Patron Spotlight: Vic!

Hailing from Toronto, Vic (@viccrafts on Instagram; they/she) considers themself a maker of things! While cosplay is their newest endeavor, Vic is a professional crafter who works with props and set dressing in the film industry. “Cosplay helps me avoid turning my house into an odd museum of woodworking, cross-stitch, leather, and sewing projects that I pick up and can’t forcefully gift upon all my loved ones,” they joke.

Vic has only been cosplaying for a year and a half, starting after she tabled in an artist alley where she saw so many wonderful costumes. Her first cosplay was Beauregard from Critical Role. I asked why she started with Beau, and Vic says, “I don’t remember consciously choosing to start her. After I fell in love with her design and character, I suddenly found myself in a fabric store feverishly collecting swatches and zooming in on reference photos — and that was that!” (This is a super relatable Critter cosplayer feeling!!)

In addition to finished costumes for Beau, Cad, and Avantika, Vic has costested three more of the Mighty Nein (Fjord, Jester, and Yasha) and is currently working on finalizing an Essek build. “I like the challenge of making something ethereal or other-worldly in real life,” Vic shares, “My ultimate goal is to take my cosplay into more photoshoots for visual storytelling in that vein!” You can really see this in their photoshoots — they have a real knack for conveying ambience and emotion in their images.

Drawn to fantastical character designs, Vic has also cosplayed her own D&D character, Gemini. She introduced Gemini as a water genasi cleric who doesn’t know she’s a water genasi. According to Vic (and her 4D-chess-playing DM), neither Gemini nor V as the player know the source of Gemini’s powers, which provides a really compelling motivation for adventure.The daughter of a famous pirate, Gemini has lived at sea for most of her life and doesn’t know about mundane, land-dwellers’ things (like vegetables).

I was so excited to see another person who cosplays their original character! When coming up with Gemini’s costume design, Vic wanted to focus on their character’s background and how to tell that story through clothing. The costume features hidden tentacles, krakens, and an octopus. Gemini’s immaculate coat is a gift from her father: “It was given to her in our first session during her last minutes before she was booted from the ship and marooned, so it’s a really sentimental item.” There’s a special kind of freedom to cosplaying your own D&D character, which Vic embraces by planning out some design elements but leaving the flexibility to change it up along the way. Gemini’s ensemble will evolve as she levels up, so be sure to follow Vic on Instagram to see how Gemini grows.

Vic also runs an Etsy shop, Vethereal, featuring stunning handmade paper flowers! After selling a variety of homemade decorative items, she was inspired to offer more environmentally responsible decor for the wedding industry. These days, she makes between 400-900 book page flowers in a given month for bouquets, corsages, flower crowns, and floral circlets!

Follow Vic’s costuming adventures and meet Gemini on Instagram at @viccrafts and on Twitter at @vic_crafts. If you’re looking for paper flowers to accent your costume, take a look at their Etsy shop, Vethereal. V also has some very cute dice and pride designs in their RedBubble shop, and they take photo editing and prop commissions!