Wildfury Greatstaff work process description.

Materials used:

• long stick of wood
• Lots of cardboard (from frozen pizza boxes, mostly)
• Lots of tape
• Wallpaper glue
• News papers
• Some none-stretchy cotton fabric (green, but I painted it over to match exactly)
• Green nylon fabric (for the leaf – needs to be able to melt around the edges)
• Metal thread (also for the leaf)
• Pins and nails
• And last but not least – a can of polyurethane foam (maybe 2 if it’s your first time working with it, like me)

How I did it:

I cut out the rounded part of the staff (the lower one) from cardboard. Then I attached it to a wooden stick with tape. 

I sprayed one side of it with foam, and then let it dry for a while. Then I sprayed the other side and let it dry.

Once it was dry, I started the cutting process. First I did a rough cut off of the most of it. Then I went over it again to get it thinner and more smooth (I think in general, my staff is a bit too thick).

When I was satisfied with the shape, I prepared the wallpaper glue and cut the newspaper into strips

I covered the staff as smoothly as I could and let it dry. In this step, I should have used paperclay, but none was available to me, so I didn’t.

Next step was the top green part. I originally planned on using more foam, but was out, so instead I used the technique also used by Lonan Cosplay.

I used an empty cardboard box and painters tape and shaped the top out of these materials. After I was satisfied with the shape, I covered it with papermache.

Once dry, I attached it to the main part of the staff by hammering it in place with small nails.

I painted the staff using acrylic paint – I don’t have any preferred brands, I just use whatever is on sale.

I first painted a base brown layer on the staff, dark green on the head-part of it.

When the first layer was dry, I started on the patterns. For the light green part, I mixed a middle-green with silver and white to make it a shiny light green. The brown I made with the 3 base colours mixed with a bit white and yellow. I added two layers of the light green, because I wanted it to really stand out.

Last things missing are the details from fabric. I made the small green band from the fabric for the hanging straps wrapped around cardboard, sewed them together and attached with a needle. The straps I also sewed from fabric. I painted these with the same colour I used for the green details on the staff itself. Using the same acrylic paint on the fabric also meant that the fabric got stiff, which I wanted it to be, so it would keep the right shape. The hanging “straps” are also attached with needles.

At last, I made the leaf that dangles. It is made with nylon cut in the shape of a leaf. The fabric is then zig-zagged onto a piece of metal wire (which makes it wrinkle) and then the edges are melted a bit with a candle.

The final result:

Update:

After bringing the staff to a convention and using it for my act on stage, it took quite a lot of damage:

I repaired it by adding Worbla to the cracked area and painting it. This part is covered with fabric, so the damage is no longer visible, and the staff is very solid now. In future, I will use something stronger than cardboard as a base.