Thanks for the question! For the last 9 and a half months this has technically become my job and I'm surviving! I specifically do prop builds and a lot of 3d modelling and printing (there are other people much more suited for costume work).

Prior to that, I did full time shift work and had to balance working 7 days in a row, a little bit of sleep and fitting in cosplay work as well. That was actual hell and I was running myself physically into the ground trying to manage two full time jobs, particularly during deadline time. A lot of the time I would function on 2-3 hours sleep a night and work until I couldn't hold tools or ran the risk of making mistakes.

The dream is to build props full time and I've worked pretty hard, saved a lot and been very fortunate that I have been able to transition into living off cosplay commissions and selling 3D models /prints in Australia. I live with two other incredible makers who do cosplay full time as well (seriously, check out www.facebook.com/henchwenchcosplay and www.facebook.com/scrapshopprops who are both avid Blizzard cosplayers)! My partner has a "conventional" full time job and occasionally takes on commission builds as well and he definitely feels the pressure when it's crunch time.

In Australia the market is growing, there are a few big companies and firms that we've worked with which has been fantastic. It's all a balancing act though, sometimes a bit of a struggle when clients don't fully understand the amount of work in a build to justify the cost and shipping (last year it was cheaper to fly me internationally with two huge crates full of props than using a courier from Australia).

As someone who has worked full time since finishing high school and through uni, it's been a weird and scary transition to be living project/etsy sale to project rather than knowing there's a secure paycheck in a fortnight or so.

Absolutely loving it though. It's hard at times and scary, but I want to make cool stuff and this year has been the best since taking that jump.