Halloween 2009 - Rise of the Narwhals

This Halloween, Monkey + Seal decided to go as narwhals. "Nar-what?" you might be asking. Well, narwhals are cetaceans (the Order which includes whales, dolphins, and porpoises). They live in the Arctic and have a huge (~2 meters long) tooth that sticks out of its face. Males mostly have the tooth, but some females have it as well. Some narwhals even have a double-extended tooth!

So Monkey wore his costume all day to work, and was often questioned as to what he was dressing up as. This is natural, as he does look pretty silly, and by silly, we mean awesome. Many people assumed he was a unicorn, which is actually pretty coincidental as narwhal teeth were often traded in the olden days as unicorn horns by sly tradesmen who would get more than their weight in gold for them. These teeth were thought to confirm the existence of the mythical unicorn. So, just as the tooth of a narwhal was mistaken for the horn of the unicorn, Monkey's costume of a narwhal was mistaken for a costume of a unicorn.

Monkey created the costume by finding two gray hooded sweatshirts at the local second-hand and thrift stores. He then cut the hoods off but left part of the shoulders intact. This allowed for the tucking under of the hood into a shirt or jacket, which gave it more stability.

The horn was created by a larger cardboard tube and a toilet paper tube that had been crushed and tapered on one end. The two tubes were duct-taped together, then Monkey sewed the cardboard into the hole he had cut on the top of the hood. By cutting tabs into the base of the horn and poking holes with an awl, he was able to created a flanged horn that could be sewn in.

After sewing the horn to the hood, Monkey gessoed the horn and tape, and then painted the spiral pattern with acrylics.

All in all, Monkey and Seal had a great Halloween, and hope that you did as well. If you had a really great costume, we'd love to see it! Email it to us at info (at) monkeyandseal.com and we'll post some up on the end of this post for the world to see!