Mache Skeleton
September 28th, 2009 by John Wolfe
I found a fantastic tutorial for creating a paper mache skeleton on Halloween Forum this morning. The photo definitely doesn’t do the prop justice, but it’s the only finished image I could find. The skeleton, built by forum member Unorthodox, is comprised primarily of cardboard (for the bones), conduit or a stick (for the spine), foam (for vertebrae), clay (for fingers and toes) and paper mache.
All joints are fully articulated in this skeleton through a combination of wire and swivels — pretty awesome to have a pose-able corpse made from mache. Usually, when I think of mache corpses, I think of static, stationary props.
Though we’re getting down to the wire and this is a pretty sizeable project, anyone looking for a do-it-yourself skeleton by Halloween could pull it off during the month of October. Naturally, you could just buy a plastic, blow mold “blucky” at the store, but where’s the fun in that. Not to mention, this prop looks a lot sweeter than those plastic skeletons.
To see more of Unorthodox’s cool creations, checkout his site: An Unorthodox Halloween.
September 28th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
Very creative. Wish I had time to make one, but my props are bogging me down as it is. I’m doing it all alone basically, except pumpkin carving, so I’m doing a little bit each day. Today, I took tattered sheer fabrics a styrofoam ball and a white mask to make a spooky floating ghost held by fishing line up in the tree. The wind shakes it and it stares at you, arms extended. Rather cool. I’m going to let it age in the weather between now and H-ween, although it never rains in October here, so it’ll probably just get dusty.
September 28th, 2009 at 7:26 pm
John, this got me thinking more of your creations……do you foresee sometime in your future where you also will build a tall mache corpse? Your groundbreakers are creepy enough being half sized, having your corpse being full size would be breath taking.
September 28th, 2009 at 9:48 pm
Very cool prop indeed! Thanks for sharing the links!
Cheers!
September 29th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
autumnforest,
Glad to hear you have some help with pumpkin carving. Last year, my uncle and cousin helped me out by carving six jack-o-lanterns. They were such a huge help. I’d never finish getting everything ready if it weren’t for family lending a lot of hands. To be so close geographically, our weather varies quite a bit. Last year, it poured during the month of October. The cornstalks took a whipping. Thankfully, it was beautiful on Halloween night – not even a gust of wind.
I love the image of the ghost your description created in mind. A neighbor used to make a lot of those when I was a kid.
Goldie,
You’re reading my mind again.
I have thought about creating a full-size zombie prop in a similar fashion to the mache techniques used on my groundbreaker. My first project, immediately after Halloween, will be the “Angel” prop and then, I may try my hand at a life-size corpse. Thanks to Unorthodox’s how-to, the project will be a lot easier than inventing it as I go.
The Frog Queen,
It’s great to hear from you. Thanks for stopping by.
September 29th, 2009 at 7:26 pm
Wow.
Rather flattered and surprised to see Bob over here!
Sorry about not getting better pics of the finished project. I was under an incredible crunch at the time of completion, needing to finish up for a fund raiser. Truth be told, I didn’t really have the time to DO Bob for the tutorial in the first place, and things were rushed. Further, to be honest, I find it rather bland and boring, would much prefer to corpse it up and impale it on something pointy, but he is serving the purpose he was designed for by being bland.
I look forward both to being able to make Bob the third sometime next year, doing it in a more ‘proper’ manner, not so bland, and in seeing what you have in store for the general idea.
September 30th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
Unorthodox,
No worries about the pics, I knew (based on your how-to) just how busy you were. It’s a great tutorial/prop. In fact, you’ve given me some ideas for the pelvic bowl. I’ve been trying to work it out in my mind on how to create hips for quite some time now. Hopefully I can keep a cat from sleeping in mine too.
Please, let me know when you have the next Bob finished, I’d love to see it.