Here are the pics of my costume for 2009. With chants and the beats of voodoo drums playing from a nearby speaker, I was a New Orleans style voodoo priest. Well, my twisted twist on the theme, at least. You can call me Baron Mojo.
So let's talk construction, top to toe. The hat is indeed the same from my Mad Hatter costume. A somewhat pricey real top hat, might as well get more use out of it. Revamped with mini skulls glued to a ring of felt that is sitting on the brim (so it's removable and wont damage the hat). A band of purple fabric tied around, with tails dangling down my shoulders. A few pheasant tail feathers are sticking out the hat band.
White contact lenes in my eyes again. You may recognize them from my zombie costume last year. Such a cool effect, I'll take any excuse to use them. Face painted with white and black no-smudge cream face paint. The crisp edges made with black liquid eye liner. There's black face paint in my goatee on the chin, but I did have to shave my mustache in order to paint the skull teeth there. After 14 straight years of never seeing my top lip, let me tell you... it felt very weird when I first shaved it and I still don't recognize myself in the mirror.
The long coat is actually another reused piece, worn when I dressed as Rob Zombie back in 2001. The ribcage shirt was one heck of a last minute find. I was originally planning to paint ribs on a blank black t-shirt, but when time got short I ran to the mall hoping to find one. In one of the shop windows I spotted this long sleeve black shirt, with ribs on the front, AND the back, AND arm bones down the sleeves. AND it all glows in the dark!
Black skeleton bone gloves are the only other purchase from the costume shop (the face paint being the other). The skull bracelets and necklace were from Michaels. A shrunken head was dangling from my waist. That accessory is a bit more "witch doctor" than "voodoo priest" but the head looks pretty cool.
It's always fun to make some props to carry around too. I knew I wanted a skull cane or walking stick. I had seen a nice wood one at the costume stores for years, but almost couldn't find one now that I was actually wanting to purchase one. At the last store I checked, they had one left. I attached more small skulls to the staff with twine and tied some purple fabric to it to match my hat.
I also made a voodoo doll to threaten people with (visible in the first photo). Made with cardboard, twine, paint and purple feathers. Oh, and it's wrapped in black athletic grip tape, which I have from when I put together the cricket bat for my Shaun of the Dead costume. See, you never know when these costume purchases can be reused again!
As usual, I had to do a pumpkin carving to match my costume. Here's my Baron Mojo pumpkin, along with my pet snake, right outta the bayou.
That's it for this year's costume, I'm beat. Goodnight.