Worn At: San Diego ComicCon 2003, Baycon 2003 for the One Ring Circus
Awards Won: Best in Show at San Diego Comic Con 2003, Best in Show at Baycon 2003 for the One Ring Circus, Best Professional Workmanship at Baycon 2003

Okay, here it is, my Gimli costume. Also known as the costume that sucked up my life. Or at least 500 hours of it! I learned how to cast, make chainmail, make prosthetics and tool leather for this costume, so it's become a labor of love. I carried around my Buffy the Vampire Slayer lunchbox with my chainmail making supplies EVERYWHERE for months, whipping it out at every opportunity that I had minutes to link a few more pieces. Explaining what I was doing to restaurant waiters became second nature!

My favorite part of this costume was, once I started talking, was hearing, "OH MY GOD! YOU'RE A GIRL!" (for reference, here is what I really look like!) It made the pain of binding... ummm.... non Gimli parts, the weight of the costume (around 45 pounds) and wearing the beard and facial prosthetic worth it! This is actually my second incarnation of this costume (Version 1.0 can be found I've added the crossed leather braids, the belt buckle, the boot tops, and the axe holders. I've also redone the facial prosthetic, with the help of a friend, Ed Martinez. Of course, the costume is never done, and I have a lot of things I'd like to add or redo before I'm completely happy. However, when ever I get frustrated with the heat and weight of the costume, or all the things I need to finish, all I have to do is look at this or this!

The costume is made up of many time consuming parts. The prosthetic was made by me out of cold foam latex. The beard and mustache were hand ventilated (knotted/tied) by myself and Kel. The shoulder guards are made up of 87 inidvidually cast resin plates. The chainmail I made ended up being about about 20,000 pieces. and over 25 lbs. The gauntlets and belt are hand tooled and dyed leather. The braids on the tunic are 16 strand distressed braids. The helmet was bought as a kit, which I put together.


Photos by Paul Savage

Photos by dmk26

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