Gollum... A Few Hours and a Few Bucks = PRECIOUS

Inspiration to transform myself into Gollum came late one night when looking in the bathroom mirror after a long day… I thought it wouldn’t be that much of a stretch. ;) I made this costume the night before and day of my Halloween party, for a grand total of maybe $15 (not including the paint and old clothes I already owned).

I started by cutting the legs off an old pair of white tights and sewed a half circle shape where they used to be, cutting off the excess fabric to create my skull cap. I then painted it with layers of acrylic paints to get the textured, wrinkled, sickly look of Gollum’s head. When dry, I cut many holes in it to pull stringy strands of my hair through, and holes to eventually fit my fake ears through. I took some rubber elf ears and cut them to be the shape of Gollum’s ears, hot gluing the two sides back together at the top and painting them with layers of acrylic paints again to match the look of the skull cap. When putting on the costume, I fit them over my real ears and then pulled the prosthetics through the ear holes in the skull cap.

I took an old oversized grey sweater and cut it apart and sewed it to be a mini skirt and a one-strapped top. I then continued to cut off strips and sections to make it looks like rags. I turned it inside out and painted it with acrylic paints again in multiple muted colors (white, pink, grey, pale blue, brown) to make it look ashy and dirty. I cut an “O” shape out of cardboard, spray painted both sides gold and put it on an old necklace chain to wear THE RING around my neck. I also purchased black tooth wax to cover sections of several of my teeth to give a snarled look.

Finally, I used white cake face paint to coat my body with a pale, sickly hue to match my skull cap, used a darker grey to emphasize my bones and muscle tone to make me look more emaciated, and used pinks, yellows and blues/greys on my face and body to finish the sallow Gollum look. Then, of course, I bugged out my eyes, got a dementedly gleeful look on my face, and hunched over in a Gollum stance to seal the deal that my roommates wouldn’t talk to me all night. :)

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