Daenerys S2 Crafting/Product Help

Okay, so first off, my name is Dani I've been stalking this site for a while now when making my Black Widow costume, and really like the quality of work I see on this site and have already learned so much from people that I decided to officially join =)

Ever since starting to read the Song of Ice and Fire series three years ago, I have fallen in love with the character of Daenerys Targaryen and all her flaws and strengths. Despite the many changes in the series,. I love her just as much there as well, and even moreso; I love her costumes. I actually plan to do all her costumes at one point.... I've done her Season 1 Khaleesi outfit, her S1 Babyshower/heart-eating costume, and the Finale of S1 Burnt wedding dress.

I wanna make all the Season 2 outfits, but I've decided to start with this one first:



Problem is, I have little to no experience in prop making or anything that's not sewing... I want to attempt to tackle that cage thing, but I have no idea how....

So any tips? Advice? I have a few possible ideas, but I want to hear from professionals on the best way to go about this.... I'd love to use metal, but I don't have the skills/tools to do so....

So yea, any help will be greatly appreciated =)

Hi, I'm a long time lurker but I thought I'd sign up to lend a hand.

I don't know if you've ever seen how cake decorators use spun sugar to create domes to cover areas of work, but it would seem you could use resin to do something very similar.

You might need another person to lay very still with see-thru plastic on them and then apply the resin around their shape (or, you say you sew a lot, you might have a mannequin which would be more useful).

Rather than placing strands, you could do it as a solid piece molded to your shape, and use a sharp modelling blade to remove pieces according to a stencil.

You may want to look into brass etching, like it´s done in this thread http://www.therpf.com/f11/three-legs-better-than-two-150463/

And just a word of advice, looking outside of the Junkyard into getting something commissioned is a violation of the member guidelines

I think I saw you gnawing on your heart at Dragon Con! Very cool!

I think you might be able to achieve this look with a light plastic or laminated/shellacced/resin coated paper. It'll definitely be a labor of love. Even if you find someone to do the filigree work in sheet brass, you'll probably have to figure out the shape and how the pieces go together. So I'd probably start there.

Thank you all for your responses! All of this is very new to me, so I'll definitely have to experiment with these products....

Wheatly- I was contemplating resin, though I've never worked with it before... I figure if I could get the edges, then I could do that drizzle thing, or cut them out which might work better... But I'm not sure how resin cuts, nor how to really create this from resin as I don't have the tools to make a mold of such a large piece?

DaddyfromNaboo- Thanks! I'll check that out! And I'm sorry, I did see that I'm not allowed to buy stuff or ask for people to make me stuff, the point of this thread was to ask for advice, and as I was writing I decided to add that in in case someone happen to know how to make this and offered to make it for me, I didn't look at it as asking for a commission, but you're right, I see how that violates the rules and will definitely take it down, I don't wanna get kicked out on my first post...

Darth Mule- Thank you! but that wasn't me XD I wore the heart-eating costume to New York Comic Con this past year, there were two heart-eating Daeneryses at D*C, one had a fake heart, the other had a real gelatin heart like I did, I got my recipe from her =) She's awesome. I was the one riding a white hobby horse XD

But thank you, I'll look into that... I've never heard of those products, but it looks like I've got a lot of researching to do... thank god for youtube videos..

I have briefly considered this costume. It is pretty obvious that the cage from the show is punched metal, that was bent into the proper shape, but that would require a lot of machinery that isn't available to the hobby costumer.

If I were to attempt this I would draw my templates out on paper, and then use fabric puff paint (like Tulip brand slick fabric paint ) and draw the cage on a piece of wax paper or plexiglass. When the paint is dry it can be peeled off and maintain its fillagree shape, however it can be very flexible, so I am not sure it would hold up to the application you would need for it. Perhaps you could experiment by adding wire for support, or if you are ok with a bit of inaccuracy use a screen mesh as your base (kinda like this: Autumn Leaf Craft).

Perhaps you could use this method for this dress. I think it might work better.

Good Luck

(<-- the jello-horse-heart-eating-Daenerys from DragonCon)

Yay Dani, I'm so glad you're here! You've infected me with the need to do all the Daenerys costumes eventually, but I'm still puzzling over this one and her other Quarth outfits. I was just starting to think about carefully carved craft foam for the blue party dress belt when I saw someone else on the Facebook group post her version done with craft foam, and I thought it came out even better than I expected. I haven't worked with craft foam much yet, but I've read that it can be curved permanently using heat. I think it might be easiest to do each section (there are almost seam-looking lines in the breastplate, which the belt doesn't have) separately, curving each and cutting it shape, then cut the filigree, then glue all the pieces together, then paint. Not any easy build in all likelihood, but that's also why you're likely to be one of the few who attempt this outfit.

The other thing to consider is how the whole thing gets put on. I don't think we ever get a clear shot of the back of this one, do we? Her hair is often in the way, but I can imagine it either lacing up almost corset-like, or having a flexible chain mail back like Cersei's belts. Either way, you might need to reinforce the foam or whatever you end up using, to make it strong enough to hold up to being put on and taken off. (Oh, and this thread on using craft foam and wire might give you a few ideas.)

Can't wait to see how this one comes together! (And thank the gods it won't involve eating any more jello! )

hi there,

I am a jewelry maker and my advise would be to look into laser cutting. it is quite expensive. specially for one off pieces. but it would look amazing with brass and the pattern would be spot on!

i love all your other costumes.

I used craft foam, an exacto knife and spray paint for the belt on my Dany Qarth dress... it turned out like this:



( though don't mind that I botched the shape and made it too wide )

Overall, I think it worked well, PARTICULARLY well on a budget ( that whole costume cost me $50 ). I think as long as you pattern it out properly ( cutting the pieces out in the shapes of where the seamlines should be ), you'd be able to assemble it by gluing it at the seams and it would look...well...similar to that waistband I made. I do plan on remaking the Qarth dress as well as the costume you posted, but I'll definitely be sketching out the designs on a smaller scale first to have it look closer to what it should be. I hate that there are so few high-res shots!! The center of my belt, I copied almost directly, though it's on crooked in that photo...and the rest I improvised 'cause no photos were large or clear enough to follow. =\ I'd like to even photoshop a pattern out to be able to print and trace onto craft foam for it to be as close as possible...so if anyone has any more photos.......

glasscannon, if that was me you mentioned, thank you! <3 Haha!

That was you I meant! I'm really impressed with how this turned out, especially given your time and budget. I think craft foam is probably the best option for anyone who doesn't have access to laser cutting or metalworking tools, and you've proven that it can look really nice with the right attention to detail. Nicely done.

You could use cardstock (the thickness of a business card), cut out all the intricate details then apply a few coats (3-4) of fiberglass resin, sand the sharp edges & paint it. The results would still be fairly stiff so you might need to factor that in to how you put it on. I built a queen's crown this way, it worked well and was fairly inexpensive.

KhaleesiDani said:

>>>clip<<<

Problem is, I have little to no experience in prop making or anything that's not sewing... I want to attempt to tackle that cage thing, but I have no idea how....
>>>clip<<<

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I think using painted foam would be way too thick and chunky for something this intricate and delicate.

And since you have more sewing than metal working skills, I'm thinking maybe some gold vinyl without the fabric web backing, that's just thin plastic really.......

Still leaning on those sewing skills, I'd suggest you might could make that "halter" part "cage" thing in the fabric that the under garment is made out of and glue the finished gold filigreed vinyl that you cut out to that for the needed stiffness and shaping. Well trimmed around the edges, when worn, only close inspection could tell it was "lined"........same with the belt on the other outfit, line it with the dress fabric.......especially if you don't glue the fabric in all straight and flat, little bunches and wrinkles only add to the illusion.

For the collar that needs to be left open work, maybe glue some thin card stock or paper to it before you cut it out to give it a little more body--maybe even double it up, glue a couple of sheets together back to back before you cut.....
......just throwing out some thoughts and ideas......

Shylaah

I am attempting this same costume this year and have the same questions. I think I'm going to go for the craft foam idea too.

I'm with Shylaah. I think the foam would be too thick. Maybe cardstock laminated and sealed somehow. Possibly with a resin coat.

It'll be a lot of cutting, but I think it's your best bet.

I have not used this site, but someone on the RPF posted about it on another thread and I immediately thought of this one.

Ponoko - 3D printing, laser cutting

You can upload a design and have it laser cut/3D printed/etc. They have lots of different materials to choose from. You have to make the design to see the price, but it looks like everything is free up until that point. Worth a look.

aelynn000 said:

I used craft foam, an exacto knife and spray paint for the belt on my Dany Qarth dress... it turned out like this:

( though don't mind that I botched the shape and made it too wide )

Overall, I think it worked well, PARTICULARLY well on a budget ( that whole costume cost me $50 ). I think as long as you pattern it out properly ( cutting the pieces out in the shapes of where the seamlines should be ), you'd be able to assemble it by gluing it at the seams and it would look...well...similar to that waistband I made. I do plan on remaking the Qarth dress as well as the costume you posted, but I'll definitely be sketching out the designs on a smaller scale first to have it look closer to what it should be. I hate that there are so few high-res shots!! The center of my belt, I copied almost directly, though it's on crooked in that photo...and the rest I improvised 'cause no photos were large or clear enough to follow. =\ I'd like to even photoshop a pattern out to be able to print and trace onto craft foam for it to be as close as possible...so if anyone has any more photos.......

glasscannon, if that was me you mentioned, thank you! <3 Haha!

Click to expand...

This costume looks great! I too was thinking about spray painting craft foam and reinforcing with wire at the top, bottom and seams. Where did you find that fabric?? Its perfect! I have scoured my local stores and goodwills and I cant find anything that close.

KhaleesiDani said:

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Oh boy, it's so nice to see other Dani lovers out there! I have some suggestions for this one.

It is going to be a doozy to make. There are about 20 different panels that i can see just from this image. If i were you, i would blow the image up, print it out and use colored markers to mark each section and (include notches for matching seams) then start to draw on the design you want to use. i would probably use plain pattern paper to create flat pattern pieces and then tape them together on a dress form to get an idea of the shape and size and to match your seams up. Then i would make a mock up using a heavy weight fabric, like a duck cloth, because it is super stiff and will hold its shape. Once a mockup is built and the dimensions look good, then i would start on the finished product.

i use clear medium weight plastic (comes in large rolls at fabric stores; think of the plastic that older women put over their couches) and flexible boning in casing, spray adhesive or another clear drying glue and a good heavy duty needle. I would then use a super fine tip sharpie to trace the pattern onto the plastic (i would sand the plastic lightly first so the paint adheres better), cut out all the main sections and then cut out the inner design with an exacto knife. It should look like a stencil when its all flat. Then i would take the fabric cased boning and use sew or glue (or both) the boning to the seams of the main sections. this will give it more dimension and help those seams stay together. once everything is attached, then i would build some rigging into the shoulders of the top underneath it, just to snap it onto it, so it doesnt slide around. Once all the construction is complete, i would take it outside and spray paint it reallly good with paint made for plastic and indoor/outdoor use. Id give it a couple coats and then lightly sand it just to take off some of the sheen.

If I were making this one, i would probably do that. I am making the Qaarth dress, and will be making the belt and shoulder covers from wire, craft foam and the aforementioned plastic. I may ask a friend to coat one in rein to see what it looks like. Hope this helps. Sorry for the SUPER LONG POST.

I also used craft foam for my belt (below) but I'm TERRIFIED to do the shoulders the same way because it has to hold up the dress. How should I renforce the foam to make sure it wont rip (and leave me standing there half naked:facepalm)?
PLEASE HELP!!



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Phaleure said:

Perhaps you could use this method for this dress.
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1met3uRZ91qz9qooo1_500.jpg

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What I'm recreating.