Horns, the Tesseract, and an Outfit Fit for a Goddess

For a while, I had no idea what I was going to wear under my vest. Sewing Loki's movie-style tunic is far beyond my skill level, but I didn't want to just throw on a green jumpsuit.

Even though I'm cosplaying a character whose Marvel incarnation began, of course, in comic books, I don't want to look like I stepped out of a comic book. 

Sounds counter intuitive, huh? But I want to look more realistic and grittier, like Hiddleston's Loki in The Avengers. My Lady Loki needs to look like she can kick some serious butt! 

Work that green unitard, bro. 

Also, not what I want to look like.

To coordinate with my vest material, I decided that I wanted to include a lot of faux leather in my outfit.

After looking through countless dresses, rompers, bustiers, and even crop tops (yikes!), I settled on this black pleather corset from Windsor:

Even the God of Mischief is against animal cruelty!

But I was still at a loss as to what I should wear for bottoms. Leggings? Faux leather shorts? I hummed and hawed. 

On a trip to my local Styles For Less to look for sandals, I came across the perfect leggings! Green with a leatherette strip down the side, I knew I had to incorporate them into my cosplay. 

Here is a photo of me modeling the corset and leggings together! 

I'm already starting to feel like a badass.

The only thing was that I had purchased green fabric to line my vest almost a year ago...and the greens didn't match. Oh no!

Luckily, Joann's is still running its 'Student Discount Month' for July, where the usual 10% student discount is doubled to 20% off your total purchase - even sale items! I made a trip to my local store for more Mod Podge, gold paint, and new lining material.

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When I was at Joann's, I decided to see if I could find supplies to make a 'Tesseract' necklace like the ones I'd seen on Etsy. I'd always loved them, but didn't want to shell out $10-30 for something I could craft myself! 

"The Tesseract has awakened..."

I picked up some chain and a set of "capsules." I couldn't find any square blue beads, so I decided to look through my bead stash for one I could use.

The capsule opens to allow you to slide beads onto the wire that runs through the center. I secured a blue bead onto the middle of the wire with hot glue and sealed the capsule shut by curving the end of the wire into a loop.

I didn't want to fuss with clasps, so I measured the chain to make sure I'd be able to slip the necklace over my head. I then attached the chain to the capsule with pliers. 

Here is the finished product!

I now wield unlimited power.

It's so cute, and a great way to sneak your love for the Asgardians into an everyday outfit.

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Lastly, I've been attempting to figure out how I want to make my headpiece. Loki's helmet in Thor and The Avengers is wicked cool, but I don't have the patience to make a life-size, wearable, screen-accurate helmet.

Lady Loki wears a horned diadem in the comics, which will be much less of a headache to construct (pun intended).

After researching online, I found two main ways to make costume horns: modeling them out of clay or carving them from styrofoam. Because I've never done either method, I decided to try both!  

Rather than kill myself trying to whittle horns from a Styrofoam block, I found a Styrofoam heart at Michael's for about $5. I had my dad help me cut the heart in half, leaving two identical, very horn-like halves. As you can see in this photo, we've started sanding down one of the ends into a point.

Check out these bad boys.

If I manage to coax the Model Magic into two identical horns (ha), I'll make a second, smaller headpiece to wear to the Thor: The Dark World movie premiere this November. I don't think anyone would want to sit behind me wearing the big horns! 

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I ended the afternoon by painting my foam armor, pictured in my last post, with Gesso. I can't wait to start painting them gold tomorrow!

Vambraces

The first project I tackled were my vambraces, or forearm guards. If you've never heard of vambraces, you aren't alone! Constructing a cosplay of an armored character will make you an armor expert in no time.

Thor's vambraces in Avengers. Notice the Loki horn motiff. Awww.

After looking up about a million cosplay armor tutorials on YouTube (check out this girl's great guide to using craft foam for armor here!) I figured I was ready to dive in.

First, I sketched out my pattern on lined school paper. If you're making any sort of body armor, make sure you measure yourself so that it fits perfectly!

Nothing says "villain" like snakes. Hissss

Next, I cut the shapes out of black craft foam. A big sheet of craft foam is only 99 cents at Michael's, so making your armor won't break the bank. Plus, it doesn't really matter what color you use since you'll be painting it later!

After you cut the foam, you have to shape it. I shaped my pieces by heating them over the stove and curving them over a rolling pin. I didn't take any photos of this step, but if you Google it, there are a lot of guides for this.

I then started painting the vambraces with Mod Podge, which helps the foam keep its new shape and preps it for painting. After one coat, I hot-glued the foam snakes onto the front of the vambraces.

You can put this stuff on anything!

I decided to be extra safe and paint four or five coats of Mod Podge onto my vambraces over two or three days. The Mod Podge also helped secure the snakes, creating a more solid surface by filling in the gap where the pieces of foam met.

Next came the puff paint!

The eyes freak me out, too.

I picked up a bottle of Gesso at the craft store to make sure the acrylic paint wouldn't damage the foam. After getting a coat on and letting it dry, I noticed that the Gesso gave the surface a much rougher texture.

I was able to put a few coats of the metallic gold paint onto the vambraces today. At last!

Oooh, shiny.

I still need to put a couple more coats on to get the paint even, but I'm loving how they're coming out so far! Pretty good for my first shot at making foam armor, I think!

I had originally planned to use Velcro strips to attach the vambraces to my forearms, but I think that I'm going to adhere the foam to fingerless gloves instead. That way, I won't have to worry about them falling off or looking tacky on the back sides of my arms.

I couldn't be happier with my progress on my armor! I started on my pauldron, strap piece, and arm cuff yesterday. A few more days of Mod Podge, Gesso, and Martha Stewart acrylic paint and I'll be battle ready!

Watch out, Avengers. 

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