Projects: Lilith Bat Ears: Darkstalkers

      The first project I did with Fossape was a relatively straight forward head piece for Alcyone MKR.  This is a bit more complex.  You have to do things like lapping and fusing the fosshape, and also doing spines.  It's still not all that hard, just follow along.  Of course, with any project the layout is important.  Now with something so organic like wings or "ears" you have to decide what you like.  I decided here for perky, and active rather than withdrawn  .With fosshape properly worked you can make pieces that stick out very far without any sag.  First you have to make a pattern.  This is more artistic than mechanical on this one.  Here's the picture I used as a model.  It's actually Morrigan, but the sisters have the same " ears, " and there are a million more pictures of Morrigan than Lilith.

So I made a pattern and I pinned it to a piece of the Fosshape 600. You always have to remember that Fosshape and similar heat activated products will shrink. I like to make a pattern for how I want it to turn out and cut it a half inch or more larger.  But, you can give yourself even more wiggle room, cause Fosshape is very easy to shape with scissors after it has been heated.

I know it looks ragged but there is a lot you can do once you start shaping.  I use a flat iron at it's highest temp setting for working Fosshape.  You need a hair flat iron that you can use exclusively for projects, never again for hair. This piece is going to need some strength to stick out that far.  So we need to fold the Fosshape over and fuse it to itself.

Fold it over, than press it together with your flat iron. To fuse it together you'll have to hold it for 15 seconds or so, depending on your iron.  For straight areas you can use the full length of the iron, for curves you have to use just the tip.  Keep in mind the side you fold to is now the back..  Next, you have to do the bottom part and fold over the stalk which needs the most strength.

  Now you have to work your way all the way along the top edge, this is where you need strength as well.  So fold all the edges along the top and the small section going off the stalk on the bottom.

Now this is done it's time to start some shaping.  Heat a section good and then sort of hold it in the shape you want, after a several seconds it will start to stiffen.

You can get the hang of this pretty quick.  One thing to remember is that it is very easy to trim this stuff with scissors once it hardens.  So if your edges look bad or the shape isn't quite right, don't worry.  At this point you are just giving curve to the piece.  After you get some curve, you need to do some spines.  You want to start at the tip of the middle spine and work your way to the claw. The spines are on the front of the piece, not the back that has the folds. With this technique your'e pinching the Fosshape together in your flat iron.

This is a little easier than it sounds but it gets difficult to do near the claw where the material is already stiff.  

This what it will look like once your'e done.  Now you want to bend the small bottom edge and the top edge in toward your new spine a bit. Just go around the edge with the flat iron bending it up a little.

Now you are at a point where you can dish or bend the area between the spines.  This can be done with your flat iron as far as it can reach.  You might need to harden the part you can't reach with a hair dryer on high.  This takes a while.  It would be better to have a heat gun on it's lowest setting.  You can get a cheap heat gun for $ 30 or less.

WARNING.  If you are using a heat gun do not get it to close to the piece or you can burn a hole right through it.  Your'e going to have to play around with this a while.  You might want to take a small piece of Fosshape and practice these techniques before you do it on a real piece.  Now the whole thing is hardened take some scissors and shape it to your liking.

Here I'm cutting the middle spine at a jaunty angle.  But shape the whole piece to your liking.  Once your happy with it it's time to paint.  Spray paint seems to work real well on Fosshape.  Last pair of these I did I winged it, but this time I'm going to mask it.

I masked it with blue tape and sprayed the hell out of it with red gloss plastic spray paint.  Then I let it dry for a long time, overnight is best.  Now to mask over the red and paint the inside part black.

Well there was a bit more bleed thru than I liked.  I tried to cover the black that bled and the red wouldn't cover.  I ended up using some craft paint that happened to be a perfect match to finish it up.  I also used Ivory craft paint for the talons.

Well here they are done. They came out pretty decent.  Have at it.  Oh yeah, here is the Dazian website where you can order Fosshape

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.