Thread: Skeletal Fountain

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So here is my second tutorial on this site. I think this one is a lot cooler and a much more fun project to build!

All my projects are built on a budget and I get as many of the supplies as I can from the dollar store.

The Materials:

Various plastic (or metal) dishes. -- I used a large platter, two different chip bowls and a small soup bowl.

1" Dowel -- This was left in my apartment when the old tenants moved out and I finally found a use for it!

Various skulls and bones of different shapes and sizes (interesting side rail for inexpensive larger bones)

A LOT of hot glue

Liquid school glue (paper mache)

Newspaper

Toilet Paper

Water

This project is a skeletal fountain, it is going to be in the center of our cemetery this year with some PVC flicker candles and some moss. This is the first major prop of the season for us and has pushed me to decide to upgrade our tombstones to some more like the ones that Terra makes!

Since I've written so much of an introduction the actual tutorial will start in the next post.

Step 1. The Structure

You are going to want to pick some dishes, or boxes, or pots, or what have you to make the general structure of your fountain. Hot glue them all together using the dowel for support. In place of dowel you could also use PVC or any other solid cylindrical object depending on how wide you want the shaft of the fountain.


It doesn't look like much right now, but just wait!

Step 2. SIDE TRACK***

So I wanted some large bones but the dollar store didn't carry any large enough (Although I was sure I had seen them there before!) So my roommate came up with a pretty great and easy (and cheap) idea. We took childrens foam swords and cut the blade off, then using extra foam and a lot of tape we molded the ends to look like bones and then covered the entire thing in tape to make it look more like a bone and to add some stability to it.


I'll be using this idea again, it was SUPER easy!

Step 3. Glue Guns 101

This is the step where you get to start gluing on the skulls. I picked up a glue gun and a tonne of glue sticks at the dollar store so I wasn't afraid to be VERY liberal with the glue. Make sure to plan our where all of your bones and skulls are going to go in advance so you are certain they will look good and will all fit.


Starting to Glue


All the skulls glued on to the base, it's starting to look a little like the finished product!

Step 4. The Tedious Part!

Paper mache the entire project ...that is all. Look up directions on how to make the perfect mix and how to mache the project. We used two parts water one part glue and it worked out quite well. Make sure you are getting as much detail as possible, it will really pop out in the next step


After two solid hours of two people mache-ing it was done! ...now to dry.

PART 2 IN THE NEXT POST

Step 5. TP Maché

This is a very crucial step in getting a cool texture without having to spend virtually any money! All you need to do is get a bowl of water, a paint brush and a roll of toilet paper. fill the bowl with water and dip your brush in then put the toilet paper on the project and moisten ...continue all around until you have covered your project in at least three layers of TP. This will take a while to dry but will be rock hard when it does and will give a cool effect!


Just needs to be painted now!

That is all the pictures I have for now, the project wasn't entirely dry tonight so we called it quits and will paint it tomorrow. I will post more pictures once the entire thing is done though!

Happy Haunting!

Mason

I really like that.... nice and easy steps.... but a really cool project at the end.
Thanks for posting this.

WOW witcheswalk!!! Very impressive and with easy accessible objects to use. Can't wait for more. Everytime I think I have enough to work on you all come up with something else I want to do.....the list keeps growing lol!

Omg that looks good! Me want more more more!!

That's looking great.

nice write up adn great looking prop!!!!

Very nice work TY for the step by step!

Thats looking awesome can't wait to see more