The first ever Comic-Con is creating all kinds of buzz and one teacher from Johannesburg is taking the opportunity to tap into her student’s creativity by helping them design and make Cosplay costumes.
Teri Ferreira is a teacher at the Chartwell House Montessori Eco-School in Johannesburg and an extremely creative Cosplay costume designer. If you don’t know what Cosplay is, its a hybrid word referring ‘Costume Play’ where people dress up and become the fictional characters they know and love from sci-fi movies, comic books and anime.
It is an incredibly creative hobby with many of the participants transforming into near-identical copies of the original costumes seen on screen or paper.
Teri is an avid cosplayer and well-known for her thrifty skills. She regularly dresses up for her art classes and is now encouraging the children to delve into their creative minds and create their own costumes.
“With the skills I have learnt over the years that I have been cosplaying, I have earned a reputation among the cosplay community as a thrifty cosplayer. I plan on passing my skills onto the students of Chartwell as I believe that cosplay doesn’t have to be an expensive hobby and that the tighter the budget, the more creative you have to be.”
She will be teaching everything from crafting, painting and sculpting to sewing, prop making and acting. The school has encouraged her to get the children involved. They will be creating their own costumes and debuting them at the first ever African Comic-Con coming in September this year.
The costumes have become part of the school’s art curriculum which is a first in South Africa but a great nod for the hobby. Cosplay has a small but loyal community is South Africa so it is wonderful to see it being nurtured within the youth.
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