My headpiece is still in progress. I made one headpiece with wire and model magic which I have now trashed. I hope to create a headpiece out of latex and latex foam this summer and will write about that when I get the chance. In the meantime, here's some information that will hopefully steer you in the direction you want to take with your own Ahsoka headpiece. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. 

 When I first started researching, I didn't see how on earth I was going to pull the headpiece off. I saw all kinds of new terms used that I had never heard before. Where on earth do you buy liquid latex? How does it work? What is it like? What is joint compound? Which is better, liquid latex or silicon rubber? And all the while, thinking to myself, "What if I mess this up!" 

I first tried making a headpiece out of wire, masking tape, Model Magic, and joint compound, a liquid plaster used for patching holes in walls. That headpiece was heavy and uncomfortable, and the Model Magic cracked like crazy. It is now resting in piece in the trash. So, lesson learned. That method may be the most cost efficient, however you might be disappointed with the results if you're a perfectionist like I am. There's really  just no way to get something as stiff as model magic or any type of hard clay or other material to fit closely to your face and still be flexible enough to get on.

For those interested in making this kind of headpiece,  Red5ive on instructables.com has a GREAT tutorial, and is the tutorial I relied on when I made my old headpiece. Theirs is for Ahsoka's Season 1-2 headtails, whereas mine was Season 3-5, so there are a few differences. Theirs turned out super smooth and looks fantastic! I basically followed this tutorial all the way through with a few mild changes to the shape. Instead of stuffing my headpiece with toilet paper tubes before adding the Model Magic, I covered my entire wire frame in masking tape. This gave me a good foundation to add my Model Magic to without having to worry about support. The Model Magic doesn't want to stick to the masking tape when you first start applying it, but once you get enough on there, it will stay put.  
 

After realizing that the Model Magic method wasn't going to make me happy enough, I have decided to make my own latex or urethane Ahsoka headpiece. I believe it will cost me over $200, but I know I will be happier with the results I get doing it that way than with my clay version. 

Someone recently emailed me asking for more information on making an Ahsoka headpiece, and I emailed her back with lots of information. As I have been struggling finding time to write new pages, I decided I would just paste my email response into this webpage. The grammar may not be perfect, but I figured at least the information is out there. So without further ado, here is what I sent her. 


"My apologies that my website is incomplete! I've practically started over on my Ahsoka costume because my first attempt didn't work very well!

You mentioned wanting to do a silicon headpiece and that is definitely the way to go if you want something really nice! However, making it will be quite expensive, probably around $200. That estimate is also for a liquid latex headpiece, not silicon. Unless you have a latex allergy, latex is a good bit cheaper. According to what I've read liquid latex is around $50 a gallon whereas silicon is around $200 a gallon. Urethane is another alternative material, however I haven't researched it that much yet, so I can't confidently give you any information about it at this time. 

There are a bunch of links further down this page for pictures and information about sculpting and casting, however I will write what I know below.

The first step for making a latex headpiece is to get a head shape to sculpt on. I am going to do a "life cast" of my head which is basically encasing your head in plaster to make a mold of your head and face. This adds probably around $70 or more to the total headpiece cost, however I want to make sure mine fits exactly. You can also buy a man styrofoam head from Hobby Lobby or somewhere online and use that instead, but you're not guaranteed a perfect fit. I say a male head because the female ones are a little smaller than a human head, so you might not get a very accurate fit with that one. A minus of using the styrofoam heads though is that you don't know where your shoulders are in relation to the head. This was a huge problem for me when I made my first Ahsoka headpiece. I would recommend if you use a head to use the "duck tape mannequin method" on your top half up to where your head meets your neck and then use that as a reference. The duck tape mannequin method is basically where you put on an old t-shirt that can be ruined and then put duck tape on top of you and the shirt. Once you're encased in duck tape you just cut through the shirt and you're left with a duck tape version of yourself. You can google this to see what I mean. I would also wrap your neck in plastic wrap and continue the duck tape up your neck so that you know where your shoulders are when you are sculpting.

So once you have a head (and shoulders) to sculpt on, you need some oil based clay that won't dry out to sculpt your headpiece with. Put the clay all over the head and start making it into Ahsoka's head tails. Refine as you go and make sure its all even. Once you have it perfect, you need to make a three part mold around it all. There are links below on two-part molds, and then you can sorta figure out a three part mold from those. Once you have a mold then you pour liquid latex into the mold and slosh it around for a while (a long while evidentially) and then you will have a headpiece! More information found at the links below. 

Oh, and when you paint the headpiece you have to use latex base paint because other paints flake off when the latex stretches.

So to sum it all up, making a latex headpiece is a long, hard, and expensive process, but it can be done! I've never done it before but I hope to try soon! 

Hope this helps a little! Feel free to contact me with any more questions! Always happy to help!

May the Force be with you!"

Here is the second half of the information I sent her: 

"Ok, on to the links I promised!


This first one is extremelyyyyy helpful as it is the only silicon Ahsoka headpiece walkthrough/tutorial I have been able to find. However, a large majority of the pictures are missing which is a huge bummer. Even still, you can still glean enough information from the text to figure out what the steps are for the most part. It's a forum website, so lots of other people offered input and advice which is as helpful as the tutorial itself. This guy cast out of Dragon skin, which is a very high quality type of silicon, so its super expensive, but you can do the same thing with latex. This website will give you a basic idea of how to make a headpiece that's specifically Ahsoka, and then I have more links further down in this email that will go through each of the steps in more detail.  


The only major thing other than latex that I'm going to change to that one is that I'm not going to use a forehead piece. Those are ok, but you can never blend them quite right. I'm going to use a bald cap which you can buy made out of latex. You can stretch it over your forehead and then glue it down with some spirit gum so it covers your eyebrows and forehead. Then you just take some acetone or rubbing alcohol, one of the two, and you can use a paintbrush to dissolve the edges of the bald cap so it blends pretty seamlessly with your skin. Here's a link with info on that. 


Cosplayer Victoria Schmidt has been my inspiration throughout this whole Ahsoka cosplay process. If you've researched Ahsoka cosplay pictures, I'm sure you've seen her before (and she's all over my website because she's amazing. XD). She and her fiancĂ© Jinyo make absolutely incredible costumes! I am going to email her and ask her a few questions about her Ahsoka, I just haven't done it yet. I'll be sure to add the information here when I do. Anyway, she uses a bald cap and a casted headpiece, so you can see what a bald cap for Ahsoka looks like. She made her headpiece out of urethane rubber with urethane foam on the inside...something I need to look into some more when I get time. In the pictures below you can kinda see where her bald cap is. 




Here's another link on latex casting. This is for Shaak Ti, but same basic process. And more pictures. The only thing I've heard is to make sure you do a three part mold for Ahsoka headpieces or else you get cracks and it's a pain to deal with. The first link above used three pieces and I think there's one or two pictures of the mold in three parts so you can see how to divide it up. You do one whole piece for the front half and two for the back. This Shaak Ti only uses a two part mold. 


Here's some info on oil based clay. Haha. If I thought I might need a page later I saved it. You sculpt in the oil clay so it doesn't dry out.  


Oh, and while I'm thinking about it, if you ever get the chance to watch a show called "Face Off," you totally should! It's a movie makeup show and they give great basic overviews on making facial prosthetics out of clay and then casting them and such. It's what made me believe I could really pull this off where before I thought it was way too hard. It comes on the SyFy channel quite often (any episode will do!) and it's probably online somewhere. The stuff they do is really amazing! Be warned, they do some creepy makeup sometimes, episodes I tend to skip. :)

Ok, back on topic. This tutorial is the biggest help for two part mold making. My absolute go-to reference. Once you understand the process (you might have to read it two or three times, I did. XD) it will be super easy to figure out how to make a 3 part mold. Just repeat the steps one more time and divide the back section in half. The mask the guy is making is incredibly sculpted, but really weird looking. Just FYI. Not scary, just a weird man sculpt thing. XD Anyway, the tutorial is split into two parts, so here's the links: 


Here's a tutorial on lifecasting your head a shoulders if you're interested. I had to use the web archive because the link was expired from wherever I first found it. Some of the pictures are missing, but again, enough to tell what they're talking about.

Here's a lifecast tutorial by the same people who made the one above, but it has no pictures. They sell the materials needed at decent looking prices, but I haven't compared to other places. But they sell a kit made for doing just faces that they recommend using for practice. They even give you extra materials in case you mess up. These people know their stuff! But I like the list of materials they give and then you can buy it all from their website. It makes me happy when things are simple. :)

Here's the link to their face casting page. So $41 for just the face materials. Ouch. But the extra bag of alginate they give you could be used toward your whole head cast if you wanted. And it sounds like their plaster goes a really long way so it's cheaper. Once you know how to do a face, an entire head and neck are the same process just add the plaster bandages to the back of your head and chest. Don't know if you're interested in lifecasting at all but if you are, well now you have everything you need to know. XD 


Again, please don't hesitate to ask ANY questions, no matter how small you think they are. 

Oh, and shameless advertising, you can read more about me and my cosplay's I've been working on on my blog, Apprentice of the Chosen One. :) I do actually update this once a month at least. Hehe. :)

May the Force Be With You!!!!" 

She emailed me back and asked these questions: 

"I want to ask where can I find this silicon to make my headpiece? Can I use the one we also put in our house's corners for example? Or even the latex? Where can I find these? The mold to put in the silicon, can I make it from plastic maybe or stiff paper?"

Here is my reply: 

"Smooth On" I believe is a company that makes the modeling silicon. You have to buy special stuff from online, they won't have it in a home improvement store. That's why it gets kinda expensive. Also, if you look in the first link I sent, you can see where they were talking about putting foam inside the top of the head. Smooth on makes a foam that's compatible with silicon. But basically it's a liquid that expands a lot an then hardens into foam. You will need some of that to put in the top of the headpiece, though I haven't figured out exactly how you do that yet. Probably pour it in and then stick your modeling head into the top so that the foam forms around the head, but I'm not sure. That's the biggest part I'm stuck on and part of what I'm going to ask Victoria Schmidt. 


When you buy latex, that also had to be bought online. You need I think it's called "modeling latex." They make tonssss of different kinds of liquid latex, but only the modeling kind works for headpieces and prosthetics. Check in the link about the mold making, the evancampbell.deviantart links, and maybe he talks about it. They also make a foam latex which again, you will need I think to stiffen the top. Once I figure out how that works, I will try to write it here.

Also, don't use silicon and latex products together! I read somewhere that if you do, they won't cure and then it will be ruined. 

I will look on my computer this afternoon and see if I have any links saved on where to buy the latex and silicon. "Dragon Skin" silicon by Smooth-On is the best silicon out there. Again, check in the first link and the evancampbell link. The first one will be directed toward silicon and the second mightttt have something about what kind of latex he used."


I will add more information when I get around to it. I'm always happy to help anyone who emails me! All the information above came from one person asking. :) I hope the information above will help you with your own Ahsoka. I still have lots of information to share when I get a chance between my own cosplay endeavors, so hopefully I will get around to it sometime. Ask any time! becomingahsoka@gmail.com



My old Ahsoka headpiece out of Model Magic. May it rest in pieces.