I tried to find an actual plastic cauldron to wear instead of making one. A couple of years ago there were lots of them around in various sizes but this year all I could find were little ones on a par with jack-o-lanterns for trick or treating. I thought maybe I could find a flower pot that might work but they were either too bulky or too expensive. Then I remembered an art project from 1st grade. We took balloons and paper mache-ed them to use for making Easter baskets. Cheap and easy, I thought. I just had to find a balloon big enough to fit over my ridiculous gut. No such luck with the local party stores so I ordered a couple off the internet. Thankfully, my dad has a very well stocked garage and I was able to use the air compressor to inflate the balloon.
Next came the gooey part with the paper mache. I found many recipes online but I finally with the formula I remembered from 1st grade: tear newspapers into strips, soak them for a few seconds in a mixture of one parts flour per two parts water, then apply. My poor mother's lovely dinning room is a badly breaded mess now.
I ended up using like half a bag or flour and a week's worth of news papers, including two whole Sunday editions. I worked on it for four nights, putting on layer after layer until I just got too sticky to continue. Then it would be dry the next evening when I got home from work and I'd start over. You have to be careful and not let it dry too fast or the paper will split and you'll have to add many more layers to cover that. By the second night I was confident the plan was working and the paper was holding the shape of the balloon.
After it had completely dried it was time to pop the balloon and, if the paper didn't collapse, start cutting. Success! It was solid and thick enough not to tear.
I got really lucky with my first cut. It ended up being just wide enough to slip nicely over my belly. And the second cut was equally lucky. I eye-balled it to where fit snuggly around my waist and would stay put without the aid of suspenders. I wasn't too concerned with making the cuts even and level 'cause there would be other elements added on to obscure the edges. Then it was time to paint it. Outside, on a windy day, it got dry really fast.
Prior to the cutting and painting - while I was waiting for it to dry - I started on the skirt element that would hide my legs. I got a piece of white material for drawing the cannibals and another piece of floral print to use as a background for the areas I was going to cut out of the white sheet. And then I had a grass skirt to attach around my knees so that it would look like my legs belonged to the pygmies.
My pal Brad was a real trooper and helped me do the drawing and coloring. Instead of buying a bunch of expensive fabric paint I went with Sharpies. Brad also supplied me with a piece of pipe insulation to use for the rim of the cauldron. Then in between the pygmies I just drew a bunch of jungly looking leaves. After it was all colored and cut out I attached it to the cauldron with hot glue. I just used safety pins to stick the background fabric on the lower half of my shirt so it would just hang down loosely. Everything else was just accessorizing. I got the pith helmet from Amazon, the shirt was three bucks from discount store and dyed it to match the helmet. I could have gone with two grass skirts instead of one, though. I also had a monocle but it was a bother so I just left it in my pocket.
Overall it held up really well throughout the evening. It did end up splitting along the bottom a bit from all the times I had to take it off and on. I could sit on the edge of a chair with it on but not in a car. Also I erred on the side of caution with the white material and ended up having too much. We drew one too many pygmies on it. We drew four on it but three was the perfect fit so two of them over-lapped and it looked a bit weird from the back.
So now you know how to make one if you want to be awesome next Halloween.
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