The Faun Costume

Howdy, and thanks for checking out my costume! This is me wearing 'The Faun,' although she does have a nickname at this point. After making and wearing her, I decided to give it the nickname 'Nuna.'

Nuna was constructed over the course of about a week. All of what you see (aside from the horns, shirt and waterskin were made by me.)

The leatherwork:

I started with some blank tooling leather and cut out the patterns that I wanted. So, two gauntlets as well as a pointed belt center, and then the two straps on the side that would make the actual belt part. I tooled the woodgrain pattern into the belt myself with a swivel knife, and then did all of the tooling, dying, painting of the leaves and what not by hand. The belt leaf is actually cut out from a piece of leather and bonded to the center of the belt. Cutting it was a pain in the faun-butt, to be sure.

The Fuzzy Pants:

The fur was bought online and shipped. I cut out a pattern for some pants that would fit me, and then sewed them together at a sewing machine. (SEWING FUR IS ALSO A PAIN IN THE FAUN-BUTT.)

The Tights:

The tights are opaque, so nobody sees my pasty, pale skin through them. I glued some fur at the top so that it looks like the legs are 'continuing' and then some at the base of the leggings so that they fuzz up at the bottom of the hoof.

The Headpiece:

The headpiece is made out of Wonderflex that a wonderful friend got for me. I glued a lot of leaves and whatever else I could find at my craft store (Thank goodness for Fall 40% sales) and proceeded to hot glue the horns I purchased onto the top. I have short hair, so I had to find a way to hide what I was doing. The fur ears take up a good bit of space on the headpiece, and then the rest is covered by leaves. To keep it on my head, the burlap headband clasps on the back of my head, and two strips of elastic at the top of my head (keeping the antlers tight so they stay in position) and at the base of my hair/top of my neck to keep the ears/headpiece tight so they don't flop around.

The Shirt:

Yay Goodwill!

The Hooves:

This is the big part. These hooves are the bread and butter of this costume. Many satyr/faun costumes are easy for kids to figure out, but these hooves... the young ones take one look at me and for that one split SECOND... Magic is real because they can't figure out where my feet are.

At the end of the day, they're soaking because they hurt because these hooves are a 4 inch heel on top of a resin hoof with NO BACK.

Yeah, you heard me. I walk great in heels now. Crash course, one could say.

The heel was cut off of the back of the shoe, and then a plastic mold was used that looks like the hoof. My friend makes these hooves and let me borrow it to save TONS of money. The resin gets hot, and that's when you dip the shoe into the top of it so that the hoof 'melts/bonds' to the heel. From there, velcro strips at the bottom connect to the tight to hide everything masterfully. I added a little fur at my physical heel because when I would fall back onto my physical heel to rest, it was ripping holes into the tights and we can't have that.

The staff:

I looked at prices for a staff that would fit my size (I get boosted up a few inches in the heels/hoof so I end up being about 6'0" in these) and the prices for shipping were awful so I took a saw and went out into the back yard and sawed down a sapling. I got rid of the little branches and looked up how to de-bark a tree on Youtube. I sliced it up smooth and let it dry in the garage for a few days. Then, I got some wood stain and stained the stick, and then used that Fall sale to put as much fall stuff as I could on the stick. I wanted to match the costume so there are tons of orange leaves, pine cones, and whatever else I could fit onto the stick. There are a lot of hidden details, like little golden acorns and strands of trinkets that photos don't really pick up, but that's okay. People that see me understand how much work I put into the costume, and that's good enough for me.

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We took these pictures at a Dog-friendly park in Atlanta, GA and i'll tell you what, those dogs did NOT know how to take me. They were so confused, most of what 'humanized' me was gone, so they were barking and one even lunged at me. The owner apologized, and I said it was fine. It's convincing enough to scare dogs, I must've done something right.

I love wearing this costume, and recently took it to a convention after it was finished in Atlanta. It was a lot of fun, and even though my feet hurt after, I got to see a lot of cool costumes and share my homemade costume with everyone in attendance.