Comic-Con@Home Masquerade Entry: The Queen’s Armory
Costume Entry Title: Valkyrie (Jane Foster)
Leatherwork is, in many ways, a lesser known form of art, especially for the purpose of costuming (you’ve seen belts, you’ve seen saddles, but have you seen…pauldrons!?). I wanted to take some time to explain the process for anyone unfamiliar with traditional tooling methods. (I also created a slideshow video showing some of the process). It’s rather lengthy, but it explains in detail what went into Valkyrie. Thanks for reading!
Time to complete: 383 hours and 37 minutes as measured by my handy-dandy kitchen timer.
Individual pieces: Counting lining, light panel underlayment, straps and individual feathers (on the chestplate) around 350. Yes, that is insane; most of them are in the chest plate that has around 130 individual feathers and the gauntlet that has around 50 individual pieces. I also made rivet covers stamped from leather that I have neither the time nor energy to count…so many…oh, and decorative anchors for the straps…
Materials: Around 40 square feet of leather, 39 oz of paint, two bottles of sealant, 25 buckles, 50 some knife blades, over 170 mini LEDs, a whole lot of rivets and more determination than I knew I had.
Weight: Just under 25 lbs.
Inspiration / Jane Foster
My first introduction to the Marvel character Jane Foster came in the original Thor movie. I’d been reading comics for a few years, but hadn’t really run into her character much in the books I was reading. It wasn’t until Marvel launched The Mighty Thor comic that I really got to know Jane. I will confess, initially, the idea of anyone other than Odinson wielding Mjornir was not appealing, but the art looked amazing and I took a chance on issue #1. All it took was one issue and I had a new favorite character. Jane (written by the amazing Jason Aaron) was not a traditional hero- at least, not in the way I’d come to expect. The real enemy, the one Jane so valiantly fought- was cancer. There was no easy fix, no magic, no miracle cure. Jane battled cancer with more bravery and courage than any character I have encountered. She chose to become Thor and do what was right even knowing that the transformation removed the progress she’d made with chemo. I fell in love with Jane’s unbreakable spirit and have never admired a character more. In fact, one of my very first cosplays was Jane’s Mighty Thor (based on the Sideshow Figurine).
To cosplay Jane, for me, is not so much a reproduction of a character, but a chance to emulate- even in a small way- some of the bravery and strength that makes a true hero. And while Jane’s time as Thor came to an end and she triumphed over cancer, her character continues to fascinate and inspire me. When I saw Jane’s new persona of Valkyrie, I knew I had to make her costume.
Valkyrie’s costume as represented in the comics is a beautiful set of armor worn over a black bodysuit. It has been mentioned before, but I absolutely love armor. I have studied medieval plate armor in depth and have done extensive research to understand how it was constructed and how it moves. My true passion is in design and I love creating suits of functional armor.
I wanted to design a suit of armor for Valkyrie that was still recognizable as the character but far more detailed and exquisite than the original. I tried to keep the basic shapes and profile such as the chest plate, the legs, the pauldrons and the gauntlet, but I really went to town with the details.
Fun fact: I set out to make this armor ‘simple’ in comparison to what I usually design.
Yeah, you can see how that worked out… I literally can not help myself…
My vision was an exquisite suit of armor, functional and decorated with Celtic knot designs with bands of glowing magic. My aim was to create a sort of ‘enchanted’ armor look, especially with her golden gauntlet which is actually Undrajarn, the All Weapon.
Unlike most of my designs, I did not do extensive sketches as I had no idea how to draw Celtic knots and figured I would just have to learn on the way (I did learn, although it took a good two weeks). This suit was designed as it was made, really. I had a basic idea of the shapes I wanted and just added elements and components as I went.
Patterning / Celtic Knot Designs
“AKA, I am really going to hate myself when it comes time to tool all of this…”
Patterning is extremely important when designing a suit of armor, especially if it will be made from leather. The plates have to fit together perfectly or it will not move like it should and even a small error can make the entire suit fit wrong. I make all of my patterns to fit my body perfectly with the greatest mobility possible. Complicated articulation on the knees, shoulders, waist and feet allow for full range of motion, a must if you’re going to spend a long time wearing a 30- 50 lb suit of armor.
Once I had a workable pattern, I cut everything from foam to create a mock-up to test fit and function. The gauntlets especially required a lot of trial and error as there are over 50 tiny pieces, all of which have to flex and move on fingers that have multiple points of articulation. Gauntlets are probably the most difficult patterns to design but there is nothing more satisfying than trying on a completed gauntlet for the first time and having full mobility.
Once I had the basic pattern shapes refined, I set out to decorate them in a way that was worthy of a Valkyrie.
I confess, when I set out to make this costume, I vastly underestimated how difficult it would be to create Celtic knot designs. I’d decided early on that I did not want to use templates or copy existing designs but wanted to create all of my Celtic knot designs entirely myself. Two weeks later and I was covered in graphite and tears. Triumphant tears, but tears nonetheless.
Designing Celtic knots is difficult, I discovered, because you are drawing a design that is dependent on the rest of the design to know where it’s going but the rest of the design isn’t there because you haven’t drawn it yet. It’s like an infinity knot of nothingness with a lot of paper and a lot of spent erasers. After going through a questionable amount of materials and pencil leads, I figured out a pretty good method for drawing these complicated works of art and created patterns to adorn the armor plates.
Since Valkyrie rides a pegasus in the books (the incredible Mr. Horse), I decided to include a pegasus on the hip panels. It’s an original sketch. I was horse crazy as a kid (yeah, you never grow out of that) and have been sketching horses for as long as I could hold a pen. I also included Odin’s ravens Huginn and Muninn, depicted on the medallions at the shoulders.
One element I did recreate from an existing design is the representation of Mjonir on the backplate. I wanted to honor Jane’s time as Thor, so I did a recreation of the design seen on her backplate represented on the extremely detailed Sideshow figurine. The hammer and scrollwork around it are a nod to her tenure as the God of Thunder.
On another note, while I was drawing all of those celtic knots, I was acutely aware of how much work they would be to tool and the fact that I was probably going to hate myself when it came time to bevel all of those lines…
Transferring the Patterns / Cutting the Leather
“AKA, this is why I will never be a hand model.”
I always end up needing more leather than I anticipate, especially if I’m making a suit with light panels as they require several stacked layers. I ended up using a little over two half hides, or around 40 square feet. I use a variety of weights for different components, everything from super thin goat skin for small plates to 8 oz. heavy cowhide for larger pieces.
As you can imagine, leather is really tough and really hard to cut. Adding to the challenge is the fact that the density of leather varies, so you can be going along with your knife, applying a lot of pressure, when suddenly you hit a soft spot and the knife slips. Any little nick or misplaced cut is there forever. I went through 50-some blades cutting the pieces out. This may sound really obvious, but knives are sharp and when it takes hours and hours just to cut the pieces out…well, mistakes were made and I now have a lovely new scar on my thumb to go along with all of my other ‘battle scars’.
Once the leather pieces are cut out, I transfer the decorative designs by tracing over the lines with a stylus. This is both time consuming and really hard on the hands as you have to apply a fair amount of pressure to make a visible impression in the leather. If the impressions are not clear enough or hard to see, sometimes I’ll go back with a leather marking pen and retrace what I can to make it easier to see the design.
“AKA, oh surprise- as predicted, I do in fact hate myself for all these designs that now need to be tooled.”
Tooling leather is the most time consuming, mind numbing, maddening part of the process. I can not afford high quality leather, but I have had fairly good luck with the ‘economy’ hides, although I will freely admit, the good stuff is a lot easier to work with.
In order to tool, leather must be wetted down to the right moisture level to allow your tools to make good impressions without being sloppy or not leaving an impression at all. This magical state of moisture balance is referred to as ‘casing’. Google how to know if your leather is properly cased and you’ll find suggestions of everything from holding it to your face to determine if it’s cold to watching the color as it dries and waiting for the right shade of tan. Basically, there’s no definitive way to determine if your leather is properly cased, you just sort of learn to have a feel for it.
Tooling starts by cutting the design lines with a tool called a swivel knife. The knife is used to slice just the surface of the leather, or slightly deeper such as around the edges to make a deeper line. The blade dulls very quickly and has to be sharpened every few inches with a strope. I use a compass a lot when I’m cutting lines as it provides a reliable means of making equal, consistent borders and margins. I also used my swivel knife to create a “rope” edge on the borders of the knee plates and the feet.
Beveling is the process of compressing one side of the leather on a line to ‘raise’ the other side, thus creating dimension. To bevel a line, you take your beveler tool and place the ‘toe’ in the cut line then strike it with a hammer continuously, moving the stamp in tiny increments. Beveling is exhausting, I’d compare it to running a marathon with your arms. (Have I been working out? Why yes, I’ve been beveling). This does, in fact, take forever, but it really can’t be rushed. Good beveling will create a smooth line. If your leather isn’t cased right or you try to go too fast, you’ll leave behind ugly bevel marks that look like little dips and ridges.
Yes, I swear, the stamp is moving…very…very slowly.
Anyway, after all the lines are beveled, I move on to stamp work. I utilize a variety of stamps (some custom made) to create different effects. Everything from the detailed borders to the chainmail plates to the textured underlayment seen beneath the light windows is created using stamps. Each detail has to be carefully aligned and stamped one by one. There is no forgiveness in leather. If your stamps get going off kilter or you accidentally use one upside down (it’s okay to cry if this happens, especially if you’ve already put five hours into the piece) there is no way to erase it and usually, the only answer is to cut a new piece and start from the beginning.
Each plate takes a very long time to tool. The backplate alone, just the upper portion (not including the two plates hanging beneath or the back of the gorget) took me nine hours just to tool. Leatherwork is also very hard on your hands, especially if you have a deadline and are working as long as 15 hours a day (please, do not try this) to get a costume done!
I had never tooled feathers before, and that was another sort of ‘figure it out as you go’ thing. They turned out to be a pretty intense, multi-step process. I first cut the shapes with my swivel knife, then beveled, then I went back with an undercut beveler (also known as a petal lifter) which further undercuts the edge. I also took my X-Acto knife and at an almost flat angle, cut the underside of the feather to lift it further. I then used my spoon tool to draw the individual feather lines and later went back with a skiver (a very sharp knife used to split leather) to thin the edges of the feathers out so they would have, well- a feather edge.
“AKA, this is why I buy X-Acto knife blades in bulk…”
In order to create the openwork light windows, I hand-cut each tiny little window from inside and around the Celtic knot designs. This was by far the most nerve racking step in the creation of this armor. As mentioned, leather is heavy and very hard to cut, especially in tiny details like that. One slip of the knife and oops, there goes your beautiful, 10 hour tooled design. I made a few mistakes and had to remake a couple pieces but failure was not an option. Crying yes, crying is okay. Failure? Nope.
“If it sounds dangerous, it’s because it is…”
Skiving is the process of using a very sharp knife tool to shave off bits of leather in order to reduce its thickness. You can see a lot of this on the edges of the feathers. I also do a lot of skiving on straps and certain panels to reduce their bulk. You go through a lot of blades when you skive as they dull very quickly. A dull blade will easily cut too deep. You have to be very careful not to cut all the way through your leather!
After tooling, the edges must be beveled then polished. When I say ‘beveled’ here, I am not referring to the stamping process, but rather to a process where you take a different tool (also called a beveler, which is not at all confusing) that actually cuts a small amount of leather from the edge. Basically, you’re cutting off the sharp corners to make a rounded profile. Then, to seal and smooth, a burnishing compound is applied that is then rubbed vigorously with a little round wooden tool. It is labor intensive…there are a lot of edges.
Leather will hold its shape if it’s thoroughly wetted then allowed to dry. I usually use a mannequin to wet mould, but the mannequin is in storage and I did not have time to dig it out. Therefore, I used everything from paper towel rolls to recycled coffee cans to strap the wet leather pieces to so they would dry in the right shape.
“Also, just a little bit of actual dying because yeah…there are a lot of pieces…”
I really wanted Valkyrie’s armor to be exquisite and royal, so I went with a silver and gold palette. I used three shades of silver and three shades of gold to create dimension and depth. For the base silver, I was able to borrow an airbrush which was a learning process as I have never used an airbrush before and, apparently, metallics like to clog. Or maybe it was the paint consistency, or the air pressure, or the nozzle or the moon phase because Google had a lot of answers and I tried everything. After a fair amount of frustration and brush cleaning, I was able to apply a good, smooth base coat.
To highlight the tooling, I used a darker shade of silver to add shading then a lighter hue on the high points. I used three shades of gold to bring the Celtic knots to life. The gold components required three coats of base gold to achieve a good color then a coat of shading and a coat of highlight. Painting is a long and meticulous process, especially with all the tiny details, but I am happy to report that I only managed to get a small amount of paint on the ceiling this time and it’s hardly noticeable.
Seriously, it’s hardly noticeable.
I then seal everything in three coats of sealant.
Finishing the Underside / Lining
“AKA, the best solution is prevention.”
The back side of leather, also known as the suede side, absolutely must be sealed or finished in some way. Otherwise, it’s basically a sponge and will absorb…everything. I always paint the inside of my armor, or line it where possible. I added a soft sheepskin lining to the crown and several other pieces (where functionally possible). It looks nice and heck, it smells nice too. Or nicer, consequently.
Assembly / Straps / Lights
“Avengers, a-!” Sorry, couldn’t resist.
Assembly is both exhilarating and frustrating. Exhilarating because you start to see the costume come together and frustrating because there is still so much more to be done. For instance, 130 individual feathers that have to be carefully shaped and hand sewn to a leather base.
I make all of my straps from leather and take the time to tool each one. That means more beveling, stamping, edge finishing, top coat and back sealing, though for the straps I use a beeswax solution to seal. I usually make the straps at the very end because I’m never sure how long or how many I’ll need. I even made little decorative leather anchors for the straps so they wouldn’t just be riveted on there. I really wanted Undrajarn (the gauntlet) to stand out from the rest of the armor. I chose an all gold pallette to echo the comic book representation and dyed the straps black with a wash of gold to add sparkle. I also created strap end caps from sheet metal that I embossed with a Celtic knot design.
I have mentioned in the past that I am not that great with electronics, but like anything else, it’s a learning process. For the magic glowing bands of enchantment and light windows, I used around 170 mini LEDs. I can buy them in bulk (fairly cheaply), they have pre-soldered wires (so I just need to solder them in series) and I can run a dozen off of a couple little coin cell batteries. They’re easy to hide and my chances of setting myself on fire are relatively low…(I mean, it’s me, so we’re still looking at like, 25% chance of spontaneous combustion, but hey, you gotta take the small wins). I don’t have an air extractor so I do my work on a bench outside which is…interesting…
Word of warning though, it’s a good idea to mark where you’re going to be punching rivet holes because there is nothing more heartbreaking than wiring in a dozen LEDs, closing off the panel, then accidentally punching a hole through your wires!
Assembling everything is a process which I have to make an effort not to rush. It’s easy to get excited and punch a hole in the wrong place. Leather is a stiff, heavy material that has to be riveted or hand sewn with heavy thread. Glue, I have learned the hard way, will always fail me. I do not trust glue to bond anything but my fingertips (at the worst possible time). Sewing and riveting everything is yet another labor intensive process, but the last thing you want is for something to fall apart, especially after you’ve already put so much work into it!
Sewing / Wig…wait, is that a wig?
“-and then I’ll brush and brush and brush and brush my hair…-”
I sewed a quick bodysuit to wear under the armor. Initially, I had a rather elaborate original design I wanted to craft but simply ran out of time, and a stretchy bodysuit is a lot faster to sew than piped edges and twenty-some panels. I also sewed the gloves and skirt from my own drafted pattern.
Valkyrie’s belt was a bit of a challenge as it just floats on her hips with no other form of attachment. I knew it had to be sturdy enough to support two heavy hip panels, a skirt, and help to hold up the upper legs. I figured out (what I think anyway) is a rather clever way to attach the belt without any visible straps. I think it turned out rather nice and, hey, it holds everything so we’ll call that a win.
When Jane Foster is Valkyrie, she has a beautiful, long brunette braid. This is the first character I have portrayed that allows me to use my own, real hair! I started growing my hair out about seven years ago for my grail cosplay (which I have just started working on) and it’s over three feet unbraided. A simple loose braid to match Valkyrie’s style was all I needed.
“Thank you for reading all of this!”
I have to give credit to my amazing mom who is both my handler and photographer. She does an amazing job and was even able to capture some of the fireflies which were out during the evening photos (you can see a lot of them in the background behind me).
Valkyrie started out as what I thought would be a simple design. It snowballed a bit because, again, I can not stop myself, but some projects are like that. You just have to go with it, even if it takes over 380 hours and your hands may or may not be usable again. I have calluses and scars from this project, but so does Jane, so in a way, I think I would have made her character proud.
Sarah is an aspiring costume designer living in the rural midwest. She works every day towards her dream of becoming a professional costume designer and hopes to one day be able to attend some of the larger comic-cons. Until then, you will find her working away on one project or another, learning new skills and always creating. Supported by her family and a cat with too many toes (shout-out to Luthien, the polydactyl kitty who knows who’s really in charge), Sarah has more ideas than time, but never gives up.
