Girl Goes All Out To Dress As Davy Jones

I probably spent over 100 hours working on this costume. But who's to say, it all blurs together after awhile. I began working on it back in August, and this was actually my first attempt working with liquid latex. Prior to this costume I'd never even heard of the material before. I watched a video of someone making a Davy Jones mask, and I thought, "I wanna give that a try". I might have jumped right into the deep-end for my first time, but it definitely made for an interesting and finger-crossing experience. With each step I'd say to myself, "Please work out!" On top of all of the components and parts to this costume, I decided I wanted to make the tentacles move! With a lot of difficulty, and trouble shooting, I finally managed to get it to work. The mask was definitely the hard part, I probably spent the majority of my time creating the mask. After that, it was downhill, well more of a slightly sloped paper maché covered hill. But at least I'm familiar with paper maché.

It was very rewarding once it finally came together! Rewarding, and well..crippling. There are 4 main things that this costume affected. Firstly, it was a little difficult to breathe. No, don't worry, not that bad, I just had to breathe through my mouth. Which although doable, is a bit of a pain. You know that feeling when you're sick and your nose is all plugged? Yeah that's what it was like, except with a big warm sweaty mask on your face too. Secondly, I couldn't eat very easily. There were two options when it came to eating. Either I made a mess on my mask, or try really hard to find where my actual mouth is. Next, I had a claw on one hand and a long glove on the other hand. The claw, although great and able to open and close, didn't do a whole lot and really just got in the way. The last thing that was altered, was my walk. People kept commenting on it, and asking if I'd injured my leg. I'd look down at the cardboard peg leg, literally strapped to me. "Well, I've got a peg leg you see." They laughed and just assumed I was in character. No, I would have probably given that up hours ago. The mechanism I came up with to attach the leg to my pants, although I am very proud of it, actually did alter how I walk. So maybe this was a good thing, forcing me to hobble about and remain "in character" all night. But I guess, no pain no awesome costume right? I think that's how the saying goes.

Later I got to take the costume out, and try not to scare the tiny children as I walked to the park. They looked very puzzled at me, as this terrifying tentacle faced creature kicked the leaves and then proceeded to do a leaf angel on the ground. You know what? Sometimes Davy Jones wants to play in the leaves too...

What can I say after all that? Worth it.

More info: instructables.com