Harley Quinn, or which person has better muscle tone to look like Goku, you know, etcetera, etcetera. I want people to go into this community with the mindset that they are having fun, no one else’s opinions matter aside from their own, and to be proud of the stuff that they are accomplishing through this hobby. We are all nerds in the end. So honestly, just have fun is the bottom line of it.
Nichela: Honestly, I felt like I tried to think so hard and profound about this. Like, I was thinking like, “Oh, maybe Zelda, you know, because she was one of my first cosplays, or Midna, because I really love her as like, one of my favorite characters.” But I feel like, because I’m hungry and I also just love cooking and eating food in general, and the fact that I feel like I would resonate better with her, I would have to choose Chica from Five Nights at Freddy’s Security Breach. All my friends will probably be like, “Of course you chose her.” But I feel like it would be awesome to bring her to life and hang out with her. We could totally bake or cook together. We could, like, rock out. She could teach me guitar, eat tons of food. Like, we could both wear pink and, like, talk about fashion or something like that. I don’t know. I think it would be super fun. Though, I would take her before she gets infected with the virus that makes her all crazy. I think it would be a little difficult to hold a conversation with her or bond when she is in a crazed frenzy and eating out of the garbage. Not so fun after that.
Nichela: I have so many projects in mind that I plan to do, and a lot of the time they are never really set in stone because I just have project after project after project that I want to do. Right now, I have a few in mind, like, Baby from Five Nights at Freddy’s, of course, Sister Location and Junko’s leopard print outfit from the anime. But I also have ones like Falin from Dungeon Meshi and Mitsuri Kanroji from Demon Slayer as well. I think out of those bulk ones, I am most excited for Baby just because I have a lot planned for her, in the sense of design and how things will work. But I’m also excited about all of the others because there will also be different elements where I am challenging myself in different ways, like, with the wigs or outfit designs. I think it’s a lot of big projects that will just take time, but I’m excited for a lot of them, regardless.
Nichela: Overall, it’s a slow process, being as how a professional cosplayer is not the first thing a lot of people think of as a career choice. Plus, having a storefront or studio centered around cosplay is also not really heard of often, especially around Bellingham. But I do think it would be beneficial to have one. A lot of people I talk to are very much into the idea of having a place to go to learn how to make a cosplay or have that place to go to for someone to make it for them. And if things go well for a few years after that, a storefront where cosplayers and crafters can obtain these materials is also super beneficial as well. That way, cosplayers aren’t always having to like search around different craft stores to find what they need. Right now, I am simply saving up any money I get from commissions and keeping it away to hopefully find a studio space where I can teach people in an open environment, and it’s not just in my own home, because even though it’s cool to have a workspace from my home, some clients might be allergic to cats and well, I have four so that doesn’t really help my situation. Plus it would just be a lot bigger of a space, especially if there are cosplayers who want to learn how to make like bigger things, whereas in my room wouldn’t be beneficial for that. Especially for me as well.
Nichela: I am on most main social media, but I’m particularly active on Instagram which is @artistsavenue_cosplay. I have a YouTube which is artistsavenuecosplay, and my website which is artistsavenuecosplay.com. Also on Twitter, or I guess it’s X now, I don’t post as much, or if any time at all on that, and I do plan to try and get back into TikTok when I have the chance, but I am mainly trying to focus on getting back into YouTube and then slowly incorporating TikTok later.
Nichela: Honestly, it’s super sappy, but I do want to thank my mom and my closest friends. They have truly been my rock in this whole process. My mom is so supportive of everything that I do, and knows I will try my best to accomplish what I need to, and tries her hardest to help me figure out how to succeed. She even was gracious enough to let me use the extra room in the house as my studio. She works with me on just about everything. She let me redesign the whole thing. She is my best friend, my soulmate, and my business partner, and I couldn’t ask for a better mom in my life. And my best friends, you know who you are, are just the exact same. I wouldn’t be the person I am today without them, and they truly keep me afloat and sane when things get tough or confusing. I love all of them so, so, so, so much.
Nichela: I feel like this is such a loaded question, when you look at it from a bigger picture, but I suppose I would just make it better in the best way I can. This art is underappreciated from the beginnings where people would make fun of us nerds for dressing up to even now, where it has become so mainstream that people feel like they can’t be a part of it. It has changed so much since I was a kid. I want to be able to show and tell to people that this art form is just as much important and crucial to us as painting, or poetry, or writing, or any other form of art is to other people. It brings us joy in a world where a lot of negativity is thrown around us, and chaos is just everywhere. Cons and cosplay give us a chance to escape from that for just a few days or even a day. It’s honestly a vacation for us sometimes where we can get away from everyday life and be someone else for a change. I want everyone to go back to their roots of being a child, being carefree, no worries in the world, and just having fun.
Nichela: Thank you so much for having me. I really enjoyed our chat and hopefully I’ll get to speak to you again soon sometime.
Discover Nichela and Artists Avenue Cosplay at https://artistsavenuecosplay.com/ or find her on:
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