# Costume problems



## rogue4 (Oct 29, 2006)

What was the material you purchased, and what it "not going to happen" because of that material?

I'll pass this along to my g/f, the studio art major, and see what her suggestions would be.


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## rogue4 (Oct 29, 2006)

Of course she gets home like 15 minutes later. ;-)

Her suggestion would be to cut out and the suspenders to your body using elastic as a material. You could then either brush on a coat of latex or liquid rubber. The latex has some elasticity already, so it should be able to give when your body moves, but liquid rubber has even more give and should last longer. From there, you may want to look into purchasing either of the two compounds pre-colored, or you could look into coloring them yourself prior to applying them. Spray painting them may lead to cracking of the paint when the latex/rubber expands, and grease paints may not hold up that well (especially if being fit against your body).

Fire back when any quesiton you may have, and I'll pass them on to her. In the meantime, check out some SFX web sites to see what the prices are on premium liquid latex/rubber compounds to see if that is a route you would want to take.


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## Rikki (Aug 14, 2006)

Thanks rogue4! I had actually been thinking about using liquid latex to cover the material I bought. I've never used it, though, and wasn't sure how well it would stick to material.

My original idea came from a tutorial on making armor out of craft foam. What I was trying was to make my pattern out of paper (which turned out really well), then cut that out of craft foam, put a fabric backing on it, and use velcro for the closures. The problem is that I can't get the edges of the sheets of foam glued together. There just isn't enough surface area I guess.


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## Lynn (Aug 23, 2005)

Put something under the edges, glue it to the foam...... kind of like a patch. If its thin you will never know its on the back. Or When you put the faric backing on it..... wouldn't that hold the edges together ?


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## Rikki (Aug 14, 2006)

It will hold the foam in place but the edges won't be stuck together. So when I put it on the pieces are going to curve and you would be able to see the seams. 
If I decided to put liquid latex over the whole thing I can probably do it that way, though.


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## rogue4 (Oct 29, 2006)

Depending on the type of foam you have, try Googling foam adhesives. They usually melt the foam slightly so that the two pieces bond together as one.

Here's a quick find that you may want to search for at a local craft store:
http://site.iwebcenters.com/afoammart_2/foam.html


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## freakengine (Aug 21, 2005)

The kropserkel version you picture above was cast in silicon. That's really the best material for a piece like that.


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## Rikki (Aug 14, 2006)

freakengine said:


> The kropserkel version you picture above was cast in silicon. That's really the best material for a piece like that.


Yeah, except that I don't know where to get it. And I've never used before, which wouldn't typically be a problem, but I saw an amateur attempt at it and it didn't turn out too good.


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## DivasMagik (Sep 8, 2007)

Maybe if you go to a hardware store you could find a product that is used to dip the handles of tools in that creates a rubber-like grip...I don't remember the name but I know there is such a thing out there. 
You could try using fabric and dipping it...it should be a pretty flexible final product. But you may want to be careful...just in case you're allergic to latex or something...LOL that could wind up being a really irritating problem later...


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## rogue4 (Oct 29, 2006)

Do an outline of the harness in foam and then cover that with orange vinyl using a spary adhesive like 3M's #77 to adhere the vinyl to the foam. Since all you're really worried about is the front and the edges, the vinyl should provide a good effect, and you may always be able to add a layer of silicon or something in the future to make it appear more like rubber...or possibly a spray finish of some kind.


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