"Why did it have to be snakes?!?"

This project wasn't quite as bad as I was anticipating.  I mean, I expected it to be filled with horror and constant shuddering...so anything short of that was going to be amazing.  Like Indy, I loathe snakes.  Something about them sends major signals to my primitive lizard brain that scream "DANGER! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!!"  So doing a snake hat was something I knew was going to be challenging.  I considered getting a fake one, but everything I looked at was super expensive for the size I needed--and then I'm left with an expensive snake that I feel like I shouldn't throw out.  Plus they weren't stiff enough to be posed.  Except for the plushie ones and they couldn't be out in the elements.  So I circled back around to making one of my own.  After a little pinterest mining for ideas, I decided to go with the stiff wire with a pool noodle around it.  Which worked out really well.  I also covered him in foam just because the pool noodle isn't great at taking paint, and it made him a little more weather proof and able to blend in with the carved head.


First up was the block of foam for the head.  I filled a small box with a (greased with cooking spray) garbage liner and then filled it with a can of great stuff. In the meantime while it was thoroughly drying, I got supplies for the body.  I already had large stiff wire--like the gauge that barely bends and is hard af to cut through (can't remember what gauge, but probably 12?)  Slipped the wire through 2 taped together pool noodles and shaped it so that it would fit comfortably around my skull rock guy's head.  I left a long section of wire at the top so that I could screw down the head. Then I covered him all in foam.

Once the foam block was dry, I went to town cutting it up.  I saved one section to later carve out a tail, but for the most part, I just took off small pieces and slowly got it into a snake-like head.  I'll admit, I didn't spend much time on it.  I have other projects to work on, and I'm not a great sculptor, so as soon as it vaguely resembled a mouth, I called it good and moved on.

I screwed the head down onto the wire as well as the tail.  After trimming off a few pieces of foam that got a little wild, I painted him.  I used a base layer of a light, kind of lime, green.  The second layer was a little lighter of dark green.  I want him to be visible, so I tried to keep some of the lime visible.  The mouth went pink and red.

For the eyes, fangs, and tongue, I came inside.  Like Bert from last year, I printed out snake eyes and glued them to domed vase filler glass pebbles.  I used the small ones, which I'm hoping will be big enough.  The fangs and tongue I cut a few pieces of small wire and melted some instamorph and shaped fangs and a tongue around them.  I'm just now waiting for the paint to dry on the body, then I'll paint the tongue and teeth, and assemble him.  I'm glad this guy came together so quickly.  He's not super high quality, but not bad for a prop I hadn't intended to make initially.

**UPDATE**
Okay so I've started to redo the snake head, this time turning it into a cobra head, which was actually what the type of snake was after rewatching the temple of doom the other day.
 I'm not certain that it's all that much better--but I think it'll end up a little better this time just going by the amount of work I did.  At the moment the head and mouth are a wee bit duck like, but I'll be going over it once it's dry with a hot glue gun to add in some details that are difficult to add with paper mache.  Basic construction started with a styrofoam ball connected to a pool noodle.  I put some wires on the edge for the flared head, then taped up the sides to give the paper something to stick to.  I used clothesline to add some ribbed texture on the neck.  Putting the first layer of mache on was a little tricky--mache doesn't like attaching to styrofoam or pool noodles, but I used a little glue to tack things down a bit and now they're ready for a second layer.  It'll take more time to build up, paint, and then cover in polyeurathane.  And I'll have to modify the fangs--they're way too big at the moment.  The eyes are a little big now, but I think they'll still work.

**UPDATE**
I worked on the head last night with a crap ton of hot glue to get some details in there.  I actually *gulp* stared at a picture of a *shudder* ssssnake to get an idea of the musculature around the eyes.  I was debating about the fangs, whether to remake new ones from the instamorph, but I wanted more delicate ones.  And suddenly I noticed how my glue was moving around so on a hunch, I did a drop of hot glue on the top of the mouth, then when the slight string trailed off, I waited a second, then slowly tugged on the string and slowly dragged the drop into a stalactite kind of a shape.  Once the top fangs had dried enough to be stable, I turned him upside down and did another large one on the underside.  The result is a mouth full of more delicate fangs that I find much scarier.  Today I went out and gave him a coat of white paint so he can be detail painted later.  I'm much more pleased (if slightly more freaked out) by this version than the previous one.

**UPDATE**
Wow, haven't updated this guy in awhile.  I've been doing lots of layers, waiting to dry, then doing more.  So it's not been that exciting.  BUT.  He's finished now and I'm pleased with how he turned out.  I kept him green to go with the body.  I know that cobra's aren't typically green--but I didn't want to do black because I wanted to contrast him more from the rock and other colors in the yard display.  Used a little painter's tape and did a bit of a diamond design on the hood just for some detail.  The teeth I wrapped in tinfoil so they wouldn't get accidentally painted red or green.  And after many many layers of green and some polyurethane, I glued down the eyes and inserted the tongue.