One of our earlier giant spiders was made to go over our entryway. It has lightup eyes and poseable legs. The legs and body are also removeable.

1. The base is made of wood. The vertical wood in at the back is used to hold the body shell in place. Underneath the base wood are 4 PVC pieces screwed into the wood. To each end of these are PVC 45 degree elbows attached with PVC glue. Inserted into each of these is a small straight piece of PVC, of which, one end has been flattened and a hole drilled into for the bolts each leg will be attached with. A large bucket will be the base for the head shape. It is held into place with wire and attached to the wood base. This will allow access to the light that goes inside. The eyes are plastic Christmas tree ornaments which come apart into two pieces. Trace these in place on the bucket. Next, drill lots of holes inside the traced area of each eye. This will help let the light through to the eyes.

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2. Use only LED lights inside the head area! You don't want anything that will get HOT! We used a yard stake light and a LED bulb. This was screwed to base. The plug extends out the back of the bucket.

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3. Inside each eye we placed some scrunched up orange film. This will create some nice eye lights. Hot glue the film and eye shells in place on the bucket.

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4. To create the head "skin" we used panty hose filled with polyfill. Tie the ends of the first, center row to the bucket handles (or a hole) to help keep it in place.

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5. Using needle and thread shape the areas around the eyes to pull the shapes down lower. Stitch each row together. It doesn't have to be neat. Don't worry about any hose runs.

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6. Use painters tape on each eye to protect from paint and sprayfoam.

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7. Sprayfoam texture all over head. Not alot is needed. it will expand as it dries. Let dry.

8. Spraypaint black the head, wood, and PVC. Once this is dry, hotglue spider "hair" on head. Here, we used unraveled rope pieces. Around eyes, hotglue "hairy" black yarn. Remove painters tape from eyes.

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9. The spider fangs were forms with a pieces of bent wire. Around this was wrapped plastic bags. Use back duct tape to shape each tip. Next sprayfoam surface except for tips. let dry. Spray paint with black. attach wire ends to wood base.

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10. Light was showing on the sides, so we added some black fabric on the bucket sides.

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11. Use PVC for leg pieces to the size you want. The joints were attached with bolts. Each leg was sprayfoamed and painted black. Spider hairs were glued on each section.

The body was created using a large blowup beach ball. Sprayfoam the ball all over leaving the bottom unsprayed. Leave outside in the sun for a week to expand and harden. Next, let the air out of the ball and remove. Spray paint black and attach hairs. This will then be placed over the vertical wood in back once spider is in position over entryway.

In the end the legs were too heavy to stay in place on their own so we attached clear fishing lines and tied off to hold the overall pose. Here are some shots of the assembled spider on the ground:

 

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And the finished entryway spider in place:

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And at night with eyes lit:

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