Skeletal Arms
02-Nov-07
I was asked many times during the parade how I make the arms move. People kept looking for puppet strings. There are no strings, the arm pivots up at the shoulder joint when I pull down on a wire attached to the top of the arm. The elbow, wrist and finger joints are made springy using heavy piano wire. The harness rests on my shoulders and is cut from sheet metal padded with a covering of black duct tape. No straps are needed, it is good to be able to get in and out of costumes quickly.
The arms are relatively light weight, and are padded especially well at the fingertips. It would be easy enough to hit someone in the face, especially in the crowded pre-parade participant cattle pen. Also for safety, this time mine, the shoulder joints are designed to come off and not drag me with them if they get grabbed by something or someone dangerous.
The feet were attached to my black sneakers with elastic. The one on the right still has the litter it gathered from the parade route stuck to it.
More how-to, when I get around to it.
This is what I looked like last year. This year I did a gruesome drooling bloody mouth effect, that probably overshadowed the skeletal effect. 
I’ve yet to find a photo of me from the parade on Flickr. Though I was stopped innumerable times to pose. If you know of any photos or video of me, please let me know.
