Work Progressing On The Weeping Angel Wings!

The last two days have been devoted to the wings for the Weeping Angel costume. I'm trying to make them early-on, so I'll have time to fix mistakes. Meanwhile, they are making an unholy mess of my living room, there are bits of foamcore & craft foam everywhere!

Designing the pattern, I drew it out on paper first. Spent a lot of time squinting at pictures of the Angels' wings to get an idea of what they looked like, then just used a small dish for a circle shape and freehanded it on newspaper...

In detail...

I had to size them to fit the kid. The core of the wings will be made of foamcore, I got one of those tri-fold school science project boards and cut it up. The fold works nicely as a hinge, so each wing will have a double thickness. I'll glue fabric (so the glue holding the wire to the foamcore has something to grip) to chicken wire, then sandwich that between the fold in each wing core. I'll make her a harness of backpack strapping & buckles, and attach that to the wings so she can wear them. 

Then I cut individual feathers out of the thin craft foam, and used a dull pencil to mark & score the feather details so they'll have a 'carved' look. I also cut some chunks out of some feathers here and there to match the ones on the show. I made the feathers various lengths, the ones that will line the long edge of each wing have a bit of a curve to them as well.

These I've since painted gray, using the rag-on technique so they aren't one uniform color.

 

The smaller feathers at the top are a little different:

Then they got their first coat of gray tempera paint, ragged on with a paper towel. The tempera works well since it gives a nice, flat look. After the gray dried I brushed some black paint into the grooves, then wiped most of it away, leaving some in the grooves. When I did this it also helped the look of aged stone with the black 'running' down the feathers.

After that dried, it was time for the finer detail. I put a few drops of black and white tempera paint on a paper plate, and used a round brush to 'pounch' it onto the feathers, using a paper towl to help blend. After that dried, I mixed a drop of 'Iron Oxide' color paint into some water, then applied a few drops at the top of the feather, allowing it to run down.

Here's how the feathers looked after the final coats of paint:

After this dries, I'll apply a thick, uneven coat of matte Mod Podge for texture--the finished wings need to look like stone, without weighing as much as stone!

They are looking pretty good so far...but they really ARE taking over the living room, darned things are everywhere! I got some fabric stiffener for the dress, that should help the 'stone' look along nicely. I'll have to brush some of the same paint layers onto her dress and onto the gray tights that she'll be wearing on her arms & legs, so that everything matches.

This is an interesting project so far, because I've never done anything like it before and I'm just kind of winging it (ha) and putting my trust in paint--!