My 2008 Interview with Global Television on my Death Becomes Her costume.

P.S. No duct tape was used in the making of this costume. God - I’m a hoser.

Here is the link to the full Instructable!

I’ve decided to stick with the title “Death Becomes Her” for this years costume. It’s the inspiration and as a title it’s accurate and poetic.
I’ve just completed a nice chunk of work and pulled my foam “shotgun” wounds. They look good, and I’m excited to start painting.

All right, this is my initial set-up at my workspace with my tools, water and clay. I’m using a piece of blue foam that is cut to the dimensions of the video monitors I’m using. I drew an “X” on the foam over the area that the screen is. It’s covered with plastic so the clay doesn’t actually touch it.

Here’s the back piece. This is the “entrance” wound, so it’s textured with a shotgun bullet spray.

This is the front wound, greased up and ready for plaster. It’s coated with Vaseline so the clay won’t stick to the plaster. The clay wall is there to stop the plaster from running off.

Here you have both pieces upside down after they have been cast in plaster. I was trying to get a level bottom on them so I could work with them more easily.

The mold after pulling out most of the clay. You can see those two narrow slots, that are the ribs. Those were difficult to clean out, as were many of the nooks and crannies

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This is what the cleaned out and prepared mold look like. These have been sealed and sprayed with a release agent. I used all of those tools to clean out the clay debris. Luckily I’m working in a ceramics studio so I had access to a great variety of tools. The dental tools worked really well and the stiff brush was necessary. I felt like a archaeologist cleaning out dinosaur fossils. One of those keyboard vacuums would have been really handy.

This is a plastic box I made to stand in for the monitors. I made it to the same dimensions out of this smooth plastic that resists the foam. I needed it to control where the foam expanded in the mold.

Here it is set into the curing liquid foam. For those who aren’t familiar; I use Smooth-On Flex Foam X.

My final pieces! They need some trimming and I will be setting some elastic in them but they worked really well. You can see some of the brownish tinge to the front piece left from the clay debris I didn’t remove.

This is a back view that shows how nicely the plastic box resisted the foam. It’s a perfect fit for the monitors.

Front View

Back view

nicole

So this is the first attempt at sculpting what ultimately will house the video screen for my costume. I will be making another one for the back as well. Some slight changes to make still but it’s pretty close.

I am spending time working out the technicalities of this project. It’s hard to foresee all of the issues that can occur when trying to make a bunch of unrelated electronics work together. Not to mention how to power everything so it’s all portable. I’m on a good track though, and have one month to try and pull it off. Actually, I just looked at the Marie Antoinette costume, and I came up with that idea on Sept 28 that year. I haven’t been physically working in this costume, but I’ve spent a lot of time thinking out it. So I have a big head start just for having it all planned out and I think I work best under pressure anyways.

As far as the style for the finished costume, I’m probably departing from trying to be a specific character, it’s more likely that I’ll make this costume to be something altogether different.

Clay model for costume

Originally uploaded by nicemag.

Gaping hole halloween costume

Originally uploaded by evanbooth.

Evan Booth created the basic costume I’ll be doing this year in 06. Super old school! He did a great job obviously. Thanks to Akreska for pointing out the link.

It’s always super helpful to see what other people have done and especially when they provide a idea of the constuction. EVan was helpful enough to provide a look into the components of his costume. Basically the idea is the same as mine, however I am elaborating it for more realism.

The main alteration is that I am doubling up on the units, so that the illusion works from both the front and back. I also really have my heart set on spy cams for their smallness, although I like that he used what he had readily available with the digital camera. I hadn’t even considered that.

I notice there is no battery supply for his LCD DVD because it is a self contained unit, my screens are separated from the DVD player so they need their own power supplies. The advantage to this though, is that the screens are really thin without the rest of the player attached. This will help to keep them as flat as possible against my body, and make it easier to camouflage them into the costume. The power supplies can be tucked in hip pockets that will be put of sight.

I’ll also be adding a sculptural element, by creating a protruding shotgun wound around the screens. This will add needed gore and depth. Also, I think I may wrap the lenses of the cameras with a bit of foam or fabric, so that there is an added depth to their display ( i may need to draw that to clarify).
I like the shoulder straps, I think that I might do something with an added waist strap.
Anyways, excellent resource, excellent costume. Props.

I’m about a day away from purchasing a gallon of flex foam for a variety of costume projects. I’ve also had 44 pounds of clay donated to my cause by my favorite second mother. There is some madness in the works alright!

I get a lot questions from people who are unsure how to approach the techniques I’ve demonstrated on this site. I also know that other Halloween resources that link to here often try and find work arounds to recreate some of the costumes without sculpting and casting. I am totally behind the ingenuity people demonstrate in sourcing out other materials to do the job. But I do want to explain though, why I believe clay sculpture with casting is the way to go. Or, you could just watch the special features on any horror movie DVD. Same difference.

The custom fit and detail that a clay model sculpture will provide you with is unparalleled. Clay is very easy to work with, you can change things as you go and immediately see the specific dimensions of your final piece. This allows you to build your prop to fit your body exactly. Also, the style you sculpt with will add another level of customization to your costume. Details really are important.

People who don’t know where to start when using clay for props can use preexisting forms as “bases”, and use the clay to build on to them. For example, if you want to make Kuato (which I hope to do this year) you might start with an old baby doll, and use clay to change the features to a more disfigured look. Hallywood did a great job here. A foam model would fit so nice over that animatronic skeleton.

Another thing to keep in mind is attachment issues. That is, “How will the prop attach to my body or costume?” By thinking about this in advance, you can build directly onto your model the means for attaching the final piece to your costume. Using flex foam, you can set things into it while it’s curing. Like straps, dowels, velcro whatever. It’s much easier than trying to attach those things after the fact.

I guess the part that frightens most people off is the actual plaster casting step that I use. You can use silicone and other stuff for this part, but I’m super cheap and plaster of paris costs like nothing. But regardless, it is not a difficult thing to do. Really, it’s not. I swear.
You just have to think, “Can I do this mold in one part or two?”. Is it something flat-ish and small: a one part mold.
Or is it something bigger, & more 3-D: a two-part mold. Easy.

Get some god damn liquid foam, it rules. Also, you now have mold you can re-use and make multiples of your wicked creation to sell on ebay or whatever. $$$!

I swear, the time and cost trying to source out super specific props and accessories can almost always be made faster and cheaper at home. Plus it’s way more fun and it’ll look way better.
Guaranfuckinteed!

costume_sketch

Originally uploaded by nicemag.

I accidentally deleted the original post for this.. Here is a sketch depicting the idea I have for the costume. The illusion is a rear entry gun wound that creates a hole tin the body that you can look through. The details are inspired by “Evil Ash” from Army of Darkness and the main idea from Death Becomes Her. Here’s the Flickr set.

I can’t stay away from the costumes. I think I need another reason besides Halloween to do this stuff. So on the weekend, one of my friends was talking about the movie Death Becomes Her, and we all agreed that it’s a great flick. I started thinking about the crazy scene where Meryl Streep blasts a hole in Goldie Hawn with a shotgun. I thought that this would be a great challenge! I want to make this:

This project will combine my love of gruesomeness and nerdy video stuff. I have to order stuff equipment on ebay, to start testing. This should be a really interesting project to make. I’m going to keep my lips sealed on my plans until I can actually start working on it. yea project!

I had forgotten to mention that I wrote a full How- To on my Kali costume on the Instructables site.
Kali Instructable link

There are some interesting comments in the thread. Some very polarizing opinions. I suppose a little controversy is always good, at least it gets people talking.
I’m not too sure what I’m going to do with my time now. I’ve been thinking about doing some straight up canvases, I think it may be time to switch it up a bit.

Wow! I’m so flattered, these awesome people took the time to send me photos of their own Marie Antoinette costumes! I’m really impressed with how these turned out, Congratulations! It’s like a cult or something!

I love this one! Sexy nips! Awesome job - Megan Kolodziej.

Brianne Messer - did a killer job working with the flex foam. She sent me her progress photos and I was super impressed by the cleanliness of her working space. I could learn from her!

Cathy Petch from Washington DC - won scariest costume category at their event!

Laura & Joe Harak from Reading PA took home first prize for their costumes!

Here’s a new one! Shea Brislin from Atlanta, GA - said she made it with paper mache over different pieces of floral foam. Very crafty!

J. Karen Parker from beautiful British Columbia made hers with paper-mache. She was the big winner of a trip to Vegas and $250! Congrats!

Amy King from Austin, Texas also used floral Styrofoam and papier mache. So that’ s a great alternative to making it! Love the cubicle!

If anyone else wants to send me photos of their headless costumes I’d love to post them all.
Thanks