In a previous post, I shared a few different ideas and directions for my Halloween costume. After a lot of consideration, I’ve decided on a direction!
I really want to challenge my making skills with this costume while also being reasonable about what I feel I can push myself to accomplish in this time frame.
I’ve landed on the concept of a Fallen Angel, using a red and black color theme. I’ll be creating a winged headpiece using armature and red feathers, which will have embedded LEDs that glow red in slow-pulses. I want this headpiece to be beautiful and wearable, and the overall feeling of the costume to be dramatic, ethereal, and otherworldly.
For the rest of the costume, I’ll wear an extra long red velvet cape with a black lining, and all black underneath (black wool sweater, black pants, black boots). (Note: I will not wear this cape with the hood up, I’m aware that wont work). I debated going all red (which I think would have looked higher quality but would have been way more expensive because I don’t own any red clothes or red shoes) so I’m staying budget conscious. The red and black cape I ordered also has the added benefit of being 2 layers so it will be slightly warmer 🙂
My stretch goal will be to create a jeweled veil using Swarovski crystals which will bounce the LED light glow from the wings, but this will depend on timing.
Arduino Techniques
I’m creating a circuit that uses a physiological input, specifically my pulse, to pace the glow strength of the LEDs. I think that could have a kind of animalistic/creature-y vibe.
I’ve ordered this product which has an ear attachment, which will be perfect for this given the location of the headpiece. It’s en route.
I’m going to test against my heart-rate to determine what the pace of the cycle cycle (light dim to light high) should be (eg 8 beats per cycle, or 2 beats per cycle).
Update:
I’ve throw in the towel on the pulse sensor and am going with a pre-programmed glow cycle which has the desired effect. The pulse sensor was not working despite a lot of debugging and I had to move forward with my soldering.
Progress Photos
Here are some images of my process!
I made the headpiece armature from galvanized steel…
…wrapped it in felt…
…wrapped the felt in the LED strand…
…checked light placement and tested the code to optimize it…
…started applying feathers…
…soldered my lights to my GEMMA M0…
… added velcro to close the collar…
… and finished adding the feathers!
Materials and Parts
Wings:
- Natural feathers of different shapes and textures
- wire (for the armature)
- solder
- felt to wrap the armature
- hot glue (will experiment)
Circuit:
- stranded wire
- micro-controller (Gemma M0)
- Neopixel Strand
- battery pack
- solder/tin
- hot glue for strain relief
- heat shrink proofing
Veil: didn’t get to it unfortunately!
- red swarovski crystals
- fishnet stockings
- beading thread
Circuit diagram
Here’s my circuit drawing — its a WIP because I am not sure how to connect to ports that are already in use… solder it together? Let’s chat lol.
Done:
- construct circuit
- write code
- construct wing armature
- wrap armature in felt
- wrap LEDs
- cover with feathers 🙂
To Do:
- just need to iron my cape 🙂
for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
System.out.println("Great Job Monty!!! I am super excited for how this turns out. Have you thought about how the headpiece will stay up on your head with the weight? Another quick idea can be gluing jewels to a sheer piece of fabric to act as the veil!");
}