Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Yes, I'm thinking about my Halloween costume already, and I'm pretty sure I want to go as a giant severed bloody ear. How on earth am I going to make such a costume? (See, it's a good thing I'm thinking about this already, cause it's going to take some planning, shopping, work and time.) I'm thinking lots of wire, flesh colored fabric and fake blood? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Do you see it as being worn like this:



Or something like this:



If you can work out what sort of structure it needs before starting it'll probably make construction quicker, plus you'll know what materials you need to get before beginning.

If you can get chicken wire it would probably help to create a good skeleton of the structure, so you could create the folds sturdily but still keep them lightweight. If you have any hollow bits that need padding, stuff them with screwed up old newspaper. After that, you could probably wrap any old fabric/quilt over it (as a layer between the wire and the outer material that will be on show) or even old stockings/tights - just to create a smoother, more curvy appearance before applying your outer layer of material. It'll stop the angles of the chicken wire showing through and also create a base layer for your outer material to bond to.

You could use acrylic paint as a basecoat for the severed edge and paint your fake blood over it (I have an ok recipe for homemade fake blood if you need one) - alternatively if you don't want to get sticky you could PVA glue over the acrylic to give it a sheen.

Ya, those are the only two ear costume pictures I got on Google. The rest were ears that one would wear on their head as part of a costume, such as bunny rabbit ears for a bunny costume, etc.

I guess I need to work on my vision of my costume, but I think the second one comes a little closer to what I imagined. Someone in the early halloween costume thread recommended foam rather than wire. Do you think foam would be better?

Is somebody going with you as Van Gogh, or is it a reference to some other bloody severed ear that I'm thus far blissfully unaware of?

My partner is in deed going as van Gogh, but that costume seems like the easy part. However, if you have great van Gogh costume advice, we would welcome it!

Would you be carving the foam? If so it would probably be better to use foam than wire as it would hold its shape, wouldn't need stuffing, etc.

My thinking for the construction would be to get two thick pieces of foam big enough to be the entire shape of the ear. One the front side, one the back. Draw the ear's outer shape, cut away the excess foam. Glue the two pieces together, with a hole along the bottom for your body to slide into, and holes for your arms out the side. Maybe a hole for your head out the top if you just want it to cover your body, or you can close the top and do a cut-out hole for your face. Then you can use a really sharp blade of some kind (maybe a fresh boxcutter would work? All I know is scissors is a mess) and carve a curve. Here I drew a picture to show you what I would do. "inside layer" is more appropriately probably "inside of bottom layer".



Then I would just carve small indentations if the foam were thick enough for the depressions, like a relief carving. So it wouldn't be truly topographical, but still a bit 3D. Then a couple different colors (dark, medium, light?) of spray paint. Alternatively, it would still looks pretty good even without carving it at all, and just painting the details.

(and if it were me, too, I might think about adding different thickness and colors of red yarn spewing out the severed part as bloody strands of flesh. :P )

Thank you so much for all the good ideas and pictures Mars! I think painted foam is going to be the way to go. You are a costume saver!

I have no advice but I just wanted to say that is such an awesome costume. Also this thread title is amazing.

Dear goodness, Rhizzo, you have the best threads and ideas. That's all I wanted to say.

Awe, thanks Sarah-Jane and Meggs. This costume idea came about by accident. My partner and I were lying in bed the other night panicking because we didn't have our halloween costumes sorted out. We were brainstorming ideas and I misunderstood something and confused my artists and this costume concept was accidentally formed. We liked it better than any of the other ideas we were coming up with and decided to go with it!

Mars, I just have to thank you again for your ideas. I don't think I could have done it without you. The costume was a success! We won the prize for best couple's costume! The only problem was that my costume only made sense if I was standing next to Van Gogh. If we were in different rooms and new people came in, they could not figure out what I was. (I even got asked if I was a pork chop!) I'd have to drag them off to find Van Gogh, stand next to him, and have them study us in total confusion for a minute before their face would light up and they'd say "Oh, I get it! Wow, great idea!" or in one case "Ew, that's really gross!"

Pics!