Hello everyone! Welcome back to my blog!
This week I wanted to show you part of a project I've been working on. I have plans to go to the Minnesota Vikings football game on Halloween night, so of course, I'm going in costume. I've planned to go as Astrid Hofferson from the How to Train Your Dragon movie series, because she's a Viking. I've been crafting my costume for months. It's been a challenge to make a costume that won't set off the security metal detectors at the game! Something I recently worked on were her pauldrons, which are the pieces of armor that protect her shoulders. I decided to use Foam-Mo, which is a special type of craft foam that is easy to mold yet holds its soft texture once air-dried.
I also used Foam-Mo to create the little bird skulls that decorate her belt. Here's the reference picture of Astrid that I've been using to inspire my own costume.
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| Astrid Hofferson! |
Without further ado, let's get into my experience with Foam-Mo!
Step 1
For this project, I ordered a digital download of a pauldron pattern from Etsy. This way, I would know exactly which shapes to cut out and how to assemble the pauldron. The Foam-Mo comes in a tub, sealed tightly. It's important that the Foam-Mo remains sealed when not in use, because it will dry out otherwise. The texture felt similar to a regular crafting clay, although there is a little bit of a slimy feeling. It's easy to mold and shape into whatever you desire.
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| Pattern and Foam-Mo! |
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| How it arrived! |
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| Texture! |
Step 2
I cut out my pattern pieces and set them aside. Next, I rolled some Foam-Mo into a ball, and used a plate to flatten it into a an even thickness. This probably would've worked better with a rolling-pin, but I didn't have one at my disposal. I wanted to make the Foam-Mo nice and thin for my pattern pieces.
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| Cutting out pattern pieces! |
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| Ready to be flattened! |
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| Using plate to flatten! |
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| Nice and flat! |
Step 3
Because my plate was only so big, the radius of the flattened foam was not long enough for my pieces. I decided to use an Xacto knife to cut the foam in half. I reattached one of the halves to the end of the other, to lengthen it, and I sealed them together using the plate to flatten them again. Once the foam was long enough to hold the pattern piece, I placed it on top of the foam and used the Xacto knife to cut around the shape. I continued this process for all of the pattern pieces. I made sure to transfer any pattern notes onto each piece of Foam-Mo as well, like the hole for threading and the arrow telling me which direction the pieces should face during attatchment.
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| Cutting down the middle! |
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| Lengthening the piece! |
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| Cutting around the pattern! |
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| One piece cut out! |
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| All pieces cut out! |
Step 4
Once all of the pieces were cut out, I set them up to air dry overnight. I made sure to set up the pieces in a curved way, so they would harden in the shape I wanted them to be. The next day, I assembled the pieces according to the pattern. Once I was happy with the way they were set up, I used hot glue to attach all of the parts. I glued on both the outside and the inside, to make sure the pieces would stay together.
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| Setting up to dry! |
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| Seeing shape! |
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| Hot gluing it together! |
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| All glued! |
Step 5
Once the pauldron was assembled, I used the Xacto knife to trim the edges of the piece. Not all of them lined up evenly after assembled, so I simply trimmed off the excess to form an even edge. I did this for both sides. Then I used my Xacto knife to poke a hole through all of the layers of Foam-Mo. This was to help me thread the pauldron later and turn it into a wearable costume piece.
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| Trimming excess foam! |
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| Cutting an even edge! |
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| Creating a hole! |
Step 6
Last but not least, I painted the pauldron! I used watered-down grey and black acrylic paints, applied with a crumbled paper towel, to give it a weathered appearance. I wanted it to look as realistic as possible.
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| Completed pauldron! |
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| Completed pauldron! |
The last thing I'm going to do is attach leather banding to either side, through the holes. I plan to tie the strips of leather across my body and around my waist, under my top, to hold the pauldrons in place.
Like I mentioned earlier, I also made faux bird skulls using Foam-Mo. Here's a picture before and after I painted them!
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| Faux bird skulls! |
Foam-Mo is really fun to work with! I don't think I'll be needing it for any other parts of this costume, but I definitely want to find uses for it in the future. I highly encourage any crafters to try it out!
Bonus: One other piece of my costume that I'm thrilled with is Astrid's axe. I made a full sized one during the summer of 2020 just for fun, but I don't think the security at Vikings game would let me through the doors with it! So I whipped together a miniature version. I used cardboard, PVC pipe, home-made papier-maché, faux fur, and leather striping! I think it turned out really well. I didn't use any Foam-Mo for this project, but I'm proud of how it turned out and want to share with you!
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| Mini axe! |
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| Full-size axe |
Thank you for following along!
Have a fantastic day!
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