The Grave Digger 2003
After a couple of years using the grave jumpers in the graveyard, I decided
to do something a little less work for 2003. We decided to decorate
indoors and having a pneumatic grave jumper inside the house was just a bit too worrisome
for me with all of the people we expected to stop by. I decided to modify
one of the grave jumpers to make a figure that I could put between the buffet
tables and pose so that it looked like a real person.
| The hands for the grave digger are made from some gloves
that have a latex backing made to look like rotting flesh. They are
the same gloves that I wear when I dress up as a grave digger and hide in
the grave yard.
I stuff the gloves full of recycled plastic grocery bags. I found
that coat hanger wire works well for making the fingers pose able. I
bend the wire in the rough shape of the fingers and thumb, tape the sharp
ends of the wire off and insert the whole wire frame in the glove. |
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| The framework for the grave digger is made from plastic PVC
pipe. I used bungee cord to hold all of the various pieces of PVC
together.
Near the joints I zip-tied some sections of foam pipe insulation to
give the arms and shoulders a more realistic thickness. I built the
stand out of some scrap pieces of trim board that I found in the garage,
but could have been made out of PCV pipe fairly easily. |
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| The chest was filled in with a piece of foam padding about
4" thick. I zip-tied the foam padding to the center support. |
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| Once I had the rough shape I wanted, I put a foam mannequin
head over the PVC pipe. The mannequin heads that I have already have
a hole in the base, so they slide on and fit snug.
I had to remove some of the styrofoam from the base of the mannequin
head to keep it from sticking out in front. |
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| I put a pillowcase over the styrofoam head for several
reasons. The pillowcase hides the white styrofoam and the seam
between the head and body. It also blacks out the eyes and mouth of
the mask that I have.
In the dark, the flat black pillowcase makes it nearly impossible to
tell if there is a real face under the mask. |
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| Finally, the mask goes on and by using a cloak with a hood,
I can hide the seams of the mask and get the look I want. The cloak
also covers the base of the stand so there is no need to do anything other
than put a pair of boots under the cloak with the toes sticking out just a
little bit.
Notice that the foam pipe insulation takes away some of the PVC pipe
look. The result was realistic enough to have people wondering if it
was a real person and going to move at any minute. |
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You would have to put a bit more effort into the grave digger to make it a
useful outdoor prop. Any slight breeze would ruin the effect, so you would
have to manufacture some PVC structure covered with foam rubber to give the
impression of hips and legs.
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