Forming Rhok'delar, Longbow of the Ancient Keepers - Part 2

For the beginning of this project, see: Forming Rhok'delar, Longbow of the Ancient Keepers - Part 1

Long has my epic bow sat unfinished, but no more. When I left off in part one, I was waiting for the paper strips to dry. The next step was to cover the bow in CelluClay. The final product was very hard and strong without being too heavy, but even thought the box said it could be sanded, sandable it was not. Either that, or I have the crappiest sandpaper ever made, because when I went to sand the CelluClay, it knocked the sand off my sandpaper. I did have better luck using steel wool to sand the bow, but in the end, what I had to do was cover the entire bow in a layer of spackle, then sand that down to get a smooth finish. I like to use the kind that starts out pink and turns white as it dries, so you know exactly when you can move on to the next step.

After the spackle was smoothed and dusted, it was time to paint. Faux painting is always a trial-and-error process for me, even though I've been doing it for years. I used the 3D model viewer on WoWhead to try to get the colors and textures as close to in-game as possible. After it dried, I coated it in Mod Podge to seal it. Once that was done, all that was left was to wrap the vines I'd made around the bow and glue them on. I didn't take any pictures of the vine-making process, but it was fairly simple. I took some newspaper

 pages and twisted them together into rope in the length that I needed. Then I wrapped up the newspaper rope in some green floral tape. I didn't want it to be all one color, so I dabbed on a contrasting green acrylic paint to add interest. Then, I wrapped around some faux-floral morning glory garland. Morning glories are closest to the type of flower that blooms on Rhok'delar, so that's what I used. Here's the final finished product:

I wasn't overly pleased with how this turned out, to be honest. I felt it looked rather cartoonish. I think my painting skills were taking a holiday. My sister-in-law and her husband both disagreed with me, though. They said it looked fantastic. Perhaps I'm being my own worst critic, but I think I can do better. What do you think?

Halloween as a Troll

At long last, you get to see how our Halloween costumes turned out. This is my daughter and me just before heading down the street for trick or treating.  I'm pretty pleased with how it all turned out. We both got several compliments on our outfits, and a few people even asked to have their photos taken with us. (Not sure what happened during the uploading process that gave this picture a sepia hue, but I assure you it didn't look like this on my camera when we took it.) We forgot to put my little one's crane feet on in this pic, but I'll show one with the feet a little later. I will say that my daughter's costume was probably the simplest, yet most fancy-looking costume I've ever made. The hardest part of putting together her outfit, aside from multiple hot glue burns :(, was sorting through all the feathers I bought to weed out all the ones that were damaged, too small, or not the right shape. After that, it was simply a matter of cutting out the wings, mask, and feet, then attaching feathers, and adding some Velcro to make it wearable. The green leotard was purchased from welovecolors.com/, and the leggings she already had. Going to the bathroom was a little bit of a challenge for her in this costume, but with some careful planning, we were able to avoid any potty-related fiascoes.

 Here's a closeup of the little one's mask. I got the basic idea for the mask from some pictures I found on Photoblog. The beautiful orange biot feathers as well as the dark green feather pads in the photo below were purchased from Kimonos Feathers on Etsy. I highly recommend Kim's shop; the products I got were of great quality, reasonably priced, and they arrived quickly. The wings were inspired by the DIY bird wings on Handmade Charlotte, the only difference was that I used actual feathers on my wings instead of fabric

scallops. For the tail, I basically just cut a teardrop shape out of craft foam and glued on feathers. It's important to note that if you're going to attempt a project like this yourself, you should layer on the feathers starting from the outside and working inward, just slightly overlapping each row of feathers. That way it mimics how a bird's feathers are naturally. Part of the reason I chose to finish off the wings and tail with feather pads was because I felt it made things look even more natural, with the pads acting at the bird's shoulders and rump.

In the picture directly below, you can see a picture of not only my impatient trick-or-treater's sad face at being told to wait, but you can also see the bird feet that I made from craft foam. They had a little strap underneath that slipped through her Velcro shoes to keep the the feet from spinning around on her ankles.

Pretty ingenious, if I do say so myself!

Now, onto my costume. I'll go ahead and apologize for what's probably the worst archery stance in the history of the world. But hey, you can see I finished Rhok'delar! Stay tuned for part two of the tutorial on that, my friends. First of all, you're probably saying, "Hey! That isn't the Amani Mail set you said you were going to make!" You'd be right, it isn't. What it is, is the Brackwater Mail recolor set (although I forgot to wear the bracers and feet, much to my chagrin). I'm still wearing the Pauldrons of the Furious Elements, though, so there! These changes in the costume were made mainly because of the lack of time. If you've been keeping up with my blog, you'll know that I've been busy packing, selling my house, and visiting family all before a big cross-country move. Now, I honestly can't really blame all that, because I started working on this costume in January. The real issue was that all this cropped up after I decided to procrastinate. In the future, I'll be making a post about the lessons I learned while trying to finish this costume last minute. This was my first attempt at a costume project of this magnitude, and while it did turn out nice, it could have been so much better if I'd been working at it all along like I should have been doing. At any rate, hindsight is 20/20, and speaking of vision, let me give you a better look at the individual parts of my costume.

The first picture is one of my bracers (which I'm still kicking myself for forgetting to put on). The details you see here like the metal studs and rings were on each piece of my "armor." At a distance, it looks like studded leather over scale mail. The second picture is of my wig. I'm showing the side view of it, because all the pictures taken of me on Halloween were from the front, and the great styling of this wig went unnoticed because of it. You really couldn't see the braids or the overall shape of the mohawk, which is kind of a shame, 

since Leah's hair is one of my favorite things about her. By the way, if you're wondering how I got the hair to stick up like that, I used Got2B glued spiking gel. It does what it claims to do, and it's not too expensive, so I really can't complain. Word to the wise, it's uber-gross feeling to work with, and I don't think I'd ever put it in my actual hair.



These are my pauldrons, and I am very proud of them. I feel they look just awesome. I can't give a step-by-step tutorial for these since I didn't take pictures throughout the creation process, but I will put up a basic how-to for anyone who's interested in attempting your own cosplay armor. There are some things I'd do differently if I had to do them all over again, but I'll talk about that in a future post.

So there you have it, folks! My transformation into Leah for Halloween was successful. My sis-in-law said we were the talk of the neighborhood, so I guess there's something to be said for that! TTFN! Ta-ta for now!

Darkspear Tabard

Not much to report this week, but I do have a picture to show you. This is my tabard that will go with my Halloween costume. It's modeled off of the Darkspear Tabard. Not 100% the same, but I feel it's a reasonable facsimile nonetheless. It's probably the most in-depth sewing project I've undertaken to date. I'm feeling proud, and I think it'll look great on Halloween night.

My little one's Wandering Greenback costume is nearing completion, and I'll have some pictures of that up soon.

Tomorrow is another painting class, and this month, we're doing a lighthouse. What a great present that will make for my mother this Christmas!

Well, that's all for now. Until next time, see ya!

I was Completely Insane, but I'm Better Now

Take a look at the Shifting Camouflage Pants that I'm using as the basis for my Halloween costume. You see that grey area that looks like scales? Yeah, I saw it too. When I did, I had the bright idea to make some and sew them all on by hand. I even got a few done:

They look great don't they? Then I began to sew them onto my pants, and I realized just what a mistake I'd made. They looked awesome while laying flat, but they were going to have to cover my contours and be able to move with me. I just don't think they would be able to do that. This is not to mention the scale of the entire project. I was going to have to make hundreds of these buggers and sew them all onto not just my pants, but my gloves and boots as well. Given that I've been procrastinating a lot lately, I didn't think there was any way I'd finish in time, so the scales have been packed away for use on another project.

My next idea for achieving the look of scales wasn't much better. I had an old pair of Halloween fishnet stockings and thought, "Wow, fishnet stockings layered over my pants would look like scales. That should work, and it'll be simple." LOL. While the look was right, no matter how I shifted, pulled, pinned, or tucked, I just couldn't get the pants to stop wrinkling under the tights. Even if I did manage to get everything looking just so, as soon as I took a step, it was all undone. So, that idea got scrapped too. 

Frustrated, I went to bed last night wracking my brain for a way to get the look I need. I seriously considered just forgetting the scales and wearing plain grey pants, but my detail-oriented nature couldn't abide the thought. Finally, I had my light bulb moment. "Why not draw them on?" I thought. And draw them on I did:

Sometimes, the simplest answer is the best answer.

Forming Rhok'delar, Longbow of the Ancient Keepers - Part 1

Today, we talk about how I'm making my bow. I'm not finished with it yet, but I thought I'd share the early steps now because yesterday was Earth Day, and this is really a green project.

Originally, I was going to make the Ancient Amani Longbow. Leah doesn't actually have that weapon or its lookalike, the Restrung Voodoo Bow, but it looks nice and "trollish," and I thought it would match my outfit nicely. The more I thought about it, however, the more I was  convinced that I should make my bow Rhok'delar, Longbow of the Ancient Keepers. Leah has this weapon in the game, and it holds great sentimental value for me because it is the only pre-Burning Crusade epic she has. I took the time and completed the quest chain to get all the materials needed to create the bow. That was back when all of my real-life friends also played WoW, and I would have never raided Molten Core or Onyxia without them. And I'm so glad I did, because the quest chain isn't available anymore, so I got it while the getting was good. Plus, it really is a gorgeous looking bow. Seriously, follow the link above and then click the "view in 3D" button. You can't really find a weapon like that anymore in the game. Armor and weapons in game now are missing something. Some of the new stuff does look completely bad-ass, but there's something to be said about the elegance of the early epics.

Anyway, with a picture of my bow handy, I took a piece of cardboard and cut out the outlines:

I used a paper towel roll for the handle. Then I began to crumple up old newspapers and attach them with with masking tape to give the bow its basic shape. For added stability, I glued a wooden inside the paper towel roll and attached the other pieces of the bow to it.

This is the basic shape of the bow once all that was finished:

After that was done, I strung the bow to get the curve the way I wanted it. Then I made a glue/water mixture, dunked in newspaper strips, and began layering them on. Once they dry, they'll give the bow a nice rigid structure.

 And that's where I am now, waiting on things to get good and dry. So far, the only materials used have been those I already had lying around the house. So there you are, my green and soon-to-be awesome bow. Stay tuned for Forming Rhok'delar - Part 2!

Update - Forming Rhok'delar - Part 2 now finished!

Quiver

The quest to make my Halloween costume continues. I finished my hands and feet (which I'll talk about a little later), I found fabric for a tabard, and I'm on the hunt for the right color face makeup. At any rate, a little while ago, I showed you how I made my arrows. This week, I'll show you how I made my quiver. Hunters no longer use quivers or even arrows anymore in World of Warcraft; they just kind of fire magical ammo, I guess. However, I opted to make a quiver for a couple of reasons. One, sometimes I get nostalgic for the earlier days of WoW. Two, I felt it would add a little to my costume to make it more complete. The third and most important reason, I needed somewhere to put my keys and phone and whatnot while we're out and about trick-or-treating. So, without further adieu, I bring you "how to make a quiver."




I began with sheets of brown craft foam. Craft foam is inexpensive and pretty easy to work with, but it's limited in size and looks like, well, craft foam. Fortunately, Pinterest came to the rescue, and I found this craft foam armor tutorial which in turn led me to this video tutorial on making craft foam look like leather. The size issue I overcame with my clever quiver design, which required the pieces of foam to over lap and be laced together. I started by hammering out the lacing holes in the foam with my M'bellish hammer and hole punch. Then I proceeded with making the craft foam look like leather as per the instructions in the link above. In hindsight, I should have done the leather treatment then punched the holes, because heating the craft foam can cause it to shrink, and I ended up having to re-punch some of the holes because they no longer lined up. In the end it all worked out. When I was ready to put together my quiver, I used a natural-colored lace and a plastic craft needle. While masking tape held everything together, I laced a whip stitch around the top, and then crisscrossed down the sides like you would do with shoe laces.

Now I needed my quiver to have a sturdy bottom since I'm planning on using it to carry stuff, so I recycled an old oatmeal container that, conveniently enough, fit inside the quiver famously. I simply placed the oatmeal container on a piece of craft foam and traced around it. Then, I drew and cut out another circle about an inch larger around the outside of the original circle I made. After that, I cut from the edge of the foam to the inner circle at several spots to help me form the foam around the bottom of the oatmeal container. Just so no white would accidentally show through, I painted the bottom edges of the container brown. While the paint dried, I gave the foam the leather treatment. Then, I hot-glued the foam to the bottom of the container. Finally, I inserted the container into the bottom of the quiver and secured it with glue (although it fit tight enough that I doubt it would come out). I'm pretty pleased with how it looks, and I'm confident that it will hold my stuff just fine come trick-or-treating time.

The final thing I needed was a strap to make the quiver wearable. I measured how long I needed it to be, then I cut out the right amount of craft foam and gave it the leather treatment. This required two pieces, so I had to devise a clever way to disguise the seam. I thought that it would look cool and be appropriate to display fangs as hunting trophies on my strap, so that's what I did. The fangs are handmade from Sculpey and painted with acrylic paint. I hot-glued then hand stitched them onto the strap, so they look great and aren't going anywhere. I added two D-links to the quiver for attaching the strap, one on the bottom and one on the top. Using the hot glue and hand stitching method, I attached the top of the strap to the top D-link on the quiver. I then added a leash clip to the bottom end of the strap so I could put the quiver on and take it off without lifting it over my head and shoulders.(You can see in the picture to the left how I stitched both the trophy strip and the strap to the D-link.) And that's that. 

So what do you think? Here's a photo of the quiver holding the arrows. I feel it will complement my costume nicely. Well, guys, until next week, see you later!

Potatoes and Tusks

Fierce!

This week is the week of deliveries. Yesterday, I got my troll tusks from the wonderful people at Medieval Collectibles. I'm getting pretty excited about my costume now. Aside from the makeup, I now have all the elements of the costume that I myself am not going to make. I'm also expecting my friendly neighborhood UPS guy to bring my patio storage bench that I ordered from Amazon. Hooray for more storage space!

This week we've been blessed with beautiful weather. I have to tell you, after the crazy winter we've had, I'm thankful for some calm spring-like days. All this has got me looking outside in anticipation of gardening. A few days ago, my little one and I started some tomatoes, tomatillos, sweet and hot peppers, and zucchini seeds indoors. I was curious how this would go because the tomato seeds were some I saved myself a couple of growing seasons ago, and the peppers and zucchini are close to 3 years old. I honestly didn't expect any of them to sprout, but sure enough, the tomatoes and zucchini are.

Yesterday, we headed outside to plant some Dutch iris bulbs in a little, neglected garden bed under our tree. I found that daffodils and grape hyacinth were previously planted there, so that was a pleasant surprise. The grape hyacinth seems to be making a run for it though, because I see blooms popping up in the grass up to ten feet away from the bed. I weeded, put down ant killer and fixed the rock ring around the bed. We also planted some zinnia seeds in my umbrella stand planter and began a potato tower. I have a lot of plans in store for my yard, and a lot of work ahead of me to get it done, but I'll be glad to be outside. Who knows, maybe I'll even get a tan this year.

Poppin' Tags and Fletchin' Arrows

"I'm gonna pop some tags, only got twenty dollars in my pocket..." If you haven't heard this song, you need to. This song has become my theme song. Check out the radio edit here:

Why have I made Macklemore's "Thrift Shop" my theme? On my last trip to South Carolina, the mom-in-law and I made a trip to our favorite thrift store, where I scored four over-sized tees for 99 cents each. I altered the first one to make a cinch tee. I also made a skirt, and from there, it kind of snowballed. I made another skirt, then I altered two shirts I already owned, then I made several repairs to torn clothing that had been sitting in my project bin for months. Since then, I've been opening up my Sewing and Fabric Projects board on Pinterest and saying to myself, "What can I do today?" I think refashioning thrift store finds might just be my new hobby.

Ultimately, that's not what I want to tell you about today. In my last post, I promised to tell you about a part of my Halloween costume that's also a Valentine's Day friendly project. I know Valentine's Day is over and this post is way overdue. I apologize for that; life got in the way and I had other things to attend to. On the bright side, if you like this idea, you have a whole year to get it ready before Valentine's rolls around again! As you know, my WoW toon Leah is a hunter, and so my project was making arrows!

I started out by researching various bow hunting supply sites and discovering the average length and thickness of arrows. I then selected dowels from the craft store that were approximately the right thickness and cut them down to size. Then I sawed the nock in the end of the shaft. To make the arrowhead, I simply carved a sharp point with my knife and then smoothed it out with sand paper. I wanted a primitive look, and I thought this would work better than making arrowheads for that purpose.

Next, I looked for a user-friendly tutorial that would help me make realistic fletching for my arrows. I came across an article on primitiveways.com called "Fletching by Hand" that ended up giving me all the information I needed. I didn't follow the instructions to the letter, well, because I never really do. I'm a maverick like that. Besides, all I wanted was the basic idea for making an arrow that looks functional. For my fletching, I picked up some natural colored duck feathers from the craft store, and I split them down the quills with a utility knife. I trimmed them up to the approximate size and shape I wanted, then I used a dab of super glue to help hold the feathers in place while I wrapped them with dental floss. I didn't have any natural sinew, but the dental floss looked enough like it to suffice, so that's what I used. As I wrapped, I dipped my fingers in craft glue and slid the dental floss through them so it would adhere nicely without unraveling. And that's really all there is to it! Check back in the near future for my adventures in quiver making!

They're Here!

So here's the view from my front door today:

It's all ice and dreariness as far as the eye can see. Yesterday, I was so excited to see flaky white stuff falling in my yard, but my happiness was not long lasting. Shortly after the snowfall, it began to rain, and then sleet. Combine that with temperatures in the 20's and you have a mess. I needed to get something out of my car last night, but it was frozen shut. Today it's a tad warmer, so the icicles are melting, and by the middle of next week, we're supposed to be experiencing 70-degree weather. What?! I do not understand what's going on at all right now.

However, the crazy weather cannot bother me. Wednesday, I got my first package of costume accessories in the mail! I am now the owner of pointy-ear prosthetics and a wild pink wig. The wig has a little more black in it than I anticipated (Leah's hair is all pink), but I know I can make it work. The ears are just awesome. They're made in USA (bonus!) and are exactly what I wanted. A little makeup and they'll be ready to go. I might just wear these around the house sometimes!

I think the elven look suits me.

Step one to awesome troll hair.

It's Been Decided

I have to start working on Halloween early. It's only January, yes, but this year I want to be Leah,  my troll hunter from World of Warcraft, so I have to get busy making stuff. It's my hope that I can make all her gear myself, but holy crap, that's going to take some work. Her transmog set, which will be what I'm constructing, you can see here.

I've already begun cutting out templates for the shoulder pieces and gauntlets. To keep the gear lightweight an inexpensive, I've opted to make my pieces out of papier mache and craft foam. Keep your fingers crossed that my faux painting skills are good enough to make it convincing!

This costume has a few challenging aspects that I'll need to overcome. Leah has a hot pink mohawk and braids, pointed ears, tusks, only two toes on each foot, and only three fingers on each hand. The ears and tusks I plan to take care of by using prosthetics, and the hair I plan to take care of with a wig. For the fingers and toes I'll have to get creative, and I'll show you my solution for this when the time comes. Oh, and did I mention she's green-skinned? I guess a little cream face paint will take care of that.

I'm photographing the whole process, and I plan to do step by step coverage of my journey to becoming Leah, so you guys will get to see the whole thing unfold throughout the coming months. My enthusiasm has been contagious, it seems, as my husband is now thinking that he wants to resurrect his old troll warrior Boaris to dress up with me. Frankly, nothing would make me happier, but we'll see if he goes through with it or not. I'm hoping to make the whole process look so fun that my little one will want to be our little troll baby. If she doesn't, that's okay, but I can't pretend that I won't be a little bummed. I've always wanted to do a themed family costume set, and a troll family would be awesome.