On my first day at Anime Milwaukee 2025, I decided to check out one of the several cosplay workshops happening at the new AMKE Cosplay Studio – Maker Space! This workshop was run by Plexi Cosplay, an award-winning cosplayer from Maryland specializing in engineering and costume design. Check out her work at her website.

I decided to do this workshop because I’ve always wanted to learn how to make armor with EVA foam. I have made armor in the past for my Kuvira Cosplay with cardboard, but it was not always sustainable and it kept falling apart. Online, I kept getting advice to use EVA foam but did not know how to start. This workshop was a great introduction to using EVA foam and now I am motivated to remake my Kuvira armor with EVA foam!

I liked how Plexi Cosplay started the workshop with a disclaimer that you did not have to have any prior experience to do this workshop. It contained all the materials you needed to make a Pauldron which included the cut out eva foam pieces, a hot glue gun, a handout on how to glue the pieces together, paint, and a paint brush to be used later after glueing the pieces. She led the workshop with instructions that were easy to follow, gave more information on what eva foam sizes and materials are best to use to attach the eva foam together depending on your environment, and how to paint the foam to make it look more like steel. You can check out more of her foam smithing tutorials online for free on her youtube channel.

Here are photos of my foam smithing experience!

The workshop ended with her giving us tips and motivation to compete as cosplay contests. I told myself once that I would never compete at a cosplay contest because of all the skills I would have to learn and the little time I have, but after doing this workshop and learning more about the tutorials that she has to offer, maybe one day I’ll compete as a novice, we’ll see!