Buster Cleveland: Cosplay Propmaker Review: Fev

Lee Camara is an illustrator, propmaker, sculptor, and woodworker based out of Georgia, but those of us who follow her magnificent work also know her as Fev.

I stumbled across Fev when she created a scratchbuilt wooden model of Vash's gun, from the anime/manga series "Trigun". The piece is articulated, with a spinning cylinder, removable wooden bullets, basic trigger/hammer mechanism, and a hinge lock for swivelling the barrel to access bullets.

Every propmaker has to stop and and think for a moment when asked how they started building props. Most point to theater work or Halloween prop building as a start. Fev has been making props and replica weapons as a personal hobby, as well as work done for conventions, display, and occasional commissions since 1998.

She made her first sword from a piece of scrap wood, and carried it to a convention. Over the next few years, she made wooden daggers and fantasy weapons that she took to local conventions until she made a shift back to 2D, which was easier to transport to cons, but occasionally stepped back into the woodshop to play around with an idea.... Oh, those ideas!

After doing the fittings and propworks for her first major cosplay project, she remembered how fun it was to make cosplay props & weapons.

“There's almost always something new to try and do with most every new project!”

Approachable and passionate about her work, she doggedly pursues a busy con schedule, while continuing to build new and exciting pieces, like the current project- Lion-O's Sword from Thundercats. This one made me momentarily revert to after school cartoon mode and completely geek out. Thundercats, Ho!