I began the construction of Legend's head and beak with a $19 street hockey mask.  The mask is ideal because it has a strong wire cage on the front for attaching the beak, and a shallow back that will virtually disappear under the fur and feathers.

The wire frame of the beak is a material called tension wire, commonly used in construction sites.  A 170 foot roll of it (enough for a dozen costumes) costs $8.50 at Home Depot.  It's lightweight, rustproof and strong.  It takes a large pair of pliers to bend it, but it keeps its shape under any lesser amount of force.

The lines of the beak should be clean and direct.  The downward curve at the corner of the jaw serves two purposes:   It lets the lower wire go around the upper mounting hole, and combined with the upward curve of the beak, it gives it a dolphin-like smile.

(click on any of the pictures for a close-up)

The white mesh is plastic needlepoint material, sold at art and craft stores for about 25 cents a sheet.  It's very flexible, and has the nice behavior of forming smooth curves no matter how you bend it.  The mesh is tied to the tension wire with plastic tie-wraps.  This is an earlier design, because I don't have a good picture of the current design with plastic mesh on it.

In the next picture, the white plastic mesh has been covered with Magic-Sculp epoxy resin, available from TAP Plastics for about $10 a pound.   Unlike some other epoxy resins, this stuff is easy on the fingers and doesn't cause instant brain damage.  It molds just like clay for about an hour, and cures to full hardness overnight.  I pressed it into the plastic mesh to make sure it would hold well.

After the Magic-Sculp hardened, I sanded it with one of those flappy drum-sander drill attachment thingys which generated a virtual mountain of dust, after which I stopped to wash my pants.  I highly recommend a professional grade filter mask for this operation.  The one I use filters out dust, particles and organic vapors (no odors!  yay! :)  It's made by 3M and costs about $30 at the local hardware store.

After hand sanding the beak to smooth out the marks from the power sander, I removed the dust and spray painted it (Rust-Oleum American Accents, Buttercup).  Finally, I brushed on a hard protective coating of Ace clear satin finish Varnish.

Notice that there is very little forward vision, but the sides are open.  This is deliberate.  By forcing myself to look out of the sides of the helmet, I'll have to tilt my head to the side when I look at someone -- the same thing a bird would do.  And that'll give me a greater feeling of actually being a griffin. :)  For walking from place to place, I'll simply keep my beak open a little to get more forward visibility.