(upbeat music) (bright music) (upbeat music) - My name is Mo Green, and my business is Mo's Parlor.

I make props for music videos, and film, and cosplays.

The Imagination Creation Station is my tagline.

So kind of whatever you think of, I know I can build it.

(gentle music) Cosplay is short for costume play.

It's like when people dress up to go to conventions or just for like Halloween or renaissance fairs, they're in cosplay.

Cosplay means to me, a form of escapism.

You know, it's so tense, just like living sometimes, you know, and being able to cosplay means you get to escape into another like fantasy.

(gentle music) What I love about being in Bellingham is the community.

The community keeps me here.

Everyone's really supportive and, you know, wants you to succeed.

I really feel that the community has cradled me, especially being a bipoc artist and shown that they want me here and that means the world to me.

I've always been working, I've always been creating, you know, I used to make dollhouses and sell those.

I used to make paper airplanes when I was a kid and sell those to the boys.

Halloween was always one of my favorite holidays.

Me and my mom would dress up as cats all the time.

I have a lot of friends down in Texas that also do cosplay work, and I had admired their work for quite a while.

And then in 2016 is when I started my business.

It was honestly directly after the presidential election.

During that time, I realized that I was doing something to try and fit into a box, that I actually really didn't care what the box was.

And after the election happened, there was a rampant increase in just racism and things like that.

And so I couldn't go places by myself for a couple of years.

I was getting like harassed at gas stations and at restaurants and things like that.

And this gave me a way to pour my energy into something productive and creative that wasn't like being in this reality.

And I found that a lot of other people really needed that escapism as well.

So I was able to provide that, and it felt really empowering to be able to take that power back and to not feel fear, but to be like I'm doing something that I love, that actually makes a difference.

And so I wanted to pour my heart into that.

I got further into being a foam smith.

I realized that it's the representation.

There aren't too many black foam smiths like that are doing cosplay stuff like in my area.

And so I find that over the last, what, almost eight years that I've been doing this, I've inspired a lot of other bipoc people to dive in and start doing cosplay work.

And that's been really wonderful.

(gentle music) I've always watched anime and that was what I decided would be my main form of cosplay.

My style leans more towards cartoony.

I try and keep it like whimsical and light.

Some of my favorite cosplays that I've built for myself is definitely my Big Mom cosplay from One Piece, my Canti cosplay from Fooly Cooly.

Same with my, both my Haruko cosplays from Fooly Cooly.

Shredder is definitely also one of my all time favorites because I love Shredder.

When people get their cosplay orders on for the first time when it's all complete, normally there is about a five minute span of, I'm not gonna say silence, but of admiration.

You know, we get them in front of the mirror and it's a lot of just like, wow, I don't look like myself.

I look like this character that I love so much.

It's a lot of posing, it's a lot of checking it out, and then usually after that five minutes, they turn into a completely different person.

It's so fun seeing how they just come to life.

And I'm happy that I can bring that out in people.

I think the cosplay community is very helpful and welcoming.

It's just a lot of people that are also super big nerds just like me.

And we do love connecting.

I've made the fastest, closest, longest friends at cons.

It's a super welcoming space.

There are so many fandoms besides anime.

There's, you know, Star Wars, Star Trek, Marvel, all that stuff, et cetera.

So whatever fandom you're in, there's a con for you.

And if you wanna start building stuff, just do it.

There's no wrong way to get to an end goal.

That's why I love doing what I do 'cause there's a million different ways to build the same thing.

And seeing everyone's creativity getting there is part of the process.

So like, don't be afraid of little imperfections.

Everyone's gonna welcome you as soon as you get to the convention and be stoked to see you.

(bright music) Today I'm gonna show you the basic steps of prepping your foam to create your prop.

Foam is very porous, so you have to heat seal it with a heat gun before you do anything.

I like to sometimes add texture by cutting little cuts into my foam first.

Not all the way through because you don't want the piece to like come apart.

So like just barely.

If you heat that up with a heat gun, then you'll get something like this where you can actually see the texture come to life.

Also, beveling is very important.

So if you cut a triangle in any of your foam and glue it back together, you'll get a curve.

So that's the basics for making anything like a mask.

This is definitely beveled down the center.

And then for like bevels and things like that, I also use it to create designs in my weapons and things.

It's really important to prime your foam before you paint.

If you don't prime your foam, then the paint's gonna soak into the foam, and that's not really what you want.

And it's really nice because the primer kind of fills the gaps in a little bit, but still leaves them.

And you wanna make sure that you coat it thoroughly and don't skip any bits.

Voila.

See?

So once that dries, you add another layer and then you can add your paint.

Another thing that you can do to create designs in your foam is to use a soldering iron to get weathering designs into it.

So weathering is when you make your prop look from shiny new to used and worn.

So this is something that I did with this.

I had watered down black paint and my soldering tool, and I created these fighting marks on it.

And I put the black watered down paint all around the edges to make it look like it was used metal.

This one is also coated in resin.

All of these props are, but it's not something that you have to do.

There's definitely a little bit more to it.

But if you know all this stuff, you're definitely like on your way to making your prop.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] "Made There" was made possible in part with the support of Visit Bellingham, Whatcom County.