Sickie Ickie's Easy Man-Eating Plant
Click on the picture above to see the QuickTime movie.
This is actually an easy project to do, and can look impressive with the correct lighting. The idea came to my wife and I when we were asked by a community theatre in August 2002, to make the various forms of Audrey II for "Little Shop of Horrors." This is the largest of the plants we made in only a couple days- and that includes the time for shopping. Needless to say, the theatre didn't have much money to give us to create the props- but the Man-Eating Plant was the hit of the show!
As usual, I give more details than are probably necessary.
TIP
- It helps if you have another person to assist you while doing this project.
Supplies
2 Plastic Wheel Barrel Shells
2 four Inch Hinges w/Bolts, Washers and Nuts (2 Washers each bolt)
1" thick x 6" wide x 16" long Upholstery Foam
3M 77 Spray Adhesive (or other adhesive)
Green Felt for Exterior
Shiny Fabric for Tongue
Fabric for the Interior
Fishing Line
1 or more colors of Puff Paint
Plastic Vines
Embossing Heat Gun (or Hair Dryer)
Drill w/Drill Bits
Hot Glue Gun w/Glue Sticks
(2) 2" x 2"x 4 foot long Boards
4 Bolts w/Washers and Nuts (2 washers each bolt.)
(1) 24" long x 24" wide Plywood Board
(2) 1" x 4" Boards (Ours were 18" long.)
Loctite for the Nuts
Extruded Styrofoam or Polyfill
Optional
1 Lazy Susan w/Bolts and Nuts
120 Grit Sandpaper
Dremel and Cutting Wheel
Let's Begin!
Unfortunately, we had to build this in such a hurry for the theatre, we didn't take pictures. Now, since I'm building this site with my new interest in haunting, the best I can do is take pictures and explain how it was done.
Place one wheel barrel shell upside-down on top of the other wheel barrel shell. See the rolled edge in back? (The front of the shell is pointed, the back is flat.) Place one of the 1" x 4" boards on that rolled edge and mark where the flattest portion is before the corner starts to round. This is how long to cut BOTH your boards. On ours it measured ~18". So we cut both 1" x 4" boards that long.
After cutting your board, put the segment back on the rolled edge and hold up the two hinges to it. Mark where to drill the holes for the hinge screws. Then drill the appropriate sized holes through the wood and plastic shell.
Place a washer over each bolt, then shove the bolts through the plastic shell, hinges, and wood. The head of the bolt (+ washer) is inside the shell and bolt shaft goes through to the outside of the wood. The length doesn't matter too much since your actor will be about 2 feet away from any harm, and nobody sees this angle. Slip on a washer over each bolt from outside, add a drop of Loctite on each of the bolt threads, and put on and tighten the nuts from the outside. The Loctite helps keep the nuts from loosening and the washers help keep the nuts from eating into the wood/Plastic. Plus, if you have to retighten for any reason, it's easier to do that from outside than inside.
This part is optional, but 120 grit sandpaper will take off the smooth surface of the plastic and give a "bite" for better "sticking" using adhesive.
Spray the bottom interior shell with the adhesive (be sure to follow directions on the can and use otdoors!) Place the fabric in the center first with the fabric. The edge can be fitted by cutting slits in the fabric closest to the center of the shell if needed. Then line the edge all the way around as this will cover up the ends of any frayed center fabric. We learned this the hard way.
Also, because an actor was to be inside the plant, we used Modge Podge on the fabric inside after the glue dried, to make sure the fabric was smooth and wouldn't fray. I have my suspicions, however, that Elmer's Glue would have created the same durability.
TIP
- By ripping up pieces of paper, laying them out in the center of the shell, and taping them, it creates a custom made template for the fabric.
- Getting a "busy" design for the inside fabric helps hide the seams.
Spray the top interior shell and fit the fabric there in the same way.
Fit a piece of rectangular fabric over the interior joint at the back of the plant to cover that slit and bolt heads.
Close the shells together. That is your skull of your plant. Place a 2" x 2" x 4 foot long board on the side of the upper shell making sure it rests on the rounded lip. You don't want it too far forward or you'll have problems with the lips and it will bulge the shape of the plant.
Mark where, in your estimation, where the holes should be drilled on the 2" x 2"s. One hole should be near the front and the other hole should be as far back as possible.
Transfer those marks to the other 2" x 2" also. Drill the two holes through both of the 2"x2"s and through the plastic. Attach both 2" x 2" on the outside of the skull with bolts, washers, Loctite and Nuts. Exactly the same way as you did for the hinges, only this time make sure the bolts are just as long as they need to be without sticking out too far.
...or if you are like some haunters and have some bolts laying around, you can just do your Bolt-washer-plastic-wood-washer-Loctite-nut thing and cut off the remaining shaft with a Dremel and cutting wheel...
Handles can be optional. If you want the plant to move only by having a person being eaten inside, you can go without handles. The actor will move the mouth by pushing up and down from inside. If, on the other hand, you want this plant to operate by talking or interacting by being fed by an actor, the handles are the way to go. The longer the handles, the easier the leverage.
Spray adhesive around the outside of the bottom shell and then wrap the felt material around it. Start with edge of the felt in the center of the back (of the bottom shell), then wrap the material around and cut the felt so it joins or slightly overlaps where you started. Work the material smooth down the front, then the sides. Save the back for last since nobody will see this angle. Even though the back area shows some wear after four years, the seams (marked in red) are still hard to see on camera.
Spray under the bottom of the shell and cut slits in the fabric before attaching it underneath the shell.
At this time you can sandwich the Lazy Susan between the bottom of the plant and the 24" wide x 24" long plywood board. This will give left and right movement and help the plant not to tip over when the mouth is opened. Again, this is only necessary if an actor is NOT inside. If an actor is inside, it is recommended the plant stay in one spot for safety.
As you can see, our shell has a hole cut out of the bottom. This was because originally an actor was supposed to be eaten. (She would go in the plant and out the bottom hole behind a structure.) When this was changed, we had to make the plant more animated- hence the Lazy Susan on the 2" x 4"s.
TIP
- In our production we had the 24" L x 24" W board slide under a 3 sided lip made on top of a square platform. In this way the plant was more stable and less likely to tip during speaking or songs. The plant was originally made for someone to be eaten, but the idea had to be scrapped due to the director changing her blocking- so we went with the platform idea.
- An idea that was expressed, but never tried, was that the whole Lazy Susan thang could be eliminated by attaching half a large solid rubber ball under the bottom shell to pivot on. If this works, it would be a vast improvement over the Lazy Susan because the plant would be able to pivot up and down besides panning right and left. I imagine a large weight would have to be placed in the bottom so when lifting on the lever handles, the bottom jaw would stay down.
You'll notice that the top is a bit flat,. You can round it out by gluing a whole bag of polyfill on top or by layering extruded polyfoam on top, then shaping it. Maybe a pillow? An actor had supplied us with polyfoam peanuts from his packing supplies, and due to a shortage of moola, we used them. If we had been given more money, I definitely would have gone a different route because packing peanuts are easily crushed! Spray the entire top with the adhesive, then apply the felt in the same way you did with the lower shell. There is no right or wrong in this! Be creative! Experiment!
Cut a tongue shape from the 1" foam and spray adhesive it. Cover the tongue in shiny fabric. Our tongue was roughly 18" long and 6" wide.
Use the glue gun to attach the back of it to the upper shell's back center. Then use fishing line to tie the tongue to the roof of the mouth with hot glue.
We wound up cutting two very small pieces of tongue material and tying the fishing line around them. Then we hot glued the material to the tongue and could see if we needed to raise or lower the fishing line for where we wanted the tongue. Then we hot glued the tied fabric to the roof of the mouth. The tongue would flap slightly when the mouth was opened.
Now the plant is green...but not much character. Veins are easily made on the felt with Puff Paint. This type of paint has unique properties. It's only about 99 cents on sale and comes with a nozzle, so all you have to do is squeeze the bottle and a nice line will flow out. Jagged up that line, make it look like lightning bolts and you have flat veins. Blow heat on it from a hair dryer or embossing heat gun and those veins PUFF, making a 3-D effect. Very cool! Be careful with that embossing heat gun, it will melt the felt if kept on it too long! Also, EMBOSSING HEAT GUNS ARE NOT AS HOT AS REGULAR HEAT GUNS!!!!!
Now you get to play! You have a hot glue gun, extra fabric, plastic ivy, and anything else you'd like to add on! Go at it!
We had the idea of using purple plastic Ivy as an eyebrow, and we were going to animate it to go up and down, but due to time constraints, the idea had to be scrapped.
If you add teeth, you have to have them point INWARD due to the shape of the wheel barrel shells.
We added soft upholstery foam teeth and had to cut the bottoms at roughly 45 deg angles for them to work. Also, you'll notice that there are no front lower teeth... That was because an actor was originally supposed to be eaten by the plant, and it would make the Big Mean Green Thang look a little wussy if his teeth fell out while chewing his food!
The theatre kept Audrey II and after 4 years gave her to me. She was the first prop that my girlfriend and I, later to become my wife, worked on together. For years Audrey II could be seen chomping on me through many Halloweens encouraging the screams of many a trick-or-treater in the local haunted house during the holiday season.
This last season she was seen to do one final Halloween performance, then was retired to that great landfill in the sky to make way for newer props.
Funny how there's some props you become attached to... Thanks for years of good service, Big Mouth!