At the conclusion of every costume production course at UWM, students are assigned a choice project that will fully illustrate the variety of techniques that they have learned throughout the semester, and explore techniques that they have not yet learned about in order to create a project that is uniquely tied to their interests. My interest in costuming is directly tied to my love of gaming and fantasy, so naturally I decided to build Kyra’s helmet.
Building the helm was a trial and error process, as I was trying to replicate a metal object using plastic, fabric, and acrylic paints. We had three weeks to work on the project, and I used every last second. The final process involved shaping foss-shape over a clay covered head block to provide the foundation (with some changes to the shape, as I liked the longer Persian helms better), painting several dozen layers of gesso and sculpt-or-coat, creating the headpiece by sculpting and casting it (with a couple of failed casts!), painting the helm after sanding it fairly smooth, and wrapping a dipped-down fabric filled with battering to make the turban.
While the result looks far more weathered than I originally planned, it was a favorite among my classmates and my teacher, so it was a huge success for me!
...Now I just have to make Kyra’s robes and I can show up to PaizoCon as everyone’s favorite cleric!
Levi Miles
Contributor
