Costume Projects

This was for another club night. If you ask me for goth, you are going to get a Doctor Who villain.

I opted for the classic evil alien hiding on Earth and posing as a local deity for centuries, as the often do. The Stones of Blood has the Cailleach, a crone/crow goddess who demands blood sacrifices from her druid sect to feed her stone circle.

This halloween was another left over fiesta of Fred props, as I dressed up as a glitter deer.

For Halloween, went for a classic Annie Lennox moment. I had a lot of the materials left over from my adventures with Fred.

Halloween again, and time for the LACMA Costume Ball! This year's theme was Living Art, so go as a piece of art. Playing to the home town advantage, I went as Jesus Soto's immediately recognizable installation.

I used a light grid as the basis to hang all the teflon cords. I built a white harness and suspension for the grid from wooden rods I had painted white. The top of the rods used velcro straps so that i could easily remove and adjust the grid. I used over 6,000 feet of tubing in varying widths to emulate the real Penetrable. I used thicker tubes at the edges and thinner tubes in the middle to create the illusion of more depth.

The whole thing weighed list a little over 22 lbs, but unlike last years Scooby Doo Diver, I could breath, talk, and drink!

This was another "statement" piece for a night at a club. The idea was a giant gauzy headpiece that would have an ombre of rhinestones, heavy at the top and then fading to sparse black. The inside is a cage of black rigilene boning to make the shoulder harness and bubble. I made a rigilene "headband" to hold the bubble in place over the center of the head.

The whole thing is draped with about 25 yards of black tulle, where I tried to keep only a few layers around a place to look through. After drapping, I sewed in tucks and pleats to the underlying cage. Next I glued on left over gem stones from Disco Deer.

Things I found out: gorilla tape is a lie! It seems like it will hold all night, but I had multiple structural failures. Also, sewing the rigilene didn't help either. If I do this again, there will be staples involved. When testing it at home, I could easily see from inside the dark bubble into my lit room. However, club lights and strobes turn this into an opaque aurora borealis. So I spent most of the night "alone" in my list bubble.

This project had a long genesis. It began when I came across a $3,000 Alexis Bittar mask. It was made of leather and adorned with Swarovski crystals, so leather and glass for $3,000! I thought there aren’t any real precious materials in it, and I could create something just as cool for much less. Thus, it became more of a project born out of frugality than anything else. The Bittar mask was stunning and resembled an Aztec death mask.

For my version, I used vinyl and foam to create a comfortable base. I incorporated stained glass wire to provide a more rigid shape. The original mask was inspired more by a Greek drama mask and featured a bottom jaw that allowed me to speak. It had a very creepy appearance.

I decided this look needed to hit the club scene, so I built a helmet from the mask to cover my entire head. The "jewels" were glued on one by one with E6000 (learn it and learn it well!). I also added some latex deer antlers I found in a costume shop. They were painted black to match the base vinyl and also adorned with jewels. The embellishment process was the longest part, taking several weeks to add each gem individually and letting the glue set.

Once it was complete, I coated the entire piece with several layers of acrylic epoxy resin.

It is Halloween in LA, which, for me, means the LACMA Costume Ball. I wanted to go as the classic TV monster Captain Cutler of Scooby Doo. Okay, it's obscure but totally classic!

The outfit was made from a German chemsuit. I removed the hood and lining to make it more wearable. A utility belt made it more scuba-looking. The helmet was a fiberglass prop that I found online. I used green LED lights to recreate Cutler's creepy glow and to scare away those darned kids! Then some hot glue, sea shells, and fake ivy; and I went from dream boat to shipwreck!

My friend decided to have a themed costume party. Her theme was "Queens" I think she was thinking RuPaul or England, but I was inspired by the Alien Queen. Plus it was a way to recycle some of the tubing from Penetrable.

The helmut was sculpted from polystyrene light diffuser sheet. I cut it into strips and screwed them together. I used the rest of the polystyrene to shape the shoulders and elbows for the sleeves.

The whole thing was covered in plastic vinyl boat seating covering. I used orange, because black ended up looking too fetish. I also recycled a bunch of acrylic gems and come cheap nail rings to finish the gloves.