DIY D&D Mimic Chest Craft

 I have been doing a lot of D&D and Renaissance Festival adjacent crafting lately and this Mimic Chest is one of my favorites yet.  

Supplies:

-Pre-made balsa wood chest from a craft/hobby store

-Balsa wood strips (to put teeth into)

-Toothpicks or similar 

-hot glue (lots)

-acrylic paint (I use cheap craft paint)

-Parchment paper

-semi-gloss polyurethane

Construction:

Part 1: Teeth

Step 1) First I cut the balsa strips to make the 'gums' of the mimic where the teeth would go.  I set the bottom row of teeth back to give room for the top row when the box closes. 

Step 2) I cut the tooth picks into small pieces and put 6 in each balsa strip to form the base of the teeth.

Step 3) I added hot glue over the tooth picks to form the teeth.  I had to hold these a long time to allow the glue to drip and solidify in the right way.

Step 4) I painted the teeth outside the box to make sure I could let the paint dry in an appropriately way to keep the tooth shape.

Part 2: Tongue and Mouth

Step 5) I put parchment paper on top of some pieces of balsa wood to make a curved surface, then put hot glue down to form the tongue.  The curve of the parchment paper allowed the tongue to have a curved shape which worked really well.  I used a scissors to trim the edges of the tongue once it dried.

Step 6) I used hot glue to put the gums with teeth and tongue into the mouth, then used more hot glue to cover up the edges and cracks of the chest, which also gave it more organic tissue looking bits.  I double checked repeatedly to make sure the chest could fully close once I put the teeth in.

Part 3: Painting.

Outside of the chest: Solid Black first, then a heavy dry brush of dark brown, then a lighter dry brush of light brown to give it an aged appearance.

Inside/Gums: Solid White first, then a dark pink. Next I did a dark red wet coat to seep into the cracks and shadows.  Finally once that dried I did a lighter pink dry brush.

Tongue: Very dark red/brown with a lighter red dry brush

Teeth: Dark brown at the very base, then a yellow brown, then white.  

Part 4 Sealing:

Once the paint was dry I used a spray semi-gloss polyurethane to seal it.  All done!

DIY Wizard Wands with Gems

 

I recently made a lot of wizard wands for a birthday party and was pretty happy with how they turned out.  I used the same basic plan as my previous wand: https://chuck-does-art.blogspot.com/2018/10/diy-wizard-wands.html but this time added the extra flare of a rhinestone at the tip and coated the 'vines' with gold to make them extra sparkly.  

Materials:

-12 inch wooden dowels, 3/8 inch diameter

-Rhinestones (slightly smaller than 3/8 inch across)

-Lock-Tite adhesive

-Hot glue gun and lots of hot glue

-Acrylic paint: Black, Dark Chocolate (or other dark brown), Honey Brown (or other light brown), Gold

-Warm semi-gloss polyurethane 

Step one: I used the lock-tite adhesive to glue the rhinestones to the end of the dowels. 

Step two: I add hot glue: There are a couple different 'parts' that I add to the wand

1) Two full circles near the middle of the dowel to be the handle where you hold it with your fingers

2) A large blot of glue on the butt of the dowel (opposite the rhinestone) to help balance it, with a spiral of glue leading from there to the finger handle.  The farther the finger handle is from the center, the more glue you will need to balance it.

3) A thin circle of glue over the edge of the rhinestone with a little spiral off of it to make sure the rhinestone can't pop off. 

4) Test the weight by holding the wand at the finger handle; if it leans to one side or the other add more hot glue to the other side until it balances.

Step three: Paint

1) Paint the entire thing black

2) Heavy dry brush dark chocolate (dark brown)

3) Light dry brush honey brown (light brown)

4) Paint gold over all the hot glue areas; do this lightly so that some of the dark color below shows thru, which will give it an aged appearance. 

Step Four: Once the paint fully dries, spray with polyurethane to seal the paint.  If you don't use the polyurethane the paint comes off the hot glue very easily. I used a semi-gloss and liked the final effect.  Make sure to do this outside!

Happy Spell Casting!