Ok, so this has a few techniques built into it. My husband is the builder, so he gets all the credit. We have found that we have to work on completely separate props, in order to save our marriage.
It started with a Stolloween style pumpkin, the hubby then cut off the bottom jaw, extended it with soda boxes and a lot of duct tape. Added papier mache and clay to it, and made one solid head.
He then built a large PVC pipe and fence stake frame, and attached Jacks head to it. It was a bit over 10 feet tall.
Then came chicken wire, burlap and monster mud... we were anxious to get it up that day, and only had beige paint on hand for the monster mud... so we did it with beige, and then intended to go back and paint it black after it was at least in the yard.... Later that night, when the lights went were turned on, the beige showed up so much better than the already black hands... so we left it beige. (Then it was the hands we had to redo... Never would have thought we would go with beige!)
Stick the hands in - (coat hanger, cotton balls, duct tape, mache, etc), pin the fakest crow with glowing eyes on his shoulder, and he was done.
We could live with it, and the kids seemed to like it
It was pretty easy, Growler... and yet the most effective prop we had. I spent weeks working on other props that didnt get half the OOOHs and AAAAHs that hubby did
Aw, thank you guys very much. I showed the hubby the thread (I think he is actually already registered here, but hasn't posted yet).... I'll keep working on him.... this community is the best!!!
Dixie, I love your pumpking creature! I made a very simple one last year and loved it, but I have plans to make a much larger one, using a paper mache head, this year. I've only recently started experimenting with paper mache; I want to get all the bugs worked out before beginning my big JOL head. So, I'm wondering, what did you use to weather proof your guy?
Here's my guy from last year =) He was only about 5 feet tall... not very intimidating! LOL!
*EDIT* I just read you explaination of how he was built and realized that you used the Stolloween method, which is the same method that I've been experimenting with! I just love it; don't you?
Thanks all for the compliments.... this guy would be super easy to duplicate, and I really think the success of him was the height... we live on the corner of a very busy street here in town, and you could really see him from the main road.. all my neighbors were pissed at us because they all had to turn their lights off at like 730 PM, because normally we get about 25 or 30 door bells rings on 10-31, but this year, tons of people TOT'd by car, to all the houses around our house.... never would have had that without this huge tower of welcome, HAHA.
Curl - we brushed on Thompsons Water Seal... it was the cheapest way to buy a large quantity, so we decided to try it. 3 days after we put him up, we had a huge hours long rainstorm, and he came out untouched. (And yes, I really like Stolloweens paste recipe... we put bleach in it, and stored it in a small closed bucket in the fridge, and kept that same bucket going for about 2 months, and never ran into mold problems)
And I agree - your fog looks great.... we had an 80 degree Halloween night, and even with our fog chiller, it went straight for the trees!
Hey all. Hoping I can help someone else on the forum. Sorry in advance for the long post...
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