FOUNDATIONS REVEALED COMPETITION ENTRY
Raven Enchantress Rowena
(click images to to enlarge)
Other Credits
photographer: https://www.facebook.com/christian.gauchet.5
Outline the story …
Rowena Ravenclaw is a character from the "Harry Potter" books. She is the founder of house Ravenclaw at Hogwarts
Rowena was never featured on screen, only her cursed diadem, that I deeply dislike in its movie form. This was my first motivation to create my own Rowena, with a diadem that would be slightly closer to the books' version. Also, I wish I was a Ravenclaw… There is very little description of Rowena in the books, so I went deep down the rabbit hole of history to figure out what she could have looked like: Rowena lived in Scotland, 11th century, so she had to have a medieval loose outfit, and a circlet.
Silver or bronze? House Ravenclaw’s colours are Blue and Bronze in the books, Blue and Silver on screen. I went with both because, although book oriented, I fell in love with that gorgeous silver damask fabric for my statement sleeves…
History vs Fantasy
My usual thought process is going nuts on historical research about techniques, patterns, fabrics,… and then trading those guidelines for the sake of creativity and compromise with budget and available materials in my area. The result is a mix of 11th and 14th centuries, with crazy fabrics.
Rowena's Magic Wand
I decided to follow the official Pottermore guidelines in terms of lengths, woods, hearts, to create a real wand that could have been made in Rowena’s time and place. Her wand description is : 17 inches, maple, semi-flexible, with a "Banshee teardrop" core.
Outline the construction…
The Coat is inspired by Norse (Birka) Coats and the 12th century Bliaud It features a deep blue synthetic velvet, silver damask polyester, a thrift vintage cotton bed sheet lining and 180 silver Miyuki square beads, hand sewn on the sleeves' edges
The Cotehardie pattern was draped after a 14th century plate from the "Medieval Tailor’s Assistant", with curved seams to achieve the no-bra bust support of the period, sleeves cut with an angle for elbow ease and back set seams Setting the sleeves on myself was crazy Except for the long construction seams, everything here is handmade : historical 13th-14th century buttons, silk lucette cord, hand embroidered eyelets and button holes, bias tape on hems.
Notions:
- thrift vintage sheet, home dyed
- DMC embroidery cotton thread
- periwinkle bias tape
The Diadem consists in two brass headbands, one oval lapis lazuli stone, dead soft bronze copper wire, teal and bronze pearls, and wire-wrapping techniques. The cutting, filing and reshaping of the headbands was the most difficult part, since I had no specific tools for this work, and it required a lot of strength and patience.
The Magic wand was my first ever attempt at carving wood, and was done by hand, with a knife and sand paper The runes are actual runes and were chosen for their meanings that fit Rowena’s personality and beliefs. I used a branch of maple from my garden, silver metallic paint, a small labradorite for the Banshee teardrop, and linen oil for finish.
Gorgeous ! Your design is great, a perfect balance of history and fantasy ! The diadem looks really pretty too !
Thanks a lot for your kind comment 😀
I can only agree. Beautiful.
Gorgeous!
The detail beautifully done with exceptional care. I also enjoy your color palette. Lovely!
Thank you ^^ Well a Ravenclaw had to be blue… But I do love this deeper blue which gives more mystery and poise to Rowena and reflects her deep wisdom in whitchcraft…
Ah, details… Such a painfull memory, lol.
The pearls on the velvet gown took forever to sew on, but it’s peanuts compared to the making from scratch of all the tiny buttons, and embroidering buttonholes and lacing eyelets on the cotte… Several dozens of hours sent into those mandatory features!
You are a lovely Rowena! Every piece of your ensemble looks considered, and carries a bit of pre-raphaelite romance. But I think my favorite are all those buttons on your sleeves! Good luck from icarus!
Oh, thank you for the kind appreciation.
This was my first OC (original character, in cosplay world), so I did build it around the double constraint of staying close to Rowena’s historical origin and trying to reflect her personnality.
And yes, the buttons… They completely stole the show, when the tiara was the starting point of the costume, and supposed to be the showcase piece…
Good luck to you for the competition !
This turned out lovely. The dark blue of the coat with the silver sleeves linings and pale cotehardie at a sense of mystery and mystical to the ensemble. I am impressed by the amount of hand sewing that went into this.
Haha, thanks a lot !
Well, handsewing, that’s the rabbit hole you fall into when you start tackling historical sewing…
Although they don’t show it as obviously, the wand carving and tiara wire-wrapping probably took as much time as the cotehardie, they were also entirely done by hand, and the wire threading almost killed m’y fingertips…
What a great interpretation of Rowena! I’m impressed by the amount of work that went into creating this whole outfit and even the accessories like the handmade wand! Well done, it came all together like magic!
Thank you very much.
Well I guess passion is one form of Magic because I litterally got carried away by the character, and… things happened. The designing process went as a charm 🙂
I think you did a great job interpreting the character, this is exactly how I imagine her ^^ Also that you actually carved and made your wand as well is SO fricking cool! 🤩🤩 Great job all together!
Making the wand was both a matter of budget, and Rowena’s wand non-existence in the Harry Potter official apparel. This was an awesome experience, m’y first time wood carving, and I since then have made two other wands because I enjoyed the process si much…
I love how you wrote you did all the research and then compromised. Are you a Fustian, by any chance? 😀 It looks beautiful and I can’t get over all these handsewn buttonholes and eyelets!
I don’t know about my house, unfortunately, I’m not wealthy enough to afford a full membership, I’m juste a free member and this don’t have access to the house sorting test.
Maybe someday…
Thank you for your kind comment and appreciation 🙂