Since we talked about Dr. Finkelstein earlier today, it seemed appropriate to turn our attention to Jack Skellington. I’ve seen different costume interpretations for the tall and spindly character from Nightmare Before Christmas, and many of those interpretations opt for using makeup instead of making Jack’s skull. Coolest Homemade Costumes contributor Benjamin decided to build the mask though, and it all started with a beach ball:
First of all, I started off with a regular beach ball, covered it in cling film and then formed the features out of clay. Shortly after I had to quickly cover it in tissue and pva glue before the clay dried and fell off. Once the face was covered in the tissue mix I gave it a quick blast with the hair dryer to speed up the drying process. Once dried, I then started to bulk up the features with more tissue and dried again.
The next step was to give the mask a coat in resin to stiffen it all up. once I had done this I gave the mask one layer of fiber glass and then, once dried, give it a coat of bondo. Sanding down the bondo was the next step and then it was ready for the paint.
After painting I cut a hole for the head to go in then I screwed in a bike helmet on the inside so that it would stay inplace on my head.
To replicate Jack’s suit, Benjamin bought a black suit from a thrift store and painted on the stripes. I think that’s easier than tracking down an affordable black and white pinstripe suit.
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