Thank you for interviewing me! I'm excited and happy to answer your questions. I hope your readers will find my answers interesting. ^_^

I chose it along time ago. I wanted something different and relatively unique. It is from 'marid', a type of genie. +ah is a feminine suffix, hence the name 'Maridah'.

I'm an only child, and my parents views about my cosplay are mostly positive. My dad seems fine with my cosplay as long as it's not too risque. My mother for a long time wished I would quit because she felt it was a waste of money, but in the last year has changed her perspective and now really encourages me. She's even purchased several cosplay publications I've been in and keeps them on her bookshelf. She seems excited to hear about news of events I've been invited to and things of that nature. I'm very happy to have their support because my parent's opinions are very important thing to me.

In high school I started watching anime and decided I wanted to attend an anime convention. I was in a specialized school for the preforming and visual arts, in the school's theater program. I had learned some things about making costumes from costuming classes and thought it would be fun to make costumes for myself and several of my friends to wear to that first convention. From there I just kept making more costumes and have been doing so for years.

I made several costumes of Relena from Gundam Wing, not really knowing much at all about cosplay at the time. I took them to my first anime convention and at first was sort of nervous about wearing them. After getting over that feeling, I participated in group photos with a number of other people cosplaying from the same show. We took pictures for hours. There were probably 30 of us dressed as various characters. I made friends with a few of them and really enjoyed it. It left me with a good impression of the hobby and over time I became more involved in it.

I like cosplaying from every sort of genre, so I don't have just one favorite. I prefer to cosplay characters I like the personality of or the look of so it depends on the character more than the subject.

SaberSaber from Fate Stay Night or Lina Inverse from Slayers. Both characters people seemed to love to see, and the reaction at the conventions I wore them to was fantastic. It's a lot of fun to see other fans of a show or character react well to a cosplay of mine.

I like that cosplay challenges me to be creative. It pushes me to improve many skills I might have neglected, and is always easy to absorb myself in. If I need to get my mind off of something, I can work on making a costume. I also have the satisfaction of making something and enjoying the pay off for hard work on a project when people enjoy my cosplay.

It is sometimes expensive, but I have found ways to keep things in budget. I use to spend much more on making a costume than I do now, mostly because I didn't know of the great locations to shop for inexpensive fabric. The biggest downside to cosplay is perhaps the scrutiny people give it. It also makes me have to keep a secret from people in my life who don't know me that well and I don't want to tell them that I cosplay.

I haven't been to a foreign cosplay even yet. I very much want to go to some in the future.

In the United States we don't have studios for cosplay photoshoots like in Japan, so location shoots are harder to set up and a bit more of a rarity. I do like cosplaying in those closed environments, though, so I try to set up photoshoots in private whenever I can. I'm shy about cosplaying in public, so studio settings are more comfortable. I still like conventions and cosplaying at them can be fun, but I'm always a little nervous at first when going to them.

Yes, some characters I know I wouldn't look right at all for so even if I like the character a lot, I won't cosplay them simply because I would not be able to do a good job portraying them. I also have a number of characters I like and wish I could cosplay, but the outfits are too provocative and I wouldn't feel comfortable wearing it.

I could not cosplay a male character believably, so I've never attempted to. I have to bind for several female cosplays and even then still look physically wrong for those costumes, so I don't think I could ever hide my form well enough to dress as a male character.

Thank you! I try to look at the proportions of the costume and replicate it as best as I can. I also spend a lot of time thinking about how I can use a wig or makeup to make myself look more like the character. I keep a picture reference of the character with me when I make the costume as well as when I am putting the cosplay on so that I don't miss details.

I'm still not that good at expressing emotions in poses. That is something I'm trying to get better at. I think many good cosplayers practice in front of a mirror, something I don't do but should in the future so I can improve my poses.

Even if I am nervous when getting into cosplay, once I make it down to the convention hall I'm a lot more confident. Being asked to pose for pictures is one of my favorite parts of cosplay because it means the people photographing me find the cosplay that I've made interesting enough to document. That makes me want to work harder on each of my costumes and improve my posing ability so that people will continue to enjoy and photograph my cosplay. Even if posing for a group of photographers is challenging (because holding a pose for a very long time can be hard) it's exciting to do it because I am grateful to every person taking my photo.

I try to do my best to replicate the look of a character, paying attention to the details of a character's look. I want to express my fandom through the cosplays I make. Most importantly, I want to have fun in the process of making the costume and wearing it.

I use to perform on stage as a child. For me, it is a bit like that experience. I have fun re-creating a character and seeing the reactions I get from fans of that character when they see my cosplay. That is the meaning of cosplay for me.

I make just about everything myself. My experiences in theater helped me learn how to make costumes and I love to work on them. Much of the cosplay process for me is in the construction of a costume.

I buy most of my fabric from wearhouse or family run fabric stores. The material selection is better and cheaper by far than normal fabric stores.

I try to pick fabric that is fitting for the costume. For uniforms I often use poplin. It is so cheap and easy to use, I think it might be my favorite fabric to work with simply because it's available in just about any color and very easy to work with. I also use a fair amount of low luster stretch satin for costumes when it's for a fancier costume. Really, I'll use about anything that looks right, though. I recently made a dress out of upholstery fabric and if I hadn't told people that's what it was, no one would be the wiser.

I buy fabric that is inexpensive whenever I can. I try to keep my fabric budget low because it can make up the majority of the cost of constructing something. If the costume has non fabric elements, like armor, the cost goes up. It's hard to say what an average costume's cost would be because it varies so much depending on what kind of outfit it is. A school uniform might only cost me $10 of fabric to make, but a big dress might be $50-100. That's not considering wig, shoes, props, and other material costs. Most costumes end up costing $100 or more because of all of the things that go in to it.

It depends on if you mean fun to make or fun to wear ^_^ So far the most fun I've had making something has been working on my Saber Lion costume. It's very silly and hard not to have fun working on it. Wearing it might be a different story since it's going to be itchy. Often the costumes I liked working on aren't my favorite to wear and vice versa. I had the most fun wearing my Lina Inverse cosplay and my Saber armor, but both were stressful projects to create.

My techniques for making props and accessories usually involves making scale paper patterns from official art so as to get the proportions right. Every prop is different, but that is the way I tend to start working on something and I find it's really critical to getting a nice looking prop. Just like with making the costume, proportions are critical if you want something to look good.

These are the basic parts of my make-up kit for photos. My daily routine is not even half as much stuff or time consuming, but for cosplay I put a lot more in to getting ready. These are the eyeshadows and lipstick I use the most, but some characters call for different colors, so it changes a bit for certain cosplay.

I had to learn to put make-up on for cosplay because prior to it I really didn't ever care to learn. It took me a while to even figure out about simple basics, and I'm still learning. I'm not good with fake eyelashes, which most cosplayers use, so I've only worn them once for my Maetel cosplay. It's not easy to get them to look realistic, so I haven't really made an attempt to wear them. I'd need a lot more practice. If I were to give a personal principle for makeup for cosplay, it would be picking a good foundation. Making sure it's not too dark for your skin is important. Using a loose powder meant for photos makes a big difference too. It won't be so noticeable in person, but it photographs so nicely. Foundation and powder are the two things any cosplayer should splurge on in their makeup kit because they will make more of a difference than anything else.

Yes, I try to get colored contacts for each of my cosplays. My eyes are blue naturally, but most characters I cosplay have some other eye color. I want to be as accurate as I can be, so contacts are essential to creating a look of a character.

I buy many of my wigs from sellers in china because the prices are good and the quality is high. Some wigs I buy domestically, but most I buy from online sellers. I style all my wigs, so I buy very simple styles and cut and shape them myself.

I've had a lot of good and bad experiences with wigs, and am always trying to learn new techniques with regards to cutting them and styling. I like working with heat resistant fibers despite the difficulty to curl them. Heat resistant wigs don't tangle like normal wig fibers, and they are easy to brush, so keeping them looking good is easier. However, they don't look as real, so for characters like Saber with natural colored hair, I've liked using the less heat tolerant fibers better. It gives a slightly less cartoony impression. Just like with fabric, wig choice is really dependent on your project's needs and look.

I don't have any experiences with having to decorate my nails for a cosplay yet. I'm sort of a tomboy, so I usually ignore how my nails lookﾉ they are usually short, so I guess it's a good thing I haven't cosplayed any characters with noticible nails yet!.

My father was a Star Wars fan and growing up he would watch the trilogy with me. We would attend Star Wars conventions together. It's both a sentimental love for the series and an enjoyment of the story. I like "Empire Strikes Back" best because it has the most compelling plot points of the three movies.

It's my favorite because it's the game I played the most as a kid. I spent hours playing it and still love the game. It's simple and fun, plus it is nostalgic for me. Bub and Bob are adorable little characters too!

Deviant ART gives a list of options of different things you can label yourself as like "artist", "writer" or "deviant". Some of the options are bizarre, some serious. I just chose to list myself as the "Antagonist" option to be humorous. It's a set list, so it wasn't something I came up with offhand.

I don't know if I have one favorite character. I'm fond of a lot of different characters, some very different from one another. I guess it would be easy to say my favorite is Saber from Fate Stay Night, but I like others just as much.

The same is true here. It's considered very weird by people outside the anime and game community. If you aren't an 'otaku', you probably think cosplay is bizarre. I try to keep my cosplaying a secret because of this. Many people don't even know it exists and when they find out, shun it. Young cosplayers don't seem to care as much if people think of it as a taboo, so they are generally a lot braver about walking around in public in a costume. I think those of us who are older are more aware of the stigma it could bring, and many of us keep it a secret from co-workers, etc. It could affect our jobs so it's better to be mindful of how open you are about cosplaying.

Sure ^_^ I think you know of some of them already (like Heza-chan and several she mentioned) but you should check out Etaru, Cosplay Kitten, and Vampy too.

There is a picture of me drinking tea as Saber that I've been really happy to see the response to it. It was taken by cosplayshots last year around my birthday. The photoshoot was part of a birthday get-together with friends. It's had several fan art works made based on it now. Because I've had such great feedback about it and good memories attached to it, it's my favorite. There is also a photo taken by Eurobeat King of my armor that I love! It really shows the costume off nicely. The angle he chose really makes the most out of the setting too, because the area in which it was taken isn't that great in terms of atmosphere. He made it work, though, and I love the picture.

I'm okay with it within reason. Pictures represent that costume and outlive the costume itself. It's important to all cosplayers to put forth their best efforts. It's much like with wedding photos. You want to preserve that moment forever with pictures so if the photographer cleans them up some, it's not a bad thing. If you have a break out that day, that photo will outlive your pimple, so removing it is okay. Same with stray hairs. The wind isn't always kind to wigs. That said, I do think some people go overboard with it. Changing facial features and costume details is taking it too far. I have seen photos where the person no longer looks human, and really it doesn't look good anymore. The pictures should be about looking your best, not changing your look.

Yes because I've always been relatively conservative in the way I dress in my day to day life. As I said before to an earlier question, I'm somewhat of a tomboy, so it's difficult to feel comfortable in some costumes. I don't end up cosplaying a lot of things because of that. I've wanted to overcome this, but it's difficult.

Yes and no. I've been a fan of anime for over a decade now, so I am sort of use to that content being there. It isn't something I'm interested in, but it's not a culture shock to me.

I just avoid things I might find offensive.

Yes of course. I shoot with Cosplayshots quite a lot and also help assist him sometimes when he shoots other cosplayers. I also have had a lot of photos taken by EurobeatKing, who has photographed me at conventions for years. He's a familiar face at every convention. LJinto and Shiroin been kind enough to photograph me occasionally too. They are also fun to hang around :) Really, there is a long list of photographers I could thank and list here who are really great to work with and fun people.