Pot of Gold Prop

The pot of gold prop for my St Patrick's Day Leprechaun door display is done. I hoped to get everything completed earlier this weekend, but distractions prevailed. I still might add little legs/feet to the pot, but we'll see. The lantern and the door itself are very close to being finished.

I used an old medium sized plastic Halloween cauldron. It's been holding our Trick or Treater candy for years. No problem giving it up, I've got something new in mind this October.

I created the rings to hold the handle with Model Magic. They were sculpted on the pot and worked into the design of the preexisting implied rings these types of cauldrons always have.

I wanted the rings to curve upwards, so to avoid sagging, I turned the pot upside down while they dried.

Next, I created the handle with a curved piece of plastic fountain pump hose. The hooked ends were also made with Model Magic and glued on later once dry.

I first painted the pot with a rusty brown faux finish, but changed my mind. It looked too dark and Halloweenish. I wanted it more kid friendly and fantasy feeling. It was repainted with mottled black and silver later.

A foam core "shelf" to hold the gold mound was glued in just under the lip and painted black.

No real trick to creating the pile of gold coins. Just countless drops of super glue and ample patience. The ones I used have been in my stash for years, but you can get bags of them for a few bucks at most party stores.

It was really tedious at first filling in the open space, but once built up enough, it became a lot of fun creating the crooked stacks giving it some personality.