Back in the early '80s, when I first started going to Archon, there were some people who used to enter the Masquerade who made some amazingly clever stuff, usually out of items at hand -- usually put together just days or hours before the show. They used to be collectively known as "The Firehouse Gang". And they often won Best In Show with these things. (A couple of this crew are now special effects artists in Hollywood.) I'd always envied their imagination and ability to improvise. So, I got the notion to attempt to challenge myself and see if I could knock together something in the time I had remaining before the convention.

Having spent a lot of money on essentially one-shot, stage-only costumes in the past, the first thing I determined wass that this would have to be cheap. I eventually put together "The Clam" (above left) out of a few things I'd picked up from estate sales for a few bucks, plus some items we had in the basement. They were: sheets of packing foam, a large paper japanese lantern, an old hoop skirt foundation, fake fur remnants, a couple of nerf-like balls, foam waterpipe insulation and some nylon thread. With just hours to go before competition, the critter was complete.  It had cost me about $20 to build, all told.

"There's Life on Planet Framjazz" didn't win anything, but I was pretty pleased with the results.  The fact that I'd managed to throw something together in a relatively short time gave me a pretty good amount of satisfaction.   The costume did win a prize at a restaurant Halloween contest later, so it did eventually pay for itself -- sort of.