Phoenix and Gryphon are dressed up as a classic Greek myth. Phoenix is Medusa, a terrifying Gorgon monster with living venomous snakes in place of hair, known for her power to turn onlookers to stone. Gryphon is the soldier who attempted to defeat Medusa, but despite his best efforts, was turned to stone by Medusa's deathly gaze.
Total Time: A few weeks
Yield: One Medusa and one Stone Soldier costume
Source: The Greek myth of Medusa
Supplies:
- black felt
- stuffing
- green scaly pattern fabric
- gold fabric
- greenish brown iridescent fabric
- white puffy paint
- various pieces from costumes
- cream colored shirt
- wire tubes
- wired sequin roll
- green springy pieces
- plastic snake heads
- red jewels
- foam coated wire frame
- green paint
- glitter paint
- cream colored gloves
- acrylic nails
- green nail polish
- snake skin duct tape
- gold sheer shawl
- gold snake headband
- gold fabric band bracelets
- small rubber snakes
- snake staff
- red stiff felt
- Roman soldier costume
- Roman soldier helmet
- rubber boots
- white t-shirt
- gray pants
- gray gloves
- stone texture spray paint
- sword
- shield
- cape
- gray dog chalk
Steps:
- Medusa's Tail: Medusa is a serpent like mythological creature who is usually described as having a long snake or serpent like tail that she slithers on when she walks. To create this tail, we made a tail base by first sewing black felt into a wavy tail shape, and using lots of stuffing to give it a big puffy look. The felt was used to make the tail strong and sturdy.
We then cut the greenish brown fabric into diamond scale-like shapes, and glued them onto the tail base in overlapping layers. We covered the entire tail in this way, to give it a snake-like texture.
We made green fin shapes out of the green scaly fabric, which were stuffed lightly to give them shape, and then sewed along one edge of the tail. To complete the tail, we cut half circle shapes out of gold fabric, which we glued along the inside of the tail, to create the snake belly look that snakes usually have. We outlined all of the gold shapes in white puffy paint to make them stand out. - Medusa's Dress: To make the main part of Medusa's outfit, we put together pieces of different costumes we found to create a feminine yet snake-like dress. We used a plain cream colored shirt to create the shoulders and arms. We stuffed the shoulders and arms with stuffing, which we glued in place, so it wouldn't shift when wearing it.
The top chest area was a piece of a sleeveless green glittery top, which was glued atop the cream shirt, with the cream colored arms sticking out of the sleeves.
The skirt part was created from the same fabric as the tail, made into a tube-like skirt. This way the leg area would transition into the tail more seamlessly.
We extended the gold fabric snake belly half circles onto the skirt as well, outlined in the white puffy paint, so that when the bottom of the dress and the tail were attached together, they would look like one long piece. - Medusa's Headpiece: Medusa's headpiece needed to look like a mass of writhing snakes, which is Medusa's defining feature. This headpiece was created by using a foam coated wire frame as the base, and adding wire tubes painted green with glitter; with plastic snake heads glued to the ends. Small red jewels were added for the snake eyes. Many layers of these snakes were added to make it look very full. Strips of wired sequins and green springy pieces were also added, to complete the look.
- Medusa's Hands: Medusa has the hands of a woman, but with the claws of a hideous creature. To make the hands, we first stuffed cream colored gloves, which would be attached to the ends of the arms.
For the nails, we used long acrylic nails, which we cut into sharp point shapes. We painted them green with nail polish. We also gave them a crazy French manicure, using snake skin duct tape to cover up the tips. We then glued each nail onto the fingertips of the gloves. - Medusa Accessories: To complete Medusa's look, we added a few accessories. We put a gold sheer shawl around her shoulders. We repurposed a gold snake headband, stringing it to be like a necklace for Medusa to wear. We added gold fabric band bracelets, and glued small rubber snakes onto them. We added a snake staff she could hold. Finally, Medusa has a long forked tongue, which we created by cutting that shape out of red stiff felt, which Phoenix was able to hold in his mouth.
- Soldier Outfit: The soldier who comes to try to defeat Medusa is turned to stone by her evil gaze. We wanted to recreate the stone look. To do this, we got a soldier costume intended for a human, and adapted it for a dog.
We spray painted each piece with a special stone texture spray paint, first doing one side, and then the other when it dried. We used a shirt underneath, to create the arms, which we stuffed, gluing the stuffing in place. We also stuffed gloves to attach to the ends of the arms.
We stuffed the pants and attached them to the front of the tunic, so they would hang down and cover the dog's real legs. We added the boots to the bottoms of the pants.
All of these pieces, the shirt sleeves, gloves, boots, pants, and the helmet all had to be sprayed with the stone paint. This took a long time, but created a really cool effect. - Soldier Accessories: To complete the soldier look, we added a sword, shield, and cape. All of these pieces were also sprayed with stone texture spray paint. The sword and shield were attached to the fingers of the gloves, and tied in place, to look like he was holding them.
- Soldier Makeup: To make Gryphon's face look like it was starting to turn to stone as well, we used a pet safe gray dog chalk. We rubbed this chalk all over his face, being careful to avoid his eyes, nose, and mouth. It gave him a little bit of a gray appearance to add to the look.
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