Horns can look difficult. If you want a basic pair of horns, I’ll show you how I created the pair I used for my Lady Alexstrasza cosplay. There were alterations that were made while I was trying to figure out what to do, so you may have to make adjustments to yours as well. I didn’t photograph a lot, so I don’t have a lot of in progress shots.

MATERIALS

• Foam core
• Hot glue
• Paper mache
• Acrylic paint – black
• Varnish – High gloss

HOW TO

The horn is a set of cylinders, each cut smaller than the previous.

To start, cut a rectangle out of foam core about 3 inches by 4 inches. Create a cyclinder and hot glue the edges together. For each rectangle you cut, make sure the next one is slightly smaller. You will be stacking the smaller cylinders on top of each other until they come to a point. In total, mine was 6 pieces plus a small circle on the top to close it off.

Depending on the direction you need the horn to go, you will need to cut one side of the bottom rectangle with a curved edge. The smaller the curve, the smaller the curve/turn of the horn. Start small because it’s easier to cut off more than to add it back on or you may end up having to cut a brand new piece and start over.

Once the form of the horns were created, I covered them with the paper mache to smooth the edges; this helped fix some of the jaggedness that occurred from the foam edges being joined together. I used Mod Podge (as seen in the photo below) as the glue for the paper mache. There are several types of paper mache glue, but this is what I had on hand at the time. Make sure the previous layer of mache is dry before adding more. The more you add in a setting, the more time it will take for it to dry!

Once the paper mache dried, I sanded any rough edges and painted the paper mache the desired color – black. The jagged texture of the paper mache showed through, because I didn’t put a base coat of anything down such as Gesso or Wood glue.

Once the paint dried, I applied a layer of high gloss varnish. If you don’t want the horns to be extremely shiny, a matte varnish would work just as well.

The finished horn was hollow which allowed me to sew the horn straight into the wig. I didn’t sew tightly so the horns did have some movement. This wasn’t a bad thing in case I hit someone or bumped into something.

The smaller horns were build in the same manner. Just smaller and fewer cylinders.

The gold bands are foam wrapped in fabric. I measured each band by wrapping it around the finished horn where I wanted the band to be and marking where the seam would be. The gems were attached to the gold band using fishing wire glued between the gem and the backing for the gem. Then, the wire was fed through the seam of the gold band and then the fishing wiring was glued to the inside of the band. Once finished, each band was slid over the horn and fit very snuggly.