From CosplayWiki

Contents 1 How to make Wings 1.1 Materials 1.2 Tools 1.3 Procedure 1.3.1 Wings 1.3.2 Harness 1.3.3 Feathered Wings

How to make Wings

Materials

• Foam core
• Acrylic paint

Tools

Procedure

Wings

I've drawn up some schematics on what I've done as well, though they're not the greatest...I'll be posting better quality schematics and pictures as I get to them.

This is a picture of the Clover wings I made, in their full extention. I went for a purely mechanical look...based exactly off the book. The important thing to get a moving set of wings is that they be very lightly constructed, hence my materials are all wood and foam core.

To get the "feathers" to look right pattern-wise(and this is something you can do at home if you want a specific shape of ANYTHING large), I painted in acrylic on a clear plastic sheet, then showed a flashlight through it up onto a large peice of paper taped on my wall. I drew out what I saw, and then used the drawings as patterns to cut the wing out of foam core. Nice stuff, foam core. ^^ You can get it in very huge sheets at Hobby Lobby for around 7 dollars for a sheet about 4ft by 5ft.

But enough of showing the final product...you're interested in the design. ^^ Take a good look at this link, however...it'll make the drawings make a lot more sense.

The frame of the wing was constructed out of a thin, durable type of wood. I believe it was 3-ply, but I could be wrong. At any rate, you can find these at most hardware stores, but lumber places are the best. You'll have more than enough for 4 sets of wings for less than 6 dollars.

I cut out two large curves and three smaller circlets. After I cut the last small circlet, I lined up the "spindles" as I wanted them. These were made out of the inner workings of an old umbrella. ^^ I marked out their placement on the small cirlet, then cut along the markings. This was so they could be very well wedged into the middle of the three circlets. (see far right) The top spindle was stationary, as the wing itself didn't need it to move. The others, however, were quite movable, but only from their pivot points. (lower left)

The upper left is a direct side view of how the mechanism worked. If you look in the real picture above, you can see a black rod that extends from the small circlet to outside of the larger one, which the biggest feather is attatched to. That held the feather, and provided its pivot point. Hence, when we pulled down on the top of the feather, the rest of the feather went up. It was attatched to all the smaller feathers by fishing line... and the smaller feathers were attatched to the spindles...so when the big feather went up, it made the whole wing look like it was moving up.

There are two pulleys used in this mechanism. They're not hard to find at a hardware store...look for screen door sliders.

The bolts that hold this all together are pictured above. My father called them "Chicago screws" but it is likely(especially in Chicago) that they have another name entirely. (If you show the people at the hardware store a picture, they should know what you're talking about.) These screws most often hold my wings to my wing harness, because they're easy to get on and off, and they hold EXTREMELY well. It makes for easier travel if you can disasemble the wing.

Harness

This is the back peice that I used to hold my wings on me...this applies to both sets. The materials I used in mine we had lying around..though I wouldn't suppose most people to just have these, I'll explain what we did anyhow. We cut a peice out of a plastic barell, and fitted two leather straps to it that went around the arms and snapped onto the back. We welded two peices of metal together at about a 60-90 degree angle (depending on how you want your wings to sit) and then cut slits in the plastic which the metal went through. Two holes in the metal allowed the wooden frames to easily attatch on with the chicago screws once we got to the con. ^^

Feathered Wings

Now I'll talk about feathered wings.

Theres a lot to be said in this area. Of course, you could just go out and buy a pair from the local costume shop.... but...this brings about the tombstone complex. (How most bought wings look like halves of tombstones with feathers glued onto them.) This, I believe, is really unatractive.

The worst fate that people who create their own wings go through is -not- understanding wing structure. I'd REALLY suggest going out and getting a book on birds before attempting feathered wings. However, for those who are just here for the basics, I sketched up some pictures of how wings ought to look. (sort of)

Also, another really important part in wings...is the feathers! You will find every kind of feather in every color that you could possibly need here: http://www.rainbowfeatherco.com/index.html

Now that that is taken care of...here's a set I made for Otakon, 2003 - see feathered wing schematics to the right:

This is pretty much the gist of it. It was a lot of work, but...overall it was very simple. Oh, and the feather designations are as follows, since I forgot to write them in (see feathered Wings Schematics:
1. Wing Rounds
2. Plumage
3. Flats

These are the kinds to order from the above website, though I've found the plumage to be kind of useless overall.

Basically, I strung long sets of Wing Rounds together, and then set them up in a wing shape. My frame was a really basic kind of curve, to which I drilled holes in every few inches, then stuck wires into. The wires held up the strings of wing rounds, and provided my basic wing shape.

I glued sets of flats together(usually three, though it depended how they were needed), and glued them to the wires. This would both disguise the wires, and provide the wing with its feathered wing look.

The frame and basic moving structures I covered with rabbit fur, which gave a very fluffy look, and which I would use again. However, I've seen fur stuff at walmart that is more feathery looking, so if you can find that, all the power to you. It is the same fluff that I used on my Kilik costume, and looks VERY lovely.

PLEASE, LOOK AT THIS NEXT DESIGN BEFORE RUNNING OFF TO MAKE ONE. I and several other people have made this critical mechanics mistake when constructing moving wings...it DOES NOT WORK:

The reason for this is that your wire will NOT have any vector pulling in the direction that you want the wing to go(namely, up). You need to have the upwards motion worked into the design somehow.