As seen in MAKE: Special Edition Halloween
Click for bigger version:

Nicole

P.S
Here’s a never-been-seen before photo of my costume. Mid-Party being the D.J.

Headless Marie Antoinette Costume

Originally uploaded by nicemag.

Yay – I won something! I am a victorious MAKE Halloween contest winner! At last, I can revel in the glory. I was banned from speaking about my “baby” at home because I was getting obsessive and repetitive. But now I’m justified in my braggart ways! Congratulations also to my worthy adversaries.
Bringing death and destruction back to Halloween – This is decapitation at its finest.

nic

Marie Antoinette Costume

Originally uploaded by nicemag.

Best reaction to my costume while handing out candy:
“She started getting lippy and wouldn’t do the dishes” – guy explaining my costume to his little girls
Here’s my costume – Pretty creepy I think. This was a whole lota fun, people were totally scared of me.
Keep scrolling down for the HOW TO.

If anyone else is a Halloween Overachiever, let me know what you pulled off this year.

n

note* Some of the images below are stretched out for some reason. Was fine before, oh well.

I’m at a bit of a crossroads when it comes to explaining this costume. What should it be called:
– Decapitated Marie Antoinette
– Headless Marie Antoinette
-Marie Antoinette with her head cut off
– Marie Antoinette holding her own head
I just dont know. It’s so wordy.

As far as my progress goes:

This is Andy having some fun with the bust. We had just finished creating the frame on which it is attached. We did this by welding some copper pipes together. You can see that the foam bust is now painted an appropriately creepy shade of bluey-gray. I used acrylic paints, as I discovered last year that spray paint doesn’t set. I was hoping to hook up an airbrush, but it never happened (if anyone has one they want to sell, let me know).
If you are going to attempt this, I have some mods I would make. You could use wooden dowles in place of copper piping it would be a bit lighter (the whole thing weighs like 2 pounds).
Also, the bars or dowles should be longer, so they lay against the whole length of the back, ending at the top of the bum.
Strapping across the front is a must, I could have used another one across my stomach.
Oh and that horizontal pipe was in the wrong spot. It should be higher with the foam bust sitting on it. Thats there to stabilize it. Just cut up a backpac – or maybe a stiff vest, sew some tight pockets and slip those poles in the slot!

Here I am wearing my modified backpack with the bust attached. From this photo you can get an idea of how I’m going to pull this off. I was all about the boobies, but if you’re not a breast-person, I would suggest using a bra. It was funny because girls were coming up to me to say that my tits were hanging out. But they didn’t want to touch them when I offered. Who knew?

Here’s the back view. You can see what I’m suggesting about using longer poles. Not a big deal though, if you want to be specific and measure every little thing, you’ll have a premium comfort rig. I eyeballed for the most part, making it up as we went. I really have to give my girl Tempie McDonald some love because without her sweet, sweet sewing skills, this would not have happened.

Before I sign off, here’s the headpiece I created for Tempie. Her Queen of Hearts costume couldn’t be properly executed without a stunning crown. Thanks again!

Bye for now!

Update! She-Ra costume on ebay starting wed September 12 2007. Bid now!

Love , Love, Love Halloween! This is without a doubt my favorite time of year. My She-Ra costume last year was pretty cool, ,but this year I’m raising the stakes! Bring on the Headless Marie Antoinette! How will I accomplish this you ask? Well, let me tell you now.

Start with the idea. From this drawing you get the idea of what I’m after. Pretty cool!

To begin this project, I am starting with sculpting the fake bust I will need to create the illusion of a decapitated body. I used a raku clay that is very easy to work with and dries fairly fast. I am using the jar as the “neck” because I dont think I have enough clay.

OK, here’s the almost finished clay bust. The boobs took some work because I wanted them very fake and baseball-y. They should look like their being pushed up by a corset.

Now here’s where it starts to get tricky. I need to make a negative impression of my clay model, so that I can create another foam positve. To do this I will cast my clay bust with plaster of paris. Firstly, I coated my clay in vaseline to prevent it from bonding with the plaster. (in retrospect I’m not sure if that even worked but better safe than sorry)
I created a clay barrier that ran just off-center of the bust. Then I poured the plaster over one half of the bust up to the barrier.

After the plaster on the one half was set, I removed the clay barrier and coated the inside edge of the plaster with vaseline. This is to prevent the second application of plaster from adhereing to it.

Now here is where I ran into some trouble. I had anticipated being able to pull my plaster mold off the clay model in two pieces.
However, the mold did not want to budge. The clay seemed to have suctioned to it and i couldn’t force it off. So I ended up having to dig out the clay in chunks from the bottom. Good thing it didn’t really dry. So whatever, ther end result was the same.

I reconnected the two parts of my mold with saran wrap. Then I poured my liquid foam in. This is the same foam I used last year with my She-Ra costume. This is a Urethane Foam from Smooth-on. Oh, I almost forgot. I had to seal the interior of the mold with chemical sealer, and then coat it with a release agent. This prevents the foam from sticking to the mold.

The foam expands and cures in about 30 min. Looking good so far!

NIce! As you can see, I was able to extract an almost identical foam model to my original clay sculpture!

Next I will next paint the foam and start work on the rig that hold it above my head.
later n

I think I want to be this:

But maybe more “Marie Antoinette -ish”
What do you think?