I was going to Desucon:Fantasy and realized I did not have the time to finish my Codex cosplay. With two days until the con and about 8 hours of spare time, I challenged myself to make an elvish costume with the time I had at hand. So here is a simple tutorial for the staff I made.
Also I have made another staff, the staff of Kraken with tutorial here.
I started with a hollow card board pipe (the core of a roll of paper table cloth actually - so in other word a really long toilet paper core)
Then I glued on strips of foam (the cheapest kind from Biltema) For the "branches" that are sticking out on the top I used steel wire to stiffen the shape. For the thinner details (hoops) I used a couple of electrical wire stumps.
I wanted a glowing orb on the top of my staff and found a transparent rubber ball at TGR in Oslo
Then I added paper clay (from Clas Ohlson) around the foam. For the wood grain details I used a blunt pencil and pressed in some lines along the direction of the "branches".
Then I let it dry over night. This paper clay is easy to paint on and it doesn't need any priming. First I painted the whole staff with a lighter, warm brown color and let it dry. Then I painted on a darker brown (acrylic) color mixed with water and wiped off most of it. This way the dark color sets in the creases and especially in the wood grains and adds dimention to the texture.
The ball is glued on as I didn't have time to make a mechanism to attch it so I could take it off. But the staff is hollow, so I could still make it slow - see description further down.
Next I added even more dark brown and some gold highlights using a dry brush and gold paint. I have not used any clear coat, only golden highlights.
For the handle I wrapped a strand of green fabric around the staff and added rope painted gold around the edges of fabric. Everything is attached using hot glue.
My philosophy is that everything look a thousand times better if it lights up. Since my staff is hollow I placed a small flash light (like this from Clas Ohlson) with green cellophane over, right under the orb. No wiring, I just turned the flash light on right before the con and let it glow the whole day.
As I mentioned the orb is glued on, but the staff is hollow. So I inserted the flashlight from the bottom up. A thin rope is attached to it so I can pull it out to change batteries.
For the rest of the costume I used pixie ears from Festmagasinet Standard, the cape is sewn out of two square layers of fabric (lining makes everything look more professional, just sew the two pieces together along the edges) The corset is the same I had made earlier for my Big sister cosplay and I just attached a green satin scarf as a halterneck (no sewing, I only used safety pins). Last I used a sash around my waist over faux leather pants. If you have any questions just ask, I love to answer. You can also find me at my facebook page ChrixDesign.
