Ravenheart Cosplay – Lotte van Ginkel Strikes Again

Meet Ravenheart Cosplay!
Checkout These Homemade Wings!
I recently attended Armageddon in Wellington, a sci-fi fantasy extravaganza where cosplay folks come out in droves to strut their stuff. I was lucky enough to meet Lucifer Morgenstar, a,k.a. Ravenheart Cosplay or Lotte van Ginkel, who told me about her journey into cosplay and why giant wings are such a hit.
In Ravenheart’s own words, here is her story:
Ravenheart Cosplay – Behind the Scenes
My name is Lotte van Ginkel, although in the New Zealand cosplay community I’m known as Ravenheart cosplay: the girl who loves wings. I have been cosplaying since 2016 with all of my cosplays featuring wings or a related theme.
Before I started cosplaying I never thought it was something I would do. I grew up in a very science-oriented family, and that, combined with a passion for birds, soon led me to attending University in Palmerston North. From 2015 till 2017 I studied a Bachelor of Science with a major in Zoology and minors in Statistics and Environmental Sciences.
During my first year of University I found out about Armageddon Expo, and although I didn’t go that year, it inspired me to hear that there was a costume culture within New Zealand. I’d watched videos of cosplayers, but they were always overseas and seemed like something very foreign, but now I realized that it was here too.
I made it my goal to make a costume and wear it to Armageddon Expo the next year (2016), and for inspiration I watched the tutorial videos from someone called Axceleration Cosplay who made a Hawkgirl cosplay that had moving wings. That was the tipping point for me: I wanted to make wings.
The movie Strange Magic is still one of my favourites today, and it features a strong female fairy as the lead who had giant purple butterfly wing. This was to be my first project, and by the next expo it was a reality. My mother helped me with the outfit while my father was happy to be my co-engineer for the wing mechanism (since I decided to make it 100x harder by making them move), and it was thanks to them I managed to finish it on time.
That year I got my first taste of the amazing world of conventions and cosplays, and let me tell you it was addictive. I’ve been making cosplays every year since.
For Armageddon Expo in 2017 I created Mercy from Overwatch which of course had moving wings again. This cosplay ended up changing my life forever. The first thing it did is launch me into the cosplay community after I entered and won the cosplay contest at Wellington Armageddon Expo that year. What it also did though is get me into a high end creative tertiary education institution.
While walking around the convention as Mercy a man approached me and introduced himself as a tutor at the school Toi Whakaari (school of drama and dance) where a new course in set and prop making was set to start the next year, and gave me his card saying I should check it out. Initially I just threw it on the pile of cards and didn’t think about it, but I wasn’t happy with where my University degree was taking me career wise and eventually decided to check it out.
I finished my degree that year, and started attending Toi Whakaari the next.
In the summer between education providers I ended up building a new set of wings: white angel ones. They took around 140 hours to build and have over 1000 feathers sewn onto each wing. I wore these to Armageddon Expo in 2018 in a red dress as an original character design I called Lady Cardinal.
For the most recent Armageddon Expo I ended up reusing the wings for a new cosplay as well as making a new costume. The new cosplay was the peacock themed super villain Mayura from a series called Miraculous Ladybug, while the one with the wings was Lucifer Morningstar from the Netflix series.
I am now finishing my last year of study at Toi Whakaari before further perusing my love for wings. I’d love to one day be able to build wings as commissions for others once I’ve refined a few more designs, and am already working on a new special set for my next convention.
Thanks Ravenheart for sharing your creativity and drive! That’s dedication and talent rolled into one dynamic go-get-it package! We hope you do well at drama school and enjoy making your next costume!
I can’t wait for Ravenheart to make dragon wings one day, and wish mine flapped as well as those magnificent white ones. And for those who are wondering? Yes, I made my wings myself… but that’s a different story.
And Ironman, in the photo at the top? He’s a high school student who made his suit as a metalwork project. There are many talented individuals at Armageddon!!!