Astra, Queen of the Frostborn
WonderCon Masquerade Contest: The Queen’s Armory
Costume Name: Astra, Queen of the Frostborn
Character Design and Concept
The idea for Frostborn came to me much like every other character I have designed– fully formed and in great detail, so complete that I struggled to sketch it down before it vanished. All of my designs happen like this. I can not force it. If I try to sit down and sketch something, I will accomplish nothing but a wasted afternoon. But if I close my eyes and allow my mind to wander, I realize that a part of me I am not consciously aware of is constantly creating. This is something I think all artists share. We just can’t shut it off.
The idea of the Frostborn came to me fully formed on a cold morning. I stepped out of my house at dawn on my way to work and was struck with the beauty the night had left behind. It had been wet, a heavy fog that lingered to the dawn where the chill of night dressed the world in sparkling white frost. The air was entirely still and the fog clung to the earth. I gazed out in wonder.
I love fog. It has a sort of magic, veiling the world we know, dressing it in mystery. If you look hard enough, anything could be out there. Castles, dragons, creatures made of ice and snow.
A whole other world just beyond what can be seen.
The Frostborn are a people, beings made of that frost, that fog, that cold and mystery. Their queen is strong as ice, and just as beautiful. Astra. As her story came to me, playing out in my head, I knew that I had to make her real.
She wore an armament of ice. Solid plates, enchanted ice windows where magic glowed from within; a cold, shimmering blue save for her heart which shone a warmer hue. Her crown was made of spires, shining with the glory of morning light on crystal icicles. In her hands was a sword, Ice Breaker, which she held in reverence, for swords are made for war and are worthy of respect. A cape made of ice crystals floated in the air behind her as she walked; snow unyielding, she made no footprints.
The design for Astra is entirely my own. When I sketch (rarely doing justice to what I see in my head), I do it without any reference or outside influence. What I create I want to be entirely my own. I have more original designs than I will ever have time or money to make. I am an armor nut. I have studied medieval plate armor extensively (15th century Gothic Germanic is my kryptonite). I have emailed museums for better photos so I could understand how it was constructed. I know armor. To me, armor is a beautiful, wearable art that is as deadly as it is fascinating. I was so obsessed as a kid, I created scale models of plate armor out of sheet metal. My passion has grown from models to designing full costumes for actual people to wear.
When I design a harness (suit of armor), I want it to be beautiful, but also practical, especially when designing for women. Many modern interpretations of female armor, while beautiful in their own right, would be disastrous in battle.
I wanted Astra, Queen of the Frostborn to wear a suit of armor that would actually do what armor is supposed to do– protect the wearer in battle. For Astra, I wanted a design that was sharp, but harmonious. The lines flow from one panel to the next, the points echo the sharp crystalline structure of ice.
The Process of Bringing Astra to Life
It took approximately 1500 hours, spread over three years, to complete this armor. As I write this, I am still adding to the design because, yeah, I can’t shut it off. Some of my original sketches have seen better days, their corners torn and tattered, the pencil marks nearly worn away. They show the passage of time in a way that is almost beautiful. This character took everything. I was obsessed and am somewhat hesitant to admit that I sometimes spent 18 hours or more on the weekends working on this. My house was filled with the steady, staccato snap of a hammer hitting a metal tool as I hand-tooled the leather pieces.
Patterning is extremely important. Armor has to fit the wearer perfectly and move or it is useless in battle. I create my patterns to fit my body precisely. Even ¼” off can make a difference. That, coupled with leather’s annoying tendency to warp and stretch in unpredictable ways, can make for a frustrating endeavor. Each piece has to be checked before and after tooling to see if it has warped outside of the pattern. If it has, since the piece is already tooled, there is no way to “trim” it back as that would ruin the overall design and the meticulously crafted border. I have a box of “rejects” that stretched too much. There are ways to minimize this; proper casing helps, but the more traditional methods such as temporarily gluing a piece down to something stiff requires intense glue (that gives off pretty strong fumes) and really isn’t practical for larger pieces.
Joints and sliding plates have to be carefully constructed, and I went through many, many hours of trial and error before landing on a solid, functional design.
The gauntlets were the most challenging as they have over 100 individual sliding plates. I am extremely happy with them though, as they are fully articulated and move easily. The knees, elbows and shoulders are of a similar design and I can climb stairs and move freely.
I have asthma and am extremely sensitive to chemicals. Basically, if it has a strong odor or gives off fumes, I can’t safely work with it. Foam (heated), Worbla, contact cement, spray paint, pretty much everything traditionally used in cosplay is off limits to me unless I want to wear a respirator for however many hours it takes to complete the project.
That’s what got me started in leatherworking.
I can not honestly recommend it (but I do all the time because I have come to love it so much). If done right, it is one of the most temperamental, time consuming things that you can do. Yet the results are gorgeous and unlike anything created with other materials. Tooling leather is expensive and one hide (being a natural product) is never consistent to the next. One hide may tool beautifully, another may leave you weeping because it will not tool at all. It is picky.
The leather must be wetted down to the exact moisture level (referred to as “casing”) and kept there for however many hours it takes to tool that piece, and it can take all day to complete tooling on a larger piece. Too wet and your impressions will be sloppy and may not take, too dry and you won’t leave any impression at all but will most definitely ruin your leather. There is no “forgiveness” in leather. If you cut wrong or put a line where it shouldn’t be, it’s there forever. Still, I absolutely love working with leather.
There are 307 individual pieces that make up this armor.
There are literally thousands of scales on Astra’s armor, and every scale was stamped individually by hand with a tiny tool and a hammer. To put that in perspective, I used about two whole hides or around 92 square feet of leather. My stamps were about ¼” at the smallest and about ½” at the largest. This process is mind numbingly repetitive but must be done carefully as each scale has to line up exactly to the next. If you mess up, there is no way to erase it. If one scale tilts to the side, this creates a compounding effect so that when you reach the bottom of your piece, all the scales have gone wildly off center (remember the box of “rejects”; yes, it is very full).
I had custom stamps made by a metalsmith so I could tailor the size of the stamp to the size of the plate. Note how the tiny scales on the gauntlets are the same design as the larger ones on the cuirass (chest armor).
To make a border, you must first case your leather, scribe your line, then cut it with a swivel knife. Then comes the fun part– beveling. Beveling is my enemy, but much like income taxes, it must be done. To bevel an edge, you take your beveling tool and your hammer and strike the tool…and strike the tool, and strike the tool, moving along your cut line in tiny ⅛ to ¼ inch increments. This process takes literally forever and sometimes I cry, like you know, determined cry, but still cry. My Fitbit thinks I’m riding a bike when I do beveling.
I then go around each border with a tiny texture tool to blend it out, then again with a larger texture tool to create the effect of frost reaching inward from the edges.
To create a nice, smooth rounded edge, you must use a tool that cuts a tiny amount of leather called an edge beveller (not to be confused with a line beveller, totally different tool). You run this around the outside of both sides of the leather, cutting little strings off to round the sharp edges. There is some danger in this because it is really easy to cut too deep and end up ruining your edge altogether. The edges are then dressed in a burnishing compound (it’s made out of bean gum, believe it or not) before you use a little slotted wooden tool to rub all along the edge vigorously until the raw edge polishes and rounds nicely. There are a lot of edges!
I also cut all of my own straps for this armor as good ol’ metal tongue buckles and leather straps will never fail you. Even if you sometimes wish they would at the end of the day when you are exhausted and sweaty and just “want it off”. (Thanks, Mom, for extracting me from so many costumes…)
Tooling is the most time consuming part of creating leather armor. Tooling even a tiny piece takes hours; larger pieces require days of work. Then there are occasional setbacks. Just when you think you’re almost done, the leather dries out a little too much (because you forgot to mist the dang thing every ten minutes) and your stamp slips and leaves a hideous, malformed impression.
Oh, and you still have 250+ pieces to tool. Fortunately, as I have become more skilled, mistakes have become much more rare!!
I wanted Astra’s armor to shimmer like snow on a cold morning. I used around two liters of paint and countless bottles of sealant. I am very fortunate to have found a company that manufactures low VOC water-based leather paints that I can safely work with. Painting is a long, meticulous task that could be considered a form of torture. 300+ pieces. Each finished with two coats of white (on the borders) two coats of light turquoise, one coat of blue shading, two coats of white shimmer and three coats of sealant. That is over 3000 coats of paint/sealant applied to finish all the pieces of this armor. With wee little brushes, tears and green tea fueled determination.
Are there paint splatters still on my ceiling? Yes. Yes there are.
It was all worth it. Photos do not do the color justice. It glows in a chilly hue of turquoise that shimmers beneath a “frosting” of sheer white.
There are around 300 mini LED lights on Astra’s armor. I went through a lot of design ideas to come up with the panels. I wanted them to glow like enchanted ice, and you can see in the photos how that effect worked out. The lights refract behind a film that looks like shards of ice. Also note how I suspended a snowflake in each “window” to help diffuse the light. I am not an electrician, and these I struggled with, but the costume wouldn’t have been right without them. I worked the switches and battery packs into the design. Some of the snowflakes are actually switches that you turn. I used all cool white LEDs except for the panel that covers the heart, because I wanted that to be warm. She is a queen of cold, but she is still a queen and to rule you must do so with heart, even if that heart is made of ice.
Nothing is glued. Glue is fast. Glue is easy. Glue will fail me at just the wrong moment. I have learned the hard way that everything done in leather (being a heavy, stiff material) has to be either riveted or hand-sewn. If you’ve never tried to hand sew 8oz tooling leather…actually, yeah, just don’t. There’s a reason sewing machines designed for this cost thousands of dollars.
Many pieces were painstakingly (heavy emphasis on pain) hand-sewn. Rivets have to be placed in exactly the right spot to allow for pivoting and sliding of the plates. There are over 500 rivets.
I created the skirt using two layers of fabric, sewn and carefully hemmed for a finished look. Note how it’s silky blue on the outside and sparkling snowflakes on the inside. The high/low design allows this effect to peek out subtly as I walk. The corset was also made with a silky blue fabric and a sheer, special effect overlay to give it a frosted look. Beneath the corset, she wears a sheer blouse that I made from an icy white fabric to represent a garment of frost.
The cape pattern was made entirely by me. It is sewn of two different colored fabrics in cascading panels to create a wispy, color changing effect. I also hung snowflake crystals off of the upper layer for some sparkle.
Originally I lined select pieces for comfort but over the winter I took the entire armor apart, rivet by rivet, and added a full lining. I chose a metallic reflective material that echoes the icy theme.
Astra wields a sword, Ice Breaker, which is another original design, carved and constructed from Plexiglas with hundreds of translucent, hand cut scales to detail the dragons. It is lit with LEDs to create the appearance of enchanted ice. Many, many hours went into the sword with most of the work done with powertools. Her backup is a morning star, created out of a clear tube, resin ice shards, LEDs and snowflakes for the chain and ball. I wanted it to look both beautiful and deadly.
Her belt has a flask of glowing, magic water (blue Gatorade, because yeah, cons are hot), a pouch for snacks, and a pouch for a music speaker because it feels really good to be walking with epic music playing. Also attached is a pouch for a magical device that may or may not be my phone.
Astra’s armor is decorated with countless snowflakes, icicles, rhinestones and tiny details that you have to really look closely to appreciate.
Arming/How the heck do you get into that?
There is a very good reason why medieval knights had a “squire” to help them prepare for battle. While I designed the armor to be as easy to get in and out of as possible, I still struggle to do it all on my own. I am extremely blessed to have a supportive family who not only follow me to conventions but also help me get in and out of costumes.
I had some leather and paint leftover from creating the armor so I designed my own version of the WonderCon@Home logo to use in my video. I also wired in some LEDs so it would not only match my armor in color and design, but light up like my costume too.
Time to complete: About 1500 hours spread over three years.
Main materials: 2 whole hides or around 90 square feet of tooling leather, 25 buckles, 500+ rivets, waayyy too many rhinestones (some are shaped like snowflakes!), fabric, acrylic and a whole lot of paint.
Weight: About 48 pounds, but it’s spread over the body like real plate armor so I don’t really notice it.
Bio: I am an aspiring costume artist living in the rural midwest. I have created many cosplay sets to portray my favorite Marvel characters, but my real passion is in design and I hope to one day go into costume design professionally. I love armor and have studied medieval plate armor extensively. I enjoy creating characters and designing armor and have a huge folder of designs that I hope to bring to life one day. I work primarily in leather, which is one of the most time consuming, temperamental and unforgiving materials, but the results are gorgeous, unlike any other medium can achieve. I love attending our local (small but awesome!) conventions and hope to attend some of the larger Cons one day.
Photo/Video credit goes to my amazing, unstoppable, long suffering, supportive Mom. Thanks Mom, you really are the best.
There are stories of the North… quiet voices, reverent tones, words carefully chosen as if speaking the name would summon their fears. A chill whispers into the room like a ghost wandering the graves. Voices quiet. The stories resume. Barren lands, cursed by God; so blasphemous that even the sun has forsaken them, they wear a crown of lingering night and spires of unyielding ice. A twisted paradigm where the water of life becomes death; a sharp, draining cold that steals warmth, breath, heartbeats, until all is solid and unmoving, eternally preserved. It is a land not made for those who live. No one returns from the North.
There is a reason for this.
We are the echo of ice from the mountains, the glacier’s mournful cry. We are the footprints that go nowhere, yet are ever behind. We are the first snow– beautiful, consuming cold that warps everything that is and creates a world of its own. We are the final breath of life that inevitably yields to the chill of death. Where all is ice and snow and cold, we are. We are the Frostborn.
And by the time you feel the chill, it will already be too late.
