Arts & Crafts: Halloween 2014

Next year, I SWEAR IT, Zachary will go trick-or-treating in a costume of make-up and fabric.  I am just about done with displacing my kitchen (and my whole life, practically) for the crafting of a Halloween costume!  But I do enjoy the challenge of designing a new costume and the new skills and techniques that I discover and learn through completing it.  

This year, Zachary dressed as Marvin Martian from the Warner Bros. cartoons.  Marvin Martian was always my favorite Warner Bros. character.  After the idea of the Marvin Martian costume was floated, I was pretty sure that SOMEONE in our family would have to dress like Marvin and I think that my husband is glad that he didn't have to do it.  

Here's the finished product:  

It all began with a hippity hop.  I needed something absolutely round and about 14 inches in diameter to use as a form for the head.  I hadn't decided whether I'd make the costume using EVA foam or paper mache or something else, but all methods seemed to require a form of some kind--a collapsible form in case I chose to use paper mache--and a hippity hop was what presented itself.  In the end, I decided to craft with foam because I have some experience using this material.

So.  Here's how the costume got built.  I found a scaleable mathematical template online for a sectioned sphere and I adjusted it to the appropriate size.  Then, I cut sections of EVA foam and warmed them in the oven until they were malleable.  (You could choose to heat the foam with a heat gun or torch but, given the softness of the foam, the large size of the sections, and the fact that I wanted to heat it evenly, I chose to use the oven.)  I stretched and shaped the sections over the hippity hop and when they cooled they permanently retained the curve of the hippity hop.   Then I cut them to shape with a hot knife, carefully beveling the edges inwards.  I pinned the sections together and hot-glued them on the inside edge.

I placed each completed half back over the hippity hop and coated it with, first, a layer of 5-Minute-Epoxy to act as an encapsulant and stiffener, and then layers of heavy-bodied acrylic to even out the surface.    This part was tedious and more difficult than I thought it would be.  Even though I'd taken pains to make the surface as smooth and regular as possible, the seams still poked up and the human eye is very good at detecting out-of-roundness.  The foam I purchased for this project was medium-soft.  I'd had some misgivings about that at the time, but couldn't find a source for stiffer foam in the thickness that I wanted.  In hindsight, I sure wish I'd located some stiffer foam.  The softer foam really didn't do a good job of supporting the spherical shape and caused a lot of angst throughout the project.  It probably would have been cheaper, easier, and more satisfactory all around to use play-tile foam for everything.  Lesson learned!

Tools of the trade.  Mod Podge, can you craft without it?

Several more coats of acrylic "filler" and we are starting to get there...

I hot-glued on the collar (lots more filling and sanding to try to erase the join), and temporarily positioned the visor and eyes templates.

The eyes are cut out!  I backed them with white buckram so that Zachary would have ventilation and a large area to see out.

I didn't take any in-process shots of making the "brush".  I made it from a chunk of styrofoam that I cut to shape and sanded smooth.  I covered it in 5-Minute-Epoxy to harden the exterior and give it strength.  I drilled holes into the top of the brush into which I poked tufts of cut pipe-cleaners.  One hundred-nineteen holes/tufts!  

One of the things I liked best about this project was my decision to flock Marvin's face.  His face, after all, is a black sphere--almost just an emptiness.  I didn't want shine to distract from that effect and I wanted to minimize any lingering out-of-roundness, so I flocked his face.  It was fun and easy--but messy!  Even though I made a temporary spray booth in the corner of the kitchen, I still had flocking fibers settling on every adjacent surface.  Fun fact!--if you want to purchase a small amount of flocking, go to a woodworking supply store.  Wood crafters use flocking on the heads of duck decoys and insides of jewelry boxes.  Automotive companies (like the ones that customize hotrods) also use flocking, but they use a lot of it and use specialized equipment to apply it.  For a small flocking project (you might have one!), head to a woodworking supply store (Rockler, for example) for your materials.

How many power tools do YOU need to make a Halloween costume?  It takes me...uuummmm...at least four or five?!  Hot knife (wood burning tool), Dremel, pad sander, hot glue gun, blow dryer...And, as you can see, I am not a tidy worker.

I'd planned to use mattress foam inside the head to give a firm fit, but that didn't work very well.  As I wasn't going to be the one wearing it, it was hard to figure out where support was needed inside the head and it was hard to work inside the sphere.  In the end, I mounted an old bike helmet inside the head, supporting it with chunks of mattress foam cut-to-fit, and that worked pretty well.  

I also made a space-style gun from a plastic water pistol, a bunch of assorted plastic parts, and shapes cut from craft-foam "Foamies".  I painted the rings with glow-in-the dark paint--that was a fun touch.  The "skirt" was made from a single piece of foam--a floor tile left over from last year's costume.  And I finished it all with a purchased, red skin-suit and gloves.

The only thing I really regret about this costume was that we spent the whole night (and took ALL the pictures) with the visor pushed up really high on the forehead.  It was installed with stiff snaps so it was moveable, and it looked best when pushed down low.  Dang.  Oh well.

Here are a couple more pictures of Zachary trick-or treating.  I know it's horrible, but we attend the trick-or-treat event sponsored by local merchants so that's why he's going into a shop.  Thank you, Wedgwood Business District!

...and one, final picture...

That was Halloween, 2014, everybody!  Hope you had a good one!

***  Edited to add  ***

As I'm re-reading this post, it occurred to me that it might have been better to coat the foam head sections with epoxy resin BEFORE attempting to glue them together.  I bet the seams would have stayed flatter if I'd hardened them first.  Or maybe not...it's an untested idea.