"Deep Sea Diver Costume"

Costume Instructions

Costume Materials
1 Cheap Large ball ( I used a very large bouncy ball from a toy store )
1 bucket or large bowl with sand or gravel
1 Phone book
1 8 x 180" roll of plaster cloth
6 + bottles of white glue ( I lost count )
1 large canvas drop cloth
8 vinyl wing nuts from hardware store
1 small hinge ( I used 2 magnetix taped with duct tape )
24 apholstry tacks.
3 8" Dixie plates ( I used heavy paper kind )
1 yard of charcoal color fabric
1 gladlock rectangular plastic container ( like you get from lunch meat )
1 8" carboard tube ( I used QUIKRETE QUICK-TUBE Building Form )
1 hobby knife
1 pair of canvas gloves
1 pair of boots
4 small boxes - cerial boxes are fine
1 roll of contact paper
1 roll of masking tape

Costume Instructions

The Helmet:

1) Get bucket or bowl with something heavy at bottom and place ball on top.

2) Cover ball with paper mache. I found a ripped up phone book pages worked best, with some newspaper layers thrown in for strength. Mix white glue with water - experiment with quantities until you find one that sticks well. Glue is cheap so go overboard on it. I think I was even doing 2 parts glue to 1 part water toward the end. Do a LOT of layers and make sure you cover the ball as evenly as possible, especially around the mouth of the bucket or bowl. Allow at least a week for this process due to drying time and re-layering.

3) Once dry, turn over, puncture ball and remove it from shell.

4) Cut hole in small sheet of fabric for your head and drape over your shoulders. Trace where you want the 'collar' of the mask to go on your body. Remove and cut off excess fabric.

5) Roll up some towels or some use some other round tubelike object ( I rolled up a dropcloth ) and drape collar fabric over the roll ( to simulate shoulders ). Use Plaster Cloth to cover collar.

6) Take helmet shell and carefully trim the bottom until your head fits.

7) Set helmet shell on table and draw an 'equator' around the circumfrence. Looking down from above it, mark the 3, 6, and 9 o'clock positions on this equator.

8) Trace circles on shell and cut out holes. Trace bottom of rectangular container just above the center porthole and cut out area.

9) Cut cardboard tube in 3, 1 inch segments. Cut bottom of rectangular plastic container until only the top 1" is left ( with lid )

10) Turn your bucket upside down, put your plaster collar over it and then place shell over top of this and slide onto base. It is important to note the shell should NOT be directly touching the collar at this time. Imagine the bucket is the neck of a person and this shoud be visible at this time. You should have about a 1" gap between the shell and the collar.

11) Line up your tube rings and the container with holes in shell - use masking tape to affix to shell.

12) Paper mache and or use plaster cloth to bind tubes and container to shell permanently. You also use your plaster cloth to bind the shell to the collar peice at this time as well. This covers up any gaps between the tubes, collar, and the shell.

13) Take 3 dixie plates, and lid to plastic container and use hobby knife to cut 'grates' into them

14) Glue plates on ends of tubes. Use tacks to simulate rivots.

15) Add wing nuts to collar

16) Spray paint entire helmet - paint inside flat black, outside is rusty color with brass / copper highlights.

The Suit:

1) Lay out canvas drop cloth - loosly trace around body ( leave generous space ). Cut out 2 silhoettes and stitch together.

2) Make 'leather' suspenders and belt out of brown vinyl.

3) Wrap 4 cerial boxes with contact paper they spray paint grey.

4) Tape / Glue boxes to belt - I found using screws helped keep them from falling off.

5) Pad shoulders to give a puffy, inflated look.

6) Paint tips of boots with grey to simulate weight boots.

7) store bought canvas gloves can be used for hands.