Halloween 2004 - I was a glowing stick figure
Sunday, October 31st, 2004
I dressed up as a ’stick figure’ for Halloween 2004. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, but I’m a little annoyed by the amount of violence and gore in many of the costumes today. I’ve always considered Halloween to be a fantasy holiday– dress up as something fun.
The inspiration for this costume hit me at Burning Man a few years ago. Many of the participants at BM like to appear real bad-ass– wearing spikes, acting it up, designing machines to tear things up, etc. That’s all well and good, but some of it can get tiring real quick. there’s also a small, but growing movement which isn’t all about attitude. Fun things. Rainbows, kid’s camp, solar camp– much more my style. I like fun.
I purchased some Electroluminescent Wire, a dozen connectors, one battery pack and a ‘Fish Driver’ from Cool Neon in Oakland, California (Friendly people, hard working, I was an early customer back in 1999).
This was Version 1– quick and dirty. I spent 8 frantic hours designing and making the whole thing in time for the trick or treators, and had to decorate the house at the same time. Next year, it’ll be better!
Right now I am working on attaching the wire to my clothing sewing some see-through plastic to the clothing (from the costume store), and will separate the wire into body segments so that I can attach the legs separately from the torso and head. I’m also designing a big happy face for the head, but stringing the eyes, a nose and a mouth is actually quite complex, and I’m not quite sure how to attach the thing to my head.
