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Cardboard Spider pattern

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5K views 14 replies 4 participants last post by  Azza 
#1 ·
I made a spider pattern out of cardboard. I may have been trying to reinvent the wheel here but it was fun trying to figure it out and I like the way it looks so far. There are a lot of pics so I'll spread this over a few posts. I just freehanded some leg and joint shapes, cut them out and put them together to see how it looked.
View attachment 550449
Here are the leg pieces I will use to trace out the pieces I'll assemble and glue:
Hand Textile Pattern Tile Pattern
 
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#2 ·
The inspiration for making them this way came from those little wooden models like this
https://www.harborfreight.com/balsa-wood-insect-puzzle-40692.html
Here is the shape for the body
Circle Tile Pattern Textile Paper

Here are all the pieces cut out ready to be put together
Tile Leaf Floor Flooring Tree

The pattern will make it easy to put together a lot of spiders, but cutting out 40 plus pieces of cardboard per spider is tedious.
 
#4 ·
Here are the first joint pieces attached.
Leaf Paper Plane

At this point I'm getting excited that it's coming together well. I was just winging this thing and not doing any sketches, measurements or anything like I would usually do. I sometimes spend too much time planning instead of doing and end up over-complicating projects. This time I decided to just roll with it and see how it went. I think that's what made this more fun than usual.
 
#5 ·
Here are the middle leg segments on.

Spider Origami Tarantula Art Insect

This is where I realized it's going to be a lot bigger than I imagined it would be, and I'm really happy with that. It's about 5 feet, maybe 6. Like I said, measurements weren't a priority at all with this project. I want to make 6 or so to go outside, and I think this is a good size for that. It is not so big that it will be hard to move them around, but it is big enough to read at a distance.
 
#6 ·
These are the final leg pieces attached.
Visual arts Plant Flower Wheel Art

It was nice and stable before the last pieces were glued on. Then the legs got all wobbly. I will have to stiffen them with something. I think that I'll wrap newspaper around them and tape it to do that. I need to fill out the abdomen and front end ( cephalothorax? ), probably with more paper or some other cheap filler. It needs fangs still, and I have to figure out how I want the "face" to look. I'm trying to do this as cheaply as I can, so I'm not using great stuff even though it is awesome. Then it will be painting and making it weather resistant.
 
#8 ·
Holy cow. This is excellent. The proportions of this are supremely creepy and the size pushes it into monstrous. I absolutely love it. Even without bulking it up too much you could get away with presenting this at a distance once painted. I may do that very thing at the top of a very tall staircase leading into my basement.
 
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#9 ·
So it looked great before I started covering it. I used plaster bandage, and you can imagine what happened next. The cardboard got soggy. So I turned it on it's back, propped the legs in position so they wouldn't flex and wobbly while it dried. It took FOREVER to dry, and I ran out of bandage on top of that. And the legs now weigh more than the rest so it is horrible flimsy. So, Plan B time. I shortened the claw tips of the pattern and cut out the pieces an hour or so ago, and since I'm short on hot glue ( I'm going through a minor crafting supply shortage right now lol) I'll use good old Elmer's glue. I splurged on a gallon of it a while back and still have a lot left. After it is assembled and the glue is completely dry I will make a trip to the Dollar store for rolls of saran wrap and use corpsing techniques to finish it. I think this will make the whole thing lighter, cheaper, and quicker.
 
#11 ·
Finally wrapped one spider in plastic wrap and used the heat gun on it. It need sealing and paint, but looks ok so far. I had to reinforce the legs with rolled up paper. It took 3 rolls of plastic wrap. I bought the wrap at the dollar store, so about $3. A can of great stuff costs about that much, and I could probably do 2 spiders with one can so I think I'll just use great stuff for the other 3 spiders. I'll post pics.
 
#12 ·
Here is a pic of the first spider. It still needs sealing and painting. I'll do the other 3 with great stuff. I had about half a can that I tried on one of the others and it will work better. The great stuff looks like it will make the legs a lot more stiff so the will hold up better. I'll post more pics as I get them sealed and painted. I'm thinking about flourscent paint for them.
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