Staff of Newspapers and Duct Tape

I actually have some non-Dragon Age related crafts coming up real soon, I swear. Halloween!!! Anyway...



Geoff mentioned more than once that he thought the Anders costume really needed a staff. "He's not a mage without a staff," he insisted. But I didn't know how to make something like that, so I went about the internet until I found this amazing blog, where the author explains in detail how she makes incredible WoW staves.

I don't think I'll ever be able to make anything on that level, but I was inspired to make something like this staff. I started with a large stick and a bunch of wire, from the hardware store. I wrapped the wire around the top of the stick and then taped it down.



Then I wrapped it in newspaper and duct tape, and formed it into something like the shape I wanted.



Then a layer of paper tape. I made the spines out of cardboard and taped them on.



After that I started with papier mache.



My first few layers were old school newspaper strips and Mod Podge. I had to do this on my patio, so everyone in my building started asking about my weird dragon sculpture. Yeah, now they know...

Then I built it up using papier mache powder (CelluClay). This stuff was more difficult to work with than it appeared in the video, so I'm not sure if I mixed it wrong or if it was a different brand, but it looked a lot like igneous rock when it hardened. Still, very strong and hard.



Then I finished with a layer of gesso, to smooth it, and black-brown acrylic paint.



I wish I had known that gesso came in black because that would have made painting it a lot easier.

The staff has some glowing green eyes. I happened to have some "jewels" left over from the Morrigan necklace, I cut the centers out of these and used them for shiny eyeballs.



I hot glued them on and then painted around them with puffy black fabric paint, to give it an "eyelid."

And that's it! A very cheap, if somewhat time consuming, mage staff.