Halloween 2003: Beaker Costume

Thanks to Boing Boing for featuring me on their site.

This Beaker costume has been a hit over the years. People still talk to me about it and I get requests every year as to how one can make their own. Here's how to make a Beaker costume according to my design. The materials were purchased from Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores and Michaels Arts and Craft Stores. The lab coat was borrowed from my friend's dad, who's some sort of surgeon.

How to Make a Beaker Costume

Ingredients:

• 2 yards of 1/2" foam
• 2 3" styrofoam spheres (eyes)
• 1 egg-shaped styrofoam "ball" (nos)
• Craft glue
• Heavy-duty safety pins
• 2 black fuzzy balls
• "Almond"-colored spraypaint
• "Apple"-colored acrylic paint
• 1 neon orange wig
• Kite string (any sufficiently-long string will do)
• 4 1" nails

Instructions:

• Cut a length of foam appropriately sized to fit the size of your head. I used a 14" diameter that, when multiplied by pi, yields a 44" length of foam. Remember, circumference = pi * diameter.
• Roll the foam end-to-end to create the tube in which your head will fit.
• Glue the ends of the foam together and tie string around it to let the glue dry.
• While the glue is drying, cut out a circular piece of foam that will fill in one end of the foam tube. The wig will attach to this piece.
• Let it all dry overnight.
• Spraypaint the foam cylinder with the almond paint.
• Use the apple paint to paint the egg-shaped foam ball (this will be the nose).
• Poke the nails through the fuzzy balls and poke one ball into each foam eye ball.
• When the apple paint dries, use the craft glue to attach the nose to the eyes. (Hint: use some sort of prop to keep the eyes from falling off the nose.)
• Drive the nails through the foam cylinder (from the inside) to attach the eyes and nose.

I used a pencil to draw his frown into the foam and used scissors to cut it out. I also used scissors to cut the shoulder-space into the bottom of the cylinders. This took a few different tries because I had to keep trying the head on in order to see properly through the mouth. Even when I got it to look right, it was still REALLY difficult to see through the mouth!

Be careful when walking through doorways as the head is taller than you'd expect. You might bump the head off your shoulders.

When I showed up at my parents' halloween party, I thought I would have the tallest costume of the evening. My grandfather showed me up with his giant homemade chef costume.

Here's a gallery of others who've replicated my efforts for their own costumes. Some of them got much better wigs than I had:

If you've made your own Beaker costume, please feel free to share with me. I'd love to add your photo to the gallery, too!