These are photographs of my costumes created for costume convention , which used to be called " Masque", but which is now called " Wardrobe" and also a major costume which I made for the World Science Fiction Convention called "Intervention" which was held in Glasgow in 2005.

The dumpier version of the dinosaur holding the spear is the first version, where the head is mounted on an underskull.

The second version, with the longer neck and mottled skin, has the head mounted on a safety helmet and I am looking out through some netting in the neck. This makes the character taller and a bit more slender! Other modifications were made to the cuirass or skirt.The whole thing took about 40 mins to get into and was very hot! When I was in it at the Worldcon, waiting to go on stage for rehearsals thestage staff suddenly knocked off for an hour's lunch and I was left sitting in the darkened wings on my own!

It is lucky that I had built the costume obeying the three cardinal rules of costuming- ALWAYS make it so that you can eat, drink and go to the loo in it.So I took the head off,the feet off, rested my bare feet on the cold concrete and had a drink! My wife unfortunately had gone off to our room so I had to wait until she came back with something to eat- an hour later. Such are the perils of costuming!

The character is called SEK-WEN- ZAA, Warrior Priestess of The Exaan- a character I created out of my own head and took ayear to make. It wasn't expensive- none of my costumes are- they are just cardboard,sari material, plastic bottles and dyed sheets- so don't let the cost put you off if you want to have a go. You will need( a ) an understanding wife and ( b ) space ( a garage is handy) and industrial quantities of glue and acrylic paint. If you buy the kind of glue you can mix with the paint it will go further and make it waterproof if it's raining when you have to move from your room to the venue if the connecting bit is outside!

The cat one is from Douglas Adams' "Hitchiker's Guide to The Galaxy"- the episode about the Man In The Shack. .

The silver robot one is called " It Plugs In Somewhere" and is a robot with a cuckoo clock attachment- the bird coming out of the funnel.

The very fat dinosaur like thing is "The Bud Blatter Beast of Traal", also fom Hitchiker.

The coppery looking one is "The Cyberiad"- invented out of my own head. It had alight in its chest and a very long ET like finger with a light in the end used to suck the life energy out of any poor mortal crossing my path!

The insect looking one is called "The Tourist From The Planet Bugg". He took pictures of the audience and, as a grand finale, he had a tongue that flicked out and licked the ice lolly. The audience loved that bit! I used a lot of car spray paint, cardboard and sari material ( for the wings). The tongue was a party inflatable streamer thing - you blow into it and it uncurls and then curls back up again.

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