The Mohawk Headpiece for the ‘Siri’ costume was a huge learning curve. While happy with the result, the journey was fraught with errors that demanded serious improvisation.
I learned SO MUCH from my mistakes during the “Siri” build. It was an ambitious project and my lack of crafting skills and aversion to measurement REALLY made themselves known along the way. But…I also discovered that improvisation, desperation and flexibility of vision can fill in many of those gaps.
These progress pics for the Siri costume’s headpiece really emphasize my lack of real crafting skills. Hopefully, they also highlight how flaws and mistakes can be hidden along the way; being willing to change and alter your design mid-stream is vital when you’re a mistake-maker like me. There’s a LOT of re-purposing going on in this costume, many learn-as-you-go mistakes, and some poor planning errors, too. Just the same, I’m happy with the end result.
Since no one is probably interested in duplicating this costume, rather than presenting it as a “how to”, the following images are intended to illustrate what kind of materials can be used for a project like this. They may also illustrate a fair number of “what NOT to dos”.
All thumbs,
Paige
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- Zip ties from a surplus electronics shop seemed ideal for “mohawk” quills. Plentiful, flexible, strong and cheap.
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- I didn’t account for the width of the zip tie bases, so it got crowded fast. I also underestimated the width of the leathe strips for attachment, so once I got the zip ties pushed thru, the side were too short to glue down on the headpiece.
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- For Siri’s “mohawk, I used an ice pick to poke 200 holes in two strips of leather.
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- The TWO sides allowed me to create an excess of leather on the crest of the head that compensate for the short fall of width on the mohawk pieces, rising up to meet them and giving me a place to affix the strips.
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- Wet leather molding is really easy – especially for folks like me who lack precision and riveting skills.
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- Because I got the width wrong on the mohawk strips, I had to mold the wet leather cap in TWO pieces.
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- Salvaged phone cords were ideal for twisting around old Christmas bubble light strands to make Siri’s “plug-ins” and hair.
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- Using E6000 I assembled the two mohawk strips and the two halves of the leather sides in place – using bag and pinch clips. Wrapped it all up in a stretchy scarf to dry overnight.
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- All the leather pieces – in addition to being glued together – are glued down to a fiberglass skullcap donated by a friend.
The phone/light cords were the perfect disguise to hide my measurement mistakes and provide support for the mohawk quills. AND it fit into the whole theme – so disaster averted!
Costume Artist 