Since The Reading Gallery seemed a little lonely and forgotten, I decided to post here. This is continuing the Anubis costume. Since it's a new thread:

The mask:


And the new stuff, the collar is up to four layers now. I've also added reducers for the clasp:

I love it. The mask is really great and I like the eye and eyebrow treatment a heck of a lot!! The nose and teeth look SO real, how did you sculpt that?? What materials and method?

Anubis is one of my favorite characters in my book, so I have a huge bias towards this costume. ]

Thanks so much for making a thread with in progress photos so I can keep track!!!

The teeth are sculpy polymer clay. They have a color called "translucent," which is the perfect color for teeth. Aside from that, I looked at photos of dog teeth, then sculpted with my hands to get as close as possible. I did rough up and drill through the bottom of the teeth (hidden by the gums of the mask) so they would adhere to the mask better.

The nose is also sculpy, and again it is just hand sculpted.

Five layers:

Beautiful.

Since Orbit was talking about costuming, and costuming has been brought up in other circles, here's some more recent photos:




It's up to 7/9 layers now. Red is done, green 12mms are done. Next layer finishes off the green all together. Unfortunately, I broke one of my beading needles, and I haven't replaced it yet. I'll be stopping by a bead shop this weekend, and hopefully they'll have the needle I like

And randomly, since Orbit seems to ask for photos when I do something crazy with my hair, it is this long now:

You make me miss my long hair.


The necklace is really gorgeous. It looks very authentic. How often do you work on it?

I've heard many who have cut their hair say the same on occasion, though they tend to conclude with "but I don't miss having to deal with it." Much the same, I rather miss the wash and wear days of yore, but I like the long hair enough to make up for the hassle.

And hey, it grows back if you ever want it long again.


As for the collar, I tend to let it sit for weeks at a time, then pick it up and work on it for several hours at a time, usually while watching movies. Unfortunately, it is so time consuming that I'll sit through two or three movies and only progress a foot or so on the current layer (building or stitching together). And seeing as the last layer hit the three foot mark, it takes awhile. I anticipate the final layer (there are only two to go) will be near four feet.

Funny, seeing as we were talking of comic-con earlier, I put a lot of work into it at conventions. The group I tend to run with does a fair amount of just hanging out, and during that time I will work on the collar. Made a good bit of progress at some of the conventions.

I'm hoping the bead store I am visiting this weekend has the needle I am looking for, and I am planning on really picking up the pace once Summer II ends. Not a lot of time before the fall semester starts, then time will be iffy right up to the deadline. Odds are I'll be without shoulder things and bracelets this year, since once the collar is done I am going to move on to the skirt and headdress, as collar, skirt, and headdress will be enough to identify, the shoulder things and bracelets are just the icing on the cake.

Wow, that's amazing. Any particular reason why you're working on it, party? Or are you doing it for the sake of it?

You beading sounds like me when I knit. I haven't done my jumper for a while now and one would think the summer would be the best time to work on a jumper. Alas it's the dead time of physical creativity in my head.

Again... wow.

Now that you mention it, Jicragg, the story behind the costume is not in this thread.

Several years ago I made a Grim Reaper costume which I wear to the Texas Renaissance Festival each Halloween. It's a rather imposing costume, with me standing at nearly 8 feet with my stilts. The people that accompany me decided last year that it would be fun for them to dress as other death characters from myth, fiction, and religion. Thing is, I usually only stilt walk until a little after lunch time, as the costume is hot, the faire starts to get more crowded, and the stilts start to really hurt the legs after so many hours. So I needed a second costume still in the theme. I had already built the mask as an experiment for another mask (a dragon mask; I needed to figure out how to hide the joints since I wouldn't have the benefit of using fur to hide them). so it only made sense to complete the costume.

I tend to like my costumes to look good, and I also prefer making rather than buying where I can (it is often cheaper and just plain more fun), so after quite a bit of research, I learned how to bead the collar and got going at it.


And on a related note, the bead shop in College Station did have the long-eyed spring steel beading needles I love so very much, so I am back in business.

What kind of things happen at the Renaissance festival? Sounds curious...


I get that. I did three hours of knitting today and I progressed: two rows. Though I was picking up stitches and I redid the entire thing over about four times though I try to listen to music instead of movies because I always make mistakes if I'm not looking.

It's a typical Renaissance festival, mostly shops and shows and people in costume and character. There's a few shops I like to hit up each year and a few shows I like to see. For the most part, what I love about the faire is people watching.

And huzzah for progress. I often watch movies while I work, but by watch, I moreso mean listen. They're usually movies I have seen before, so I can concentrate more on what I am doing that the film. It's moreso for an non-music audio than it is the visual part.

For a time there was a Rennaissance Fair place near Fredericksburg, VA (or maybe Richmond I don't remember right off hand). I went there once and it was interesting.

I often have the TV on as well, though more for the sound than actually watching it. That's one reason I have it on the cartoon channels until a cartoon comes up that I just can't stand. Since I've seen most of them so many times it makes little difference. That's also one nice thing about NASCAR: you can leave it on there and not have to watch it all the time because you can tell by how the announcers are talking if something is going on and to look up. That, and unlike most other sporting events, you don't have the annoying monkey noise of a cheering and whistling mob. I still remember the one time I went to a pro-wrestling match with some friends when I was about 10. That indoor stadium was so loud it was like, well, if you've ever had water in your ears and moved your head from side to side, the way it rumbles against your eardurms and you can't hear anything else, sort of like that. More a constant, physical rumbling effect than normal sound.