Steen's home of the certainly strange
I have so much of this dang fabric now, I could outfit a whole platoon of Romulans. My sister and I have been joking that now I’m a Romulan quartermaster. I’ve just been working on quilting it all.
“Welcome recruit! Be sure to go see Quartermaster Steen about your uniform!”
Well, as promised, here is the “making of” portion to accompany my Dagoth Ur cosplay post.
First, I made the main mask portion with modelling clay without the headdress portion, because I began to make it from modelling clay and found that it would just take too much clay to build. So I decided to cut the headdress part later out of foam or something.
Then, I coated the modelling clay in vaseline, to prepare it for the paper mache. Then I went to town, putting layers and layers of paper mache on top of the modelling clay:
I was particularly worried about the modelling clay getting stuck in the eyelids, because as you can see in the above image, the paper mache actually wrapped inwards on the clay eyelids. Surprisingly, however, no bits of clay stuck in the eyelids whatsoever! But the entire beard was stuck in, and I had to fish the clay out of the beard with a fork. I got it out, though.
If you’re wondering why the paper mache is blue, that is because I saw somebody suggest using shop towels instead of newspaper because they are buff and absorbent. I thought that sounded like a great idea – but after having done it, I’m not particularly impressed with them that I’d say to use shop towels over newspaper. I feel like, just use whatever you have on hand. If you have a bunch of newspaper, use that. If you have shop towels, I guess use that.
Welp, I’ve finished up with my Halloween costume for this year! I’m being Dagoth Ur from Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind. I’ve only just finished, so the only photos I have thus far are in a garage. Although I’m not really sure what would be a better setting.
And, since I’m certain that I will be spending more time with the mask off than I will be with it on, I’ve made sure that I will still be Dagoth Ur when I take the mask off.
I’ll post some of the progress shots of how I made the mask, etc, in the coming weeks.
