The McCheese Campaign page 2

	This gave the head a misshapen appearance from the side, but it was an acceptable loss. From the front, it would look right.
Next I covered my viewing window in cheap plastic window screen. Not only would I be able to see, but it would keep the mosquitoes out. I used sewing pins to hold it in place while I glued it to the foam. The pins held so well, I left them in. Originally, I had intended for 3 viewing ports. One dead ahead, and two on the sides to help me navigate in crowds / doorways. I screened them all, but wasn’t sure if I wanted to use the sides or not. I would end up only using the front.
	Next I carved a nose, but because of its weight and shape, it wouldn’t glue directly to the front of the head. I ended up carving a hole and jamming the nose into it. So it wasn’t as long as I had originally intended
	While the glue was drying, we started work on the top hat. I purchased a cheapo top hat from the Halloween store for 5 bucks, but it was pretty flimsy. I spray painted it white, but even that didn’t help. That’s when the flex glue made its first of many appearances.

I have long been a big promoter of the joy that is flex glue. It is without a doubt my favorite substance to work with. Not only is it a good adhesive, but it does oh so much more. It dries clear, it dries very quickly, it takes paint superbly, and we use it a lot to put a durable outer coating on projects. In this case, I coated the entire hat with the glue. The results were amazing. It created a rubbery shell around the chapeau when it dried, giving it the rigidity we needed.
	Jolene painted the hat a nice shade of purple and affixed it with a yellow hat band. Pretty, huh? Yeah, the hat is, too.
Next came the messy part. To protect the foam and make it easier to paint, Jolene and I wrapped the head in lightweight muslin. Then we glued it to the foam with a mixture of flex glue and water. The flex glue held it in place, and the water shrunk the canvas slightly, sucking it to the shape of the head, leaving no gaps. We had to get creative and cut the muslin so it would fit the curves without wrinkling.

We did the top and sides, then went home to let it dry overnight. We would curve it around the underside of the bun in the morning. Bad move. When I came in the next morning, the watery glue had run down the sides of the head and pooled on the dry canvas making it stiff and unusable. It also glued the whole head to the sawhorses. I had to rip it off, taking some muslin and foam in the process. Oh, the humanity!

Not only that, but as I was poking around the underside with the scissors, trying to salvage what I could, I stabbed my finger. Now that the Mayor had tasted blood, I feared what would happen… Would I go into some kind of bloodlust after putting on the now tainted head? Only time would tell.

Short answer: no.

	Looking at the front of the head, I realized my viewing window was not only way too big, but badly misshapen. This is partly due to the muslin shrinking, and partly because I was apparently drunk when I cut the fabric. A simple patch alleviated that problem. It was here I really started getting annoyed by my placement of the nose. It should be in the middle of the face, but my viewing window is there. I had to put it above that. That being said, I could have placed it a little better. There was no way to fix it now. This is going to bother me forever about this costume.