Light Up Fabric Flame Tutorial! ~ Halloween & Ao no Exorcist / Blue Exorcist Cosplay

Okumura Yukio from Ao no Exorcist / Blue Exorcist - Having a bipolar moment. lol

Is your costume need of some pyrotechnics that are street safe?... or Hair SAFE!!! In the world of CG this can be created in film convincingly but for us mere mortals that dawn our costumes on the street or stage you don't want to be a fire hazard.

I made these flame to be blue but you can get the same effect with shades or red, orange, yellow and white for normal fire. ;)

Tools/Supplies

Mirror Organza in the colours you want. (That shinny fabric that is sheer)

Finger Lights / Finger Lasers (You can get these at to Dollarama in Canada but their basic LED light that have an on of switch that pressure foots the batter into an ON circuit.)

Gator clips for the hair or pocket, or a few safety pins/ broach pin for your clothes.

Scrap clear plastic (I cut mine from the BB gun blister packs)

A Glue Gun

Step 1:

Collect the items and make your base. The Finger Light I used was the white one as they have the brightest glow to them and this flame style has white centre.

The base of the flame I cut the basic tear drop shape out of the plastic blister pack and the base of the shape is bluster packs was the original fold in the box so that it's one solid molded piece. This lip(base) at the bottom will help to steady the led light and the flame fabric to fold around it. The small square cut out hole lines up the Finger Light black strap.

Finger Light, Gator Clip, and plastic base.

Step 2:

Make your core flame. There is little rhyme or reason to the shape, I basically kept folding and plucking the fabric till I got something I liked the from of. I started with a rectangle spice of white Organza. The one thing you will need to do is compress and fold down the base of this core flame so that you can hot glue it to the outside of your plastic base.

Then align the Finger Light into position and pull the black strap through the small square hole. Then open your Gator Clip and slide the top of the clip through the strap. It will hold in place both the clip and the Finger Light. Now test to see if you likr the lighting effect. The LED switch you have to feel through the fabric layers of the flame but it's not hard to turn it on or off this way.

Bottom of centre flame glued the the plastic base securely.

Switched the position of the Finger Light to face down for a better core glow.

Once your happy with the light position use a dot of hot glue to one side of your plastic base on the inside of the structure to tack the top of the flame down into place.

Dot of hot glue at on side to keep the top of the centre flame in place.

Finished core.

Testing light to see how it looks. Flash & no Flash

Step 2:

The outer flame in this case is a light blue. I cut a larger piece of blue Organza and create a dome shape along the top edge.

I then tack glued down the bottom centre of the Organza to the back of the flame.

Then I rolled the outside edge fabric inwards toward the sides of the base and the ends towards the top. You basically only want one layer of Organza to cover the centre of the flame and the rest gathers around the white core to mimic what a flame looks like (darker edges and bright core).

At this point I began to again pluck and push the fabric around until I was happy with the shape. I tacked down with dots of hot glue sections of each side roll along the sides of the plastoc base  so that the pushed section of fabric stayed in place.



Then I again tested the light to see what effect I had before create a new flame.

Testing light to see how it looks. Flash & no Flash

Once finished, your gator clip will be surrounded by the Organza fabric on the side and bottom. But the top of the flame will be left open so when you need to change the battery on your LED finger light you can slide the gator clip off the black strap and slide the LED unit out and back in again. ;)

Also you can use any sort of LED lighting system you want I just these because they were be both cheap and easy. The glow effect for these finger lights are most effective indoors and at night. Ther're not that bright for daylight. ;)

Finish fabric flames in daylight turned off.

Finish fabric flames in daylight turned off.

Okumura Yukio & Rin from Ao no Exorcist / Blue Exorcist - Flame on!

Remember no two flames are the same unless they're burning off the same style wick so have fun with the shapes you create. ;)