Giant Papier-maché Luck Doll

The idea is to make a hundred of these luck dolls and hang them all over our town. Giant luck dolls might bring giant luck! Anyway, I only made one so far and I am not looking forward to making the other 99. So a lonely doll is cheering up my garden for now. 

You will need the following stuff:
- balloons
- paper tape
- newspapers
- scissors
- wallpaper glue
- paint and brushes
- colorful cords/ yarn/ whatever
- knitting needle
- iron wire

It might come in handy to have a little Chinese wooden luck doll so you get the picture. 

First you tape the balloons together. The way I did it (see picture) wasn't very smart. It is not necessary to use that much tape. When you pop the balloons, it is best to take them out of your doll completely, otherwise the remains of the balloon will stick to you papier-maché on the inside which might cause it to collapse. All that tape made it impossible for me to remove the balloons. So my doll has a big dent in the back of its head....

I am not very good at papier-maché. It's always wrinkled (sanding doesn't help) and often has weak spots. You'd better look for another instructable on papier-maché for the real thing. I used newspapers and wallpaper glue, but I won't claim this method to be the best.

Anyway, I made the glue according to the recipe on the package, covered the balloon with glue (using bare hands!) and stack strips of paper onto it. I really wanted to do it well this time, so I did one layer and let it dry for over a week. Then I did a second layer and waited for another week.

Then the time had come to put a knitting needle into its bottom, popping the balloons one by one and coming out of the top of its head, hehehe. To remove the balloons, you can make the holes a little bigger (using your scissors) so you can put your fingers inside. Be easy on the bottom hole, you don't want this one to be too big.

First I painted the whole thing black. Then I painted it beige. I lined out the face, hair and clothes with a pencil and just colored it in. As you know I always use acrylic paint, but any paint will do.

To finish it off, take a piece of colorful cord or yarn and attach it to the end of a piece of iron wire (you can wrap the wire around the middle of the cord a few times). The piece of wire should be bigger than your doll. Pull the (double) cord though the doll from the bottom to the top. TIe several knots at the end using some different colored cord/ yarn.  

Tada! FInished. Only 99 to go...