Hello Internet, please allow me to introduce you to my new friend Frank.
Frank cost me about 10 cans of spray paint, 15 bottles of spray insulation, and two pairs of jeans (because I am an idiot and kept getting spray insulation on myself), but he is MAGNIFICENT. And worth every penny.
I mean, LOOK AT HIM! He's so pretty.
Frank is the culmination of about three years of plotting, but failing to actually do anything, and Mila. Oh, Mila. Mila gets a lot of credit for Frank because she super wanted to help me build a big spider. How could I possibly say no to a request like that?
Frank is 10 feet wide and about 3 feet tall. Next year he is going to get taller because I think I have figured out how to make him stand tall and proud as he makes his web. For now, though, he's quite lovely as he is.
::Happy Sigh::
If you'd like to make your own Frank, I'd like to point you towards a bunch of tutorials. I basically combined instructions from a few places:
Legs except that I used 3/4 inch PVC to save a few bucks. I also didn't bother to spray paint it before putting all of the pieces together. I didn't regret it.
By the way, spraying foam and watching it ooze out from fabric is perhaps one of my top 5 favorite things. It's soooo fun.
As long as it's warm outside, the foam keeps expanding for a few minutes so I figured out to make it "big enough" and then let it get BIGGER and more goopy and fantastic. I like that Frank is all sorts of bumpy and lumpy. He made a mess in our driveway when he got too drippy, but once the foam dried, it was easy to clean up.
Body except that the inside of my spider is garbage bags. There is a giant garbage bag filled with plastic shopping bags in the back and a smaller one again filled with shopping bags in the front. Both bags are covered in fabric and then sprayed with foam. The fabric was so the foam would have something to stick to, which worked marvelously.
His eyes are lawn stakes. I maybe permanently "ruined" them by embedding them in foam. SO WORTH IT.
I love you, Frank!