Fëanor
Fëanor's costume was inspired by
the many lovely outfits worn by Prince Humperdinck in "The Princess Bride".
It's made out of some excellent silver and black swirly-paisley pattern
that I found on sale, which looks great and frays like crazy. When I
bought it, I had no idea in mind for what I'd do with it. Which means
I didn't have quite enough to do exactly what I wanted with this. Because
of fabric restrictions, the back part above the "belt" area is made of black
moire. Almost all of the silver brocade I had went into the enormous
"skirt" part. It's one and a half full circles, done in triangular
panels. The sleeves are black velvet, recycled from the legs of a hideous
old one-piece pantsuit. There is a matching collar of thick piping covered
in black stretch velvet, hidden under my wig. It's clearest in the
picture at the bottom of this page. Finally, the "belt" is made of
three widths of beaded jacquard ribbon.
The costume laces up the back and also under the arms to the waist. The sleeves, as seen in the top picture, are only attached through the cap, not all the way around. Underneath is a silver silk shirt, made from the same pattern as my Thranduil shirt, the only difference being that it laces up along the lower inside arm.
The costume laces up the back and also under the arms to the waist. The sleeves, as seen in the top picture, are only attached through the cap, not all the way around. Underneath is a silver silk shirt, made from the same pattern as my Thranduil shirt, the only difference being that it laces up along the lower inside arm.
This is an old picture, from when it was in six pieces and
just pinned together, but at least you can sort of see how the top is seamed
from several panels. The moire back is done the same way.
Fëanor's mask was constructed in
the same way as Thranduil's. But this time, knowing what I was doing,
it went a little better.
To start, I bought a plain plastic face mask from Michael's, one made of heavy plastic. I cut off the lower portion, so it only covered from nose to forehead, and covered it in a layer of Crayola Model Magic. Because Model Magic shrinks as it dries, I folded all the edges over around the sides and through the eyeholes to hold the covering layer in place.
Half of a second pack of Model Magic was used up adding more decorative horns, ridges, and whatever else I thought the mask could use.
To start, I bought a plain plastic face mask from Michael's, one made of heavy plastic. I cut off the lower portion, so it only covered from nose to forehead, and covered it in a layer of Crayola Model Magic. Because Model Magic shrinks as it dries, I folded all the edges over around the sides and through the eyeholes to hold the covering layer in place.
Once the base was on, I used the rest
of the first package of Model Magic adding the twisted horns, primary ridges,
and the elongated "beak" nose.
Half of a second pack of Model Magic was used up adding more decorative horns, ridges, and whatever else I thought the mask could use.
Once I was done with the Model Magic,
I let the whole mask dry for a week. On Thranduil's mask, I made the
mistake of plastering and painting it too soon, and it continued to shrink.
So I made sure this one was good and dry before going at it with spackling
plaster to fill in the cracks.
Once the plaster was dry, I sanded it
as smooth as possible and gave the whole thing a thorough coating of spraypaint.
The Model Magic is easy to use and light, but not very durable, so I
used an entire can of spraypaint to give it a strong finish. Then once
the spraypaint was on, I gave it a light brushing of silver, and the result
is what you see here (and you can also see a bit of the velvet piping collar).
To keep the mask on, I drilled two holes
at the temple on either side, and laced through black ribbon. Between
the ribbon around the back and the top curving back over the forehead, it
stays on very well!