How to Build Skeksis and Podling Costumes From the Dark Crystal: Intro and Considerations

The Skeksis. The thing of nightmares (and/or fascination!), for children of the 1980's.

The skeksis are the primary race of evil beings in the 1982 Jim Henson fantasy movie The Dark Crystal, and the 2019 Netflix show, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. Both the movie and the show take place in the mythical world of Thra, which was created from the ground up to be a real world inhabited by only puppet characters. Henson claimed more than once in interviews that The Dark Crystal was the project he was most proud of.

I saw the movie as a kid back in the 80s and fell in love with it. I still remember the box sitting on the shelf at the local video store where I would rent in on Betamax. I rented that thing so many times it would have been cheaper for my family to buy me my own copy.

In 2013 I decided to make myself a 'simple' skeksis costume based off the most recognizable character The Lord Chamberlain ("Hmmm..."). I say simple because it was mainly the mask and armour and was not designed to be worn for a long time. On a whim I wore it to my local Comic Con on the Friday since that is the quietest day and the armour is kind of big. At this point skeksis cosplays were few and far between. To my complete and utter shock the biggest fan of the costume was none other than Wil Wheaton!! Having one of my heroes literally chase me down and fanboy about the costume gave me the confidence to try building a bigger better one.

Now after nine years, four and a half skeksis, one podling, and numerous times talking at Con about them, I have finally decided to actually write down the various things I've tried (both good and bad) on my journey of being a Skeksis.

Due to the huge length this Instructable would be I've decided to break it down into a series that I will be posting over time. I've included pictures of the four complete Skeksis and the Podling in this intro, as well as some construction photos that go along with the Considerations below.

Instructables planned in the series How To Build Skeksis and Podling Costumes from The Dark Crystal:

1. Intro and Considerations
2. Overall Supplies, Tools, and Techniques
3. Body Frames and the Stands That Hold Them Up
4. Armour
5. Masks
6. Power Staffs
7. Robes and Ornamentation

Brainstorming materials of choice.

Your imagination.

Optional Media to Consume

Video:

The Dark Crystal (1982)

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (2019)

The World of the Dark Crystal documentary (1982)

Literature and Graphic Novels:

The World of the Dark Crystal (considered essential reading since 1982)

The Dark Crystal Novelization

The Dark Crystal Creation Myths: Vol I - III

Legends of the Dark Crystal: Vol I & II (manga)

Age of Resistance graphic novels

Age of Resistance young adult novels

Power of the Dark Crystal: Vol I - III

Beneath the Dark Crystal: Vol I - III

No matter if you know exactly what you want your costume to look like or if you're starting from scratch, there are a number of things you may want to consider beforehand. This is not by far a comprehensive list. This is what I've learned to consider. Sometimes the hard way. I'll be sharing those stories through the series.

A few possible considerations;

Style - Puppet vs Human

Time and Budget

Wearing and Movement

Length of wear time, ability to wear alone or have help, ease of movement, weight

Where it will be worn

Working Area

Storage and Transportation

I've found that Skeksis costumes mostly fall under two main categories; puppet and human. Or as I also call them; control and being.

Puppet/Control means you are completely encased and control the outer movements, such as making it's head or arms move, completely from inside the costume.

Human/Being means that you are the Skeksis. The outer movements are your own movements with no extra control. The moving head is your head wearing a mask. The moving arms are you flailing your arms around.

My personal choice of style is Human/Being. All of the Skeksis and the Podling I've made are this style. I'll be explaining some of why I choose this style in the other considerations.

Even though I don't build Puppet/Control style I do still read all about it. There seems to be two more common ways of doing this style with the main difference being how the head is controlled. Either everything is controlled with poles and levers etc, or the head is worn on your hand and arm (kind of like a sock puppet on your hand).

There are already Instructables for both of the Puppet/Control ways of making the costumes that explain it way better than I could, so I'll leave it to the experts.

Skeksil, Dark Crystal Chamberlain (How-to Version) PART #1, the Structure and Basic Shape by Xaerael (poles and levers etc)

Dark Crystal Skeksis Costume by 5Meats (worn on hand and arm)

• Side fact: One of the oldest Skeksis how-to out there

How much time do you have to invest in building the costume? How much money are you willing and/or able to spend?

Fair warning these can be very time consuming and very expensive depending of how you build it and with what materials.

Personally I've never measured the time to make one in hours. I've always made them over a few months period but I find myself putting in more and more hours each time I make one.

I've seen Skeksis costume builds cost up to around $3000 USD. Mine are never more than a small fraction of that cost. I'm cheap and like to upcycle odd things. Many of my materials come from dollar stores or my closet. I've always spent under $100 CAD (roughly $73 USD).

Skeksis costumes can get very heavy and awkward.

How long you plan on wearing it for is a good thing to consider when also considering weight. The weight of the robes, armour, body frames, and masks adds up quickly. The lighter it is the longer you will be able to wear it.

Ability to wear alone or have help. I only have one Skeksis I can get into by myself. All of the others I need my minions (my friends who are trained in dressing me) because it is physically impossible to do it alone.

In general Skeksis costumes are not known for their ease of movement. They are cumbersome and the masks cause peripheral vision to be severely limited. Often you need someone else to help you move about. They become your eyes and ears. The people who take care of me (minions/handlers) have stopped me from running into or being run into by a lot of stuff over the years.

Halloween party? Convention? Burlesque show? (yes I've done the second two)

Where the costume will be worn is a huge thing to think about. Due to how large these can get the dimensions of the venue where it will be worn can cause complications. My first Skeksis was built for a burlesque show in a bar, and all the rest for a couple of local comic cons in very large convention centres.

Convention centres are typically your best bet if you want to build it big. They often have super large doorways, big show floors, little to no stairs, wide hallways, very high ceilings, and plenty of wider open areas. Lots of people though.

For events in houses, and to a lesser extent bars, build as small as you can. Often in those venues will have lower ceilings, stairs, regular size doorways, and narrower hallways. In these venues the bigger you build your costume the more likely you are to get stuck in somewhere like doorways and stairs, knock something over, run into people, and not find space to stand around and chat etc.

Work space. This affects so many decisions you will have to make.

Just a few possibilities to consider are things like...Do you have a garage or shed, or do you work inside your house? Pets or kids? How is the ventilation? Windows? are

My work space has mainly been in my one bedroom apartment. My workbench has been my desk and/or my floor. I also have three helpers aka my cats. So I don't have a lot of space to leave my work laying out and I can't use certain materials due to toxic fumes. Asphyxiation is no fun. I also try and do painting and smellier stuff not in the winter since I have to open up my windows to let fumes out.

I live in a 1 bedroom apartment and have no car. Storing the Skeksis costumes and getting them to conventions has always been a key factor in planning all the costumes.

Transportation is nearly impossible on public transit. Even with extra people to help carry the pieces. A car, truck, or van are best. All of mine have been designed to fit in the Nerd Mobile aka my friends car. It gets a bit squishy sometimes though because I like building big.

If you are lucky you have storage space in your house and/or garage. Or an apartment with a really big closet like I had when I built most of the Skeksis. In the attached picture is that closet. Behind my cat who loved hanging out in there can be seen the armour from two Skeksis (a third is hiding underneath), and 'The Turtle' (tummy piece from one of the body frames that picked up the nickname over the years). Due to lack of space a fourth set of armour had to go (I was not fond of it anyway). I have moved over the years and storage has changed. Currently I only keep two full Skeksis, the Podling, and various pieces of Skeksis costumes. I have one of the sets of armour on top of my fridge and a mask on top of my pantry. Yay for high ceilings!

I hope this has helped you with some of the different things to think about when building costumes like these. As I mentioned in the Intro I plan to make more parts of this series. Many are over half done already. It was just way to large to stuff it all into one part.