*sigh* It's just...lovely...isn't it? *dreamy sigh*
Details about how he actually made it are a bit limited to rubber bands and bike cable. But honestly, it's enough to go on. First off was to make the helmet or major head piece. Several different routes to go here. The original guy (hereafter OG) used just cardboard and duct tape. Which is a great medium to use. I did add some plastic mesh--the ones that are usually used for making yarn rugs. They're nice and flexible, and come in long pieces. If found it very comfortable to add, especially around the neck pieces, where I wanted a little more flexibility. I'm also hoping that I can add in some ear holes and ventilation holes so that the hat breathes a bit. And hopefully the plastic mesh will be useful for this. I'm attempting to learn from my Luna Lovegood hat. If I had to do this again, probably would have went with white duct tape, or even black. The purple and red was what I had handy.
I cut up some petal shapes out of cardboard just to get the basic sizing right. Then I curled them up so that they would be a basic approximation of what their final shape would be. I put them over a pencil holder case and gave the back a layer of foam. After that was dried, I turned them over and did a layer on the inner curve (I went kind of light on this second layer).
Once the petals had fully dried, I went back at them with a snap blade knife and really shaved it down. While I don't mind some bumps and weird places, generally I'm going for a smoother look. Once they were all shaved down, I put them together like puzzle pieces. They weren't all completely uniform--some of the curves were a little sharper than others. But I don't really mind--the whole point is that it's a kind of organic looking plant head nightmare...thing. *shrugs* I like that the petals didn't turn out all the same.Which brings us to today, where I got much of the mechanics of it all together. I had already obtained some small hinges, picture hanging wire (flexible) a bike cable (long), rubber bands, some small command hooks, and large straws.
First up was to add hooks to the middle of the petals. I drilled a small hole in roughly the middle of each petal--just enough to get some 18 gauge wire through. I cut a piece a few inches long, long enough to have an inch or two on either side of the petal. One end got curled up into a small loop. I should add here that I've designed this costume (as I do more and more) with the idea that it's going to break. Comic con happens, and inevitably, something will likely break. On this particular costume, the most likely thing to break are the rubber bands. So I've made them very easy to replace. Thus the hook on the petal. I've left it a smidge open, just to make it easy to add in a new rubber band, but not enough that it's going to easily break free. So. On the interior, a rubber band is added to the hook. On the back side of the petal, I clip the wire with about one finger width left. Then again with the curling too, make another loop/hook.
For the wire that will pull the petals back, I debated between a picture hanging wire, or some plastic fillament. I was worried about the metal not being flexible enough, but then the plastic had issues tying a knot. I ultimately ended up going with the wire. Making sure it connected to the petal was ultimately more important. I cut roughly a foot and a half or so for each petal. I made a loop about an inch down one side, and using some jewelry wire wrapping techniques, made a loop that I could attach to the back of the petal's hook.
Once each petal had a rubber band and a length of wire out of one side, I made a slit at the bottom of each petal and with some hot glue, wedged one side of the hinge in there, making sure there was plenty of clearance for it to move freely.
The next step was a lot of trial and error. Trying to place the petals so that they closed tightly enough together that it didn't look toooo weird--but that also had enough open that I could see. I came to a bit of a compromise on this one. The bottom petals have a major gap in the middle, but this is so that I can actually see down to what's in front of where I'm stepping. I can open the mask so that I can see everything--but seeing what's literally in front of my feet is pretty important. So yeah. I played around with duct taped hinges at different angles for awhile until I had a pretty good Idea of where everything was going to go. Also needed enough room to put a hook in to hold the rubber bands. Once this was decided, I went back with hot glue and glued down both the petal/hinge as well as the hooks. Note here--be very careful not to cover up any working parts of the hinge! This is the main part that allows the petal to move and it needs to not be hindered at all. Also had to check to make sure the foam on the back was easily movable, shaved off where necessary.
I put some large stretch straws over the wires and then tacked the straws down. This allows the wires to move freely when they'll be covered with foam. I drew the wires towards the back and connected them all on a key ring on the back.For a final step for the mechanism, I ended up wiring up a long pieces of wire onto the key ring. I thought I would use the bike cable--but honestly, it was really hard to come up with a way to hook it easily onto the key ring (cause bike cables don't like to bend--one of their features). Might try to come up with something else--but for now, the wire will work, and I can move onto the next step, which will be adding foam to the entire thing, then go about shaving it down carefully and adding air and sound holes around the mask.
The Teeth. This was not as arduous a step as I thought it was going to be. Just a matter of making a bunch of small teeth and placing them on a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet. A few episodes of a random show and I was flush with teeth. I genuinely thought I had done maaaaybe 450 teeth. Turns out, once I counted everything--942 teeth. Oye. So yeah, they go fast. But I also need them for the demodogs, and with teeth that small, you usually need a bunch. I had opted to go for the smaller teeth, but more of them. Most demogorgon masks I looked at looked a bit better if they went that route. Thus, ALL THE TEETH!!**UPDATE**
I've got the mask painted, and the teeth are now all in. I went with a mix of gray and brown with a black face plate. The mouth of course went red. I maaay go back and add some red shading with a smaller brush--but it looks pretty good as is. The teeth went in easily--just a hot glue gun on the cold setting. I tried to keep them a bit random, and not completely regimented and lined up. But they do look pretty intimidating--and they're actually quite sharp! I had to make sure none of them were actually going to be long enough to scrape against my face. I also changed out the rubber bands (that were tan and had gotten paint on them) with smaller black ones. I ordered small ones, which I at first regretted, but then realized I could actually have different lengths just by putting them together, and actually control it a little more than I was expecting.The suit will be next. I'm not suuuper thrilled with the opening mechanism--and the bottom petals don't move very much just because they're at an odd angle. It maaay not make it to comic con just because it would be a difficult suit to maneuver. But it will definitely be part of my Halloween this year :)
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