A Cauldron of Unholy Loves

I began working on my Cauldron Creep prop that we're constructing as part of the NJ Hookerman Make & Take group build. At the meeting we cut and put together the PVC frames and attached the vent motor that will control the head movement.

Tonight, though, I started working on the cauldron. I'm using a big plastic landscaping planter for my cauldron, but because it looks like a big flower pot, I wanted to make it look more like a witches cauldron. To that end I started adding cardboard ribs to it, much as I did on my Nutcrackers when I wanted to flare out their jackets, only this is the entire length of the pot.

I got this idea from the exceptionally talented SK Austin who, if you've ever seen any of his tombstones, you know he's meticulous in his work habits. He built a Cauldron Creep though and had used a rope-handled hamper he got from Walmart. Not exactly conjuring up images of witches on Halloween, he bulked it out with cardboard ribs, covered it with tape, and paper-mached the outside. That's what I plan to do too.

As you can see in the photo above, I've got my ribs on the pot and I'll be adding tape to the entire exterior over which I'll actually use paper clay, or as Halloweenville coined it, "Monster Clay." I'll put a pool noodle around the lip of it and I'll fashion some "iron" rings out of the clay as well. Underneath we'll end up using some of the inventive Great Foam techniques we've seen to create smoldering embers.

Overall it's a terrific prop that Devil's Chariot made and so many haunters have contributed to it that it just keeps getting better and better. This may become one of my favorite props.