'Carol' from 'Where the wild things are'(Movie) Costume

Step 11 Horns and Claws (and the nose)

All the horns and claws are made the same way; from offcuts of the foam sheet. The large horns on the head are made from the darts cut out of the body at the body front and back. I glued a double thickness of foam in the rough triangle shape of the horns. Then it's just a question of carving the right shape in detail. Soft foam rubber like this is not easy to carve because it moves around. The best way I've found is using very sharp scissors to take off smaller and smaller slivers of foam. Any cut around the edge produces a slightly concave channel with two raised ridges. You can keep cutting off those ridges until you get something close to smooth. Also the horns and claws are supposed to look a bit ragged, so a couple of ridges left are OK.

Do the feet claws next, because you really want to be confident before doing the hand claws - they are part of the fingers and it's harder to start over. Also the nose needs to be neater, so it might be worth leaving that. The nose is the same principle, but cut out of a large block of foam. Use an X-acto knife, or some other very sharp knife to cut the rough shape and then refine it with the scissors.

For the nose and large horns more than the other claws I found it helpful to think about the 2D cross section that the 3D objects make on each axis. For example the horn curves to one side for the front view, tapers symmetrically on the side view and is an oval from the bottom view.

I was originally planning to paint all the foam parts with liquid latex, and keep layering it until it was smooth. In principle that's not a bad idea, if you have access to a huge amount of liquid latex. I didn't. The problem is that liquid latex is a lot runnier than I thought it would be, so it soaks into the foam a lot on the first coat. Also it's really not easy to paint on, because it gums up a paint brush. I still think it's good for the nose, since that does want to be smooth, but expect to put on multiple coats and for this to be a huge pain. Also don't do what I did and try to paint it while it's stuck on the face. Elmer's /PVA glue might also do for under coats and save the latex for later coats.

For the horns and claws, once I realized I was not going to have enough latex, I came up with another solution; hot glue. This is also why I used a lot of hot glue, however hot glue is much cheaper than latex and it drys hard and shiny, which is really good for claws. What you do is this: working methodically around the horn or claw to the right (or left if you're left handed) run a bead of glue from top to bottom. Then using the nozzle of the glue gun, spread it out flat. The next row goes right next to it and you smooth that so that there are no gaps. Continue until the whole thing is covered. I started out gluing and then trying to spread the glue with a knife, but the nozzle works better because it is hot and the glue doesn't stick to it. If you have access to a hot knife, that might work too. Once they're covered, they'll immediately be dry and you can spray paint them black. The finished effect is really good. They look hard and shiny, but they have a bit of give that reduces the risk of them snapping off.

Finally, attach them. I glued them in place and sewed round the edge to be sure they would stay. At this point we can also fur the feet - cut it to shape and glue it on. Fur is pretty forgiving at the edges, so don't worry too much, just cut it and stick it with any edges as close as possible. Do, however, pay attention to the nap of the fur - which way the fibers lie. In the feet the fibers should point down and towards the claws. Cut out holes in the fur for the claws to poke through and glue it round the edge. I did the feet in the same cream fur used for the face and then spray painted it brown and black. Acrylic craft spray paint will stick to fake fur (because it's essentially plastic) and not gum it up too much. Comb it gently through once it's dried and while it won't feel as fluffy any more, it still looks like fur - maybe a little more matted, which is no bad thing.