Bones in the Wind ~ Wind Chime for Halloween

It was totally not planned, this wind chime. I already had my projects for Halloween but then my mother called me on the phone on day, saying she found some strange branches from the raspberry bushes. They would look like old bones and if I wanted to use 'em for Halloween? And I'm so, Mum you are awesome.
So when I saw them, I really wanted to make them into bones. But my budget was already pretty empty, so I had to use materials I already had at home.
And after re-watching Hannibal I got the idea to make a wind chimes out of human bones. Hahaha. well fake human bones.

Step 1: What You Need

I only used materials I already had home, so I'm sure there are easier ways to make it.
What I used:

- 1 plastic skull
- branches (Thick and light)
- White Colour Spray
- Gray Primers
- Yellow Colour Spray
- Some Newspapers
- Fimo Basic or other Modeling clay (air dry)
- Mod Podge matte
- white acrylic varnish
- clear acrylic varnish
- glue gun
- 1 screw hook
- String

Step 2: Make the Bones

I used raspberry branches from our Garden. They are light but thick as a finger and the texture looked a bit like once broken but healed bones.
First I used my grandfather's old pocket knife to cut away some stumps and irregularities.
Next I washed away the dirt and let them dry in the sun.
Meanwhile I mixed the secret weapon aka Mod Podge with a bit of water. I find it easier to work with if it's mixed with water. It's more like melted ice cream, white melted ice cream. (Now I'm hungry, damn)
I rip the newspaper in stripes, into the water-Mod podge mix and roll it into little balls. Now I only have to attach the little balls to the end of the sticks, wrap newspaper around and try to form it into the end of a bone.
Not all bones got such a thick characteristic end, so I left some natural because they looked like splittered bones.
Let it dry (it took 2 days for mine to do so, because I'm always very enthusiastic about mod Podge. I basically dunked the bones into the stuff.)
So, now it's time to play with the clay. I just handled that like making christmas cookies. (I'm a bit food oriented...sorry)
Just roll some clay out and wrap it around the knobby end of the bone.
Again let it dry.

Step 3: Painting the Bones

So after everything was dry, I used white acrylic varnish to paint them white. Let it dry and coat the bones with clear varnish. I wanted to hang them outside and hopefully use them again for the Halloweens to come. (I like to put more than one layer of varnish on my projects, the weather is rather rainy and humid in October, so all my paint has to be for outdoor use and weather proof. )
At least I sprayed the pieces with the yellow paint and the Primer. I wanted the bones to have a light yellowish touch. If they are a bit to grayish just spray then with White spray paint. Now at least they should look really like bones. If you want you can colour the broken ends a bit yellow or red. Whatever floats your boat. I played with the idea to "bloody" the bones up a bit with Fake blood. But never got to it. Maybe later.

Step 4: Hanging of the Bones

So now for the last steps, I used a thin string to make a triangle with the three longest bones. All the other bones I tied with the string to the triangle.
Next I drilled a hole into my plastic skull to insert the hook, I used a small drilling machine for that (sorry that I have no pictures, but I really didn't know if it would work what I had in mind) .
Now I used the glue gun to attach the screw hook (or whatever it's called. It looked like a screw with an hook on one end) to the skull. Better use a lot of it.
If the skulls jaw joins seem to weak use the glue gun to fix them. The bones are pretty heavy and the jaw has to hold the triangle.
So, that's it. Pretty easy right? Now just hang it outside and wait for windy times.

Happy Halloween

(Sorry for my English, but it's late and a zombie ate my brain)