Mummified Fairy

Do you remember seeing this?  Or any of the number of 'mummified fairies' that followed?

Well, I've had mummified fairy on the brain for quite some time, and have had most of the supplies to do one for over a year (including a brand new heat gun!)

Well, this week was the week.  The week I would finally, finally make my own mummified fairy!

......and I absolutely love it!  I can't wait to make another one, and try some more poses & some diffent fabrication methods.  I'm still trying to figure out the best way to display my poor little fairy, but for now, it just makes me happy that I have one!

That being said, she's certainly not for everyone.  She certainly is on the 'gruesome and macabre' side of curiosities, but that kind of fits me!  :)

Out of the different methods available (pantyhose + glue medium, paper + glue medium, plastic wrap + heat gun), I went for the plastic wrap + heat gun option, since patience is not my strong suit!  Now that I have one fairy under my belt, I think that paper and glue will be my next experiment.  While I totally love my little fairy, he's a bit on the 'gooey' side of disgusting.  I really want to get a papery, dried leaf look for the next one.

Supplies:
~Clearance small plastic skeleton from a couple of years back
~Some off-brand plastic wrap
~Heat gun (woohoo!)
~Hot glue gun
~Various brown & tan paints
~'Floral arrangement' butterfly (for the wings)
~Spray glitter (totes unnecessary.  I won't be using it again.)
~Glue
~Doll hair

Instructions:
I used the heat gun to get the skeleton posed and molded to the way I wanted it.  (Right knee bent, left hand on chest.)  I also slightly melted the hands and feet to be able to mold them into a more delicate shape.  (The original skeleton had crazy man-feet)

And then a whole bunch of fiddling with plastic wrap and the heat gun.  More of tips, rather than instruction - if you're going to to this, multiple single layers work better than 'ropes' or clumps of wrap.  The outside starts burning before the inside is fully melted.  Conversely, if the layers aren't thick enough before applying the heat, they'll just shrivel up and disappear.

The paint job is just a bunch of mottling and highlighting with different shades of tans and browns, nothing difficult, I suppose!

I cut off wings from a floral accessory butterfly, and glued them to either side of the 'spine', and applied the hair by rubbing just a little bit of craft glue over her skull, letting it get a bit tacky, and then dragging a chunk of doll hair over the glue.