DIY Medusa

My Medusa costume that my mom and I made (for the Art of Darkness Halloween ball and art show this past weekend) ended up on some blog listing costume ideas for those on a tight budget. Scroll down to #5.
http://wearyourvoicemag.com/more/fashion/budget-halloween-costumes

So, since there seems to be some interest in this costume, I'm going to post the steps to creating your own DIY Medusa costume. Ideally, wear with a Grecian style dress and sandals, though I wore with a black velvet dress that I already owned. 

1. Buy lots of lots of snakes. I used rubber snakes from the dollar store but also we got some smaller snakes (for fill) in bulk at the Fake Rubber Snake store online. (Who knew there would be an entire website devoted to rubber snake sales?  I am guessing I probably used about two dozen snakes or more in total - half of these were smaller sizes. http://www.fakerubbersnakes.com/

Note: You can spray paint the snakes a consistent color if you so desire, but I decided I liked the snakes in various colors.

2. Create a base to attach snakes to. This should fit your head like the brim of a hat. We used bendable wire to create this which allows you to shape it to some extent to fit your head. My mom wove this part together  and added a 'tail' section in the back to hang some snakes from as well as cross pieces to go across the top of the head.

3. Cover the wires with planter's tape (alternately painter's tape in black would probably work).

4. Attach snakes to the base with florist's wire or similar. Use smaller snakes for "fill" and larger ones for more 'statement' snakes or where you want a more prominent snake to be seen. You may need wire cutters to cut off areas of wire that are not needed.

5. Fit on the headpiece as you go to figure out where you may need to add snakes for best look. Try not to make the snakes too symmetric and ordered as real snakes would be slithering in all directions or tangled. Also makes sure you have all the wrapped wire ends pointing upwards from your head or else the headpiece becomes uncomfortable to wear.

My mom models the finished Medusa headpiece

6. Add makeup and extra snakes: For the finished costume, I also added a couple of leftover larger snakes to my bodice. I also went with dark, gothic makeup. Originally I wanted to try special effects makeup like this but the makeup I had bought didn't seem to want to play nice (admittedly I had bought some cheaper theatrical makeup as I didn't feel like spending a small fortune on makeup). But you  may want to try your hand at this DIY Snake woman makeup tutorial or similar.

I look sort of like Lily  Munster here instead of Medusa.

Finished Medusa Costume:

7. If you are looking for a couple's costume idea, have your partner dress up as either Perseus (think Greek warrior with a mirrored shield) or else as a stone person (use grey, black and white make up to achieve this, and have them dress in grey clothes and spray color or dye their hair grey to achieve the effect of Medusa having turned them into stone)

8. Experiment to create other costumes: I've created other costume headpieces using similar techniques for other costumes. For example, the headpiece below was also made with hot glue and florist wire on a headband base, with some additional flowers wrapped around the head via a garland. And lots and lots of fake leaves and flowers as well as some rams horns I bought on Etsy (or you can make some via sculpey if you are handy). 

Same concept for my previous year's Gaia costume

Simpler version of the headband. Just add fake butterflies and leaves. Butterfly face paint created with eyeliner pencils and eyeshadow in purples, dabs of white greasepaint and glitter gold makeup.