Alongside the puppetry, our performance also involves elements of acting so costume pieces had to be made for the performers. Rowan and Daria built the wings for Ariel as she is said to transform into a harpy. Daria built the frame with blocks of wood and screws, allowing the wings to pivot and have some motion, while Rowan used calico to decorate and bring the wings to life. Myself and Ellie were tasked with making the headdresses, myself the headpiece for Ariel and Ellie the headpieces for the jester and monkey. Ellie’s headpieces were primarily constructed with a wire frame and calico, including lights that would shine brightly in the dark. Because I ran into issues completing my headpiece for Ariel, Manuela stepped in and made a quick headpiece to be used as a backup if anything else went wrong.
Because Ariel is a spirit, I knew early on that I wanted to give the headpiece a flame/ghost-like quality to emphasize the whimsy of it all. The original plan was to digitally model the headpiece and 3D print it in a white filament. This would have allowed me to separate it into three lightweight parts that are connected via ball joints with a piece of elastic running down the middle. The lighting test worked really well and it would have produced a wonderful glow but I ran into problems with my printer that I didn’t have the time to solve so I had to completely ditch this idea. Instead, I made the base for the new headpiece with a plastic that can be moulded with heat and covered it in calico with a strip of metal boning up the centre that would hopefully still give some of the movement that I intended. Given the time constraints, I am fairy pleased with the shape of it but I would have preferred to stick to the original plan if I had been able to.