YIKES!  That sounds like quite a project!  Is this for Burning Man, by chance?

I would think long and hard about doing this on stilts.  With all the separate and moveable sections, I suspect that your attention might become a bit too "divided" --- one crashing fall will destroy all your hard work.  Personally, I would tend to add additional height to the top rather than the bottom.  But you know what you have in mind.

EVERYTHING BELOW IS THEORY:

I know you're going to use wire as the base, which I would agree with.  Maybe you already have this technique in mind:  use long wires running vertically, then start dividing it into sections to form branches; if you need to make longer branches, splice the new wire well into the previous section.  Then you could wrap the divided sections with more wire for strength.

I seem to remember something similar to your idea for "finger branches", but I don't know where---probably in a movie.  I think leather gloves are too loose and too clumsy for what you want.  Using the thinnest yet stiffest wire you can find, you might want to make individual finger attachments, custom-made and ID'd for each finger.  Maybe like this:  cut your thin finger-branch wires to full length and bind the ends of each cluster (5 or 6 wires?) for each finger by wrapping tightly about 1/2" from one end so they don't slip.  Take one cluster (say for your left forefinger) and stick your finger into the bound cluster like into a glove finger, so the wrapped end is just beyond your fingertip & the long ends are lined up going past your elbow. 

Anchor a piece of wire securely around the binding, then coil it around your finger OVER the straight wires, until the (open, not solid) coil reaches the web of your forefinger.  Then bend the long lengths back on themselves (over the coil), so they are now pointing outward from the tip of your finger, and wrap more of the coiling wire over it back toward your fingertip and secure it.  I'm sure you understand that each fingercover of wire must not be cutting off circulation, and needs to be able to slide on & off.  You might try the whole idea, from wrapping your finger to the applied papier mache finish for one whole fingerpiece to see if this is going to work.  If the weight is excessive, you might end up having to anchor the base of each fingerbranch at the base and attach it to a wrist strap or something to keep them from sliding off your fingers at inopportune moments.  I'll bet it's going to end up being a tricky piece of work, no matter how you do it.  (Brilliant, but tricky!)

For the headpiece, I think you'll need to make a mold of your actual head.  For this, I would use plaster-embedded bandage material (some craft stores sell it, & for sure American Science & Surplus has it by the roll -- you'll probably need 2 rolls) because it's the only thing I know that sets up fast enough to be useful --- PM won't work here because it won't dry fast enough.  This is the stuff used to make plaster casts for broken arms.

YOU WILL NEED A HELPER FOR THIS.  Your helper will be making your mold, while you have several paper towels pressed over your eyes so the plaster water doesn't get in them.  Plaster water will burn your eyes!  Once you start, you can't have interruptions or delays.  Plan your procedures.

I think you would want to pad the area between your hair and plastic bag with a knitted cap to give some leeway so you can get the mold off your head.  You'll need to cover your head (& the knitted cap) with a plastic bag, putting the corner of the bag at the top of your head and pulling it snugly down, taping it to formfit, and fitting it like a ski mask with the face part open for breathing & comfort (don't trim this area of the bag too close).  If you're covering your ears with this plaster helmet, make sure you've covered them with the plastic!  HAIR + PLASTER ARE A DISASTER!  And getting your ears embedded in plaster wouldn't be fun, either!

Your helper will dip the roll of plaster-embedded gauze in a bowl of lukewarm water for a few seconds so it gets soaked, then lift and drain a few seconds, then start unrolling it as they wrap it around your head, smoothing and pressing & smearing the plaster together with LATEX-GLOVED hands. 

Tell your helper to finish the edges neatly HOW & WHERE you want them finished before the stuff starts to set up , which will be in just a few minutes -- this stuff is hard to trim neatly after it's hardened, but the edges can be cut or folded while wet.

You should have at least 3 complete layers of plaster bandage over the area you want covered.  It will be starting to set up as your helper is finishing -- or before, if he's slow.  Let it set just a few minutes, then carefully lift it off. 

If you've bypassed the knit cap & padding, you may have some trouble getting it off.  Use a smallish pair of scissors & CAREFULLY start cutting slowly up from the nape of the neck BETWEEN the plaster & the plastic.  Go only as far as necessary to get your head out.  Your helper will have to pay attention to how big that gap has to be to get your head out, as you'll have to patch that cut with more bandage, but the cut will have to stay open or this mold will be smaller than it needs to be when you make your PM helmet.  You can't put a little helmet on a big head.

Carefully peel the plastic from the inside, then set it in a safe place where the cat won't knock it down, and let it air-dry for at least 24-48 hrs, or put it in the oven for a couple of hours at the LOWEST temperature possible.

If the mold is cool, it is still damp.  It should be close to room temperature when it is dry & cured.

Once it's dry, cover the outside with a plastic bag taped to fit, and apply a couple of layers of papier mache strips to make the base of your helmet.  Just a couple layers, let dry, then remove the PM shell from the mold.  If you have trouble getting it off, slit the helmet down the back with an Exacto knife or box cutter, then glue together with more strips of PM, plus enough to get it as strong as you need it to be.

When it's totally dry (using your oven on very low will hurry it up), add your branches.

A thought:  since you will be in the desert in the summer, you might want to incorporate some ventilation in the piece, in the form of long narrow openings pinched at each end.  I think there's a word for this shape, but I don't know it.  You could put them in between the vertical wires.

I would coat the whole project with a matte varnish or other sealer to protect it from possible rain.

If you keep the plaster mold safe, you can make many kinds of weird headpieces from it.

Sue

"perhaps i could also build some sort of branchy protrusion on the front of the headpiece to shade my face as well..."

Maybe you could include a chunk of "bark" that curves outward over your forehead in the manner of a baseball cap bill.

I've never heard of those kinds of stilts before.

Sue

Clever!  They look easier to use than regular stilts.

BTW, I forgot to add in my post about the plaster-embedded bandage:  Don't pour plaster or plaster+water down the sink.  It will solidify under water and your pipes will have to be replaced.  Some people know that, some don't.

When you finish your project, it would be great to see a photo of it.

Also, you might make "vents" over your ears in the helmet, so you won't have to constantly be yelling, "WHAT?"

Sue

ok, so i've begun making the finger branches first. One issue i can see comign up is that the twiggy bits of the branch are going to have to be a bit thicker than i'd planned in order to not be breaking all the time. oh well, it'll still look good. Basically i took a bundle of 5 wire lengths about 6 feet long each and wove them all together, jaunting off to form side branches and twigs. Each individual wire eventually ends in a small loop at the end of the twig which will remain exposed to facilitate atatchment of leaves once it's done. Also, due to several factors, laziness among the good ones, i decided to only do three branches(with twigs) per hand. This way my thumb is in one branch, my index in another and my last three fingers are all in one larger one. this'll also help from having just a huge mass of tangled twigs at the end of my hand. Also i decided that to affix the branch fingers to the glove i would wait until it was all done being paper mached and then fill the inside of the opening where my fingers go with super glue, put on my leather glove and put my leather clad fingers into the gluey ends. That plus the wire loop on the back of each atatchment  which will atatch to the back of the glove, seems like it will be enough to secure the fingers to the glove pretty permanently, which is fine by me.
fun fun fun

QB