The Giant Pizza Slice

 Kev asked me to make a large pizza slice costume.
I had a day and a half  free in my holiday schedule
and I reckoned I could get it done in a day!

plastizote sheets

When  the pizza slice was first mentioned, I instantly thought of using plastazote. It's the same material I'd used when making the dragon for last years panto, Sleeping Beauty.
It's a soft, pliable foam that's very light and easy to mould. It can be heated with a heatgun and it will attach to itself. When it cools the join holds better than any glue.

Paulamar - website - are a foam making company based in Kirkintilloch, near Glasgow.
They sell a whole variety of foams and rubbers and make custom items.

I was after a couple of their 1m x 2m sheet of plastizote, which comes in varying thickness' and colours
I bought a sheet of 10mm orange for the pizza and a thicker black one for a future make. Buying a colour saves a little paint.

When I went out to pick up the sheets, I ended up talking with one of the people that worked there. He explained that a lot of companies use the foam for making props. He showed me a couple of weapons a live action role player had made and told me a couple of secrets as to how he got the paint to remain untouched on the swords even after hours of battling!
I even got a wee tour round the factory - and there were so many different cutting machines and different types of foam and rubber sheeting.
So even though it was snowing and there was weather warnings for the black ice and snow on the roads, it turned out to be a nice wee day!


So I started out making some initial sketches of how I saw the shape of the costume.
When the boys are performing, the changes between sketches is quite quick. So they need to be able to get the costume on and off pretty easily.
So I designed it so the pizza itself would be like a tabard held together at the side with plastizote straps .The crust would attach to the top of the shoulder area front and back - giving it a full stuffed crust look!

marking out the pizza

Once I'd worked out the shape - I measured it out on the plastizote.

I usually try and work during the day, I get the best pictures in the natural light.
So, since we're deep into winter, it almost feels like nighttime during the day and I have little light coming in.
My  photos consquently aren't the best.

this is where the head goes through :)

 After I'd cut out the shape, I could see what I was left with to make the crust.

can you tell what it is yet?

 My cat, Luthien, was loving the soft floor. After it was painted I caught her a few times sitting inside the crust when it was lying flat on the floor.
It was all fur and cuteness till she started clawing at it!!

Shoo! 

One day I'll have enough money to rent a workshop space!!


This is the back and I've attached the crust onto the front.
I really wanted a heat gun at this point. Knowing now that heating the plastizote and attaching it onto itself would provide a more sturdy join, but I'm working in an enclosed space and it's snowing outside! So, no heat gun.
So I used hot glue, reinforced with gaffa-tape and glued the gaffa as well. As long as the crust isn't pulled at, it should stay on.











The front - with the crust on :)

The little bits of foam to the left were going to be the pizza topping.
I'd spent about  2 hours by this time - designing, marking out, cutting and shooing cats away.

Time for painting!

Considering I spent 8 weeks working on a Panto using a printery/roller texture, I decided to use the same techique to paint that melted/roasted cheese look before I added topping.

Got a couple of foam rollers, picked them to bits so I had 2 different patterns.

ahhh - printy/textury rollerin'

It was just a case of adding layers of colour. I started really orange chedder colour and burnt umber, then brought out the yellows and white hightlights.
I made the pepperoni with the same technique, using a pallete of pinks and oranges.

It was a quick job, so I kept it as simple as possible.
The toppings were painted, a wee highlight and glued on.

I think Kevin's happy about his pepperoni passion. :)

The most time consuming part of the make, was waiting for paint to dry. After I rollered a good couple of layers on, I sprayeda fine water mist onto it to make the colours blend and it took a while to dry, but I got it done in a day!