This lionfish is a fully stage combat-worthy prop made for a class project to explore the manipulation of foam. The imagery for a lionfish from multiple perspectives was scaled to be life-size. This imagery was then turned into a pattern that was applied to upholstery foam. The foam was shaped initially with a band saw, followed up by an electric knife and scissors. Rough edges were smoothed with a band sander and finer details like the mouth were sculpted with a dremel.

Once the base shape was complete, the fins were patterned and cut out of EVA foam. Slices were made in the base and the fins were inserted and glued with hot glue securely to the extra surface area. The facial pieces were cut or sculpted with foam and attached similarly. Everything was then coated with four layers of mask latex and a layer of cheesecloth. Plastidip was used as a flexible primer and flexible latex paint was applied to mimic a lionfish’s patterning. From personal experience, this fish feels like a foam dodgeball when swung onto the top of a head like a club.