Witch's Cauldron

I wanted to make a witches cauldron that was life-size and that didn't look cheap. I then added lights and fog.

Material list:

Large plant pot

Primer spray paint

2x Cheap plastic skulls

2x Round metal sprinkler piece things

Clear polyurethane spray

2x Expandable foam (not pictured)

Black, brown, and orange acrylic paint (not pictured)

Red and black spray paint (not pictured)

Gap filler (not pictured)

Rubber gloves (not pictured)

Orange lights (not pictured)

Old paint brushes, the worse the better (not pictured)

Hot glue gun (not pictured)

The first thing I did was clean off the pot then painted it with primer.

With a very old brush I would use mostly black, with a bit of brown and orange and dabbed paint all over until the entire pot was covered. It is very important to put this on randomly (rust and dirt aren't uniform). Turn the brush so it applies the paint at different angles. Don't get too much brown and orange or it won't look like cast iron.

While the pot was drying, I cut the skulls in half and removed the bottom jaw portion. I would check to see how they looked on the pot to make sure I cut enough of the skull off. Once I was happy with how much I cut off, I then sprayed primer on them and the rings. Then I painted the rings with silver paint. After they dried a bit, I used black paint to make them look antiqued and dirty a bit. When they were dry enough, I hot glued them to the back of the skulls.

I hot glued the skulls to either side of the pot to keep it in place while I tied string around them to hold them in place. I made the string really tight, so they wouldn't move when I sprayed expandable foam behind them. I spray enough expandable foam to fill the skull, and as you can see it expanded, it came out the side. No worries, we will clean that up in the next step. You want to make sure you get enough in there because this is what keeps the skulls on the sides.

Once the foam is completely dried, I cut off the excess and cleaned up where it got on the skull, pot and ring. Then I used gap filler and filled any gaps between the skull and pot to make it look like one solid piece. Then using the same painting method as before, I painted the skull to match the pot.

This was my favorite step. This is where I put some details of rust to really make it look realistic. I mixed water and orange paint to make it a bit thinner. Then I went around the edges of the skull where I thought rust would start to form. I also did this under the rim of the pot in a few places, as if water spilled over the edge and started to rust the cauldron. After it was all dried, I sprayed it with two coats of polyurethane to try to weather proof it a bit.

The last step was making the coals that the cauldron sits on. I used two cement block to set the cauldron on top of. This allowed me to run wires through the bottom of the pot so I could access them. I wrapped the cauldron and blocks in plastic wrap so the foam wouldn't stick to it. Next, I laid some orange string light randomly around the base of the cauldron. Using expandable foam, I sprayed all around the front mostly, covering all the orange lights. Once it was dry, I spray painted it red and then added some highlights with the black spray paint. The last two pics show it with the lights on.

I placed a fog machine and a green light inside the cauldron and this is the final result. Sorry the pictures aren't the best, but the light was getting dim.