Making a Roman Soldier Costume

cThis is not really an art- or creativity-related thing but I'd like to share on my blog just because I am so proud that Chen Chen and I did something amazing during this holiday...

Chen Chen and I are two of the young people who took part in playing the skit for the family meeting on Easter Monday in my church. The skit is telling the story of Jesus's resurrection, and the roles we are taking are the two Roman guards standing outside Jesus' tomb after His death and flee after finding out the loss of Jesus' body.
We spent more than 7 hours each making our costumes at the church on the Good Friday. It was a long process and it  is very fun and even fascinating, when the recycling boxes are turning into soldier uniform, and then I can't stop myself working on it.
Almost everything is according to an instruction on a web link, so I can't say there is creative activity. After all, it really helps me learn stuff like crafts and working with my stupid hands.

(Thanks to the girls who took all the pictures:).)
 Chen Chen and I in costumes ;) 
(Two Asian Warriors in Roman Soldier Costume!)


1. Materials and tools

- Lots of cardboard boxes (I don't know how many boxes we used because Shirley or Chen Chen'd got the board in advance, but we used them for a lot of large areas)
- Cutting materials (i.e. knives, scissors, and cutting boards...)
- Hot Glue/Glue gun (for all the joints on the cardboard), and some tape (for the belt part)
- Silver paints
- Brooms (for the crests on the top of the helmets)
- Belt (for the skirt)
- Plastic swords
- Red shirts
- Sandals


2. Helmets
I'm not teaching you how to make the costume, so I won't explain every single step in details. I have some pictures to show you how I made them.
The broom is the hardest part for me to put onto the helmet stably. I kinda screwed up my design but eventually I figure it out with the help from Shirley.

 2. Body Armour
This is the biggest part of the costume, made of almost the entire a box, front, back and two sides.
Also we made an awesome shield for the chest.

3. Soldier's Skirt
It's a lot of work of of cutting and pasting. I'm glad Lucy helped us:). 
Everything should be connect with hot glue and "anything else is a waste of time", however, we tape the strips to the belt. That's why one of them fell off right before the performance, which really took me aback.


Almost done~ Let's relax and have a dance. 
Picture Time!

4. Texture
Using hot glue, convenient and dried very quickly.
Random patterns...

4. Paint it all over with silver paint!
It might be the most exciting part, though I didn't make it myself, because it is turning cardboard into metal.
And they are SILVER and SHINY!
The texture is still clearly seen after being painted. I don't have a word from my vocabulary to describe this coolest thing I've done.

(reference: Instructable-Halloween Custume-Roman-esque soldier uniform - from cardboard! by larenmoer)



More looks  our lovely costumes!
"We look so buff!" (saying in an ironic way)

Pictures from the play :)
Stand Guard...




"My God is not dead
 He's surely alive
He's living on the inside
Roaring like a lion"


Friday: Children's Night :D
We sing
and we do puppet show

We make beautiful hats from recycling materials.

We do face-painting on each other=)

We knit sleeping mat for the homeless in Haiti.


It is how cool we CITYouth are:).
I'm so proud that we've all got talents and we always work together towards one goal, JESUS!

I'm one of the talents, and I do art.

3 comments:

  1. Awesome post Chao Ying! What terrific costumes, fabulous skit & wonderful weekend! -Shirley

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  2. Sorry, it was me. I forgot to log in before commenting. Anyway, briliant!

    ReplyDelete