In my previous post I mentioned putting together everything I needed for a photo shoot. Over the past week or so I have slowly been making everything I need. Most of it was quick projects that don’t warrant their own post, so they are all here.

Here is a list of everything I wanted for this photoshoot.

Skull Lantern
Bone necklace
Big mortar
Mini broom
Grey yarn wig
Linen head scarf

The bone lantern and necklace were made in the previous post Here.

In this post I go over making the broom, mortar , wig and the scarf. Any guesses of what I am putting together yet?

The Mortar

I needed a mortar big enough for my baby girl to sit in, so I decided to make it out of my largest kitchen bowl. This structure is meant to be a temporary one, so I made it from a thin layer of paper mache which will easily come off when soaked.

I started by building a base for the mortar out of cardboard.

I cut several layers of cardboard in 3 different sizes to get stacked up into a foot. If this had been a more permanent project, I think I would have kept it going, building it up a little higher and making the transition between layers smoother. For this project though, this height was sufficient.

I put glue in between each layer and held them together with tape. I also cut a thin strip of cardboard the width of my bottom layer to smooth is out a bit. Once my base was all together, I taped it to my bowl. It turns out painters’ tape doesn’t stick to silicon, so I used gorilla tape.

I applied a thin layer of paper mache using a paste of 1:1 flour to water. I covered the entire outside including the bottom of the base and about half way into the bowl. I wanted to make sure it went down far enough that it wouldn’t show in pictures, but I didn’t want to take it all the way to the bottom. This whole project is only done with one layer of paper mache just enough to make sure it was well covered.

I left it to dry over night, but it should only take a couple hours to dry completely.

The next morning, I started to paint it. I decided on a dark stone look, so I painted it all black to start.

I then mixed a few different shades of grey. I sponged layers of the grey on top of the black using a napkin then switching to a plastic bag when the napkin started sticking.

I just kept layering the greys, white and black over and over until I got a look I liked. Then I sponged on some bronze to finish it off.

The Broom

If you saw my corn husk witch post here, then you’ve already seen this process.

The broom is made from a stick, cornhusks and some heavy-duty thread, that’s it.

I had some corn husks that I soaked for a bit so they where pliable and wouldn’t break when bent. I tore a pile of thin strips until it seemed like a solid amount. I laid them all out with the bottoms of them lined up with the bottom of my stick.

Then I wrapped them around the circumference of the stick and tied them tightly where I wanted the top of the broom head to be. After it was tied, I folded the rest of the husk down and it tightly right under the fold. I tied another string right underneath.

I tied one more string gently around the base of the corn husks to hold them in place while it dried. Once it was dry it was removed.

The Wig

I have seen so many of these yarn wigs online, but I have never tried it myself, so I looked up a couple tutorials and wound up taking some tips from each, then doing it differently. That happens a lot. The one thing that was the same between all the tutorials was the use of a fitted hat as the base.

I used a cap, a small ball of yarn (its a small wig) and a needle and thread. I’ve seen ones that use a sewing machine, but I know my machine wouldn’t like this at all, so I opted for the old needle and thread. This is one of those nice calm activities that doesn’t take much energy and can be done while relaxing.

I cut all the yarn I wanted to use in strips of about the same size, I would be sewing it on at the center of each strand, so they needed to be twice the length I wanted the hair to be.

I picked a centerline on the hat where the part in the hair would be and started to sew then on two to three pieces at a time. I sewed them on right beside my center line since this would make up one side of the hair. I did another row right next to my first to make up the other side of the head. I didn’t sew all the way to the back, just enough for it to be covered by styling the hair or putting on the head scarf. In The front I went to a point where I figured a natural hair line would be then folded the hat back. Adding too much yarn would have made it really bulky.

The Head Scarf

For the head scarf I went with an undyed linen (my favorite). I cut a triangle instead of a square piece of fabric because a square made it too bulky to tie around such a tiny head. I made the whole thing pretty big since it would be the only costume piece, I wanted it to cover quite a bit. Its large enough that it can be used for other costumes in the future.

To fray the ends, I pulled out the cross threads until I thought it was long enough then repeated on the other side. I did this along the two edges that would be the back of the scarf.

For the front of the scarf I folded the edge over twice then sewed a single seam around the entire piece. This is to finish off the front hem then protect the other sides from fraying more.

I made two patches out of some scrap linen in a different colour. I just cut two squares and frayed the edges a bit. Then using the threads I had pulled out from fraying the edge of the scarf I hand stitched them on making it nice and rustic.