My Space Dads cosplay, and how I made a sonic toothbrush prop
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For this year's carnival motto at work, "Pyjama Party", I knew immedately what I wanted to do: Discovery pyjamas as seen on Paul Stamets and Hugh Culber in S1 E05 "Choose Your Pain". I already had the DISCO mini delta pin, and finding burgundy-ish pyjamas that were both comfy and work friendly wasn't hard either. Together with Trek socks and black sneakers the outfit was pretty much complete. All that was missing was *that* toothbrush.
Instead of buying the toothbrush they used on screen, like I did, I thought it could be fun to craft it. I do not plan a lot when crafting things. I mostly wing it. So these are not the ulitmate instructions, it's just how I did it.
Making the toothbrush
I took a toilet paper roll and cut it open so that I could roll it into a tighter circumference (ca. 3 cm). I then cut four slits from either side. On the bottom ca. 1/3 up, on the top down to shortly before the bottom cuts. I overlapped the strips so that I got the oval shape of the handle. I used masking tape to hold everything in place.
Then I used newsprint to shape the top part of the toothbrush, stuck it in the handle and secured everything with masking tape. That top part is ca. 11 cm long.
I stuffted the handle with newsprint and, again, used masking tape to close the bottom.
I ripped newsprint in small strips and glued it all around the toothbrush. At first I used home made starch glue (1 part corn starch, 1 part water), but I did not like it. AFter that was dry I put a layer of watercolour ground all around. You can totally skip these two steps and use matte medium, wallpaper paste or similar glue to paste the newsprint strips all around the piece. I used my fingers to smooth everything out as well as possible. My toothbrush does have edges and is not as smooth as the original, but that's ok. I was not striving for an exact replica. I wanted the piece to be recognizable as the toothbrush used by our beloved space dads.
You can add as many layers of newsprint and paste as you like, but keep in mind that the more you add the longer it takes to dry.
I painted the whole thing black by using liquid tempera. You could also use a mix of acrylic paint and matte medium or something similar. Then I added the silver ring and clear bottom with a silver pen.