Creative Construction: Mission: Impossible?

The Mission: Turn a giant spool into a stone well stage prop.

Uses: An actor has to sit on the edge of the well during the performance.

The Task: Using as little money as possible, and without altering the spool in any way. No painting, no cutting, or lasting effects.

Deadline: One day.

Do you accept this challenge?

Yes!

This is the spool in question.
I started by getting a piece of paper mill paper that was big enough to go around the spool. I found a roll of paper thinner than I am used to at Hobby Lobby for about $4.50. I painted the paper gray (with some paint I had lying around the shop). I don't have a picture because it was threatening to rain and I was trying to hurry. I hung the paper in my shed to dry.

The spool sits pretty level although it was a bit wobbly. There are 4 metal rods that run the length of the spool and stick out on either end. I tightened these up and that made the spool a lot more sturdy, but then posed a problem for me. Now I had four bolts sticking out about 1/4 to 1/2 of an inch out of one end. Since I wanted to make this as non-wobbly as possible I didn't want to have the bolts on the bottom. If I did, when the actor sat on the side it would slightly tip. Nope the bolts had to go on the top. I had planned to cover the entire thing with paper mill paper but with the bolts sticking out of the top I didn't want the actor to sit on them, or the bolts tear through the paper.

The Solution: Styrofoam. I used a scrap piece that I had laying around the shop and cut a hole in the middle. Then I cut random shapes only about an inch deep. This made the look of stones without the individual ones. Then I took the heat gun and heated up the edges and middles. This makes styro look more rock-like. For more on how to make rocks visit this.

As you can see it went around the bolts solving my problem.

Next I needed to do the hole in the middle. Without cutting or painting the spool I cut a piece of paper mill paper in a circle and painted it black (with some paint I had sitting around the shop).

I painted the rock topper with some dark grey paint (I had sitting around the shop). I also thin down the paint a little. This helps get in the cracks and holes.

I noticed there were already some staples in the spool, so I stapled the black spot (a pirate's death sentence for those of you who are pirate fans) in place. Then I crumpled up the gray painted paper mill paper and opened it back up. Much the same way I did here. I unrolled it and stapled it on the top and bottom making sure it had a lot of wrinkles. After that I got my paint sprayer and sprayed black paint up from the bottom. If you paint the dark color from the bottom it looks like a shadow.