DIY Articulated Dinosaur Leg Fossil from PVC Pipe, Aluminum Foil, and Paper-Mache

For Halloween this year I made an articulated Ceratosaurus leg. The final product is about 40 inches tall.  It was pretty cheap to make, and most of the supplies I had at home already except for the PVC pipe and insulation.   

Supplies: PVC pipe (3/4 inch and 1/2 inch), PVC pipe insulation (for the 3/4 inch), aluminum foil, duct tape, white glue, thin wire, coat hanger (metal, used as the main support to keep the leg bent), rope, paint, newspaper (for paper-mache)

I used photos I found online to determine how the leg should look, but I highly recommend you go to your nearest Science Museum and take 360 degree photos of a dinosaur leg for best results!

I started by cutting up a PVC pipe into lengths that more or less mirrored the bone structure I wanted to make. I made the leg based on random pictures I found online, so it was all just guessing.  The leg starts as  a single big bone (femur), then splits to two bones (tibia and fibula), then three bones (plus a bonus bone)(metatarsals), and each of those last bones have toes off the ends.  I used 3/4 inch PVC for the first three bones, then 1/2 inch PVC for the metatarsals/toes.  I ran a single piece of rope all the way through the pipes so that the bones would all be connected (later I tied the rope off where it exited the last toe.  The fibula was tied to the tibia with an extra loop of rope.

Here I covered the top bone (femur) in insulation foam to give it extra bulk, and started forming the end of the bone by adding aluminum foil.     

Since the rope that connected all the bones only ran through one toe, I used wire to make a frame for the rest of the toes to sit in.  The wire was bent at the end of each toe (or aluminum foil added) to prevent them from slipping off.

Here is the partially complete leg, with just the foot to be finished.  Besides the insulation foam on the femur, the rest of the additions are just aluminum foil with a little duct tape here and there to keep it in place.

Once I added aluminum foil to the foot I realized that some of the dinosaurs I was looking at had a 4th toe on their feet.  This 4th digit is usually pretty small, so I didn't want to use PVC pipe, so I just made the 4th toe out of aluminum foil. I also added claws on the ends of each toe with aluminum foil. 

Here you can see the final fully prepped leg before I started the paper-mache.  For paper-mache I use a roughly 50/50 mix of warm water and white glue.  I did a few layers on the larger bones, but the small toe bones mostly just got one layer each.  Make sure you don't cover the ends of the PVC pipes with the paper-mache (you will need them open so that you can run a wire through them later).  Let the paper-mache dry overnight before painting. ideally.

Painting the leg was very simple (though first I tried a variety of other options that did not work). I used cheap acrylic kids paints for the whole thing.  The paint scheme is: 

1) Solid layer of brown paint.  2) Highlights using a mix of about 1/3 brown paint in 2/3 white paint.  

The highlights are done by 'dry-brushing,' which is where you take the brush, dip it in paint, wipe off most of the paint, and then lightly run the brush along the surface of the bones so that only the bits that stick out the farthest will be painted.  

To further highlight the separation between bones, I did NOT dry-brushed the lighter brown color into the spaces where the bones meet (seen best in the foot, where I dry brushed along the original 3 pieces of PVC pipe but not the area between them that was covered by the paper-mache)

After painting, all that was left to do was mount the leg properly. The rope that runs through the entire leg was helpful in keeping the bones next to each other, but does not provide any rigidity to keep them in place.  To fix this, I took an old clothes hanger, straightened it out, ran it through the bones, and then bent it at each joint to make the appropriate pose.  I also poured some white glue into the pipes and at the points where the separate bone sections touch to help keep them in place.  The foot also needed a small piece of a thinner wire on the outside to keep in in the correct position (which I then painted brown so it would be more subtle).  Because of the small wire in the toes, they can be individually moved around.  

**Embarrassingly, the final mounted version has an error! the middle bones (tibia/fibula) are backwards! The photos showing the pre-paper-mache and paper-mache versions have them correctly positioned.** 

Plant Propagation: Papyrus

Propagating Papyrus plants is rather entertaining as they grow upside down! The plant shown here is Cyperus alternifolius  (umbrella papyrus) I believe.  I also did this same propagation with a Cyperus papyrus but it did not grow quite as well, perhaps due to higher light requirements. 







Propagating this plant is super easy:
Step one: Cut off a stem of the plant.
Step two: Place upside down in water.

All done! Keep the water level relatively consistent, and place in the sunniest place you can find, either a south window or outside is best.  I used a western window and had some success though the plant did much better once it got outside. 

For more plant propagation posts, click here

**Update: It's now been about a year total since I originally rooted the papyrus, and it's still doing great! survived and thrived in a western window all winter. 

Mini Monet: The Summer Poppy Field

My first decently sized painting (11x14).  Still working on technique; I need to learn how to use larger brush strokes to get the effect I'm really looking for.  A picture taken during the process shows how it evolved as I worked on it.  Original painting here. 

More Doodles in 3D

Another version of forced perspective doodling and creating 3D effects.  This time with actual 3D!
For my other 3D doodles, click here

Song Bird Art: Bluejay and Cardinal

Mini Monet: Meadow with Poplars

Another 5x7, one of my favorites so far.  Original painting here. 

Mini Monet: The Japanese Bridge

My acrylic 5x7 version of The Japanese Bridge, 1899.  Original painting here.  Tried to do the bridge free-hand, which was a mistake; definitely using a pencil on a string next time to get a decent curve.  Moving into slightly larger but still mini canvasses. 

Mini Monet: Bordighera

Based on Monet's Bordighera, House of the Gardener

Original here

Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle Warbler)

We've had a ton of these little dudes hopping around the place lately.  The poorly edited-in yellow shows where the name comes from.  
For more song bird drawings, click here
For all my song bird art, click here

Plant Propagation: Pothos (Devil's Ivy)

Pothos is another easy to propagate plant.  Cuttings from a mature plant can easily be rooted in water, and then planted in bunches to make a new, full potted plant.  These are the steps I took to propagate my pothos plant (I am in no way an expert in this field!). 

1) Select a few strands of pothos for cutting.  People generally recommend cuttings around 6 inches long and having a few leaves on each cutting (I did manage to successfully root and grow a plant from a cutting that only had one leaf on it, but that might not always be the easiest way to go about it).  You will want 3-4 clippings to plant in a pot to make it look good. 

2) Cut vines a quarter inch or so below a root node.  These are the little brown bumps that occur every few inches on a pothos vine.  Remove leaves from the bottom few inches of the clipping, but make sure you still have a few left!  If you have a long vine, you can cut it up into multiple pieces as long as each segment has a root node.   

3) Place cuttings in water, making sure the root node (or nodes) are submerged and the leaves are not.  Place the cuttings in filtered light (they don't do well with a lot of direct sun light).  Roots will grow out from the root nodes.  Add water if you notice the water level getting low while the roots are growing.

4) Once roots are 1-2 inches long (this will likely take a couple weeks), carefully plant in regular potting soil.  The roots are fragile, so be careful placing them in the dirt or they may break off!

5) Water often for the first few weeks while the roots establish.

This is my new plant made from three cuttings.
For all my plant propagation posts, click here