“Gras-goyle” gargoyle costume for Mardi Gras 2025, WIP part 1!
Published by Manning on November 19th, 2024
I’ve already started on my Mardi Gras costume for next year! I’m doing something really ambitious (for me); a gargoyle costume where my legs are hidden in a fake stone column, with fake crouched legs on top, and then I’ll have wings on my back and of course a gargoyle mask. I knew this would take a lot of time and effort so I started on the column part back in May of 2024! Here’s how I made the column and pedestal…
Making the column
I started by cutting out three 16″ circles of foam board — see my method for drawing precise circles. I then measured and drew squares in the center of these that were 7.25″ on all sides.
I cut out four panels of foam board to make a square tower shape; they’re each 20″ x 7″. I taped these together with heavy duty shipping tape. I inserted this through the circles and taped them in place.
Next, I taped two pieces of poster board together to make a piece that’s long enough to wrap around the column. I first rolled it up tightly in my hands to make it want to stay curled, as this would help it fit around the column better. I then unrolled the poster board and did some measuring and drawing on it, to figure out where I would be attaching the spiral ridge shapes. This took a lot of math and some trial and error!
Once I had the spiral ridges figured out, I taped the poster board in place on the tower shape.
I made the spiral ridges from foam pipe insulation tubing. I started by slicing the tubes down the middle to make two half-tubes. Then I measured and cut the lengths I would need. I cut each end to a diagonal shape to fit along the top/bottom edges of the column.
Here’s a trick: If you take a piece of foam like this and try to tape it down onto a curved surface, it’ll wanna fight ya; the tension of the foam makes it want to straighten itself out, and this pulls against the tape, making it very difficult to keep it down. So here’s a tip that really helps: with an X-acto knife, make lots of little shallow slices across the back side of the foam. This lets the foam bend with much less tension. Try curving the foam before and after and you’ll feel a huge difference, and the cuts aren’t visible at all.
So yeah, I taped all these foam pieces in place on the column; twelve in all. This required three 60″ tubes.
The sides of the tubes meet the poster board at a somewhat sharp angle (you know, imagine a half-circle sitting on a flat line), so to smooth out the spaces between the tubes and give them a nice round U shape in between, I tore up scraps of construction paper and pushed them into the spaces. I hot-glued these in place with the tiniest dots of glue. I then covered the torn edges with masking tape.
At this point the sculpture of the column was done!
To prepare the column for paper maché, I covered it with heavy duty shipping tape (paid link); the tape is there to act as a release agent. Paper maché doesn’t stick to the tape very well, and this allows me to remove all the inside materials afterward. Adding all this tape — and trying to get it to lay relatively smoothly and not get too wrinkled — takes a lot of time and effort, but it’s worth it.
Okay, time for paper maché!
I covered the column with six layers of paper maché. You can read about my paper maché process and materials here. The short version is: I use Roman PRO-543 universal wallpaper adhesive (paid link) and alternating layers of newspaper and brown wrapping paper.
When the paper maché was 100% dry, I cut open the top and bottom parts of the column and carefully pulled out all the foam and paper and tape, leaving me with this very lightweight and sturdy column. Six layers is less than I would usually do, but I really want to keep this thing as light as possible. The curves of the spiral ridges help keep the shape sturdy; if I had gone with just a plain cylinder, it would be much more flimsy and require more layers of paper maché.
Making the base and top part
I made the top and bottom parts of the column out of foam board (for all the flat parts) and poster board (for all the curved parts). I made the ring at the base of the column with 1″ foam backer rod.
I covered these parts with just two layers of paper maché — and I added a bunch more layers of paper maché where the base and top meet the column, to make sure that connection is really strong. All these materials will stay in the sculpture.
Fyi, I used white paper bags for just the final layer of paper maché on the column as well as the top and bottom parts. This means when it’s time for painting, later on, I won’t need to do a white base coat. So this saves me some money on paint, and it also reduces the weight of the column; multiple coats of paint can actually increase the weight of a large piece like this enough that you’d notice.
That’s all for now! Next up will be the legs, probably!
About Manning Krull
How to make a 4-foot paper maché alligator
My violin skull mask, Mardi Gras 2015
Three-headed paper maché dragon sculpture
November 26th, 2024 at 6:25 pm
Is amazing all what you´ve done! Really amazing!
January 18th, 2025 at 11:37 pm
I can’t believe all the work that went into the structure of the column just to remove it once the paper mache hardened. But it turned out incredible, so totally worth it