With the upcoming witching season not so far off, I thought this question apropos, and I suppose art and costuming is the closest topic of discussion.
What is the most unique, interesting, or creative Halloween costume you have ever had or seen?
I have two.
~A couple of old biddies at a costume contest I witnessed some years back went as the victims of the Titanic in nostalgia turn of the century wear, complete with ghost makeup, seaweed, and lifejackets. Not only were they historically correct, their makeup job was a scream; it looked as though they had actually drowned.
~Texans never do anything small. Downtown in Austin is 6th Street and it is legendary. They close down entire Sixth Street for Halloween and everyone comes out and downtown to parade their costuming and go to the various nightclubs, trick or treating for adults. Last year, there was a gentleman who had a bunch of small mini cereal boxes attached to a sweater, complete with them being ripped and synthetic blood and the like. Each cereal box had a knife pinned in it. The man wearing it was covered in blood too, over his hands and the like. My husband, Robert, turns to me and asks what the hell he is supposed to be. I blink at him several times and say, "Robert, I am surprised at you. I thought you a better judge of character. How can you not know a cereal (serial) killer when you see one?"
Creative Costuming
Moderator: frigidmagi
#1 Creative Costuming
"She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist."
~Jean Paul Sartre, philosopher
~Jean Paul Sartre, philosopher
-
B4UTRUST
- Dance Puppets Dance
- Posts: 4867
- Joined: Wed Jun 08, 2005 3:31 pm
- 19
- Location: Chesapeake, Va
- Contact:
#2
Being a great fan of Halloween and the whole thing I use to decorate my house for it. This was often done well past what some might consider appropriate, decent for the public or even sane. I remember I'd get ideas months before Halloween and get to work building and modeling things.
Indeed I had a going bet with myself to see if I could get fewwer and fewwer people to my door every year. My record was 1 ;)
Such things I had included chalacies that bubbled over with blood, thick fog that surrounded all the yard, speakers placed throughout playing whispering scratchy voices and the great sacrifice. There was an altar set up in my driveway, the symbols and runes surrounding and covering it painted in real blood, bodies laid on top of them and people surrounding it. And all you heard from it was slow soft chanting in some really old language. The walkway was lined with everything from skulls holding candles to torches set into the ground. Each of these secretly had small rubber tubes running into them. The tubes would carry a small spray of charcoal lighter fluid up through them and squirt it directly up from beneath the flame so that it would burst upwards suddenly as someone walked by. This was done with a small footpedal by my foot on the porch that worked a pump with the fluid in it. I'd press the pedal, the pump would kick on and send the fluid out. Great fun. Of course then there was the legos... Get some of the technics sets, the really nice expensive stuff that you could actually start getting programs for and programming like little robots. Got some of those and built some hands out of them. *eg* went and got some of those crappy fake rubber hands from the dollar store in their halloween section, strip out the foam or other cheap material inside and pull them around my animatronic hand. Took me a good while but I was able to more or less map out a good section of my front yard and would turn about 3 or 4 of those loose in the yard on programs for specific walking patterns. Was quite entertaining to see some kid walk up my driveway and watch this hand crawl across it without a body. Kinda freaks people out ^_^
But if we're talking simply costumes, my dark angel costume I made for myself a few years back. It was simple and yet oh so fun ^_^.
Pair of black jeans, black socks and dress shoes, no shirt and I wore an older trenchcoat of mine that I had modified. Here's where it gets interesting. I'm sure everyone's seen the really crappy looking obviously fake wings from like spencers or party city or whatnot that are all of maybe a foot long with plastic feathers that attach with straps or over the shoulders. I went and took it further.
Using some balsa wood(thick pieces of it, not the 1/8th" thick modeling stuff) and some glue and a bit of string I built a frame that appeared similar to that of a bird's wing. While it wasn't anatomically correct bone struction wise it was good enough to work. I used my own bird's wing as an example and watched how it flew close up to see where I needed to make my joints and how flexible etc.
At that point once I had it set up more or less how I liked it(Less how I liked it, more how it would actually work and stay together and not fall apart/snap under the weight) and covered with a white bedsheet that had been dyed black for this purpose. It was sewn tight around the frame and the string ran from inside down through the bottom of the wings. At the base of the sheets a harness was sewn, two loops over the arms and one around the waist.
From there the fun part came in ordering more stuff off the 'net for this project. Went and found a buttload of black feathers on ebay. All in all I think I had close to 15-20lbs of them if not more. I then began the lengthy process of stabbing the feathers through the sheet, pulling them out and smearing the quills with glue so once they were in the sheet, they wouldn't slide back out. This worked out rather well.
The end result was pretty much what I had wanted. I had a set of 5ft wingspan black feathered wings. I ran the harness through the old trenchcoat and sewed the harness into it from inside as well to add to the stability. When put on the wings stayed more or less folded down to my body. When I pulled the strings that I had ran(and ran them down the arms of the trenchcoat to where my hands were), the wings would unfold in all their glory.
So in the end you have this guy in decent shape walking around in a trenchcoat with hair going well past his shoulders and all of a sudden wings sprout out of his back and unfold. You know in bible belt territory this can get you in trouble it seems. I had one old guy think I was death(not denying that fact but hey
), several people say that I was going to hell for impersonating an angel of the lord or a fallen angel or something. It seemed to vary. Though quite a few people thought the costume was rather kick ass...
Indeed I had a going bet with myself to see if I could get fewwer and fewwer people to my door every year. My record was 1 ;)
Such things I had included chalacies that bubbled over with blood, thick fog that surrounded all the yard, speakers placed throughout playing whispering scratchy voices and the great sacrifice. There was an altar set up in my driveway, the symbols and runes surrounding and covering it painted in real blood, bodies laid on top of them and people surrounding it. And all you heard from it was slow soft chanting in some really old language. The walkway was lined with everything from skulls holding candles to torches set into the ground. Each of these secretly had small rubber tubes running into them. The tubes would carry a small spray of charcoal lighter fluid up through them and squirt it directly up from beneath the flame so that it would burst upwards suddenly as someone walked by. This was done with a small footpedal by my foot on the porch that worked a pump with the fluid in it. I'd press the pedal, the pump would kick on and send the fluid out. Great fun. Of course then there was the legos... Get some of the technics sets, the really nice expensive stuff that you could actually start getting programs for and programming like little robots. Got some of those and built some hands out of them. *eg* went and got some of those crappy fake rubber hands from the dollar store in their halloween section, strip out the foam or other cheap material inside and pull them around my animatronic hand. Took me a good while but I was able to more or less map out a good section of my front yard and would turn about 3 or 4 of those loose in the yard on programs for specific walking patterns. Was quite entertaining to see some kid walk up my driveway and watch this hand crawl across it without a body. Kinda freaks people out ^_^
But if we're talking simply costumes, my dark angel costume I made for myself a few years back. It was simple and yet oh so fun ^_^.
Pair of black jeans, black socks and dress shoes, no shirt and I wore an older trenchcoat of mine that I had modified. Here's where it gets interesting. I'm sure everyone's seen the really crappy looking obviously fake wings from like spencers or party city or whatnot that are all of maybe a foot long with plastic feathers that attach with straps or over the shoulders. I went and took it further.
Using some balsa wood(thick pieces of it, not the 1/8th" thick modeling stuff) and some glue and a bit of string I built a frame that appeared similar to that of a bird's wing. While it wasn't anatomically correct bone struction wise it was good enough to work. I used my own bird's wing as an example and watched how it flew close up to see where I needed to make my joints and how flexible etc.
At that point once I had it set up more or less how I liked it(Less how I liked it, more how it would actually work and stay together and not fall apart/snap under the weight) and covered with a white bedsheet that had been dyed black for this purpose. It was sewn tight around the frame and the string ran from inside down through the bottom of the wings. At the base of the sheets a harness was sewn, two loops over the arms and one around the waist.
From there the fun part came in ordering more stuff off the 'net for this project. Went and found a buttload of black feathers on ebay. All in all I think I had close to 15-20lbs of them if not more. I then began the lengthy process of stabbing the feathers through the sheet, pulling them out and smearing the quills with glue so once they were in the sheet, they wouldn't slide back out. This worked out rather well.
The end result was pretty much what I had wanted. I had a set of 5ft wingspan black feathered wings. I ran the harness through the old trenchcoat and sewed the harness into it from inside as well to add to the stability. When put on the wings stayed more or less folded down to my body. When I pulled the strings that I had ran(and ran them down the arms of the trenchcoat to where my hands were), the wings would unfold in all their glory.
So in the end you have this guy in decent shape walking around in a trenchcoat with hair going well past his shoulders and all of a sudden wings sprout out of his back and unfold. You know in bible belt territory this can get you in trouble it seems. I had one old guy think I was death(not denying that fact but hey
), several people say that I was going to hell for impersonating an angel of the lord or a fallen angel or something. It seemed to vary. Though quite a few people thought the costume was rather kick ass...Saint Annihilus - Patron Saint of Dealing with Stupid Customers
-
Robert Walper
- Adept
- Posts: 1087
- Joined: Wed Jun 08, 2005 7:37 am
- 19
#3
B4U...you are my hero. I know where I'm heading next halloween! 
#6
That link redirects to the main page.
The Paladin's Domain, My Blog (Updated 5/18/2009)
"Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils." -- General John Stark
"A fortress circumvented ceases to be an obstacle.
A fortress destroyed ceases to be a threat.
Do not forget the difference."
"Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed." -- G. K. Chesterton
"Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils." -- General John Stark
"A fortress circumvented ceases to be an obstacle.
A fortress destroyed ceases to be a threat.
Do not forget the difference."
"Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed." -- G. K. Chesterton
-
The Cleric
- Thy Kingdom Come...
- Posts: 741
- Joined: Wed Jun 08, 2005 1:34 pm
- 19
- Location: The Right Hand Of GOD
- Contact:
#7
Copy paste it. It works then.Rogue 9 wrote:That link redirects to the main page.
And I want to go as either a Cleric from Equilibrium, or a brother from Boondock Saints.
Never shall innocent blood be shed, yet the blood of the wicked shall flow like a river.
The three shall spread their blackened wings and be the vengeful striking hammer of god.
The three shall spread their blackened wings and be the vengeful striking hammer of god.
#9
I'm actually working on getting all my friends to dress up as characters from Boondock Saints.The Cleric wrote:And I want to go as either a Cleric from Equilibrium, or a brother from Boondock Saints.
Moderator of Philosophy and Theology
-
The Cleric
- Thy Kingdom Come...
- Posts: 741
- Joined: Wed Jun 08, 2005 1:34 pm
- 19
- Location: The Right Hand Of GOD
- Contact:
#10
Who gets to be Dafoe in drag?
Never shall innocent blood be shed, yet the blood of the wicked shall flow like a river.
The three shall spread their blackened wings and be the vengeful striking hammer of god.
The three shall spread their blackened wings and be the vengeful striking hammer of god.
#11
I love you. :D And yeah! We wanna know who's gonna be Smecker!Charon wrote:I'm actually working on getting all my friends to dress up as characters from Boondock Saints.The Cleric wrote:And I want to go as either a Cleric from Equilibrium, or a brother from Boondock Saints.
#12
If it gets pulled off there will be pictures.Caz wrote:I love you. :D And yeah! We wanna know who's gonna be Smecker!Charon wrote:I'm actually working on getting all my friends to dress up as characters from Boondock Saints.The Cleric wrote:And I want to go as either a Cleric from Equilibrium, or a brother from Boondock Saints.
Moderator of Philosophy and Theology