Caterpillar Costume

As costume designer for St. Olaf's production of "Lobster Alice" written by Kira Obolensky, I designed a caterpillar costume for a dream scene. Along with a green jumpsuit covered in flashy stripes and furry arms, the caterpillar needed a big bobbly head. I created the shape with a couple big mixing bowls taped together and two small blown-up balloons to create the eyes. After the paper-mache dried, I cut a large hole for the actor's head. Since the inside of the 'hat' was quite large, we had to fill it with foam to secure it to the actor's head.



I love working from the big picture dream into the details to make it reality. Along the way, you discover new ideas and additions that make it better than your first impression. In this particular project, my supervisor and I were looking at the painted head, and thinking it was missing something. Together, we decided to incorporate fabrics from the jumpsuit into the head, which really tied the whole costume together!