Covered in Glitter and Screaming

I had so much fun making the Hawkman helmet in 2011 that I wanted to make something bigger the next year. My concept was the Chinese zodiac  Year of the Dragon . Body Construction   I started with some foam-wrapped heavy-duty wire and decently thick craft wire and made the skeleton. To add thickness, I surrounded the wire with soda cans stuffed with paper and added a foam ball as a placeholder for the head. Testing for size and wearability: It wasn't as thick as I wanted it to be, so I added packing peanuts and sheets of packing foam. This is where I should have worked out how to attach it to myself, but I didn't until later and it was a bit more difficult than it should have been. Note to self. Legs are made from cardboard boxes, paper, and duct tape. More on those later. The tail flourish was drawn paper, cut out of a yellow plastic binder, and glued to a shape that became the end of the tail. Scales With the basic structure in place, I ...

At the first baby shower I ever attended, one of the other guests wrapped a onesie in rubber bands so that it looked like a teeny polar bear with the snaps on the butt flap as eyes. Regular gift wrapping would no longer be good enough, since I had seen what was possible. I needed to up my game.  Now I go through baby registries looking for shapes and inspiration. So for the second baby show I ever attended, I took inspiration from an I Love Sushi bib and wrapped some washcloths and tub toys together like a bento box. All I really needed was dark green ribbon for the nori, some curly pink ribbon for the ginger, and a box just the right size. This may still be my favorite gift wrapping.

The Halloween Plan in 2011 was to dress up as the Justice League, Husband and I were Hawkman and Hawkgirl. Pardon the crappy photo, it's the only one we have full length and just the two of us. The Hawkman helmet was probably the single most successful costume piece I made this year. I used a store-bought mask and a stuffed plastic bag for the shape of the face and size of Husband's head, then layered on cardboard and paper maché until it got to be the right shape. There are some bits of foam filler in the eyebrows and cheekbones for articulation. The Hawkgirl helmet followed the same process as the Hawkman helmet. It was early enough in my serious costume experience that I didn't think to make a mold of Husband's torso out of duct tape, but that's what I would do for any future breastplates. We covered his torso in a plastic bag and I covered that with paper maché. Then more paper mache, including a paste made of flour, water, and tissue paper m...

Hi! If you've seen my blog Neko to Meoto , about the years we lived in Tokyo, some of the earlier posts might look familiar. This blog will be devoted to making things. I've always loved Halloween, but it wasn't until the last few years that I've gotten more serious about making costumes and learning new techniques to do it. Every time I make a costume, I learn something new – I'd forgotten how much fun paper maché is, the sewing machine isn't as terrifying as I thought, craft foam sheets and cardboard are more versatile than I'd given given them credit for, and painting depth and battle damage is one of my favorite things. For some cosplayers it's all about becoming a character. For me, it's about creating something and wearing it out for a night or two (three, if Halloween is on a Saturday) to show off what I've done. I've come to the realization that costumes are more fun when you aren't one of a hundred of the same thing that ye...