Building big light Trolls head

[trollsheads]

Hi,
Any tips, ideas or links on this project is much appreciated.
Thank you!


By May next year I need to build a large trolls head.
It will be about 1.5 meters tall (5-6 feet).
It needs to be light as it will be moved manually and mounted on a box.
The more real and scary looking, the better.

I have never done this before.
I am guessing that plaster is the way to go, maybe there are other ways.
The sculpture will outdoors in the day only on sunny days.
How to you make plaster water proof?

[fritchie]

Plaster at that size will be too heavy to move easily. I'd suggest you make a hollow shape of chicken wire fencing or something similar, varnish the wire or paint it with some rust-proof covering, and then coat the frame with papier-mache (wetted, overlaid pieces of paper such as newspaper). That can be up to about 1/4 - 1/2 inches thick only, so get the shape close before applying paper.

[AKady]

Also to help with the general shape on op of the chicken wire you can use some expanding foam from the hardware store. You can carve it and then either paper mache over it or maybe even do a thin layer of fiberglass or body filler and then paint it.

[trollsheads]

Great. :)
Ideas much appreciated.

Are there and tricks to make papier mache water resistant?
Just for 20-30 minutes if it suddenly starts raining and one has to rush the sculpture indoors.

Thanks again.

[AKady]

Paint, enamel I think is water proof

[Ries]

Concrete is the favored Troll building material around here- my buddy Steve built this one a few years back, and it holds up pretty well-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fremont_Troll

[trollsheads]

WOW that is some Troll.
Thanks for the link.

Concrete wont work in my case as the head will be transported around on a box on wheels.

[trollsheads]

Just wanted you to know that I just found this project online.
It is a huge trolls head in papier mache.

In case someone else is looking:
http://www.papiermache.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?id=786

Good work by the makers. :)

[fritchie]

That last reference is fantastic, TH. Perhaps not coincidentally, also in the Seattle area. I'm sure the concept of a troll's appearance is quite flexible, but I didn't expect this one. The lead artist references Treebeard and the Ents as a group, from Lord of the Rings (the movie).

That series, both book and movie, did quite a bit for the Earth's creative endowment.