Lady Loki for opening night of Thor 2: The Dark World

Hello!
I know I have a few projects that need a write up before this one but I'm just so darn excited about this I need to post the write up now! It is also a work in progress due to some unfortunate happenings that night, so this won't be the last you see of it!
(I promise to get to the other posts soon, but look now you have some more consecutive reading material to look forward to!)

So.
Thor.
I have a confession to make. I never liked the Thor-verse before the movies. I know I know, hear me out. Rainbow bridge? Flying by swinging hammers? Loki's ridiculous pre-movie costume. Aliens who think their gods or the other way around...well that parts cool, but really it was all pretty silly. I did not want to see this movie and actually waited until it was out of theaters before I finally gave in. Holy Asgard was I wrong. This have been my favorite out of the Avengers movies (Iron man is a very close second) for many reasons. Reason 1: They exceeded all my expectations and made Thor and his world interesting, I was blown away! Reason 2: The costumes and props. Oh My Odin they are fantastic!! I literally watch this movie at least once a month and just drool over the designs. I love the combination between norse/viking stylings with the polish of something that is made to look out of this world. The textures are subtle but still purposefully and noticeable. I also appreciate how they change the costume designs subtly to show change for each of the characters as they grow in the 3 movies. Thor's armor gets more complicated and heroic as he grows as a person and Loki's gets more patina-ed and dingy as he goes showing the trouble he's caused leading to his downfall and more complicated inner turmoil on wanting to be accepted and carve a path on his own. I could go on! Reason 3:  Chris Hemsworth is a pretty, pretty man and Tom Hiddleston is brilliant as Loki. I have not been so fond of a character in years  (no it's not just because of his hair for those of you who know me..... but that plays a part :3 )

Look at this! How can you not love it?

Now than you know the extent of my love for this movie you can understand how excited I was to work on a costume from this universe. Not only was I going to build my favorite characters costume but I was able to get Meredith to re-design it for me so we could do another collaboration! I am in love with her design but I have another confession, I ended up changing the tunic/corset portion of it. I had so many ideas I had  to try them!! Meredith was more than supportive of this and I am ending up having to make a third change to it in the near future due to the crappy material that the corset was made out of. I think it will be better in the end from this last change but I digress....

I was doing this as part of a group with other members from Project Hero and we were all trying to go for a more norse god/viking look rather than the clean one from the movie (as much as I love it!) Meredith always blows me away with her designs so I was ready to get started! Some poor planning last year cause me to put this on hold for a year or so but I'm actually happy this happened as it allowed me to have some time to plan.
My first change was that I wanted to add some scaling to it. I don't like the versions of her in entirely green metallic scales as that's not the vision I had for this but I wanted something to give off that affect. I ended up finding green pheasent feathers that were the perfect size, shape, and color. I had to use these! I decided to use a corset for the top and ditch the coin belt for a "leather" belt with young Loki's logo (also thank you Meredith for suggesting I read "Journey into Mystery: Loki" it was a amazing!) in an antique gold finish to match the horns.

These are both pre-detail stitching as you can see I left some pins in it

I then designed a top section that was going to go on top of the corset to house and protect the feather scales. I only wanted them on the top as an homage to the comics and a unique interpretation of it. I used the same material I was using for the arm wraps to cross over the feathers to tie the two together.

I then sewed some brown leggings out of 4-way stretch "leather" (same material I used for the sides on the top of the corset) tea stained some linen I ripped into wraps for my legs, and cut all of the wraps for my arms and stitched them together with big "x's" like I did on the middle of the corset in the last picture above.

I then proceeded to the horns and the wig. I pepped a horn from the movie helmet and Garrick filled it with foam and sanded it down smooth. He should be posting a video or a write up soon on his process for that. I then templated out the base of the crown out of paper and fit it to a mannequin head. Once I was happy with how that looked (I changed it twice to make it look more like Meredith's design) I cut it out of various sizes of foam. I glued it together and Garrick took care of the rest of the construction. Once he had it all together I added some bands of thin foam around the horns to make them look like they were actual horns fixed and bezel set on the crown. I then weathered it to make it look like oxidized, antique gold and am going to go back and add some more detail on the horns to make them a little more weathered to convey the "old horn" or "stone" look. Even though Garrick sanded them down and resin coated them before he molded them to give them the bumpy texture of stone of worn bone. I was going for a more rustic look. The whole head piece ended up being very light and very secure. I don't have to worry about moving my head and having it wiggle or fall off. I do have to watch how I walk through doors, however.

First design, wasn't digging it so much, too "Mera" looking.

Second design painted!

Needs a little more weathering but I am still pleased!!

I need to get some better pictures of the coins. Alas, I will still tell you about them! I had an idea that I thought was awesome, might be a little nerdy but it's a cool detail. I did some research on the Norse version of Loki and he had three kids, Fenrir the giant wolf, Hela the goddess of the underworld, and Ritter a snake that looks an awful like an ouroboros. I thought it would be neat to have their faces on the coins. So I sculpted 3 designs, had Garrick mold them, and voila! Hair coins! I sandwiched small pieces of the wig hair in between them and glued them together. I also added some black  rooster feathers to the wig just to add another subtle detail.

I almost forgot the cape! The cape was simple. I wanted green and fur. I found both and sewed them together. I had some left-over gold thread from when I made Zuul a few years back so was a perfect way to clean out my thread box. i sewed the edges of this in gold as another homage to the movie design with the gold accents lining his jacket. I also wanted this to stay back and not hang in front of me so as to not ruin my feathers. Another costume detail form the movie I am in love with is the layering they did on their capes. They are set on shoulder pads to make them look heroic and pleated so the cape drapes beautifully behind them while keeping it behind them and not obstructing the front of their costume. I did something similar but no pleats as you cant really do that with fur. I made a harness (Meredith's idea actually) out of brown elastic that hold the cape on my shoulders without anyone being able to see the elastic. It's great! The edges of the cape are pinned up on my shoulders crating a collar of fur and a mantle so the extra fur collar wasn't needed. It frames the whole costume and shows off Loki's signature green enough to grab attention but not be over-whelming.

Here's the finished product! The Warmth drive went fantastically and we collected a lot of clothes and blankets for the homeless. Also the movie was amazing and I am making Garrick take me again this weekend! Everyone looked SO GOOD!!! Paul is an amazing Thor and I'm so pleased we all decided to do a Thor group! Deb's Black Widow is fantastic, I couldn't stop staring at it!! Cassie was great as Squirrel Girl, best one I've seen yet! And Jose was an awesome Cap.

Charlotte! You are amazing! thank you for taking pictures!!

My mom!

Gah!! I love this picture!! Everyone looks so good!

Sibling rivalry

I think I know who will win this one....

Stan Lee's angels?

Causing mischief, making bad faces...

Only bummer is I have to re-do the corset. This is last time I buy something out of China. I will be making my corsets from now on. I only wore it once and the finish on the vinyl ripped and peeled. Oh well, live and learn a new skill. I will show you my ideas for how to fix this since I spent so many hours on the feathers already!! TBC....