2009.10.19
C-H-I-C-K-E-N
C, is the way to begin
And H, is the second letter in
And I, is in the middle of the word
And C, you have already heard
And K, we are nearing the end
And E, we are rounding the bend
C-H-I-C-K-E-N
That’s the way we spell chicken.
Yes, that’s me in my Halloween costume. The original inspiration for the costume came from last Halloween. My friend Jeff was a chicken, and I was Colonel Sanders. My wig was more Andy Warhol than Colonel Sanders, so I thought I would go as Andy Warhol this year.
Somewhere along the way I thought I would go as Andy Warhol parodying both himself and his art, and I thought I would dress as Andy Warhol and wear a Warhol-esque soup can.
The soup can took on a life of its own once I sat down with Photoshop. Printing costs proved rather prohibitive, and I settled on a simpler costume: chicken soup, where I could re-use the chicken costume Jeff wore last year.
There is still a subtle bit of Warhol in the costume on the soup can label, but otherwise the costume turned out to be pretty much completely different than my original idea.
For the curious:
Dimensions: 30″ tall, 22.75″ diameter (71.5″ circumference)
Materials: label – vinyl; frame - 3/4″ PVC underground sprinkler riser tubing; suspenders: butcher twine
Construction: I had the label done at a print shop, providing them with the artwork. Once I had that, I cut two pieces of the rubing to length and formed two rings, wrapping the label around them and taping it in roughly place as I went with packing tape. I then secured the seam with some packing tape, again only roughly. Finally, I attached 2 pieces of twine to form suspenders. After this, I replaced my rough tape job with a lot of tape, taping both the top and bottom completely securely, and cutting slits so the twine didn’t lift the tape.
The entire assembly is very light and comfortable to wear, and butcher twine is more than sufficient to hold it up.
The only warning I have for those who might want to attempt something similar is to shop around before you get this printed. A lot of print shops quoted me prices well in excess of $150. If you have access to the equipment, you could try using a 36″-wide ink-jet plotter or silk screening the artwork in sections onto light fabric or vinyl.
Needless to say I had a lot of fun building the costume this year.
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