Down The Rabbit Hole: My Next Cosplay Project!

If you've noticed my lack of craft posts the past few months, it's because all my crafting energy has been going into my next cosplay - which is fun, but also saps my creative mojo, so to speak. I'm looking forward to finishing just so I can get back to smaller, immediate-gratification projects!

Sadly I'm nowhere near the finish line yet, but I think the most important part - my mask - is finally finished enough to show off.

As most of you guessed from my sneak peek ages ago, I'm working on a steampunk White Rabbit from Disney's Alice in Wonderland.

Now, this is my first-ever foray into leather working, so naturally John and I jumped in head first by starting with a fairly complicated mask. Heh. I turned to Youtube for tutorials - and highly recommend this one from Merimask - but we still were figuring out a lot of things as we went along, since every tutorial offers slightly different advice.

I started by modeling my mask after Andrea/Merimask's "Gentleman Bunnies" design:

You can actually buy one of these (or a similar style without the monocle) at Andrea's Etsy shop for $200, but since this is to be the focal point of my entire costume, I was determined to make it myself. I'm just stubborn like that. And cheap. But mostly stubborn.

Aaaaand here's my mask (so far):

I may still adjust one or two things, but over all I'm pretty pleased for our first try!

John did the hardest part, which was drawing and adjusting the paper template, stopping to crinkle it over my face every few minutes to check the fit. When he was satisfied, he cut it out of vegetable-tanned, 8 oz leather and handed it over to me to sketch on. I drew in my design details, and then he did the carving:

John is really enjoying this new hobby, so I practically had to pry the mask out of his hands to do my own work on it. :)

Next we soaked the mask in water and formed it on my face. This was tricky, since the muzzle really needed to stand out, but I kept working at it with my fingers, and was eventually satisfied with the shape. (Interesting note: saturated leather is oddly clay-like, and very malleable.) We also shaped the ears a bit.

We propped up the formed mask on parchment paper, and then baked it at about 200 degrees until it dried:

You know it's dry when the mask color lightens up again. (It gets quite dark when you soak it.) Takes maybe 20 minutes, tops.

We used 7 to 8 pound leather for the mask, although I've since learned that we probably could have used something a bit thinner. This thickness is rock hard when dry, and feels more like wood than leather on my face. Good thing it's molded to fit so well!

 

 Here's the formed mask next to my original sketch. As you can see, we got it pretty close.

As much as I like the color of undyed leather, I couldn't really be the White Rabbit without, well, some white. So next came priming and painting:

I used a water-based primer, and then plain acrylic craft paint for the white. The gold sections were painted with Liquid Leaf - which is NOT water-based, but gives a nice shine.

As soon as I finished the gold I realized the contrast was just too stark, so next I aged the entire mask with a lovely yellowish-brown water-based glaze. (The advantages of being married to a former faux-finisher: custom glazes on demand!)

I went a little overboard with the aging, though, so even though I loved the look, I had to go back and white-wash the white sections again to brighten it up. After all, I don't want to be the Cream Rabbit.

(More on my giant pocket watch in a minute.)

The monocle was WAY harder than the mask, and took three times as long to make. I spent hours on the paper template, shaving off millimeter by millimeter to get it to fit the mask contours exactly. I first made a vinyl version, but then started over with a thicker leather for a more authentic look. I also started out with a vintage flashlight lens, but then abandoned THAT for the fun metal edging you see here:

I cut my own lens out of plexiglass, and added a scrim by stretching a scrap of thin black pantyhose over the back. Finally I formed & stitched the cup, added decorations, and riveted the whole shebang onto the mask.

The finishing touch was a thick gold chain attached to the side.

That process was stretched over more weeks than I'd care to admit. I've come to realize I am the world's slowest crafter, just because I figure things out as I go, instead of starting with a clear-cut design and plan of attack. I like the process, but it does get frustrating.

Now check out this loveliness:

Sha-POW!

This is what you get when you let weeds overtake your backyard: a lovely, springy ground cover in brilliant green. Who needs grass? I like this stuff!

Oh, and I just realized the scale of this picture makes my mask look tiny, but I can assure you that's just a giant pocket watch. :) It's actually a vintage wall clock, but I removed the electrical guts and replaced them with a lightweight battery operated clock mechanism, so it even works! I also jazzed up the face with metallic gear cutouts and gems. (Still not 100% happy with it, but it's on the back burner for now.) The thing still weighs a ton due to its heavy metal case, but there's no way I could make something like this entirely from scratch.

Welp, that's all for now!

I have lots more to show you, but nothing finished, so I'll save all that for next time. 

'Til then, I'd love your suggestions on what I can do with my hair/head. Hats are out, so I'm debating either a white wig (which might look too stark) or some kind of head wrap with white & gold cyberlox on the side, kinda like so:

via

What do you guys think? Any other options come to mind? My hair is too dark and long to leave showing as-is!