The Xena Trilogy

This was a very long build because there are so many pieces. The metal on the corset was all soldered together, and then painted and weathered leather was glued to the copper for the petals. The copper was hand sewn on to the corset using a leather sewing awl. The corset itself was patterned with the xena hero pattern I made from another project, and on the source pictures I have, the plastic boning was sewn directly to the top leather corset. I sewed just a liner to the inside instead of an under-corset. The bat on the belly was found from screen captures, and eventually found it was a ring that was cut and flattened, which I did.

The skirt was made to follow the shape of the bottom of the corset, and all the dragon scale was sewn on individually, one by one. There are about 10 snaps on the back of the skirt, because when the skirt was ripped off of her in the Gauntlet episode, you hear a lot of snaps unsnapping. I wanted to be able to give the same effect if the opportunity arises.

The cape was made with crushed velvet of black and silver. The metal sash is made of copper loops that wear aged with a patina formula and then sanded down. They were then individually riveted together. The cape was tucked into the skirt, so I added a magnet to the end to put in the skirt so it doesn’t fall out.

The shoulder pouldrons were 3D printed in PLA, and then covered in soft stretchy goat skin, and then airbrushed with copper paint. Then, rectangles of chainmail where screwed into place to lay behind the shoulder, as well as the leather straps and clips to attach them to the corset.

The headband was leather weaved into a pre-braided headband by Deborah Miller, and then I attached the sequin dangles on the ends.

The arm armor was made with hard tooling leather underneath to give the 3D effect and then hand sewn around each shape. The gauntlets have two layers with a copper layer of leather underneath for dimension, and then all handmade chainmail for the top of the hand. The knee pads where made in similar fashion with the addition of being built on top of knee pads for comfort and to help keep them in the right position.

The bracelets where made out of 1/4” thick latigo saddle leather, with lamp beads, lace, and plastic pearls that were painted to look like the screen ones. The dagger holster was wet formed and then cut and riveted together. The throwing balos were made from braided leather and leather juggling balls. The sword scabbard was really basic from the screen caps and was put onto the costume with braided rope leather wrapped around the waist a couple of times.

The sandals were made from scratch, and I found some pictures of the costume on a mannequin, so I was able to replicate the roman sandals. I did have the soles adhered by a shoe cobbler to make sure they can handle the rigorous days at ren-faire.

The chakram was made with out the shells because in the trilogy the chakram was only made with the basic design on it.