{"id":3000,"date":"2017-10-30T15:06:35","date_gmt":"2017-10-30T15:06:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/?p=3000"},"modified":"2020-11-18T14:33:21","modified_gmt":"2020-11-18T14:33:21","slug":"paper-mache-pickaxe-shovel-decorations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/paper-mache-pickaxe-shovel-decorations\/","title":{"rendered":"Paper mach\u00e9 pickaxe and shovel decorations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I made these here pickaxe and shovel decorations for the entryway into our Egyptian tomb Halloween party. They were super quick and easy! I didn&#8217;t need to make them sturdy at all, since they were just for display, and they only needed to last one night, so I was able to cut a lot of corners! I didn&#8217;t take any photos of my steps (I was in a huge hurry for all these latest Halloween projects!), but they&#8217;re pretty easy to follow; check it out&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/pickaxe-and-shovel-decorations.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/pickaxe-and-shovel-decorations.jpg\" alt=\"Paper mach\u00e9 pickaxe and shovel decorations in the entrance to our ancient Egyptian Tomb Halloween party\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n <div class=\"ad-300x250 ad-float-right\">\r\n<script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- MMS 300x250 -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:inline-block;width:300px;height:250px\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-5009313124668288\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3616150394\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<\/div>\n<h2>Pickaxe<\/h2>\n<p>I started with the wooden handle of the pickaxe; I made this out of a rolled up poster board. The poster board comes in sheets that are 28&#8243; long, and I wanted the pickaxe handle to be about 36&#8243; long, so I cut a second 8&#8243; piece and added it with tape.<\/p>\n<p>Real pickaxes have a handle that flares out a bit toward the blade, and I wanted to try to achieve something like that. I cheated, sort of! Rather than make a real flared tube I simply made a normal tube and flattened it a bit at one end to make it look flared from just the side. To hold this shape, I inserted an oval of foam board at that end, and a circle one at the other end, and taped them in place. This effect is totally fine for a decoration that people will barely see on their way into the party.<\/p>\n<p>I then made the cylindrical sleeve that connects the handle to the blade(?) of the pickaxe. I made this out of a strip of foam board, employing my usual method of curving and bending foam board \u2014 I covered both sides in masking tape to prevent it from breaking, and then carefully rolled it up, first in one direction, then the other. I taped this shape in place on the handle.<\/p>\n<p>I made the blade part of the pickaxe from some shapes I cut out from foam board; the sides, top, and bottom of the blade \u2014 four pieces for the pointy blade on one side and another four pieces for the flattened blade on the other. I taped all these together with masking tape, and then taped them into place on the handle.<\/p>\n<p>Then I covered the entire pickaxe with one layer of paper mach\u00e9. You can read all about my paper mach\u00e9 process and materials <a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/my-paper-mache-method\/\">here<\/a>. The short version is: I use <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2LYmQsW\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Roman PRO-543 universal wallpaper adhesive<\/a> (paid link), and I usually do alternating layers of newspaper and brown wrapping paper, but for this project one layer of paper was fine; it&#8217;s really just there to cover all the tape and create a nice consistent surface for painting.<\/p>\n<div class=\"am-item\">\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B00FK8VNJE\/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1&amp;linkCode=li3&amp;tag=manningkrull-20&amp;linkId=c750f16dcb0f016ec23f35d64e1c3348&amp;language=en_US\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" src=\"\/\/ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/q?_encoding=UTF8&amp;ASIN=B00FK8VNJE&amp;Format=_SL250_&amp;ID=AsinImage&amp;MarketPlace=US&amp;ServiceVersion=20070822&amp;WS=1&amp;tag=manningkrull-20&amp;language=en_US\"><\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=manningkrull-20&amp;language=en_US&amp;l=li3&amp;o=1&amp;a=B00FK8VNJE\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" style=\"border:none !important; margin:0px !important;\"><\/div>\n<p>When the paper mach\u00e9 was dry, I took the pickaxe outside and spray painted the whole thing black, and let that set for about an hour.<\/p>\n<p>I protected the blade with newspaper and blue masking tape, and lightly spray painted the handle brown, waited a bit, and then did the same for the blade with silver. I later applied a coating of matte spray \u2014 not really to protect the paint job, but to protect my apartment from the paint; whenever you do a light dusting of spray paint, it can easily rub off on things if you don&#8217;t cover it with matte (or gloss) spray.<\/p>\n<h2>Shovel<\/h2>\n<p>I cut the shovel blade out of foam board and used my technique for making foam board curve-able: I covered both sides with masking tape, and then carefully curled up the blade into a nice curved shape.<\/p>\n<p>I made the shovel&#8217;s wooden handle out of rolled up poster board, just like for the pickaxe. No flared shape this time.<\/p>\n<p>I built the grip at the end of the handle out of a small piece of rolled up poster board and a few pieces of curved foam board. I taped this stuff in place on the handle, and then wrapped a piece of craft foam around the connection area. I covered this whole area with masking tape to smooth out all the connections.<\/p>\n<p>I taped the blade in place on the handle with tons of tape, and then I added a sleeve of craft foam over and around the connection area.<\/p>\n<p>I then covered the entire shovel with one layer of paper mach\u00e9 and let that dry.<\/p>\n<p>To paint the shovel, I did the exact same steps as for the pickaxe above: black spray paint for the base coat, isolate the wood and metal parts with newspaper and tape, then a light dusting of brown and silver spray paint on the appropriate areas, and finish with matte spray.<\/p>\n<p>The finished pickaxe and shovel looked pretty realistic and worked great as decorations. If you&#8217;re looking to make something like this and need it to be more sturdy, like for a prop you&#8217;re going to carry around, you can just do additional layers of paper mach\u00e9; I&#8217;d recommend about seven or eight layers.<\/p>\n<p>These props were great for our Egyptian tomb exploration scene, and they&#8217;d work for any kind of scene involving mining, or a shed or a barn, etc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I made these here pickaxe and shovel decorations for the entryway into our Egyptian tomb Halloween party. They were super quick and easy! I didn&#8217;t need to make them sturdy at all, since they were just for display, and they only needed to last one night, so I was able to cut a lot of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3138,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[161,3,264,266,263,250,265],"class_list":["post-3000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-decorations","tag-paper-mache","tag-pickaxe","tag-props","tag-shovel","tag-tomb","tag-tools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3000"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5953,"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3000\/revisions\/5953"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}