Green Twi'lek Costume

Bhelia

Bhelia

New Member
Hi there.

In 2004 I started to build a twi'lek costume.
I am Gamemaster of a Star Wars role playing game which is played by e-mail and one of my characters is a green twi'lek.
Some members and I planned to be on the Jedi Con 2004 in Düsseldorf/ Germany, so we thought it would be a great idea to build a costume about our game-characters.

This was when I had to build the twi'lek costume and I did it. (Didn't believe it until I actually wore it at the convention)

twilek.jpg


This is at the Jedi Con 2004. I wore the costume last weekend again and - as you might see at the picture - this time I changed the green make-up because the old one didn't match with the green of the lekku.

I will post some pictures from Sunday and some pictures of the process of building the costume soon.

Kindest regards from Germany and may the force be with you,
Bhelia
 
Looks good. I'm a big fan of Twi'lek Jedi's. Tott Doneeta has long been a favourite of mine. His pistol grip lightsabre inspired my own (long before Dooku came along).
 
<div class='quotetop'>(takevin @ Nov 9 2006, 04:32 PM) [snapback]1354126[/snapback]</div>
vie gehts.
[/b]
Click to expand...
I'm an ass... I know... but "v" in German is pronounced like an "f" and the "w" is pronounced like a "v", so it should be "wie gehts". Just thought I'd mention it... and also sound a little knowledgeable. :p

But yes... it's a cool costume... oh wait... I already said that... now I just sound stupid again... :cry

:rolleyes :lol
 
I think that costume looks great and I'm looking forward to the how-to pics as well. I always like a girl who makes a good-looking twi'lek.
 
Hi.

Thank you for your praise.
However, there will be definitely no Oola-costume...

...
. :eek

It is very uncomfortable to wear this twi'lek-costume. The lekku are quite tight and press my ears against my head. After two hours this really starts hurting - feels like somebody is sticking needles into my ears.
I suppose there are other costumes that aren't that comfortable (I remember my first pirate boots) neither, but one twi'lek is enough.

How I build the lekku:

First of all I bought green artificial leather. I was looking for a bright green but couldn't find one (although it looks very bright on the pics) and I weren't brave enough to use latex. I knew there would be seams so I bought some meters of satin band as decoration for the lekku (and to hide the seams). I planned to fix the band with pins that I decorated with one pearl each before using them.

Twilek1.jpg


Twilek2.jpg


Twilek3.jpg


(I took the picture after I did the lekku - the idea of just using the satin band looked awfull as there were to many seams. So I bought black velvet-like fabric)

It was a great advantage that my aunt is a tailor. I showed her pics of a twi'lek and she got an idea how to sew the lekku. Finally they looked like tights made of leather and I was horrified :cry

Twilek11.jpg


I didn't like the color so I tried to repaint the leather with my green make-up, which didn't work at all. I was even more horrified.

Twilek7.jpg


Twilek8.jpg


As you can see the lekku were straight and to make them look like lekku I had to sew darts to become a rounding. I could not do that with a sewing machine and it is hard work to sew leather by hand. It drove me crazy to do it and the result was not acceptable. By that time I started to hate the costume and the whole idea. However, from dart to dart it looked more like lekku (as long as I didn't put it on my head.) but it took me about 60 hours to finish this %?$ß.§ job.

As a result I got more seams than I had expected and I was horrified again... :eek

Twilek13.jpg


Twilek12.jpg


So I went to a taylor (I didn't want to go to my aunt and ask her to sew it again) and he sewed a wrapping from the spare leather to put it over the seams. I've got no picture of that - it didn't work at all and look absolutely awfull and I was jolly well fed up with this stupid ******* costume. Sorry...
I didn't use the wrappings but bought the back velvet-like fabric to decorate the lekku and hide the seams.
This worked immediately and you can hardly see any seam by now.

Finally I filled the lekku with small polystyrene pellets (normally used to fill up empty spaces for thermal insulation). I put the pellets into freezer bags to get plump 'cushions' which I put into the lekku.

Twilek10.jpg


Twilek9.jpg


To hide the transition between lekku and my skin my friend sewed a black bandeau made of the velvet-like fabric. I made two small zylinders from the leather and sewed them on the bandeau.
My friend sewed a poncho of grey velevet-like fabric that I put above the dress I wore at the convention.
I bought black dress-gloves as I didn't want to repaint my fingers.

Last week I didn't wear gloves and had green fingers. Everything I touched became green - a very stupid idea ;)

so far, I will add more pics asap
may the force be with you,
Bhelia
 
Nice work. Don't you hate it when someone tries to help you, with all good intentions, and no matter what it STILL doesn't come out the way youre talking about? I go thru that alot. Im trying to think of a way you can modify it so it wont be so uncomfortable. Have you thought of using this as a mold to make latex Lekku? I know it would definitely be lighter, and no seams. I think vinyl would be hotter than the leather, theres also a spandex type option...some spandex is flat instead of glossy. And I just got an idea about gloves...not sure if this would work, but I know that when I paint and im wearing latex or vinyl gloves, the paint goes on the gloves and doesnt come off, what if you spraypainted latex or vynil gloves to start, then glued press on nails onto the gloves? Would that work? that way youd have the appearance of skin, without having to paint your hands and not touch anything all day. Anyways. Even with no Oola, Incredible work.
 
Hi.
I hate if people try to help in general. When somebody is sitting beside me and telling me "why don't you try doing that..." I absolutely hate that. And once I have got an idea in my head it is hard to entrust others who try to help - even when I know, that I am not able to do it.

Don't misunderstand me, it's okay to read your advice...

(Don't know if you're reading the thread in the prop-forum about the black pearl's captains room. I didn't like it when my boyfriend was watching me painting the caribbean island... and I didn't trust him painting it neither, so I did the main job while he was at work.)

---
I already thought about using the lekku as mold, but I am afraid of trying it and maybe destroying the leather-lekku. It took so much time :(

The lekku aren't heavy at all, so it is not the weight that causes the pain.
However, I suppose I need more free time and more money to try building some new lekku. I don't wear the costume that often not just because of the pain but because of the green make-up which is awfull ;)

I will take the idea of painting gloves and putting fingernails on them. It looks better to have green fingers than wearing black dress-gloves.

twilekwithbaby.jpg

A picture from last weekend... men in black reversed ;)
 
As promised: Here are two pictures.
'Unfortunately' most pictures were so detailed that you could see all the green make-up coming down.
I will never use water-based color again, although it was quite expensive it didn't work at all.

twilek25.1.b.jpg



twilek25.1.jpg
 
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