Redesigning/Making the Lion's headpiece

Redesigning/Making the Lion's Headpiece

Due to circumstances that I have previously explained, the Lion's headpiece needed to be redone. I came up with the idea to make it very obviously a lion, this meant using a lion's face as part of the headpiece, instead of just trying to recreate the hair.Below are the stages of it being made.

I started unsure of what material I wanted to use, to begin with I used cardboard to try to put together a face, I then covered it in gumstrip. However, I decided I wasn't happy with the shape of his face, this was because it was too pointy and lion's faces are a lot more square. I also thought that there could be a lighter/softer material alternative to cardboard.

I Had done the same with the ears, but again, I decided to go with a different option.

In sections I put together a new lions face. I chose to make this out of plastazote covered in brown felt, For some parts that needed to have more thickness, I added some stuffing between the layer of plastazote and brown felt. I used a hot glue gun to secure the two materials together and also join each section, this photo shows the back of the pieces joint, and gives you a better idea of how it was put together.

This photo shows the lions face from the front. I used different colour felt for the nose and the cheeks and a piece of string to define the top of the mouth.

This photo shows how it would sit on the head, although it will look a lot bigger on the actress who's wearing it, which is the look we wanted to achieve.

This is the finished head, there will be more details to add into it to make up the headpiece.

To hid all the raw edges I covered the back in black felt. This part won't be seen but it will help to hold it together and look more complete. The fur had to be carefully cut, ensuring that I only cut the fabric that held it together, this meant that it left longer hair and not such a flat, straight line, giving much more texture to his Maine.

I also added in some black buttons to fill in the eye sockets, this gave the face more character. I also liked the frayed offcuts on the brown fabric so I carefully trimmed these and added them in to define the eyes more.

Before making the new head I experimented a bit more with the first one, I thought I could use it as a tester, I tried paper macheing tissue paper on but I really didn't like the finish it gave and wanted to take a softer approach.