Becoming Ash Williams

I think I decided that I was going to be Ash Williams for Halloween this year sometime last year. It’s not unusual for me to keep a running list of all of the characters I might want to transform into come Halloween. The idea hit me while watching the Ash VS Evil Dead series. I was enjoying it so much I decided I needed a piece of the Evil Dead universe myself and become the deadite-fighting-anti-hero: Ash!

The journey to becoming Ash began this summer. While thrifting with my sister-in-law, I scored a light blue GAP branded button up for about $1.50 (the perfect price for a shirt that will soon display the evidence of battling evil).

I took it home (washed it of course!) and smeared with Zombie blood I found at Walmart in the Halloween costume aisle. I also used scissors to cut and shred certain areas around the shirt.

I found some brown pants at a later date in the summer along with a black belt (because I apparently do not own a plain old black belt) to create the rest of my look.

Now it was time for me – the impatient crafter – to figure out how to make a somewhat recognizable chainsaw arm. I cleaned out an empty bottle of Cheer laundry detergent and spray painted it matte black to be the body of my chainsaw.

Once dried, I used a kitchen knife (probably not the safest tool to have used but surprisingly, the top of a cheer bottle cuts away quite easily) to cut out the tiny pouring mechanism to make a hole large enough for my hand to fit into.

Next, I cut out the shape of my chainsaw blade from some foam board I had leftover from past projects.

I wrapped it in aluminum foil (it’s difficult to keep from being rough and bumpy so silver spray paint might’ve been a better choice).

I drew the details of the chainsaw teeth with a sharpie.

And then, used acrylic paint to splatter blood on the blade.

To give my chainsaw that iconic red look as seen in the movie, I painted over the dry matte spray paint with red acrylic paint.

Now when it comes to my shotgun harness, I can’t take too much credit – or any at all. My husband made that entire piece for me, I simply supplied him with the faux leather fabric from Walmart.