Feature: Stephen of Wade’s Widdle Workshop

Recently we had the opportunity to catch up with Stephen, who runs Wade’s Widdle Workshop, a spot where he posts both his costuming work as well as props he has for sale. We talk about getting into costuming, acting, and charitable work with the Irish Cancer Society.

Tell us a little about yourself.

My name’s Stephen, I’m 26 and I’m a costumer. That’s all you’re getting, I need to maintain my mysterious allure right? ha

How did you get into cosplaying? What was the first character you ever cosplayed as?

As an actor, I’ve always enjoyed the costume part of things. It’s one thing to perceive a character in the mind, but it’s another thing entirely to inhabit the character’s clothing.

So naturally, being a comic book/video game/superhero fan, I wanted to know what it would feel like to become my favourite characters. And so I started researching.

The first character I ever dressed as was Spider-Man. Spidey has always been a huge influence on my life, the one character that has always been present. I always wanted to play Spidey on the big screen and so I figured the logical place to start would be to get the costume.

My first costume was bought on eBay, and was less than accurate but I enjoyed it up until the point where the awkward zip arrangement became a nuisance and I decided to upgrade to the costume I have now.

What helps you decide on a character to cosplay as when there are so many to choose from?

Generally, I find choosing characters pretty easy as I have a huge list of costumes to get through at the moment. When I see a character that I really like, or a costume I think looks cool I’ll start to look at it more in depth and if the overall package appeals to me, then I will add it to the list.

For instance, Arkham City Robin is Tim Drake who happens to be my favourite of the Robins for a variety of reasons. People ask would I ever do a Nightwing costume, and my answer is no because Mr. Grayson doesn’t appeal to me in the same way that Tim does.

Then, of course if a character has multiple incarnations of a look the trick is to pick one. With Arkham Robin it was easy, because the costume in the game looks totally bad ass. Actually yeah, that’s one of my deciding factors with costumes if they’re badasses.

Do you have any new costumes in the works you can tell us about?

So many… and as the saying goes “Too many costumes, not enough time/money”. The two main ones I will divulge is a street Judge from the 2012 movie “Dredd”, I don’t think I have the look for Dredd so I’m just going as a regular street Judge.

And of course, I’m mainly known for my Deadpool. And, for those who follow my page will know, I have recently retired my first Deadpool costume only to upgrade to what I call 2.0… excited? I know I am.

If money wasn’t a factor, what would you dream cosplay be either for yourself or to build?

I have been conceptualizing and conceiving of a costume that would possibly run in the region of $10,000 because it would involve full facial prosthetic, armour, a fur body suit, and a whole lot of costly experimentation. And let’s not forget the mystic Sword of Omens.

And that costume is Lion-O from the new adaptation of Thundercats. The version I want to do would be so complex I doubt it would work at a con because of the amount of time spent putting it on. But I just want to do it to see how it would turn out.

You also make props – how long have you been doing that?

I’ve been making props as long as I’ve been costuming–generally I just made props to go along with the costumes I create. But it only dawned on me that I could sell props using the moulds I have already created for myself.

Are you planning to attend any upcoming conventions in your area?

Well, since I can no longer afford to go to New York Comic Con, which makes me very sad, I will be flying to London in October to attend MCM London and in November here in Dublin we have Eirtakon coming up which I’m looking forward to, as I may be unveiling 2.0 there.

Other than prop building and costuming, what do you do?

I’m an actor by trade, and I do discuss it from time to time on my page. Mostly I’m a voice-over actor which is great fun because sometimes I get to play characters I would never be able to play in a million years.

Where can we find more of your work?

You can follow me on my:

Facebook page: www.facebook.com/wadeswiddleworkshop
Twitter: @wadesworkshop
Tumblr: shardpool.tumblr.com

and my store: widdlewade.storenvy.com

Currently I’m running a giveaway on my prints in store. If you buy a charity print between now and when this batch sells out you go into a draw to win an X-Men belt buckle and a set of 10 ‘X’ buttons for your clothes.