For more than 20 years, Dale Morton has been hiding behind a mask.
Dozens of them, to be precise.
And, while Morton doesn't, himself, have a swelled head, he has fashioned dozens of those, too. At his studio in the heart of Hurricane, in various stages of completion, stand molds and costume heads and masks Morton has crafted by hand from an assortment of materials such as foam, fiberglass, fur, fabrics and papier-mâché. Most of his colorful creations from the Dale Morton Mascot Costumes Studio are customized, oversized, sculpted heads for school, sports team, corporate and other mascots around the world.
Local sports mascots he has rendered include the Herbert Hoover High Husky from Morton's Elk River alma mater, the Poca High Dot, the Winfield General and the Nitro High Wildcat. On the collegiate level, he has created the headpiece and costume for Marshall University's Marco. (His first design, from the MU sports administration who wanted to make Marco appear more aggressive and bulkier, wasn't received very warmly by Herd alumni and fans, Morton said, so he devised a mellower, more old-school-but-updated Marco design a few years later.) He also finished recently making a trio of pepperoni roll costumes for the West Virginia Black Bears minor league baseball team in Morgantown. "West Virginia University had me make a couple of costumes of their PRT buses," he noted.
He also has made the biscuit costumes used by Tudor's Biscuit World.
A longtime fantasy, horror and science-fiction buff who grew up in St. Albans, Sissonville and Elkview during his youth, Morton worked in the early 1990s for Huntington costume store Magic Makers, there learning about making molds and masks and such and developing some special techniques of his own in the process.
In 2001, he went into business for himself in Hurricane, opening Dale Morton Studio Mascot Costumes. While he has had seamstresses on staff over the years, he has taught himself sewing and now does that and his own pattern making, too. He is a one-man shop, although his cousin sometimes helps him in sculpting and creating the heads.
One of his most unusual requests arrived via email from a jacket manufacturer in England who wanted to sell his products in the States. To make his jackets unique, he wanted them delivered and stored in gorilla casts, which Morton sculpted and got green-lit by the man's PR firm in Atlanta.
His most time-consuming, challenging (and lucrative) endeavor was creating a Tex robot mascot for THX, a subsidiary of LucasFilm.
"They had a little, computer-generated robot character they used in their promo pieces," Morton said. "They were going to be at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas that year, around 2008 or 2010. Tex is a red and silver robot. He doesn't look like he's made of anything soft. Essentially, I had to build a big model of Tex, mainly out of fiberglass and plastic pieces I could buy off the shelf. He had a rocket pack, claws and wheel treads on his feet. It was very, very complex. It took about a month and a half to build it from the ground up. I had to make these huge molds of his chestpiece, his forearms and his feet, all out of fiberglass. It all had to fit together like a very elaborate puzzle for a person to be inside of it. Tex ended up standing about seven feet tall."
Morton said his Tex character now stands on permanent display at the THX headquarters in California.
"I've done some weird mascots," he said. "Some of them, I don't even know what they were for. I've done some for hospitals, some that are used in commercials -- weird-looking monsters that have black-and-white spiral horns and big, bug eyes, made out of yellow and green shag fur."
If clients don't have a design for their character, they can hire Morton to invent one for them.
Morton, 50, also makes super-hero costumes for those who like wearing them at comic book conventions around the nation. Along with producing Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman outfits, he said, he grants requests for more esoteric comics characters such as Banshee and Cosmic Boy.
He said the tools of his trade aren't limited to a sewing machine, clay, fiberglass and fur. "Sometimes it takes some really bizarre stuff."
Seeking inspiration, he said, he might visit a Lowe's or Home Depot on creative scavenger hunts. "If somebody comes up and asks you if you need help and you describe for them what you need and explain it to them, you usually get a blank look," he said.
He has found that flexible pipe used for hot-water heaters make excellent antennae for bee and other bug costumes, as an example. He will also use LED lights, computer fans (for mascot cooling and air flow) and other motley to complete a costume, if necessary.
Dale Morton Studio Mascot Costumes, 2730 Second St., Hurricane, can be contacted at 304-562-7503 or 877-632-7892, DMSMascots@aol.com or, online, on Facebook or at www.dalemortonstudio.com
Dozens of them, to be precise.
And, while Morton doesn't, himself, have a swelled head, he has fashioned dozens of those, too. At his studio in the heart of Hurricane, in various stages of completion, stand molds and costume heads and masks Morton has crafted by hand from an assortment of materials such as foam, fiberglass, fur, fabrics and papier-mâché. Most of his colorful creations from the Dale Morton Mascot Costumes Studio are customized, oversized, sculpted heads for school, sports team, corporate and other mascots around the world.
Local sports mascots he has rendered include the Herbert Hoover High Husky from Morton's Elk River alma mater, the Poca High Dot, the Winfield General and the Nitro High Wildcat. On the collegiate level, he has created the headpiece and costume for Marshall University's Marco. (His first design, from the MU sports administration who wanted to make Marco appear more aggressive and bulkier, wasn't received very warmly by Herd alumni and fans, Morton said, so he devised a mellower, more old-school-but-updated Marco design a few years later.) He also finished recently making a trio of pepperoni roll costumes for the West Virginia Black Bears minor league baseball team in Morgantown. "West Virginia University had me make a couple of costumes of their PRT buses," he noted.
He also has made the biscuit costumes used by Tudor's Biscuit World.
A longtime fantasy, horror and science-fiction buff who grew up in St. Albans, Sissonville and Elkview during his youth, Morton worked in the early 1990s for Huntington costume store Magic Makers, there learning about making molds and masks and such and developing some special techniques of his own in the process.
In 2001, he went into business for himself in Hurricane, opening Dale Morton Studio Mascot Costumes. While he has had seamstresses on staff over the years, he has taught himself sewing and now does that and his own pattern making, too. He is a one-man shop, although his cousin sometimes helps him in sculpting and creating the heads.
One of his most unusual requests arrived via email from a jacket manufacturer in England who wanted to sell his products in the States. To make his jackets unique, he wanted them delivered and stored in gorilla casts, which Morton sculpted and got green-lit by the man's PR firm in Atlanta.
His most time-consuming, challenging (and lucrative) endeavor was creating a Tex robot mascot for THX, a subsidiary of LucasFilm.
"They had a little, computer-generated robot character they used in their promo pieces," Morton said. "They were going to be at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas that year, around 2008 or 2010. Tex is a red and silver robot. He doesn't look like he's made of anything soft. Essentially, I had to build a big model of Tex, mainly out of fiberglass and plastic pieces I could buy off the shelf. He had a rocket pack, claws and wheel treads on his feet. It was very, very complex. It took about a month and a half to build it from the ground up. I had to make these huge molds of his chestpiece, his forearms and his feet, all out of fiberglass. It all had to fit together like a very elaborate puzzle for a person to be inside of it. Tex ended up standing about seven feet tall."
Morton said his Tex character now stands on permanent display at the THX headquarters in California.
"I've done some weird mascots," he said. "Some of them, I don't even know what they were for. I've done some for hospitals, some that are used in commercials -- weird-looking monsters that have black-and-white spiral horns and big, bug eyes, made out of yellow and green shag fur."
If clients don't have a design for their character, they can hire Morton to invent one for them.
Morton, 50, also makes super-hero costumes for those who like wearing them at comic book conventions around the nation. Along with producing Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman outfits, he said, he grants requests for more esoteric comics characters such as Banshee and Cosmic Boy.
He said the tools of his trade aren't limited to a sewing machine, clay, fiberglass and fur. "Sometimes it takes some really bizarre stuff."
Seeking inspiration, he said, he might visit a Lowe's or Home Depot on creative scavenger hunts. "If somebody comes up and asks you if you need help and you describe for them what you need and explain it to them, you usually get a blank look," he said.
He has found that flexible pipe used for hot-water heaters make excellent antennae for bee and other bug costumes, as an example. He will also use LED lights, computer fans (for mascot cooling and air flow) and other motley to complete a costume, if necessary.
Dale Morton Studio Mascot Costumes, 2730 Second St., Hurricane, can be contacted at 304-562-7503 or 877-632-7892, DMSMascots@aol.com or, online, on Facebook or at www.dalemortonstudio.com
Comments
Post a Comment