With a hot glue gun in one hand and black fabric in another, Kassandra Bringuier brought to life the face of a cosplay creature she had created Wednesday.
Bringuier, 23, used the tools and resources available at Gainesville Hackerspace, located in the Sun Center shopping plaza, during Cosplay Open Project Night from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Hackerspace is a membership-based creative workshop equipped with resources like 3D printers, laser cutters, woodworking tools and electronic parts.
Daniel Smith, the 30-year-old president of Gainesville Hackerspace, got the idea for a cosplay night from his girlfriend, Bringuier, who frequently uses the space to work on her cosplay projects. He said he wants the event to be monthly.
“I realized that we cater to the startup crowd, but there’s a lot of other categories of creative people,” Smith said. “We have tours in here, and people say the same thing: ‘This would be a great space to work on cosplay stuff.”
The about 15 people who attended had projects at various stages of completion. Bringuier was the furthest along with her creation: a new species, blended between a raptor and wolf, with blue fur and orange fins. Bringuier drew the creature before she started decorating the headpiece.
“(In cosplay), you get to play a character that you can only see in the digital world,” Bringuier said. “If you’re normally shy, wearing one of these you could be super spontaneous, and no one knows because you have that barrier between you and someone else.”
Jessica Hvozdovich, 24, has been cosplaying for eight years, but brought a figurine of one of her favorite video game characters to repaint instead.
“I was really excited to learn about the 3D printers and laser cutters because it’s good to have things like that in the community for bigger projects,” Hvozdovich said. “It definitely is a valuable asset for the cosplay community, and I’m glad they opened it up to us.”
Jessica Hvozdovich, 24, repaints a figurine of Lilith from the video game "Borderlands 2." She was one of about 15 people who attended a cosplay workshop event at Hackerspace.
