How to Make a Afro Samurai: "Kuma" Costume

- This costume is difficult to see or hear inside, due to the helmet.
- I built this costume in a very big hurry, so maybe 2-3 days.

Materials:

-Large yoga ball
-two clear juice containers (eyes)
-chicken wire for snout
-black craft foam
-white spandex lycra
-news paper
-brown and light brown paint
-glue
-high density foam (EVA foam)
-swords
-plywood
-string
-light brown yarn

so first we need a bear head. Begin by making a mixture of glue and water. (more glue than water.. maybe a 2:1 ratio?).. we’re basically gonna paper mache the yoga ball. I balanced it on a gigantic mug i had. Rip the strips of newspaper and dip into the concoction. completely cover the ball.

Make sure the release tab is on the bottom so you can eventually take it out, deflate the ball, and carefully remove it. No need to cover the bottom, as you need to remove the tab, and your head will go there. i made about 5-6 layers.. (but if i ever do this again, i will use more layers for support)


* because my place was super humid, i had to use a hair dryer to get it hard. i finally got fed up with continuously heating the thing up, so i ended up buying some modge podge hardener

From there, i cut out some ears from the EVA foam, glued them on, and then gessoed (primer) the whole thing

Then, i made the snout by taking some chicken wire and molded it into a cylinder. i made a “cap” for it, which functioned as the front. then i took the brown yarn and slowly started weaving it onto the snout, with the intentions that I would be able to breath. cut out a triangle from the craft foam for a nose.

i cut out a hole for the mouth and glued the snout on.

*as a side item if you want to get fancy, i bought a snake camera (as it is almost impossible to see in the helmet) and i was planning on attaching it through to the nose of the helmet. the snake camera attaches to a screen inside the helmet where you can see a little better. 

i cut off the tops of the juice containers (apple juice to be exact), and then stretched the white spandex over the tops of them (you can see if the spandex is stretched enough). i used a sharpie to color in the pupils

i just got some plywood and cut them to the size of my feet. i got these long pieces of wood and cut them to the width of the sandal.

i glued the small pieces to the bottom, and then drilled a hole for the string.

*These were really difficult and uncomfortable to walk in. If i did it again, i'd perhaps consider trying to find an alternative to the show string.. Perhaps something flatter and wider so that it didn't dig into your feet. Also, consider putting some craft foam on the bottom side for traction. i was sliding all over the place that day.