I don't have time to make full tutorial on this project.
But here are some quick in progress shots of what I did...

I first tried to make it on my own from scratch. HA!

Further proof that I am not really a Jedi Elf Queen.

Then we bought a cool helmet off ebay... VERY heavy, and way, way too big.

Pardon the goofiness.... Costuming does strange things to people.

I covered the helmet we bought with seran wrap and put black duct tape all over it to get the elusive cone shape.
Then I cut the back and pulled it together to the size that seemed good.

Then I made the arming cap and covered the black duct tape with masking tape...
My hope was that it would be smooth enough that I could paper mache over it...

But it alas, it was all lumpy.

So I did a test with my favorite new material - fun foam:

And liked the results...

I set about using tracing paper to get the right shape,
and then used that template to cut out fun foam to glue to the tape helmet.

Then I thought, why not just make it out of fun foam?

It would certainly be lighter!

So that's what I did... Tapeing the pieces together at first until I liked the shape.
And then glueing them in place.

I reinforced the big 'triangle' pieces with material and heatnbond, both making it strong and curved.

The metal bits aren't the typical paper fasteners from Staples that I usually use.
They are called "Brads" and come in various sizes and colors!

They are available in craft stores, usually around the Memory Book sections.

"Click Here" to see a picture.

The picture in the middle is clickable.

To make the horse mane, I cut two curved pieces of foam and taped them together
on the inside with Aluminum tape. This not only holds it together well, but makes it stiff,
and allows some further shaping.

For instance, it got squished when one of my kids hit it with a bat (he got time out)
and all I had to do was stick a pencil in it and push it back out to the right shape.

I both taped and glued the mane down.

The 'engraving' is done with a sharp sculpting tool.

The horse head was done with Delight Paper Clay.

It's like molding a marshmallow... so light and fluffy. It takes water well to smooth it out.

The paperclay sticks a bit to the foam, but not enough that I wasn't very glad for that extra
piece of fun foam I left hanging down - which I fabric glued it to.

First I painted it with Kryon chrome. Then I used gold and silver rub n buff and a gold leafing pen.

The black around the *insert Yosimite Sam curse* celtic braiding is Fabric Mate marker,
which I also used to do a lot of the aging around the edges.

Then I coated the entire thing in Decoupage...