HAPPY HALLOWEEN and Year 12 Dress Up Day - Jack Skellington costume (with apologies to Tim Burton)

I've decided to post a personal creative project for a change.  From the time my son was 3 years old he was intrigued by all things spooky and we embarked on our first papier mache project together, creating a big black spider pinyata for his birthday.  This collaborative tradition continued until he was 8 or 9.  He is now 18 years old and about to embark on his final year exams.  We have collaborated again on his Year 12 Dress Up Day costume, based on the wonderful character of Jack Skellington from Tim Burton's "A Nightmare Before Christmas" (which we watched together many times, from when he was only four).  I've documented the project which might be inspiring to some other parents ...

flour and water make the glue and shiny newspaper strips build the form

Rory drew Jack's face on the balloon and we built the 

papier mache around the eyes mouth and nose

first layer of paper and glue

2nd layer of paper and glue - we did 3 newspaper layers

and then one layer of tissue later

Drawing on the pin-stripes (we bought a pin-striped suit from the 

opportunity shop and he added to the existing stripes with a 

white fabric pen, to give it a sense of the original cartoon character)

Rory drew the bat bow-tie onto stiff cardboard and I

glued black fabric to it (using spray adhesive on both

sides) and then stitched the edges on the sewing machine

the wings and the face were attached/sewn to a dress-up bow tie 

after the newspaper layers were dry we added 'Das'

(commercial papier mache which looks like clay and

drys in the air), to build the 3d form of eyebrows,

nose and teeth - giving expression to the character of Jack

once the Das was dry we put a layer of white tissue paper

over the whole form (to help hold the Das in place)

and then painted it white with acrylic paint

Rory then busted the balloon, drew the black lines on the mouth 

and I added black stocking fabric to the eyes and nose -

I cut the shapes and then used pva glue around the edges

of the fabric and glued them to the inside of the mask

we bought white cotton cleaning gloves from the

supermarket and Rory used black texta to create

the bones of the hands and wrists - looking pretty 

scarey now!!

and here is the finished artwork - happy Halloween!