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WITCH AND CAULDRON
Difficulty Rating:
UPDATE: 9/18/07 - I took the sledge hammer to this prop. I kept thinking it would become "good" at some point, but, alas, it did not.
Time to reuse the parts for something else!
For Christmas this past year, my sister bought be this cauldron... which was pretty neat, and I was
thankful to get some halloween related Christmas gifts. But I had no place for it. My yard is fairly small,
and I thought I had everything planned out for the coming year, but, I needed to use this.
The cauldron is about 1.5-2' high, and a little over a foot in diameter. It has a submersible ultrasonic
mister, that gives a fog-like effect, and has 8 color changing LEDs on it.
Then I had in idea... I will make a witch to work around this gift prop. And so this project was born.
I came across this gem from Village Haunt by using the
Dummy Security Camera from Harbor Freight,
with a little hacking, I was able to get a cheap movable platform for a head.
Materials & Tools:
FRAME/BODY
- Scrap Wood (I have plenty of broken down pallets I used to make the frame)
- Chicken wire (to give the body some girth)
- Pipes of some sort - I had an old dryer vent tube which I used to make the "legs". Chicken wire will work as well for this.
- Drill and Screws for putting together the frame
- (1) 1.5 - 2' 1/2" PVC Pipe
- (4) 1' 1/2 PVC pipe sections
- (2) 90 degree angle 1/2" PVC elbows
- (2) 45 degree angle 1/2" PVC elbows
- Sheets, blankets, whatever you want to use for clothing...
AUDIO
HEAD
EXTRAS
Now, the first order of business is to construct the frame for the body. Since the cauldron is
only about 2' tall, I wanted the witch to be kneeling over it. For this, I make no exact measurements
or cuts, I just started cutting and putting it together. Use your best judgement in doing this...
I made a 2 post "L" shape from the scrap wood, and then cut up the aforementioned dryer vent pipe for legs.
Once that was completed, I took the 2' piece of 1/2" PVC pipe, and put that along the top of the "L" to hook
the arms up to, and screwed in a small block of scrap wood to attached the Dummy Camera to.
Front View
Side View
Once I had the arm support in, I added the chicken wire mesh to give "her" some girth. Use your judgement on this. Mine
came out to be a bit of a heffer in need of a diet, or, she could always hold a defensive position for the New England Patriots...
I gave her shoulders, and just about 6-8" down in the front to hang the blankets over in the front to give the front of "her"
some girth, and created a "back" as seen above to giver her some more girth on the torso.
Now, it was time to attach the camera to the block on the top for the head. The Dummy camera swings back and fourth when on, however,
it is motion activated by a PIR sensor, and shuts off after 47 seconds. After a few unsucessful attempts at attempting to
solder something together to circumvent the sensor, I finally had an idea. Since the cauldron will only be several inches away from the witch,
and it changes color every few seconds, maybe that would work... so I placed the camera next to the mister, abotu as far as it would be from the head,
and sure enough, a second after the initial 47 second loop ended, it started right back up! So I took the dummy camera apart, and
drilled a small groove next to the bottom plate, and pulled the sensor out from it's default location, and have it pointing towards the cauldron (see below - those two white wires, with some electrical tape at the end, I taped it because I did not want the wires to come loose from the sensor) at the neck.
PIR Sensor from Dummy Camera
Also, mounting the camera was interesting as well... since there wasn't any room to really screw it down, I ended up zip-tying it to the block.
I then took the wig head, and cut out enough from the back of it to fit the bottom of the security camera in. This is what moves back and fourth, since the "camera" part is attached to the block. And then added a zip-tie from the head to the shaft of the camera mount to keep it on there nice and snug.
The camera mount is a bit flimsy, so I also drilled a hole in the mount, and at the bottom of the camera where the mount attaches to the camera, and wired it in place, so it doesn't fall forward.
Dummy Camera Mount
Another View of the Mount
Once that was done, I wanted some audio as well... witches cacking and bubbling... so, I ended up using the $5 mp3 player, as I had ordered a couple of them,
and created this MP3, and copied it onto there. I then got the cheap speakers mentioned in the materials list, and bolted those
to the frame using L brackets, and hooked up the MP3 player.
$5 MP3 Player
Another view with the speakers
So, now that all that is done, I also attached the arms, and put screws in at the joinings to keep them sturdy. I then covered these with some carpet insulation which I had around,
attaching it to the arms with zip-ties, to give them some girth as well.
With the arms...
Finished Product - Front View
I used an old tattered fleece blanket for the top covering, giving her an old homely witch look, and used landscaping fabric (weed blocker stuff) to cover up the speakers and the rest of it... now that I am looking at it more, I hate that mask.... need to do something with it.
Finished Product - Top/Back View
Another view of the back-side covered with the landscaping fabric... I love this stuff.
And yes, I know I still need to make the hands, which I will get around to eventually.
This page was last modified on: April 27, 2008 09:35:02 pm
