GIANT Realistic Halloween Spider Decoration

I built this Spider display for Halloween back in October 2021 and wasn't originally planning on making an instructable for the build, but after seeing that the Halloween theme challenge was posted, I decided I would upload the project and do my best to describe the steps involved with the limited amount of pictures I had.

This project takes a lot of time and effort, but is by no means very hard to accomplish. a lot of the supplies used were purchased at the local dollar store and Walmart to conserve as much money spent as possible, all in all this project cost about 125$ US dollars in materials.

you can make this spider just about any size you want, mine stands at around 10 feet in diameter!!!

Supplies

materials:

• 3 standard sized hula hoops ( I used PEX tubing from the hardware store to create my own, 32 inches in DIA.)
• Shrink wrap/ cling wrap/ saran wrap (to cover/fill body)
• LOTS of plastic shopping bags (for body filler)
• Large heavy duty yard cleanup garbage bags
• 1 inch DIA PVC tubing, approximately 12, 10 foot pieces, (may be more or less depending on how long you create your legs. and for the base the spider sits on.
• PVC cement
• 8-10 cans of expanding spray foam (I used the cheap 1.50$ cans from Walmart
• 2-3 cans of spray adhesive
• hot glue sticks
• black and gold/blonde long haired Halloween wigs (cheapest you can find, (Halloween store/Walmart)
• black fuzzy fabric for the legs (this part is optional, you can choose to keep using the wig hair on the legs, although it will take more time and effort.)
• 1 clear plastic Christmas bulb ornament for the eyes ( I 3d printed mine and will leave the .STL if you have access to a 3d printer.)
• 1 pack of ping pong balls for the tiny eyes
• pool noodles for the legs and build up of the head. (I used copper piping sleeve from the hardware store)
• plastic mixing bowl for buildup of the head.
• 3-4 cans each of Black and Brown Spray paint.
• 4-5 pairs of woman's skin color panty hoes. ( cheapies from the dollar store)
• Zip ties (preferably black)
• duct and or Masking tape

Tools:

• hack saw/miter saw/PVC cutters (whatever you have available for cutting PVC)
• hot glue gun
• Scissors
• hand drill / drill bits

Step 1: Building the Abdomen

you can really begin this project at any part of the body you choose, but I will go in order of how I built my spider.

We'll begin at the abdomen/body of the spider. to start well take our 3 "hula hoops," you can if you choose, use PEX water tubing to create a hoop in any sized diameter you want, a standard size hula hoop will do just fine, I was unable to find a place to buy them without resorting to online shopping. we will intersect the 3 hoops to create a ball shape.

using Zip ties, secure the hoops together at each of the 2 intersecting points. the hoop ball will be pretty unstable at first. to stiffen up the ball and build up the body you will wrap the ball with shrink wrap or even a kitchen saran wrap/cling wrap with also do the job. continue wrapping the ball until there is no empty spaces left. I continue around the ball until I had built up 2-3 layers of shrink wrap around the entire surface of the ball.

using our Plastic grocery bags (a great way to recycle that endless mountain of plastic bags under your kitchen sink) we will build up the "valleys" of the newly created abdomen. adhere the bags to the shrink wrap using Spray adhesive, layering the shopping bags to even out he low spots between each hoop/tube spacing. I did this all the way around the ball, EXCEPT for the the portion I determined to be the bottom that will sit in contact with the PVC base we will create in later steps.

once you have all your shopping bags adhered to the ball we will cover the entire ball with our big oversized garbage bags. the ball will most likely be too big to fit the bags directly around the ball, so I cut 2 sides of the bag to create a plastic "blanket." Adhere the bags around the ball with either hot glue or masking tape, or even a combination of both. do this until you have a representation of a smooth surfaced black abdomen.

set aside the abdomen for later assembly and decorating.

I apologize again for the lack of images but you can see in the final picture above what the abdomen will look like following these steps.

Step 2: Creating the Head

moving on to the head. this is the portion that supports most if not all of this gigantic model so attention to detail here is critical. to begin, you will need to find a piece of cardboard that will support the overall footprint size of the spiders head you want to create, this cardboard is where we will attach the framework (PVC) for the legs and abdomen.

begin by drawing the overall shape of the head onto the cardboard and also locate an approximate position with your pen/pencil where you will want each of the 8 legs to protrude out of the head. Using scissors or a box cutter, cut the cardboard around your drawn on head shape. see image 1 for an idea of what the PVC framework will look like. it is up to you to decide the position of each leg on your model. I decided I wanted one of its front short legs to look as if it was reaching for visitors as the walked up to the door for their candy, you can choose to either leave it on the floor for additional support or create this reaching effect if you choose.

first thing I did was draw the outline of my PVC foundation on the underside of the cardboard and then with a combination of eyeballing and measuring each portion of the framework that needed to be cut out of PVC, then taking it to the miter saw to cut out the 3/4" PVC frame. Each leg requires a 45 degree elbow at the base of the head to connect the leg to the body/head. if you decide you want the front arm to be reaching like mine, it will require a 90 degree elbow at the base of the head where you decide to place that leg. These elbows will connect to the frame underneath the head and then bend around the edges of your cardboard toward the top of the head. you DO NOT want to cement any parts of the PVC frame that may need adjusting as you get farther along into the project, like building and attaching the legs. so leave the elbow attachments for the legs non-cemented for the time being.

one thing to note in the framework, you will need to add a "T" connection in the center of the head pointing down to the ground to add a support stand later in the build. the legs alone WILL NOT support the head on its own. also in the back of the frame we will add TWO (2) "T" connectors facing away from the head toward the abdomen, to add framework for the abdomen which I will explain in later steps.

once the framework is completed you will want to cement the parts of the frame together that you know are in their final position. to Attach the PVC frame to the cardboard. I first taped the frame to the cardboard to hold it in place. I then used black zip ties through the cardboard and around the PVC in a bunch of locations the make sure everything was fully tied down and secure.

next you'll want to flip the head over so we can begin building up the shape of the head. using a combination of the plastic dollar store mixing bowl, pool noodles, and left over packing foam, build up the general shape of how you want the spiders head to look. In the images, you can see how everything stacks, building a hill (the mixing bowl) where the eyes are, and using the pool noodles to add density where the legs connect underneath. using a combination of spray adhesive and hot glue, secure all these materials to the cardboard, you do not need a ton, as the spray foam will also help keep these items held down.

Speaking of spray foam, once everything is dried and glued to the cardboard, its time to go at it with the spray foam. there is no real instruction on how to accomplish this, its all based on how you want the head and its shape to look. Cover all the plastic and mixing bowl with as much spray foam as needed, just remember this stuff will expand A LOT! I would suggest spraying a can or 2 and letting it completely dry (about an hour) to see just how different the foam looks from the point you lay it down to the dried final product. Another pointer is to not try and spread this stuff around after it has come out of the can. It is extremely thick and sticky and doesn't spread very well. so once its laid down leave it where it is.

let the spray foam dry for a few hours as there will be several layer underneath the outside one that will need dried. head to the next step to begin initial finishes to the head.

Step 3: Laying Down Skin and Eyes to the Head

this step is probably one of the easiest of the entire project. we need to cut up our women's panty hoes and apply them to our dried foam head. its pretty self explanatory, cut the panty hoes into pieces and apply them with a hot glue gun along one single edge.

once dried sssttttrrreeeetch the panties as far as they may without ripping off the single glued edge, and glue it down along the remaining 3 edges. cover the entire head with the panty hoes. make sure to save a couple pieces of panties for the eyelids.

now we will attach the 2 main eyes. my eyes were 3d printed and painted dark black, I will attach the .STL if you wish to print yours too! if not, get handy your plastic Christmas Bulb ornament, the one that breaks into 2 halves to create custom ornaments. Spray paint the inside of the ornament with black spray pain and let it sit to dry. Painting the inside will give the eyes a nice glossy look to them when finished.

Determine the position you want your eyes, and hot glue them in place. You can lay down a heavy amount to the upper half of the eye as this will get covered with skin.

once the eyes are dried in place we will attach one edge of a small piece of panty hoes behind the eye on the top of the head and stretch the panties once again over a quarter to half of the eyeball creating an eyelid effect. apply glue to the portion of the panty that will sit over the eye and let it dry,

NICE WORK! its starting to come to life now!

Step 4: Creating and Fitting the Front Legs

first thing to do before building your legs is to decide how high you want your spider to sit off the ground. This will also determine how long the legs will be. Because everyone's spider will sit a different height off the ground I cannot give you a specific set of dimension for your leg sections of PVC.

since the legs will not support all the weight of the head by itself, we need to create a support leg/foot under the center of the head to hold a majority of its weight. Cut your PVC to length you want your spider to sit off the floor and jam that into the "T" we placed in the middle of our leg/body frame in step 2. Using a 3 way corner attachment at the ground end of your support, cut 2 short pieces to any length you choose (8-12 inches should be fine) create a "foot." see the first 4 image for reference.

Since I am giving you the freedom of using your own eyes and judgement to make your spider any size, length and height, I cannot give you definitive measurements for the leg segments of PVC. The way I did this was to hold up a length of PVC and eyeball how high I wanted the first knuckle to sit in the air. Once I determined its length by eye, I took a solid measurement of where to cut the first segment for all 6 of the front legs (it will be 5 if you decide to make the front leg a "reaching leg") I use this procedure for the second and 3rd segments of pipe for each leg.

The first knuckle on each of the front legs that sit on the floor will be a 90 degree PVC elbow toward the ground, followed by another segment of PVC pipe then followed by a 45 degree elbow, followed by the shortest pipe segment that will touch the floor. (see the last image in the step.) Once I have all of my legs cut out and put together I will test fit all the legs into place in the head and determine their final position before cementing them in place.

THE LEGS OF THE SPIDER WILL NOT BE CMEMENTED INTO THE JOINTS THAT CONNECT THE LEG TO THE HEAD. To ensure that we can easily take down this spider after Halloween season to be stored for next year we want to be able to remove the legs from the head. what I did to make sure they were secured was I drilled a hole through the 45 degree knuckle at the head AND the beginning of the leg at the same time. I then secure the keg to the head with a black zip tie to make sure it stays in place and doesn't slip out due to wind, or trick or treaters that get curious. do not drill your hole for the zip tie until your legs are in their final display position. see the final 3 images.

Step 5: Connecting the Abdomen

At this point, we should be ready to attach the abdomen to the base of the head and bring this thing together. we need to create a rectangle protruding out from the back of the head, no longer that the end of the abdomen when resting at the base of the spiders head.

eyeball and measure out the 2 longer side lengths that will stick out from the T brackets we left vacant in the back of the head frame. close off the back of the rectangle by using two 90 degree elbows, followed by 2 separate short lengths of PVC that connect and finish off into another T slot that points toward the ground. this T connection will hold another piece of short length of PVC for another ground support for the back of the abdomen so it doesn't sag. see the final image in this step, it shows the abdomen sitting on top of the rectangle and the support leg protruding from the back of the abdomen

In essence we are just creating a rectangle out of PVC for our abdomen to sit on and be fastened down with zip ties. to do this I just selected the location of how I wanted the abdomen to sit on its supports, then punched a hole through the garbage bags and saran wrap in the abdomen on each side of the spider where the hula hoop meets the PVC support, wrapping the zip tie around the hoop and securing it to the PVC. be sure not to tighten this too much as we will eventually want to remove the abdomen at a later time for storage.

Step 6: Stabilizing the Abdomen and Head With Rear Legs

The back legs that reach behind the abdomen are also used for rear stability for your spider. they will be created in the same manor as the previous legs, eyeballing and then measuring the lengths of each section. make a decision on the length on each segment then connect each piece as it is created. this creates a solid start point for each segment to be measured out and created.

As shown in the first picture, you will use a 90 degree elbow at the rear base of the head. the first segment of leg is followed by a 45 degree elbow at the next knuckle, followed by another 90 degree elbow for the final length of leg segment that reaches the floor. in the final image of step 4 you can see where I am connecting the last leg segment to the final 90 degree elbow of the rear leg. Again once these legs are created and sitting in their final display position go ahead and cement the joints together but again not the connection where the leg slots into the lead, that will be drilled and secured with a zip tie.

Step 7: Time to Bring the Spider to Life and Decorate.

This is it! the moment we make our pile of plastic turn into a realistic spider! the decorating was the most time consuming portion of this build, not because it was hard, but because it was tedious and just takes time to cut the wigs and fabric and proceed to glue everything in place.

we begin this step by wrapping our PVC with the pool noodles or Copper pipe sleeves, whichever you decided to go with, the pool noodles will need to be cut length wise (hot dog cut) to be able to slip around the PVC. if you bought the copper pipe sleeve, those will have been pre cut for you. Secure the noodle or sleeve at each end of the PVC an the center with a zip tie.

Spray paint time. with your black and brown rattle cans, spray the panty hoes on the head a mix of black and brown, saturating the makeshift skin to your liking. avoid getting paint on the eyes and eyelids. you will also want to paint black any portion of visible PVC you can see around or under the head and l pool noodles/sleeves. once you can no longer see any skin or white PVC its time to add hair and fur.

decorating the hair is pretty straight forward. all you need to do is start cutting and gluing. the cutting of the wigs makes a complete mess, and when glue gets involved you have to deal with hair sticking to everything. I would recommend doing this outside in a garage shed, backyard or if your basement is unfinished that works too.

I began decorating with the wig hair, attaching it with spray adhesive. the spray worked fine as far as its adhesiveness, however, as time went along I began experiencing the hair sticking to myself (mostly hands) and wherever the spray adhesive decided to land. this was quickly getting very annoying, so I switched to the glue gun, and it worked just as good, if not even better, it does however slow down the process. So its whatever you are willing to deal with that will work for you. work around the spiders head placing hair wherever you see fit. working around the eyes and eyelids. (see pictures for reference.)

decorating the abdomen, I glued on a piece of cheap black scary fabric/cloth draped around the entire ball, I had purchased from the Halloween section at Wal-Mart, adding hair from the wig as a see fit. also spraying brown streaks of spray paint helped add some depth and realism to the abdomen.(see final picture for reference)

As far as the legs are concerned its pretty much the same deal as the other areas. I myself had some spare black fabric laying around the house that I had cut up and hot glued around the PVC and noodle, but you can also just use the wigs hair to cover the legs. it will be time consuming to cover the legs with lots of hair (and more expensive) but will most likely produce better results that my fabric did.

The last thing to do is create and attach the remaining smaller eyes. Using a razor blade or sharp knife, we need to cut in half 3 ping pong balls to create 6 smaller eyes, spray paint them black and let them dry. Once dried, hot glue them around the front and sides of the 2 larger eyes to make this spider really look like a spider.

This display is a looker!! people constantly ask me where I BOUGHT this thing, and once I tell them, I MADE IT! they are completely stunned. with time and effort you can have the same!!

Thanks for following along on my first instructables project. I hope my directions were as clear as I could convey them as I did in my head. please feel free to reach out if you have further questions on construction.