How to make an easter island head costume

The date: New years eve 2008
The place: The Doctors mess in Dorchester, south coast of the UK
The theme: "Around the World"

This Instructable details the complete build for an easter island head costume.
I've thought about building an easter island head costume before but the prototype ended up a little bit blocky and there were issues with where to put the eye holes without them looking obviously like eye holes. This version was a complete rebuild of that initial idea, making the entire shape a lot more rounded and making the whole thing much larger.

As ever I have taken inspiritation from the real thing and I've loosely based my design up it. I hope you can see the similarities.

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Step 1: The materials

Is there nothing that can't be done with a lot of cardboard, some PVA glue and a bit of time and patience?

Like most of my costumes the materials are cheap and easy to get hold of. Copious amounts of cardboard are held together with PVA glue and sticky tape. The main ingredient and difference this time is Polyfilla (or spackling paste in the US?). This gives the head a stone texture and a certain amount of density that would be hard to copy otherwise.

Poster paints are mixed with PVA to give the head the desired colour and also a bit of a stony coloured shine. The PVA also serves to make the head a little bit waterproof but if you are intending to take it somewhere damp then I would suggest a quick coat of varnish to make it totally waterproof.

I wish I had a photo of the materials to insert into this step (a good hint to always take more photos of a project). Instead I have photos of the important ingredient taken from the internetz, you don't have to use these exact brands, cheaper 'own' brand alternatives are preferable

smoloney says: Jul 13, 2011. 6:05 AM

Thats great , I'm off to a 40th at the end of Aug which is a Beach/ Easter island theme, so this will be fantastic, can you please give me an idea of how long this took you from start to finish.

Cheers

Simon

msraynsford (author) in reply to smoloneyJul 13, 2011. 7:06 AM

Probably 3 days. It's just cardboard and plaster and paint so the materials are really easy to get hold off. Just be patient and wait for the various parts to dry

Eh Lie Us! says: Jun 12, 2011. 7:53 PM

Good design. Nice and simple. I have to find some of this Polyfilla you mention. I have looked at the pictures of the real statues. Their looks appear to be more 'European' than what most people on this site consider 'indigenous'. the real Moai appear to have pointy-sharp noses with slightly pursed lips.
Did the mouth provide enough field of vision? That would be tricky!

ell3en says: Feb 6, 2010. 6:57 PM

I particularly like the rough look of the surface but I can't seem to find that filler.
Any recommendations instead from
http://www.selleys.com.au/Fillers/default.aspx

Thanks.

MrL33TPenguin says: Oct 31, 2009. 4:20 AM

I wish that I could have painted mine better, but still I got more candy because of this! Thanks!

MrL33TPenguin in reply to MrL33TPenguinOct 31, 2009. 4:23 AM

Sorry, it didn't upload, but here you go.

finfan7 says: Feb 14, 2009. 5:05 PM

This is freakin' hilarious if you know the comic Red Meat.

thepelton in reply to finfan7Oct 16, 2009. 10:30 AM

Love that comic!

kellybean78 says: Sep 27, 2009. 11:39 AM

Very cool & very helpful! My city is having a Halloween parade with a "Night at the Museum" movie theme. There is an Easter Island head in the film & I want to construct a costume for myself so I can be the Easter Island head in the parade. I wasn't sure how I was going to pull it off, but this is a big help. Many thanks!