Project: Alcyone Headpiece: Beginner Fosshape

      Fosshape is an amazing material that is very useful in a lot of different cosplay projects.  Fosshape available from Dazian , is a white felt like fabric that you can mold and harden with heat.  It comes in two grades 300 and 600 which is twice as thick.  I have used both and find the 600 better for most applications.  I just did Morrigan from Darkstalker wings, and you just can't make something that substantial with the 300.  The 300 is better perhaps for smaller lighter pieces.  That's why I'm using it for this project, Alcyone's Headpiece.

Like just about every project, although less than most, Layout is very important.  I found as many pictures as possible, then I had to start sketching one side of the headpiece to make a template.  With many projects you are trying to achieve symmetry,  so whether it's a sword or wings or a headpiece you really need to make a template for one half of what you want to make, then transfer it to make the whole.

Lay out one side on heavy paper, this is a file folder.

Cut the pattern out and draw it twice on the fosshape.

Then cut it out and prepare your flat iron.

So after you have your design cut out in fosshape it's time to heat the stuff up to stiffen it.  I have found that a flat iron you use to straighten hair is perfect for working fosshape.  You can get one of these pretty cheap and just use it for cosplay projects.  DO NOT use it on hair after you have used it for fosshape.  So the trick is to work the piece with your flat iron and hold it in place till it cools.  Which happens pretty quick.  It's a good idea to take a small pieces of fosshape and practice working it into the shapes you want.

Using the flat iron to work the piece.

Remember you can reheat and reshape a number of times, but it does get stiffer and thinner the more you heat it.Work the whole piece so it all gets stiff.  You hopefully will end up with something kind of like this.

Fosshape shrinks when you work it a bit, and it does so kind of unevenly.  Fortunately, fosshape is much easier to cut once it's stiff.  So go back with some scissors and even things out, and sharpen the edges.  Once I get it just right it's time to paint it.  Spray paint seems to work far better than other paint.  And you need to spray the hell out of it a bunch of times.  Fosshape is very porous and you need to spray it from a bunch of different angles to get in all the nooks and crannies.  Note,  you can still work Fosshape just fine after you paint it.  But, you will get paint on the flat iron that is hard to get off.  Once I get the color and th shape right all i have left to do is hot glue it to a hair band so it will sit on the head right.  Of course, you have to put the hair band on, an futz around with the piece till it sits just right.  Mark it with something ( colored pencil ) that you can see on black and hot glue it thoroughly.  It's best to use one glop to tack it down, let it cool and then put lots of glue on either side to really secure it.

This is the finished product.  It  looks kind of wonky, but it looks great on.  Fossape allows you to do all kinds of cool things and is well worth looking into.  I'm gonna make this a series showing increasingly harder projects, I did some much harder stuff for Kimi's Morrigan Cosplay.