Thread: Stalactites

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We have borrowed ideas from this site for a few years now. I needed some stalactites (and stalagmites) for my devil's den. I couldn't get good pictures due to the confines of the room (and I'm not great with a camera).

I used wire screen to make the cone shape. The screen can be bent to whatever shape you want after the cone is made. I then used great stuff to cover the cone. I sat the cone on some news paper and started spraying at the tip of the cone. I sprayed slowly - keeping the flow as even as possible. Then I would return to the tip again and spray another row next to the first. The bigger stalactites took an entire can. I started painting using dark brown as a base color. I sprayed lighter colors on until it looked right.

Wow, cans can be costly. I hope you post pics!

-Doc

So right. I found some on sale at Walmart for $3.50 so I bought about 10 cans. I have seen projects where people have covered entire walls using expanding foam insulation. That stuff is costly too. I would appreciate any suggestions!

You've probably read many threads discussing MonsterMud. I think that would give you the desired look for a lot less -- or at least a little less.

You could also just go crazy with the papier mache! I know it sounds silly, but you layer it up and papier mache can be very, very solid. There are also many ways to seal papier mache projects to protect them from the elements.

Check out Stolloween for some excellent examples of papier mache.

Many thanks for the ideas. Stolloween does some amazing things with papier mache. We began with Great Stuff not realizing just how much we would need to complete even one stalagmite. Papier mache or MonsterMud may be options. Thank-you.