Thursday, May 23, 2013

Loki Helmet

   I guess I should just start this blog by telling of my celebrity crush on Tom Hiddleston (played Loki in the Avengers). Therefore, when the opportunity came up for me to play Loki for a school video, I jumped at the chance.
   Now, if you've ever seen the Avengers, you know that Loki's key costume piece is his horned helmet. Did I have one of those off hand? No...not really. Therefore, I spent much time trying to find an easy DIY for a Loki helmet that I could make in one night. I found this one: http://confessionstetragram.deviantart.com/art/Loki-Helmet-Tutorial-313786624. This tutorial, however amazing, was still too complicated. So this DIY will demonstrate how to make a Loki Helmet with the least amount of money/time possible.

Supplies needed:
Balloon
String
Cup
Newspaper
Masking tape ( a lot of masking tape)
Aluminum Foil
Gold Spray Paint
Hot Glue Gun

Step 1: Blow up a balloon so that it is the same size as your head. Easy enough. Just wrap string around your head then blow the balloon up until it fits inside of the string.
Step 2: Cover the balloon in newspaper. I suggest setting the balloon on top of a large cup so that it will stay balanced. 
Step 3: This is where it begins to get a little complicated. With masking tape, tape the newspaper all around the balloon. Try to start determining the shape of the helmet (aka...when it stops in the front and the back). Be very generous with the tape to make the helmet stiffer. 
Step 4: When you've taped the newspaper down in the shape of the helmet cut away the excess newspaper. Pull up pictures of the helmet online so you can cut the front out in the right shape. Loki's helmet dips down in the front and has 'sideburns' on the sides. My helmet looked like this when this step was completed. I was pretty excited...I wore it around the house for a while before I moved on to the next step.
Step 5: The horns! I fashioned the horns out of aluminum foil. Take about 2-3 feet of foil and gently bunch it up, trying to have the least amount of wrinkles as possible. Close it tightly at the bottom so it can be glued to the helmet. Don't forget to make it pointed at the top!
Step 6: Wrap masking tape around the foil to smooth down the wrinkles. Be careful that the tape doesn't fold up and stick to itself. 
Step 7: Hot glue the horns to the helmet. This step took me a long time, as the horns can be heavier then the helmet depending on the amount of tape used. Place the hot glue on the end and hold it down for a minute or two. I then put hot glue around the bottom edge of the horn and scrunched the helmet up around it.
This was how I looked wearing them so far :)
Step 8: Spray the completed helmet with gold spray paint. I used two coats. This is me in the video wearing the completed costume
I hope you enjoyed this! And I hope you all go out and make your own Loki helmet. Thanks!