Champagne Costume: Chapter Three

Ok, so here comes the exciting part…

FAILURE!!

We are talking headpieces today and specifically the headpiece for my champagne costume. My initial vision was to have bubbles rising from my head, appearing light and effervescent.

Here are a few of my inspirational pics:

I wanted the shape from the left image and the look of clear iridescent bubbles from the right image.

I looked online for clear plastic balls and couldn’t find what I wanted for a decent price (it was a few months after christmas so no clear ornaments in stores either). I knew I couldn’t use glass because 1) It’s way too heavy and 2) It’s breakable.

I also had to figure out how to make a frame to support a tall structure. The other troupe members were making their costumes headpieces around 2-3 feet tall, so of course I aimed for 3 feet (go big or go home 😉

I then decided to add a champagne bottle at the top to give the illusion that it was champagne pouring down over my head and cascading into the glass (which I was inside of).

So for materials I decided on beads and wire. And this is where the failure comes into play. I originally used a visor as my base. I drilled holes into it and used zip ties to secure the 11 gauge wire to it.

Then I covered the wire with gold Duct Tape to hide the it and to give it some grip to attach other elements such as wire and beads:

It seemed fine until I started to add the seed beads, Swarovski crystals and fake pearls (for the bubble look). The weight of the beads made it CRASH!

Then I cried. Then I started over.

Here is the first attempt:

You can see I also used a glass necklace that I deconstructed because it looked like bubbles (Thanks Headmistress Cheripop Purr!).

In the end it was better that it didn’t work because it was looking like an ugly mess.

So I sat down and thought it over. I needed lighter beads and a stronger head frame. I looked at dozens of Samba headpiece frames and they were too pricey to buy so I copied the design that seemed to work best for my concept. I tried to solder it together but I don’t know how to solder and it was an epic failure. So I used what I know best… wire and hot glue lol!

I’m really happy with how it turned out! It wasn’t easy but now I know I can do it again (and I will, trust me). I later added some foam bits for padding and covered those with gold duct tape too.

This was a beautiful solid base for me to add my now lighter beads, which were champagne colored seed beads (hand strung on tiger tail wire) and small Swarovski crystals with pearls to accent it and give it color and beauty.

I changed the way I wanted the liquid to flow out (as in the shape it would take) and I turned a plastic Montclair bottle into a champagne bottle by adding plastic to flatten the base and green seeds beads to give it sparkle and texture. I bought some champagne foil from a wine kit store for ten cents each and used that for the top of the bottle and stuck some LED string lights inside. I also put lights in the “champagne” flowing out of the bottle.

Oh, and I added a magnet to the head frame and to the bottom of a plastic champagne glass that I decorated to look purty so that I had a champagne glass that you take off to give someone a cool refreshing drink 😉

Then I did more fun artistic bead work and Viola!