Witch Stirring a Hanging Cauldron
The Witch - Page 4
The bulk for the "body" of the witch is provided by poultry (or chicken) wire. This material is very easy to work with and is secured to the PVC frame with short pieces of wire. I wanted a "hunched" look for our witch so I formed the wire into a hump in the back. I also bulked-up the shoulders and upper arms with some bubble-wrap secured with masking tape.
There has to be enough clearance in the wire form to prevent the turning motor crank from catching. I made sure there was enough room by attaching a bent piece of aluminum stock to the motor mount. The wire form could not be pushed past the aluminum.
I bought large pieces of cheap fabric to dress the witch. I used dark brown for the body and black for the arms. The fabric was attached with safety pins to the wire.
There was no need to do any sewing for the body. The fabric was draped and pinned in place.
For the arms, I did run a single seam the length of the fabric so it would stay on during the stirring motion. The arms were just pinned to the wire at the shoulder. I also draped a piece of fabric cape-like over the top and secured it with safety pins.
The final bit of clothing was a star-and-moon patterned piece of cloth and was draped like a shaw over the witch's shoulders. I made sure there was no binding of the neck materials and the mask.
This bottom view of the entire frame shows a gray pipe running from the back of the prop to the hole in the bottom of the cauldron. This allows fog to be piped up into the cauldron to produce a steam-like effect. A 45 degree elbow was used to turn the fog up into the cauldron
As small 400-watt fogger with a timer provided the "steam". The fog was directed straight into the gray pipe from the fogger. I attached a power strip to the wood frame and routed all the plugs to it. For sound effects, a powered speaker and portable CD player was also mounted in that area.
