Rey's Scavenger Staff

The final touch for Rey's Jakku look was her scavenger's staff and it was by far, my favorite part.

I hadn't done some good old fashioned prop making for a project of my own in a long while and it was so nice to be back at it. After a quick Google search I had some great resources to work with.

Primarily, I used a shopping list from Instructables user kylegilbert (http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-Reys-Staff-Star-Wars-The-Force-Awakens/), screen shots of the actual prop, and the detail breakdown from Sellfy user Ian Henry( https://sellfy.com/p/f9NU/) to build mine.

As per the Instructables list, I hit Home Depot for showers heads, faucet heads, electrical connectors, wire, and a pipe. I went with a metal pipe for my staff base instead of the PVC used in the Instructables tutorial - it adds weight to the finished prop, but it won't warp over time. 

I started with the end details - first off, the shower heads. Now, I ended up with a slightly different shower head than what the Instructables shopping list called for because, retail. Our local Home Depot didn't have that particular shower head in stock and I wasn't going to pay more for shipping on $1 shower heads than for the product itself, so I settled for an equally cost effective option.

I wasn't able to remove the ball joint from this shower head, so instead I hot glued the ball joint into place and used some air-dry Cloud Clay to sculpt an end cap over the joint. Because Cloud Clay can crack pretty easily (particularly if it's thin or attached to a hard surface), I allowed it to dry before coating it in two thick layers of wood glue to seal it and hot glued it onto the ball joint.

After the shower heads were taken care of, it was just a matter of drilling through the end of the facet heads (very, very carefully - the cheap plastic cracks easily), cutting some fins from wood, and slicing the electrical connectors into two, before it was time for assembly.

I worked from the center of the pipe outwards, starting with just a wrap of craft foam (left from my Elsa Dress bodice) secured with E6000 and electrical tape. This was followed by connector pieces (also E6000ed) and the wire wraps. I did hot glue the ends of the wires down before I wrapped them tight around the pipe, but they were ultimately secured completely with electrical tape. I did detail these a bit wit my leather off cuts on the end (also hot glue and electrical tape).

The larger details, such as the faucet and shower heads went on the both E6000 and hot glue. Contact cement might have served a bit better, but so far, my staff has survived the Academy of Sciences Halloween party, Halloween night, Wizard World Sacramento, and SF Comic Con with only the need for a paint touch up. I tried to keep as many of the details as possible slotted over the pipe itself for stability - anything just glued onto the outside without a tape cover increases the risk of something breaking off. I did have to glue the shower heads at the ends directly onto slotted pieces - I wasn't able to drill into them with my cordless, though I imagine a drill press and a more sophisticated clamp set up than I have in my living room would get the job done. Three small foamie details, a larger Cloud Clay detail, and the wooden fins were also glued straight on with again a combination  E6000 and wood glue, though the fins were also secured with electrical tape.

Once my staff was assembled, it was time for paint. 

I'd never used spray-on Plasti-Dip on a metal surface, so I ran a few tests to check and ultimately, I based my entire staff first with two coats of Rustoleum clean metal primer before three coats of the Plasti-Dip, just to avoid any peeling or cracking. I painted the entire staff with alternating black and rust colored matte spray enamels from Rustoleum. 

The final touch were strips of muslin and brown felt, just hot glued onto the body of the staff, over the large section of foam and small leather straps with d-rings for a shoulder strap (my strap came from my grandmother's sewing stash I inherited - I can't even begin to guess where or when it may have come from).

And that was Rey!

Ultimately, I was really, really pleased with the way this turned out. I still need some formal photos, but it is by far the most comfortable costume I own and I'm so pleased with the way it all looks!