Janet - Washington, USA

Nazgul

Nazguls are neither alive nor dead, and serve only Sauron. They are an inhuman, anonymous bunch with no individuality and no humanity. Thus, no human part shows. They are covered from head to toe. There are layers to cover each part of the body.

So, I started with a basic black sheath from an existing costume to cover any modern black clothes I had on. Over that was a black cape I had from another costume. This cape originally had matching fabric lengths that tied in a bow under the neck, but such frippery doesn't do for a Nazgul, so a hidden Velcro closure was added instead. Also the arm openings through the cape were partway down the side seams, too low for a creature that swings a sword. The openings were adjusted off the shoulders for greater movement.

The hood started as a piece that was part of the set that the black sheath came from. It had some foam shaping around the face, but I added more through the crown to give it a more unworldly size.

I had 18 yards of gauze that I dyed black. Some of this was used to cover the entire hood and hang down the back, and more hung down the front of me from both sides of the hood.

I also wanted to make a pair of cuffs that were oversized, exaggerated and intimidating. I used a 5-foot, heavy-gauge cardboard tube with a 5" opening. I attached long skinny balloons perpendicularly on the ends. (Imagine the cardboard tube is your arm and the balloons as bracelets.) I dipped the black gauze into a stiffening agent and draped and shaped them over the balloon bracelets.

This was messy and needed a drop cloth. However, when they were dry, I could carefully pull the cuffs up which had the fullness around the wrist and hung a further 3 feet down. These were slip-stitched to the end of the sleeves of the sheath.

Under the hood's drapes and over the cape, more gauze drapings were added across the shoulders and down to the cuffs.

The belt was black fabric cut into thin, unfinished strips and braided. A loop was created in the belt for the sword.

The pendant was originally silver but painted black with the flames of the two towers. An "eye" from a craft store was added.

The gloves were black and the gauntlet look was made by using several kinds of wide silver tape. The tape was cut into a "gauntlet" pattern and layered over the gloves. A little black paint was carefully added into the grooves to age the gauntlets.

Final touches were heavy black boots and a black hood covering my entire face. The black hood was unexpectedly intimidating to any one I met as a Nazgul.

It was enjoyable to put together and a fun experience to wear!

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This page was last updated 11/21/09