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

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

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.

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.