Thread: Man Eating Plant

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I got this tutorial from Ghoul Friday here:

Step-by-Step Prop Projects | My Ghoul Friday

All the materials I used I had already so this was totally free! HAAHAA Gotta love that! Okay, okay so I needed a pot. Behold:




As you can see, I used a 9" pot so this will be rather large. This was just a plastic pot I had kept from last year when I bought flowers from lowes. They died, btw. psshh I digress...

I wanted to make 3 man eaters on one stem. I head down to the basement .. aka: husband's territory. I found a metal pipe just the right size. I'm pretty sure it was a fence post. Then I grabbed up 2 whiffle balls and a child sized basketball that the kids outgrew many MANY years ago.



I wrapped them in foil and taped it up some w/ duct tape. I got out the paper mache (I use flour, salt and water) and put one layer on the pot and stem and 3 layers on the balls. Now NOTE: I wish I had done 2 more layers on the balls so keep that in mind. They were a little soft for my taste and more difficult to work with.



And then I took it all outside and put a layer of primer on it. Did I need to? Not so much. I was just looking for a reason to use the primer up. So feel free to skip this step. LOL EXCEPT, I didn't have to paint the inside of the plants with the primer on it so I guess that was a plus.



I got my handy dandy duct tape out again and taped the halves of the balls together to make open mouths.



Then I used a technique I learned from Spooky Blue's pumpkin rots and wound up paper towels and taped them tight then added them to the stem. To make them more sturdy I wrapped them up in 22 gauge wire. Then I taped the balls to them. NOTE: I would have gotten thicker wire but it's what I had on hand at the time. Again..free. heehee




Okay at this point it's time to get out the paper mache again. Now how am I gonna do this? It's a bit awkward. I can't just lay it down, it'll mess it up. Hubby to the rescue. He drilled a long wooden shaft into a solid wood board so I could slide the fence post over top of the shaft and voila! Much easier!

So I added 2 more layers of paper mache and one layer of the paper pulp. I also reinforced the two smaller stems with wiring them stronger to the main stalk. I also got my handy dandy glue gun out and went to my selection of plastic party forks and used the single tines for teeth. Pretty cool, eh???

Okay, so it's ready for the finishing touches. I used acrylic paint. Green watered down a bit. Then spotted with the green not watered down then spotted with yellow watered paint. I painted the teeth white of course and added a tongue to the big one. (just painted paper)

To the pot I used the same technique I did w/ the green coloring except in brown. Then when that was dried I watered down some black, painted it on, then dabbed it back off with a moist paper towel.

The wooden dowel was punched through the pot so the pot itself is sitting on the block of wood. I painted the wood green and then glued some spanish moss on it. I couldn't really tell if it was spanish or not. It never said a word.

To fill the pot up I cut up part of a dark mahogany comforter to fill it to the top with "dirt". Then I glued the moss around it. For the final touch I wrapped vines around the stalk and here it is! My masterpiece!!

pretty neat

Your plant turned out great, I've been wanting to make one of these as well, thanks for the post

awesome job

I love this -- reminds me of that old movie the "Little Shop of Horrors"

Originally Posted by Effie

I love this -- reminds me of that old movie the "Little Shop of Horrors"

Same here! That was so good! lol

Thanks for posting this! I'm going to try to make one of my own this week. I have an old terra cotta pot that's sitting around being useless and needs to earn its keep around here. And I looooved Little Shop of Horrors when I was a kid. I used to have this game where you rolled dice and put marbles into Audrey II's mouth. It would also bite you occasionally. As I recall, it kinda hurt too. Lol. Wish I still had that thing.

you should make a rat being eaten by the plant!

Originally Posted by savagehaunter

you should make a rat being eaten by the plant!

I could use one of my daughter's real toads that I'm getting tired of buying crickets for.