2011.03.06
Electric Cowboy
Previously, I mentioned I was working on a costume for Sasquatch 2011. The items I mail ordered arrived in the mail on Monday, and I set about constructing the costume this weekend.
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I’m quite happy with the results.
The hat is a cheap straw cowboy hat I bought at Lammle’s on sale, and I used a little over 13 feet of yellow electroluminescent (EL) wire. I diagrammed out how I wanted to run the wire, punched a couple of holes in the hat, then ran the wire, using liberal amounts of hot glue as I went.
The belt is a cheap western-style belt, also bought at Lammle’s on sale. The buckle was bought from an online store in Montreal called Canada Buckles (no sense ruining an expensive buckle), and I used just under 8 feet of orange EL wire in total. The belt proved trickier than the hat, because the wire added to the belt’s stiffness when I tried to put it on for the first time, and the hot glue didn’t bond as well to the leather as it did to the wire. Also, I had to leave a bit of flex where the wire circled the buckle.
In the end, I wound up using crazy glue on a few key points of the belt to make sure the wire stayed put, more or less, although the bulk is still held on by hot glue.
A 4-foot lead wire is attached to the hat, and runs down my back and under my shirt. The Belt has 2 feet of lead wire that can be tucked under the belt and run to just above my right back pocket where I clip the driver for the EL wire. The hat’s lead wire is also attached to this same driver, keeping most of the lead wire under my shirt.
I shopped around a bit for EL wire suppliers, eventually ordering everything from ELWirePros as they seemed the most responsive to my inquiries and didn’t try to rip me off with shipping charges.
I’m already planning on adding to this costume over time, but I think this is a good start. And it’ll be easy to find me at Sasquatch this year. Well, after dark, anyways.
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