Hello fellow Cosmere fans! Dragonsteel is upon us again, and this year we’ve teamed up with cosplayer extraordinaire Kaylee Makes to share her experience of Dragonsteel 2023. We were lucky enough to attend last year, and are so grateful to be able to share Kaylee’s experience at the con this year. So without further ado, let’s check out all the amazing fun Kaylee had at Dragonsteel 2023!
Dragonsteel 2023 looked like a blast! Before we ask you about your experience, please tell us a bit about yourself.
Hi there! I’m Kaylee and I am a top notch cosplayer! I make all my own costumes, so you can find me at Kaylee Makes.com. I’m proud to say that I have made a bunch of Cosmere cosplays based on characters in books by Brandon Sanderson. One thing I am particularly proud of is my glowing LED Shardblade. Check it out below:
Kaylee Makes a Shardblade – Cosplay Glowing Sword
How you got introduced to Brandon Sanderson’s work?
I got introduced to Mistborn, the Final Empire soon after it first came out. My dad recommended the Mistborn series to me. But I was much younger and more easily spooked, so I found the bad guys to be terrifying. I picked up Mistborn again about 6 years ago and loved it. Brandon Sanderson is an incredible author. When I finished the Hero of Ages, I immediately started on my Vin Venture Mistcloak and cosplay costume – including glass daggers!
Kaylee’s Vin Venture Mistcloak from Dragonsteel 2022
Onward to Dragonsteel 2023! What were you most looking forward to for this year over last year?
It’s a small thing, but I was looking forward to badge pickup being on Sunday, during the afternoon before the Dragonsteel convention started on Monday. That was helpful compared to last year! I was also looking forward to seeing the Salt Lake City Crusaders at Dragonsteel 2023. They are an armored combat group and they were awesome! The matches featured combatants in plate armor with different weapons depending on the style of the bout. I do need to mention that I was thrilled about all the new Taynix from the Skyward series. So I had to swing by the Dragonsteel store and purchase a Doomslug.
Epic action shot from the Salt Lake City Crusaders!
Kaylee at the Dragonsteel Merch store, can you spot the Doomslug plushies!?
How was your Dragonsteel 2023 experience? Also, you had a panel! Tell us about it! How did it go?
Dragonsteel was great! I loved seeing Hoid’s Museum by Inventor’s Guide (we have a lot of photos from this museum from our Dragonsteel 2022 coverage). I missed that last year so seeing the neat “artifacts” from the books on display was super fun. I am thankful that I was on two panels this year. The first one was about Cosmere Content: Telling your stories online with my friend Jacky. She has a great literary Youtube channel. My other panel was all about Cosplay LEDs. My panel went super well. A huge thank you to the folks who attended my panels at Dragonsteel. Your questions were so great! There were a ton of awesome events on the Dragonsteel schedule so I appreciate those who carved out the time.
Aside from that, what were your most memorable moments / experiences from the con?
Dragonsteel was incredible because of the friends and fans there. I loved meeting people whom I’ve been speaking with online over the past few months. It was truly the best thing to meet friends in person at Dragonsteel who love Brandon Sanderson just as much as I do. The Defiant release party was fun too. Brandon gave some important announcements: Dragonsteel next year will be 3 days! Dragonsteel is looking to purchase land to build a headquarters and destination for fans. That construction won’t be done for at least 4 years though. Also Dragonsteel announced that there will be plushies of all the Radiant Spren next year when Stormlight 5 comes out!
Photo from Defiant Release Party!
Anything else you’d like to share from your experience of Dragonsteel 2023?
Yes, I want to specifically thank all the vendors, artists, and authors that came to Dragonsteel 2023. The vendor hall was about three times as big as it was in 2023, and there was a whole lane of authors who had booths and could promote their books. That’s just incredible.
Kaylee’s amazing Dragonsteel 2023 cosplay encounters, from left to right: @artbzd as Shallah, @cosplaythefamilyway as Venli, Amy from @cosmerestudies as Tress, @kayleemakes as Syl, @cosplayer_of_hathsin as Kelsier, @kokoro_cosplay as Adolin, and @cosmerequandaries as Relain.
Where can we find you and what are you currently working on?
I am currently working on making Shardplate that lights up with animated LEDs! To keep up with my cosplay progress you can find me at KayleeMakes.com and on Youtube, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. At Dragonsteel, I found out that Brotherwise games is working on a Stormlight RPG! I think I’m going about this a bit backwards, but I am going to build an original Stormlight character now. Then I’m hoping to roleplay as my character when the RPG game comes out sometime in 2024! Then the plan is to also bring my finished Shardplate to Dragonsteel next year too! I should have enough time to finish it. Cheers and hope to see you there!
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Huge thanks to Kaylee Makes from sharing her Dragonsteel 2023 experience here at SKKAW.BLOG. It looked like a blast, and we can’t wait to see what Brandon Sanderson and team has in store for us at Dragonsteel 2024!
If the above peaked your interest, do check out our coverage from Dragonsteel 2022 (last year) below:
- Con Stories Dragonsteel 2022 Part 1
- Con Stories Dragonsteel 2022 Part 2
- Dragonsteel 2022 Cosplay
- Interview with Brotherwise Games: Stormlight Premium Miniatures and RPG
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