Print PDF
Favorite
Email
Thought you may like to see my Halloween costume for this year. I started it in April of 2011 and is very nearly finished now. The theme is on of a pumpkin headed "Keeper of the graveyard" and it stands while wearing it at 8'6" tall! It is even a little intimidating to me at 6' tall when someone else is wearing it and walks towards me in a "monster" fashion!
That frame is made from chicken wire and is covered with old phone bills and PVA glue. The head is the same with a paper mache thing going on to make the pumpkin "stripes". The teeth are made from a flour, water and table salt dough that I formed around some short spikes of welding wire and baked until hard in the oven. After they and the head were both painted I inserted and glued them into the "gums" dentist style.
The costume is not dumb either as it sports Arduino controlled bi-colour LED eyes that are programmed to fade in and out of green when in "normal" mode and at the touch of a button switch to "angry" mode when they turn red and flash rapidly. Yes they are covered with McFlurry spoon diffusers!
The costume has sound and with both inputs on a stereo car amp hooked up to various mp3 players it can play a spooky "soundtrack" as well as spot sounds like grunts and screams.
If the onlookers are getting used to the monster being around and start to try to see who is controlling it by chest poking and the like, he (the monster) can respond/fend them off by use of his water squirting nose (car windscreen washer jet)!
The robes and cowl are made from old Hessian sacks, hand sewn together with thick twine for that rough look and the seams, shadows and "stars" are accentuated with the use of air bushing.
To stop the wearer tripping over the robes I ring of garden hose was sewn into the hem to keep it away from his or her feet.
Future improvements include glowing eyes for the rat and either a severed head or a large lantern held in his left hand.
Step by Step Build Instructable to be found here: http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Making-of-the-Keeper-of-the-Graveyard/
That frame is made from chicken wire and is covered with old phone bills and PVA glue. The head is the same with a paper mache thing going on to make the pumpkin "stripes". The teeth are made from a flour, water and table salt dough that I formed around some short spikes of welding wire and baked until hard in the oven. After they and the head were both painted I inserted and glued them into the "gums" dentist style.
The costume is not dumb either as it sports Arduino controlled bi-colour LED eyes that are programmed to fade in and out of green when in "normal" mode and at the touch of a button switch to "angry" mode when they turn red and flash rapidly. Yes they are covered with McFlurry spoon diffusers!
The costume has sound and with both inputs on a stereo car amp hooked up to various mp3 players it can play a spooky "soundtrack" as well as spot sounds like grunts and screams.
If the onlookers are getting used to the monster being around and start to try to see who is controlling it by chest poking and the like, he (the monster) can respond/fend them off by use of his water squirting nose (car windscreen washer jet)!
The robes and cowl are made from old Hessian sacks, hand sewn together with thick twine for that rough look and the seams, shadows and "stars" are accentuated with the use of air bushing.
To stop the wearer tripping over the robes I ring of garden hose was sewn into the hem to keep it away from his or her feet.
Future improvements include glowing eyes for the rat and either a severed head or a large lantern held in his left hand.
Step by Step Build Instructable to be found here: http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Making-of-the-Keeper-of-the-Graveyard/
(And, because you're in the UK, you are allowed to enter the Hallowe'en contest.)
and grabby hand, I wouldn't want to meet it in a dark alley after a be y or two!!! Brilliant.