I DO NOT DO COMMISSIONS AT THIS TIME.

Please don't ask.

WTF: Hellraiser - Cenobite Costume

For some reason, it took me (Starherd) until November of 2000 to

see Hellraiser in any form. By that Christmas, I had drawn a Cenobite-

like character - and by New Year 2001, I'd decided to make it into a

costume. I'd always wanted to attempt prothetic facial makeup, after

all. So, with some creative parts-scavenging, sculpting, and some

fanfic on the scifi.com/lexx bboard,

the Lady of Blades was born. (For some reason, I immediately wanted

to do an original cenobite, rather than a re-creation; dunno why.)

The first thing I wanted for the costume was the eyes. I feel that

in any art form - drawing, painting, makeup, masks, stuffed animals,

whatever - the eyes are very important. Changing the eyes can

change the tone of an entire piece.

So I went and got a pair of slightly large, all-black prescription contacts.

Prescription contacts are not cheap, but Lensquest and other onlline

lense shops can be very useful - do a search on Yahoo for theatrical

contact lenses, and you'll see what I mean.

I dyed my hair black for this costume, though I've since found

ways of successfully covering my normal hair color. Originally,

I just had my hair up in a high ponytail, with a lot of hair gel and

some sparkly little silver-and-crystal bead bands. For ComicCon '02,

I used green and purple metallic spiking gel (available at beauty

supply stores) to try to make my hair look like the black-irridescent

bits on the costume. I think it worked. :-)

Next, the face-blades. I found the most wonderful thing, which I put

to great use all through the outfit: long pointy slightly-curved hair clips

from the grocery store. I bought about two dozen, and used my Dremel

tool to cut them apart, leaving me with two dozen long smooth curved

pieces and just as many grooved, shorter, reverse-curved pieces.

The clips came with a lovely oilslick-black irridescent paint job, which I

really got to like. So, after using Crayola Model Magic to fill in the

undersides of four of the blades and mold them to my face, I only painted

those four silver. Those were then attatched to my face using some

spirit gum and a lot of liquid latex. Dark blue and dark gray shadow

foundations were then used, and covered with Mehron Moonlight White

cream makeup (which is actually a very pale blue), and then powder

shadows (sparkly black, dark blue, etc.) were used over that. The

actual makeup I usually considered experimental, and just had fun

with each time I did it (some times worked better than others).

The rest of my exposed chest, back, shoulders, neck, and ears

were also done with the same Moonlight White makeup. For the

lips, I layered black and silver Ben Nye lipstick. Lastly, a layer of

powder and barrier spray went over everything. I learned a few

things from doing this makeup: barrier spray *will* save you, and

Ben Nye makes the best danged lipstick on Earth.

This makeup was done this way for BayCon 2001, DragonCon 2001,

and a large Halloween party at the Backbeat (a club in Santa Clara);

For ComicCon 2002, I made a new set of face blades, this time

by grinding down the curved pieces with the Dremel tool and

using a heat gun to shape the pieces better to my face.

I like the new blades a lot more. :-)

The entire makeup job took about 2-3 hours each time.

Now for the outfit...

To start with, I needed vinyl. Unfortunately, my sewing machine

was not happy with sewing the stuff, so that left me with collecting

pre-made pieces: shorts, elbow-length lace-up gloves, and a bodice.

Also unfortunately, the store-bought bodice meant that the boning

was a bit too long for my torso, but I couldn't get it out without taking

the whole thing apart, which would've left me needing to machine-sew

vinyl again. Oh well...

Unable to procure vinyl-by-the-yard at the time, I used heavy, shiney

black satin to attatch an overskirt to the bodice (hand-sewing).

I also attatched six lengths of real chain to the back (heavy, and tipped

with decorative hooks, so they always want to snag each other), sewed

a zipper up the front (rather than lacing it up each time), attatched black

beadwork around the arm holes and at the lower edge, and attatched

clips at the top of the zipper (reinforcing the closure), at the bottom

front left and right of the bodice, and at the middle back of the bodice

(those last three to clip the chain belt-piece to). Lastly, using wire in

pre-made/pre-stuffed black cloth piping, I attatched the individual

spokes of the collar. With a lot of wire work, the collar spokes were

strengthened, attatched to each other, and tipped in some of the

shorter hairclip-pieces. (For ComicCon '02, I used my new heat gun to

add dangly beads to the ends of these spikes, as well as painting a

layer of black irridescent nail polish over the entire collar), and

adding heat-bonded decorative mirrors along the edges of the skirt.

The close-fitting ring-collar around my neck was made by sewing

together strips of that pre-made piping, and then simply sewing

the ring (from a hardware store) to it. (For ComicCon '02, a

shiney little irridescent glass pendant was added, too.)

To cover my arms and legs, I acquired tie-dyed blue/white tights.

(The arm pieces were sewn into the bodice.) (For ComicCon,

I tried to dull the tights' brightness by covering them with

some sheer cobweb tights; seemed to work just fine, and sort of

had a broken-glass look, which was fine by me.)

The shorts were worn over the tights (but under the overskirt),

and the legs were completed with these lovely (but poorly treaded)

shiney vinyl platform boots that I found. They looked painful

(that's the point!), but actually, they were quite comfortable -

the rise between toes and heel is really only about a quarter of

an inch. I had to step carefully, but I've only fallen once or twice

in this costume. :-)

I got some little sword-pendants, removed the chains, and used them

to make earrings (though these proved painfully heavy, so I used

dark beads later) and as ornaments on the belt-clips.

Lastly, what everyone notices about the costume: The Gloves.

The gloves are simply the lace-up vinyl gloves with the very tips of

the fingers slit, and the top halves of black-irridescent hair clips (of the

sort available in supermarkets and drug stores) pushed through.

A little hot-glue, colored black once it dries, keeps the holes from fraying,

and helps to keep the claws in place.

Simple, but tons of fun; I've re-used them for other outfits since, including

for a haunted house, where I used the gloves to scratch noisily on trees and

plywood. They're not dead yet, so I guess they're pretty sturdy.

I encourage people to make their own if they want a pair.

I acquired the Puzzle Box on eBay - it's the "Screamin'" model kit.

The box was made with this lovely translucent plastic, so I put

a couple of strings of battery-operated Christmas lights inside.

Nice and spooky in the dark! :-)

Now that I have a sewing machine that'll handle vinyl, I'd love to

do a better version of this costume... with a properly fitting bodice. ;-)

For the skirted/collared bodice, tights (both layers), shorts, gloves,

and close collar, the Lady of Blades is currently valued at $350.

Note, however, that due to the complex nature of fitting this outfit, I'm not

looking to do another one any time soon.

For more about Hellraiser, check out The Hellbound Web.

Need a Puzzle Box? Try The Hellbound Web or eBay.

Or, you could collect all six of the first batch of action figures, now available;

each comes with a piece of the box. (It's not translucent like mine, though.) :-)