Bringing Steampunk Kili and Tauriel to life was a challenge outside of our fantasies, I think. We didn't quite understand the meaning of Steampunk. What makes a character Steampunk, rather than a person covered in a bunch of gears, wearing Victorian era attire?
Where it Began
Kili's course at Toi Whakaari in New Zealand, had a specific era planned for the year of what costumes she would be creating, and she decided to focus her costume pieces around our idea of cosplaying a steampunk version of Tauriel and Kili from the Hobbit.
It started with the design of the corset, based around a beautiful olive green silk already in Kili's stash. The center fabric was something Kili left for me to pitch in to the bucket of creative suggestions she had already compiled, and we both agreed upon a really pretty brown leaf design I found at one of the local fabric stores.
The designs of both Kili and Tauriel's outfits were done by Kili, with some of my input on Tauriel's overall look. It was probably a very frustrating time for my dear friend, because I was very hard to please. She would show me designs she had in mind, and most of the time I wouldn't react, or I would just hum in response.
Eventually I had to be pulled from whatever I was hiding my thoughts in, and the options based on how much silk remained, and what could be accomplished, was brought forth. Kili and I both did a couple of sketches of how we envisioned the final result of Tauriel, and vala! A blouse for underneath the corset, Kili made based on the fabric I chose and the design I desired. She made a beautiful full skirt with pleats and gathers in the back out of the remaining silk, and two overlaying bustles out of some brown linen we had so the green wouldn't be too overpowering.
With the main pieces finished of the elleth's outfit, she left me to work on the accessories for my outfit, and began to work on Prince Kili's attire.
I was very hard to motivate, but with the help of my friend, I started on a cuff bracelet made to look like a copper vine coiling around my wrist, out of instamorph. The sheaths for Tauriel's daggers I also began to work on, out of cardboard. Along with some velvet arm warmers that Kili suggested, and some vine like designs. Originally I had only planned on embroidering a swirl-like design on both of them, but Mellon suggested adding different sources of media into the design, such as the leaves and copper beads.
Sadly not many pictures of the work-in-progress exist of Kili's attire. A royal blue cloak was made, with a dwarven design in silver foil decorating the back, along with fur trim and a matching lined hood. Kili designed a brown undershirt with a different unique striped linen for the sleeves, and an over vest in blue corduroy. The pants were even accurate to the time period, with a drop-front opening, but sadly we lost them during our international flight to LAX.
After seeing the finished product of Kili's belt, I begged to have one of my own, and so, Mellon designed one fitting for an elleth. With beautiful golden swirls tooled, and leather wet formed into leaves sewn into place, plus more extravagant work done by my amazing partner, Tauriel's belt was made!
The leather piece we originally recieved had tattered looking edge that Kili really liked, so it was left naturally at the bottom, and worked into her design.
Both utility belts were beautiful, and Kili's design for each one had so many little details that fit each character's uniqueness so well. I almost feel that without the leather pieces she designed, the pair of them would have lacked a lot in appearing as who they are: dwarf and elf.
With the remaining scraps of leather, a shoulder pauldron was made for Kili, a pouch for the rune stone, and wet formed leaves for Tauriel's hairpiece.
With the remaining scraps of leather, a shoulder pauldron was made for Kili, a pouch for the rune stone, and wet formed leaves for Tauriel's hairpiece.
Other Notes to Share with you:
One of the belts I had previously engraved for Tauriel, was used as a crossbody strap to hold a fur shoulder piece I wanted to use to help tie my character to her partner.
Really, the majority of work done was nothing of my doing, but I enjoyed creating the paper mache dagger sheaths I made, creating leather straps for them to buckle around the utility belt, and I enjoyed being able to put in some creative input to Tauriel's outfit. Kili is honestly the most generous and creative person I could have at my side, and I'm very much grateful for our friendship.
Weapons of Choice for Our Heroes?
Tauriel has her daggers from the films. They're metal and believable enough to be in the steampunk universe. But what about Kili? He's an archer, and also has two different swords throughout the Hobbit films. But given the style of his weapons, they didn't quite read "steampunk," so of course - why not a crossbow! It could have wooden elements to fit in with the dwarves, and metal pieces to tie it in with our futuristic era. Not functional, of course, but it looked the part. We used some really cool metal hook clasps for securing the stock together, and added some leather pieces for more of a mixed media.
Some More In-Progress
-Paper mache dagger sheaths
-Paper mache crossbow
-Victorian boot covers/spats
-Kili's utility belt
-Tauriel's strapping and leaves
-Utility belt for Tauriel
Now to DragonCon 2016
An amazing convention with the best cosplayers ever!
Kili signed us up for the Masquerade Ball Costume Contest one of the days, which completely terrified me. We attended a good majority of the Tolkien panels, and even entered in the comedy section for the contest at Evening at Bree. It was sadly Emerald Rose's last night with us! I've only been to two DragonCons, but they were lovely each time.
Craig Parker, Haldir, read our little skit as we did a silly act of Kili performing alchemy on Tauriel's daggers to sharpen them in a more...proficient way. Needless to say, Tauriel turned around the exact moment Kili realized his mistake of turning one of her precious daggers into a floppy-fish dagger. Horrified, she snatched it from the dwarf's hand and wagged the floppy dagger before wacking Kili with it and chasing him off the stage.
We were up against a playboy bunny-Gandalf, I believe, and we surprisingly won in the comedy category. We were both taken by surprise and excitement! Performing is not something we're used to doing, yet quite good at it (more so in my case due to anxiety). But hey! Craig Parker read our script! And we both got Lord of the Rings coloring books! It was tons of fun.
We also met up with our friend Smaug, and a few other lovely hobbits and dwarves. So many beautiful and amazing costumes, I only wish there had been more! Seems almost as if there are fewer Tolkien cosplays each year.
When we weren't hanging out with Smaug and Dwalin, we were attempting to put together a last minute dance performance for the masquerade ball. The entire time, I was hoping to encourage my partner to opt out, due to fright, but even when we weren't able to accomplish conquering our skit entirely, we pushed on anyways. Calypso was waiting for us at the competition, along with a new acquaintance, from Assassin's Creed. We saw very many extraordinary costumes, such as Darth Daffy Vader, Ygritte and her Giant companion, Cinderella, and many more. The camaraderie was great in the back, and we were able to watch others perform on the screen while we waited for our turn. Our den was the last to go up on stage, nearly, and to our shock....the majority of winning performances was selected in our den of cosplayers.
Assassin's Creed was best in show, rightly so, as his performance was great. He's very much skilled in performance, in my opinion! For us, they created a category and we won "Best in Steampunk" which was a complete shock, and I felt so happy that Kili was able to get some recognition for her beautiful work on our costumes!
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