I've never dipped my proverbial toe into the world of prosthetics, so the first order of business was to do some research. How are they made? Are there multiple techniques? And can I do any of them at home, on a grad student budget?
Well, most of your professional grade prosthetics are made from latex, molded to the shape of the wearer's ears and kept on with special adhesives and whatnot. This is definitely the most natural looking option, though due to a combination of the skills required to make them and the supplies I'd need, it was out of the question for me. I also saw lots of stylized, wire ears. These aren't meant to look realistic at all, just pretty. That was more in my skillset, since I have some experience with wirework from jewelry, but it wasn't quite the look I wanted. So I turned to the third option: clip-ons.
This class of ear prosthetics differs from the professional variety in that they're not meant to fit perfectly over the wearer's ear, leaving no seam. Instead, they clip over the ear like a cuff, or onto the hair, and are worn that way. They might be made of silicone, latex, even fabric or cardboard. Because they don't require precise fitting, I felt like this type of ear was doable. I planned to wear a wig that would hide the clips (and my actual ears) anyway, so a bit of disconnect wasn't an issue. After fiddling around with techniques for a bit, I came up with an inexpensive, easy pair of ears to DIY for my costume!
Because this is a construction method I came up with myself (only very loosely inspired by things I saw online), I'll do my best to provide a tutorial that you can follow along with yourself. Assuming you already have a hot glue gun and some spare paint lying around, you can make a few pairs of these ears in a few days for under $4. So go forth, and make yourself some ears!
Speaking of supplies, here's what you'll need:
- One 12" x 18" sheet of craft foam, preferably in something close to your skin tone
- Acrylic paint, in your skin tone
- Two pairs of clip-on earring backs (note: it might be possible to use regular post earring backs if you have piercings in the right places, but as I don't have pierced ears, I couldn't test that out)
- Hot glue
- Regular craft glue
- Scissors
First, in order to make your ears, you need to know what shape your ears will be. Take a piece of paper and draw out your ideal ear, making sure that the base of the ear (the part closest to your head) is just about as tall as your actual ear. This project works best with the large, exaggerated ears. In order to get a more realistic shape, you can plan out a few layers of depth in your drawing. Ears have an outer rim that give them a cupped shape, and then they funnel in towards the head. In my drawing below, I've labeled the three layers that I'm going to use with numbers. Each layer will have its own piece of foam.
Now, use your paper pattern to cut out your foam. If you want two ears, don't forget to cut each layer out twice! Here you can see the three layers I've made, showing the differences in depth. The outer rim is most raised, and the inner part near the head is the deepest. Notice also that I put a slight curve in the foam at the base of the ear. This is to match the curve of my head, when I put the fake ear behind my real ear (like where you hand goes when you cup your ear to hear better). The better your foam ear fits into this groove, the better it will stay on overall.
Now, glue your pieces together and let them dry completely. I used regular craft glue for this, but you could try hot glue if you're in a hurry. Just make sure it doesn't ooze out of the seams too much.
All right, it's looking like an ear! If you want things to look a little less boxy, you can take a pair of scissors and round out the edges of the ears.
Now, here comes the hard part. In order to get these things to stay on, we're going to use clip-on earring backs, two for each ear. The first will clip onto the earlobe, in the same place as most vanilla ear piercings are. The second will clip to the very top of the ear (this is why it's important that your foam ear is the same height as your actual ear). Put a dab of hot glue onto the back of the foam ear and place your earring backs and the bottom and top of the ear, orienting them so that they will clip over both the foam ear and your actual ear, sandwiching them between the two pars of the earring. Look at the pictures for help. Once the glue is dry, check to see that the earring backs are actually in the right position to clip onto your ear. It may take several tries. Fortunately, you can easily pop the earring backs out of the glue, re-melt it with the nozzle of the glue gun, and try again. When you're satisfied with the positioning, put another dab of hot glue onto the earring back to keep it from coming off. (Please ignore that I already painted these, you're going to want to save the painting until the end. I just forgot to photograph the next few steps before painting.)
(This view is of the back of the ear. Note the hot glue keeping the earring back in place)
(And here's a front view. The earring back clips over the edge of the ear.)
(When worn, the earring backs clip over both the foam ear and your real ear, pinning the two together. If you spend time positioning them right, this can be quite a sturdy arrangement!)
The ears are now perfectly functional. But if you're like me, you couldn't find any foam that really matched your skin tone. Fortunately, foam is paintable! Grab one or more acrylic paints that match your skin, mix them together if needed, and give your foam ears a few coats of paint! Since the foam is porous, you'll need multiple coats: 3 should do the trick. Then let them dry completely (unless you want paint in your hair), and you're done!
I have to say, I'm pretty proud of these. For a first time prosthetic-maker, I think they turned out well! They're not the most comfortable things in the world to wear (if you've ever worn clip-on earrings, you know the feeling), and they're not quite sturdy enough to survive something like a LARP session, but they certainly stay on well enough to walk around a convention! And if you have a wig or long hair to hide the hardware, they actually look pretty convincing from a distance! I'm seriously considering getting another sheet of foam and making myself a whole set of wacky-shaped ears. Who knows, maybe I'll use them for next Halloween!
With this project in the bag, I inch ever closer to the completing of the Taako look. If you're interested in seeing more of that, stay tuned, and stay crafty!
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