how would one make a bowl for 7yr olds to wear.they are going to be animal crackers in soup bowls for a parade

Question

they are in a parade in December and they want to act out Shirly Temple's animal crackers in my soup part. they have created a dance number and all, but we just can't seam to get the bowl thing down. we are going to use elastic to hold it onto them (like suspenders). any help would be greatly welcomed.

Answer 1

I never did it but the first thing that came into my mind was to find something round and the size you want the bowl to be. Go to your appliance stores and ask for one of the large cardboard packing boxes. Wet down the cardboard and fasten it on the round "thing" and let it dry. Spray paint it.

Answer 2

I erased my first answer because I misunderstood the size, etc.

Sounds like you might need to make a papier mache bowl with a slot/hole in the center for legs to fit though... having 2 holes would be less comfortable and add another step.

If you can find a ball that's large enough, you could use that to form the papier mache on... otherwise you may need to begin with chicken wire, or make a hemisphere shape with wadded newspapers, etc., held together with masking tape.
Drape the form with plastic wrap or aluminum foil so the dried bowl can be removed for sure.

You could just make the papier mache as a hemisphere, or you could make the bowl flare out a bit at the bottom (would be the top rim when turned right side up) by draping the bowl outward onto the ground ...if you used a sphere instead of a hemisphere for the main form, you might need to let that dry and remove it from the form, then add an overlapping layer to flare out.

Btw, papier mache will go much faster and be quite strong if you use those blue "shop towels" that come on a roll in automotive depts. Saturate them with the diluted white glue instead of strips of newspaper then place on the form... they're fairly large and drape really well, so the work goes much faster. Paint over them if you don't want the bowls to be blue.

You might also want to add a "rim" to the bottom of the bowls... that would hide the legs hole a bit but also make them look more like bowls instead of just hemispheres.


HTH,

Diane B.

Answer 3

what about a saucer shaped sled? reasonable cost for parents, easy to find if you're in a cold weather state, and they'd be able to use it as a saucer when they're done with the show. Just remove handles for the show and put back in afterwards. Attach rope and hang around neck. They could even hold it by it's handles and dance around turning it forwards, up, etc. It's a tad shallow to be a soup bowl but it would work.

Answer 4

Maybe take a small wading pool, cut holes in it for the legs to go thru.

Answer 5

Paper mache half of a space hopper?