MORE ABOUT THE SET OF THE DEPTHS

On May 12, 2023, everyone and their mom was making their way towards the Wind Temple in the Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom... except for me — I was traversing the Depths. I had found the Bargainer Statue not far from the first drop into the Depths (I initially missed the one at Lookout Landing lol) and the intrigue took hold like I was playing my very first Zelda game again. I wanted to find more and I wanted to know what all the pieces of the Set of the Depths, a gear set I was slowly discovering via the statues, looked like. Every spare second I had to play that first week after the game's release, I spent looking, and I was not disappointed in my findings. Learning tidbits of lore, discovering the location trick and the locations themselves, and that one wonderful side quest where you return the eyes to one of statues have been some of my favorite experiences in gaming to date — I'm still completely enthralled with these statues — and I new right from the second I received the Tunic that I would end up cosplaying the corresponding Set of the Depths.

This costume involved a significant amount of research because I knew that I didn't want to create it super literally but rather interpret the design into the real world. And I knew that I wanted to use this costume as an opportunity to truly show my love of a games series I had played for well over a decade. And I knew early on that I wanted to involve a recurring eye motif in my design as the eye side quest had fascinated me. So I started with researching trying to settle on an idea for the eye motif and I got no where. For weeks — actually I think it was more like two months. I tried creating my own eye patterns and working them into patterns on the garments, I tried making them completely original and separate from the existing design, I tried searching for eye and eye-like items to work into the design, and I looked for eye beads which was an absolute nightmare due to the sheer amount of bright blue evil eye beads that exist on this planet. But one fateful day I finally stumbled across the thing I hadn't known I was looking for, and quite possibly coolest material I have ever found for a costume, dzi beads.

Dzi beads are a type of agate bead with a very long and somewhat uncertain history but from what I understand they are generally found on traditional Tibetan necklaces. They come in a variety of sizes and shapes but are always ultimately unpolished agate with added detail lines (although there are imitation dzi beads made from different materials). The details on the beads are made through various means and they can vary greatly from literal lines and waves to geometric shapes and, notably for me, circles — dzi beads are sometimes designed to be little eyes. Dzi beads are also supposedly spiritually significant. While they have a sort of controversial oral history, they are ultimately said to be passed down through generations and it's said that the wearing and passing down of the beads makes them more spiritual and more valuable (British Museum back off) the older they get. The idea seems to be that they are precious and each wearer leaves part of them in the beads. They both protect the current wearer and must be protected by the current wearer and are in a way the essence of the whole bloodline they are passed down through. The oldest beads are even thought to eventually garner the protection of deities.

Now, true old dzi that have spiritual, cultural, and historical value are incredibly rare collectors items, but dzi beads have over time become widely recognized as beautiful and worth sharing with the world and you can find them mass produced and anyone can buy them and enjoy them. These dzi beads are notably different in the sense that they not worth anything apart from their aesthetic value — they really just exist to share the beads as art and artistic material. However, it is said that they can become of worth to their owner if they are protected and respected and worn like old dzi. I can't say I'm an incredibly spiritual person but I am an artist, and I do believe I leave a piece of myself in every work I create, so to find a material that to me embodied just that was incredible. And to find this material that worked so aesthetically perfect with my costume with intriguing spiritual lore from a series I have such a deep love for was priceless. I bought some, and I sewed them into my costume I thought about how each of them were becoming little pieces of me and I absolutely love how they have transformed this look and it's meaning to me.

Yeah okay so there was a lot more that went into this look after discovering this beautiful material. Lots of original pattern drafting, custom embroidery, hell a custom mix of thread used in the embroidery, dying fabrics, mold making and casting individual energy wells for the energy cell, etc, however, that's all I'm going to say on that for now. If anyone is reading this write up as it goes live or close to it, I'll let you in on a little secret, I filmed the process of making this cosplay. There will be a Set of the Depths YouTube series (and supplementary write ups) coming soon! For now, I hope you enjoyed my little write up on learning about dzi!