The first cosplay

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The last tournament of the Ultimate Frisbee is going to happen this weekend and is organized by our team. At the same time our teammate nicknamed Gymli will have birthday. Because of that the overall theme of the tournament will be Lord of the Rings.

At the European Finals we had this one private conversation of few team members with an aim to assign characters to individual players. I and my friend were called “the biggest team sages”, therefore we were assigned the roles of Gandalf and Saruman. Supposedly he is the bigger good guy here and has “won” the Gandalf for himself. With that I of course disagreed, but not like anyone cared you know :D. Well we both have our good AND bad guy sides. I will have to take the bad guy role now…

SNEAK PEAK

Saruman the Young transformation step 1: The staff

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Not only is this my first cosplay ever, but also the first time that I have been crafting an Item too (in real life lol). I have found an awesome tutorial on YouTube, which’s instruction I have been blindly following. The guy is pretty cool and if you find yourself in need of crafting tutor, well, this is THE GUY to come too.

Gathering of the components and tools

First I had to assemble all the necessary components and tools. This is their list and what it took to acquire them.

1. A handle of an old shovel (acquired from a family worksite)
2. A box card (acquired by crawling through various garbage cans)
3. A black colour (acquired by going through a very weird but pleasant all day long interaction in a pub)
4. A tennis ball (acquired by finally lifting it from the floor of my room after a year of peaceful idling)
5. A white tempera (I had those since like 5 years old when I realized that my carrier will not be found in an artist’s sphere)
6. White tape (I always have one)

Creation of staff’s head

Using the template found in the linked video I created 8 pieces that will altogether create the stuff’s head.


When they were ready I painted them black

Recommended substance for creation of the “magical ball” is Instamorph. It’s some kind of modelling matter that is easily formable after just a bit of heat and has the perfect luminous feeling when cooled down again. Unfortunately the only way how to get the Instamorph would be to order it through internet with the average waiting time of 26 days. Therefore I had to come up with something else. I then re-discovered a tennis ball that I’ve left like a year ago on the floor in my room. I always knew it will come in handy, not like I’m lazy or something like that… The ball was of perfect size, but it was yellow. It then struck me that I have white fixing tape in my sports gear. I then used it to cover the ball and then painted it one with the white tempera to overlay the yellowish feeling.

Creation of staff’s core

Since I’m 2 meters tall, there was no shaft that would be of a desired size. On the working site of my family I took 3 pieces of old broken shafts. I then taped them together and painted the whole object black. It isn’t the straightest stuff you’ve ever seen, but hey, Saruman was punk when he was young if you didn’t know that already. I guess I’m rewriting his history right now.

The Result

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Behold! My first craft is finished after whole day of work. My crafting skill is now officially level 2. Any objections?


Tomorrow the transformation will be finalized! Stay tuned!

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