The Girl with the Urn

I am here to present one of the many new and very brilliant Davis Graveyard props.  The Girl with the Urn....or Urn Girl.  We are quite original around here with names....it is sad.  This statue is based on a woman carrying an urn statue that is in several cemeteries.

So here she is in progress.  She is the result of a LOT of trial and error on other statues.  The crew worked hard to make sure that we did the best we could on this one.  From the construction to the materials to the paint job.

And she is really quite stunning.

The arms did not come bent this way, they were straight and we had to cut them, then make gaffer tape damns, fill them with foam and then sand them out.

Of course she had to have a Halloween themed maincure.

Once both arms were shaped they had to be attached to the frame and test fit the hold on the urn.  We used plastic from a swimsuit purchase from Costco to shape the boobs.

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We then test fit the fabric to see how it will lay and how much we need and where there needs to be support and bubble wrap to disguise the chicken wire frame.  As in all our monument props we start with the head to make sure that we have the body form correct before we build the frame.  

We have learned that velvet, although heavy to work with, holds a great shape if you want lots of detail in the form.  We usually tell you to soak your fabric in water before putting monster mud on it.  But with velvet we make an exception, just make sure the mud is wet and your are fine.  The water adds extra weight that pulls the fabric too much.

To keep her cowl up we use a soda box sprayed with silicone or covered in Vaseoline to make it easier to remove when then mud is dry.

Statues usually do no have big open areas like under the cowl.  So we filled that in with more mudded velvet to give it more of a statue carved in stone look.

Close up of the cowl- that makes it look more like a statue.  if you just had space behind it, that is unrealistic from a carving point of view.

Make sure that you drape the fabric over the arms to cover any voids and give it more of a movement feeling.

We mudded her without the urn to make it easy to remove for storage and make it easier to mud the body.  We tied fabric around her waist as a sash to give the body more definition.

Finished statue (minus base)

Final Statue in the yard.