Creating Edward Scissorhands

It has been a while since I've worked up an instructable. My daughter *really* wanted to be Edward Scissorhands this year, so we documented the process. This costume was a lot of fun, and integrated a lot of different things, which provided quite an opportunity to learn!

Materials Breakdown

Scissors

• Clay
• Smooth-On Rebound 25
• Smooth-On SmoothCast 65D
• Foam board
• Hot glue
• Elastic cord
• Metal crimp ends
• Masking tape
• Acrylic paint - black, and silver
• Rub 'n Buff - Silver leaf

Clothing

• Edward Scissorhands wig (found on Amazon)
• Random black boots
• Random black pants
• Random black turtleneck
• Leather
• Metal hoops
• Snaps/Rivets/etc.
• Black thread

Makeup

• Kryolan Aquacolor Liquid - White, Black, Blue
• Ben Nye LiquiSet
• Black cream eyeliner
• Smooth-On Skin Tite
• Airbrush

An obvious problem with this costume is, of course, the scissors. Not a great idea for adults to be running around with metal scissors attached to their hands; even less so for kids! So how do you make ones that are safe, and also not weigh a ton? Cast them in flexible plastic!

In the movie, Edward's scissors are pretty unique, but for this costume, we opted to make them all standard scissors. I found some suitable ones that had a good look to them, and would be good for casting. These are the all metal type, with handles that are just painted black, rather than a formed plastic.

To start, I took two pairs of scissors, and made one slightly open, and the other fully closed. Any gaps or holes were filled in with an oil-based clay. I smoothed out some white, water-based clay (sulfur free!), and carved out some slight recesses in the shape of the scissors. The goal here was to have each of them embedded about 1/2 way in the clay. This was done by carefully smoothing around them, to make there was a nice sharp angle between the edges, and the clay. A small, wet paintbrush was used for final smoothing and cleanup. Once that was all set, some straws were used to create channels for pouring in the resin, as well as air escape. I found later I needed more air channels.

The clay was then trimmed up, and I used the end of a Sharpie marker to put in some registration keys. Then cut pieces of foam board to run around the clay, and held together with hot glue. Everything was sprayed with Ease Release 200, and the first half of the mold was poured, using Rebound 25, and allowed to cure over night.

The next step was to remove the foam board walls, turn it over, and carefully remove the clay, without pulling the scissors from the top half of the mold. Once this was done, a wet paintbrush was used to remove any remaining clay residue, and everything was allowed to dry.

The walls were put back in place, and then everything coated very well with Ease Release 200, so the second half of the mold wouldn't stick to the first. The second half was poured, and again allowed to cure over night.

Finally, the mold was opened up, and washed thoroughly, to remove any clay, etc. The two mold halves were clamped between boards, to give the assembly some rigidity. The scissors were then cast using SmoothCast 65D. This material was chosen because it has a little bit of flex to it, adding to the overall safety of the pieces.

After being demolded, they were cleaned up with a Dremel, and sandpaper. Also, a hole was drilled through the pivot point rivet. This will serve as the finger attachment point. We test fit the pieces, and found that part of the handles needed to be cut off, in order to to preserve some finger movement, as well as just make things overall more comfortable.

White scissors weren't going to fly, so they needed to be painted.

They first got a coat of primer, and then the handles, and a recessed areas were airbrushed black. Once that dried, the handles were dry brushed with silver, emphasizing the points where the handles were cut. Finally, the handles were masked, following mainly the original paint lines, and the blades were coated with silver leaf Rub n Buff.

To keep the scissors in place, an elastic cord was run through the previously drilled hole, and then crimped in place.

The result? A bunch of scissor "rings". All in all, I think 10 of them together weigh just about as much as one of the real metal version. Probably less.

Edward's clothing is pretty complex, so we simplified it quite a bit, sticking to just some of the primary forms.

I didn't really document this process, as there wasn't much too it. I got some black leather, and cut several long 1" strips, and one 2" strip. Then I attached them to metal hoops, using crimp on snaps. The 2" strip used the biggest loop, and was intended as a belt. This one also had studs placed around, every few inches.

The smaller loops were then sewn on to the black turtleneck, spacing them out, and holding them in place.

Only the belt had snaps on both sides of the leather strip. All the others just had a single snap, and then were held in place on the other side by just wrapping them around themselves. This allowed for some size adjustment, and possible re-use in the future, without having to get all fancy with other adjustable options.

I did a few trials of the scars ahead of time, but still had a little trouble with them. I used Smooth-On's Skin Tite; a skin-safe rubber, which is a 2-part mix, plus pigment. It goes on, and builds up really easy, but I need to learn how to feather out the edges. You only get 3 minutes, once you mix it, so can only do a few at a time. This stuff is really awesome though-- doesn't require adhesive, moves with your skin just like the real thing, easily stays put, yet comes right off when you're done. The scars were applied with a blunt toothpick.

NOTE ABOUT AIRBRUSHING MAKEUP: Remember, you are working with compressed air, and it can be dangerous. When working on the face, PSI should be, 15 or less!

The Aqua Color makeup was mixed approximately 80:20 with Ben Nye Liquiset, to make it a good, airbrushable consistency.

We were scrambling to get done, and didn't put on a foundation coat, so the un-feathered edges are pretty noticeable. But, his scars in the movie were a little hokey looking too. The "white" is a mixture of white, and a little bit of blue, and airbrushed on.

Thanks to practicing a few times, we got the eyes pretty close. Still a little heavy-handed with the black, but mostly because I kept going from side to side, trying to make them match.

Cheeks are given just a little depth. The airbrush was really awesome for this.

Black cream eyeliner for the lips.

Finally, add a wig, and put on the leather straps, and scissors. Done!