The happy go lucky jester is truly the symbol of Mardi Gras. Denoting celebration and joviality you can make your own jester doll to reign over your Mardi Gras party.
What you will need:
- tennis ball
- multicolored silk ribbons
- acrylic paints
- black adhesive tape
- green yellow and purple colored felt
- PVA glue
- Scissors
- plastic modeling material sufficient to make a 12″ doll
- a butter knife or modeling tool
- painting brush (thick and thin) You will use the thick brush to paint large areas and a thin brush to paint details.
Instructions for the project:
Have an adult cut an old tennis ball in half. Paint one half of the ball. Next, draw a fine line across the middle of the ball’s face. Then paint two small dots, in any color with the thick brush on both sides of the line so that they are just half an inch away from the line. These two dots will be the two pupils. Draw a larger thick circular ring in any color around one of the pupils. Keep in mind that the circle should be drawn in a way that leaves some white space around the pupil. Repeat the same process for the other pupil. Keep in mind that you can change the colors of the circle for the two eyes. The choice of color is whatever you want but it should be bright.
To make the nose of the jester take a small cap from any bottle of soda. Place the cap on the pencil-drawn line, away from the end where the eyes have been drawn. Draw a circle around it to make the nose. Mix a little PVA glue into some red paint and fill the ring with deep red paint. Just below the nose draw the smiling lip lines using your imagination. To make cheeks paint rounds of red and orange a little below the end of the two eyes away from the pencil drawn line. When finished leave it to dry completely.
The next step is to roll out four small sausages from the yellow plastic clay. Use one large sausage for the body so it should be narrow at the top and wide at the bottom. Firmly press the two small sausages n to the body to make the arms. To make legs of the jester doll use one long sausage. Use your fingers to carefully model the clay. To make the fists shape two white balls to make fists. You will also need to shape two red balls to make a pair of shoes. Press the pieces into position and then decorate.
To make the head shape one large size ball from the clay. You will want to make sure it is large enough to fill the cut out tennis ball. Use the glue so that the face painted tennis ball covers one side of the clay ball. When the tennis ball sits tightly against the clay ball you can press the clay ball on top of the body. Roll out another smaller sized ball from the clay and press it between your two palms so that two sides comes flat. Then you press one of the flat s tightly over the body. Press the head at the other flat end in a way that the clay part of the head sits over the neck. This will help make the tennis ball face appear more realistic. You can use the PVA glue to secure the head over the neck, and the neck over the body.
Then you can use the colored felt as the cloak by pasting it around the neck joint. Paint the uncovered parts of the limbs and the cap with big rings and circles of different sizes. You can also use the felt at the ankle just over the shoes. To make the cap for your jester shape out a cone like shape out of a small sausage roll of clay. Attach it on the clay ball serving as the head and then from another clay brick make some very small sausage like rolls. You can then press them up along the edges of the cone. This will serve as the brim of the cap. To make the hair attach the multicolored silk ribbon along the glued face of a black adhesive tape. As a finishing touch drape the felt around the lower limbs so it serves as the pants of the doll.
Leave a Reply