Pump-kin Jack Costume

Brayden Gage Chance does it again! Going on his 5th year in the local mall costume contest he is sure to drop jaws with this year’s costume. Mom Gynelle cherry has had her wits and tricks up her sleeve all year to finally show of her expertise at this year’s costume contest. A couple of card board boxes, paint, adhesive, and other hardware store finds pull together to make a grand entrance of the Grand Pump-kin Jack! Winner! Winner! Chicken dinner! Brayden wins 1st place once again.
To some people who haven’t seen or even heard of a pump jack they would never know what the costume was about. With the raging Texas culture and huge increase and decrease in the oil boom this year I was sure to have found the perfect statement costume of the year. I checked online to insure this costume hasn’t already been made to insure my originality in this year’s costume contest. With a succesful internet search I began making my blueprint for the costume. I started at the original idea of making a simple pump jack. This was not enough to justify my place in the creativity department for the costume. Why have just a plain pump jack costume when you can have an in season original Halloween pump-kin jack! Back to the blue print where I would tie in Halloween aspects in the original pump jack costume. After sketching out the arm of the pump jack I decided to make Brayden’s body the stand of the arm. The jack would make a pumping motion so there needs to be a mounted bearing in the front and back of the pump jack arm to insure pivoting action. Brayden was located in the center of the card board frame of the pumping arm where he would have two handles of his own to control pivoting motion. Attached to the end of the arm was the pump jack weight and bearing box. The weights mimicked the pulley system of a regular jack, and looked like two jack-a-lanterns. After the blueprint was established it was all about trial and error from here on out. Cutting all of the pieces out of card board boxes and gluing what needed to be glued I sprayed color to the pieces and let them dry separately for 24 hours. The next day after the pieces were dry I assembled them all together to make the pump jack arm, with a foam insert inside the center of the arm where it would rest on Brayden’s shoulders, and two pipes glued to the front and back of each side of the arm for handles. After this was dry I placed the arm on Brayden to measer the length needed to make a replicated pulley system for the pump jack weights. With lots of trial and error I finally got the weights to pivot with the pump jack when it pumped up and down. Also To make sure the weights didn’t get stuck on one side of the pulley unit. I made the drill pipe on the opposite side of the arm act as a break so Brayden’s pivoting motion was limited. One dowel rod and a foam block later I finished the pump jack costume for now. I needed a black costume for Brayden to wear so he would resemble the base of the pump jack arm. I found a grim reaper costume at a local store to suit the costume perfectly. Next I needed a mask to tie the costume off. I used a jack-a-lantern porch light cover for this. I cut holes in the plastic and a spot to allow air circulation on the mask. I finally was finished with the costume. After three days and lots of configuring and concentration I pulled off a fantastic representation of a pump-kin jack.