Smaug
My vision for Smaug was what if Thorin's sister became Queen and then was infected by Dragon Sickness. I wanted and "Evil Queen" feel full of details taken from the book and movies.
Embroidery
I spent just around 200 hours adding embroidery to this costume by hand. I hand embroidered the runes which I describe if your scroll down. The Dress also has this mountain and dragon from Thorin's map embroidered on the stomach and 8 small dragons embroidered around the waist and on my choker. I used transfer paper to trace and then transferred onto the fabric. I wanted to added details that drew you in, that made you look closer at the design but wouldn't take away from the look when viewed further away.
Scale Mail
In the book Smaug was described as having laid upon his hoard for so long that gems and gold had been embedded into his scales. I wanted to show this by adding gold glitter onto the scale mail I had created. I also added glass beads and rhinestone chain to the scale piece so it would tinkly and shine when I moved.
Hair
I spent 12 hours working on my wig. I tried over 8 different designs. This design was a rejected version. Eventually I settled on a design that fused both Kili and Fili's hair styles from the movie version of The Hobbit.
Headdress
The headdress was made with a base of wire, and painters tape. I then added horns, a mixture of purchased and created out of foam clay horns. I then added in the gold crystals and glass rhinestones. The skulls are foam and I covered in a custom mix of glitter. Its quite heavy and weighs around 4 pounds.
Runes
I translated this quote into runes used by Tolkien in the book. "My armour is like tenfold shields, my teeth are swords, my claws spears, the shock of my tail a thunderbolt, my wings a hurricane, and my breath death!" The length i needed was over 20ft long so I had to embroider that quote twice. First, I translated it, then I used puff paint to give me a pattern and to make the embroidery stand out. I then spent time working on it over the next year, embroidering at my kids practices and in waiting rooms.
