Chabby House in September Project 1: Wishing Well

Hi Halloween fans,

It has been a hot summer.  Unfortunately it was so hot it was hard to do anything outside and then we had smoke blow in from B.C. It was pretty unpleasant outside a lot of the time so things slowed down a bit and I didn't get as much accomplished over the summer months as I wanted to. However, I did get some props started and I am finally getting them finished.

After I decided to collect donations for Made by Momma I realized I would need something to collect them all in.  I asked around and found that quite a few haunts just build a wooden box.  I wanted to do something different. The one idea that came to me and stuck was a wishing well. Made by Momma posts a wish list every few weeks with the things their clients need, so a wishing well to collect these wishes in seemed appropriate.

The structure is built of a round wood base, scrounged and purchased Styrofoam and Great Stuff.  First the round base was cut and I placed that onto a left over and damaged piece of pink Styrofoam.  This was to protect the wood from the elements and to catch any falling Great Stuff.  I then cut up the scrounged Styrofoam into blocks of approximately the same size.  Next I used wooden skewers to attach the blocks together leaving gaps for the Great Stuff.  I had to build the structure a couple of times. 

The first attempt I built in the house because there was less smoke and it wasn't so hot but I ran into a problem when I tried to get it out my back door.  It wouldn't fit. So it was damaged and had to be rebuilt outside. It took 2 cans of Great Stuff to fill in the cracks and create the "mortar".  Once it dried, I took a Dremel and smoothed out the "mortar".

I then added the top ring of stones which overhang the rest of the well. These were cut from a 1 inch piece of Styrofoam in order for them to be as even as I could get them.  It gave a nice finish to the top.

Next I painted the interior of the well with flat black exterior latex paint. Then I added a form of Monster Mud all over the exterior surface.  I did not measure the drywall to paint so I think it was a bit thin but it did the trick and gave a good base coat to the well.

A day or so later, I did the dry brushing in light gray and then white using acrylic paint.  I added a sponging technique using a green/brown mix of exterior latex on the mortar to give it a more aged and mossy look

Finally, I sprayed the entire exterior and part of the interior with Leak Seal clear spray to give the prop more weather proofing.  I am expecting a bit of snow or rain for Halloween this year and want to be prepared.  

So this is it.  I will be adding a few more atmospheric effects but I won't show them off until Halloween.


Next Prop: Pumpkins!