- I don't know if y'all are worried but, I'm not.
I'm going into this very confident,
'cause you gotta put your game face on.
(swooshing)
(upbeat music)
What's up, y'all? It's Wando.
Even though Black History Month is coming to an end,
that does not mean that we have to stop celebrating.
So I'm gonna leave you all with a history lesson
about some amazing fearless warriors from Benin.
The Mino group of women, who were an all-female army,
and inspired a lot of things in the black culture.
There was an all female militia known as the Dora Milaje,
who protected the King, the Black Panther.
And these women were also inspired
by these fearless Benin Dahomey warriors.
Today, we're gonna be talking about
an amazing show called "Lovecraft Country".
- I's about my father
and the secret birthright that's been kept from us
- You going after him.
- We're gonna need a car.
- This is a combination of horror fiction
and racism in the United States during the Jim Crow laws.
And when I'm telling you this is like my number one show,
literally it will have you through emotions the entire show.
A particular episode, a character named Hippolyta
goes to a journey of discovering who she really is,
when she lands in Africa and is training to fight in a war.
I was so surprised to find out that that really did happen
in real life.
Like we had some female black warriors
out here fighting in Africa against some French soldiers.
How inspiring is that?
Hippolyta wore two extremely beautiful and decent outfits.
The one I'm gonna focus on, is her second look.
And I know some of y'all are wondering,
"is she really gonna make that crown from scratch?"
Yes.
With actual metal.
We're going to create something that looks authentic
and real and rich for under $200.
Yeah, I didn't believe it either at first.
And then I was like, "you can do this Wando.
"You can do anything."
(upbeat music)
I got boas feathers, seashell beads,
foil leather, gloves, metal cutting scissors,
solder tool, solder wire, metal sheets,
hot glue gun, glue sticks,
metallic gold spray paint and acrylic gold paint.
(upbeat music)
I thought I had to measure my head
but lo and behold, I was wrong.
This is what not to do y'all.
I was getting so frustrated,
and then I remember my girl Shookwidow's video.
She wrapped herself in duct tape.
So I said, let me get this old pattern piece
that I use to cut out fabric and use it to sculpt my head.
Make sure you mark where the center of your forehead is.
(soft music)
We have our metal sheet. (chuckles)
(metal sheet wobbling)
I wanted to do something a little bit more sturdy,
but it's still foldable.
I discovered that there's metal sheets out there
that you can bend, but not break.
Okay.
Y'all better holla at your girl for your Halloween costume.
You feel me?
You'll label it left and right,
and cut them into two halves.
And then what I did was cut little triangles out.
That way, I could lay my pattern flat on the metal sheet.
And then from there I cut my oval-shaped sides out
for the crown.
This stool is from the Akan people in Ghana.
This is the Gye Nyame symbol.
The Gye Nyame symbol means "Except God"
or "the supremacy of God over all being."
No one can do it except God, basically.
So I love what the symbol means.
I have it as my display for my tools that I'll be using
to create and form this metal.
You know, don't want to get popped in the eye.
Excuse my hairdo. I like to curl little
messy bun tonight, like a messy bun, you know?
So, it's gonna help me to like make sure
the crown fits properly.
You're gonna wanna hammer from the outside in.
So you're just gonna continue to hammer
in a circular motion.
Do not hammer in the same single place.
You can always buy a leather sandbag
but I knew I was only gonna do this one time
and I didn't really need it.
So I went ahead and bought a bag of sand
and I put that in my leather purse
and I was able to finesse it that way.
(upbeat music)
Now I am soldering the splits that are open with the metal.
So I am melting metal wire
in order to connect the two pieces of metal together.
(upbeat music)
The crown is coming along.
It's coming together.
(upbeat music)
I did use a spray paint that came
with primer already mixed in together.
So it was paint and primer in one and I'm not gonna lie.
I regret it because the color did not come
out the way I wanted.
So you'll see later where I retouch it.
(upbeat piano music)
Hey guys, now onto the easier stuff.
It's not gonna be as difficult as that helmet was.
I took the measurements from my neck line to the top
of my bust so now I am gluing the feathers on
with super glue.
And then we're gonna take the acrylic paint
and paint the tips of the feathers.
Now I need my sewing machine to saw the foil leather
with the seashell beads that I spray painted earlier.
I am gonna glue them onto the belt.
The hot glue gun is really coming in the clutch
'cause I've been able to use it for pretty much everything
that didn't require metal or super glue.
(upbeat music)
Now I'm trying on my crown and it looks
like it's coming together well.
I'm adding the details of the seashell
to the edge of the crown.
(upbeat music continues)
I'll probably add these orange-looking feathers
just hanging down her crown. I'll use super glue
to glue the sides of the helmet together.
I'm loving the way this is coming together.
Here's where I'm retouching everything
with the gold spray paint that my sister and I used
for our birthday party.
It looks so much better.
(whimsical music)
This is the final look y'all.
It was a struggle at first
but I'm a fearless warrior who conquered it.
(dramatic music)
I hope that this recreation of this look will inspire you
to do more research and learn more about
these fearless warriors as well as all the other
inspirational female black warriors out there.
(upbeat music)