Krampus, the recently re-popularized ancient goat-demon of spooky Christmas was the guest of honor at last year’s Plague Faire: Perchtenlaufen Krampusnact, which was held on the first weekend of December, 2024 just after Krampusnact proper. Here’s a behind the scenes look at his construction and some more detail shots of the finished 9-ft-tall party sculpture.
Spirit Halloween had to taunt us with a 8ft tall animatronic Krampus in October, just as I had decided on a theme for December’s Plague Faire. Wouldn’t that giant Krampus statue make a great party activity? Who needs photos with Santa at a party about plagues and death? We could take photos with Krampus instead! But instead of dropping $300 on a pre-build animatronic, Jake and I put our heads together to sculpt a statue out of materials on hand.
I have to confess that I’ve never done paper mache before. I didn’t grow up in an especially crafty home, and paper mache science projects were too cliche. As a result of my lack of experience, I had no idea what a powerful medium paper mache can be. Incredible how such a simple concoction of flour, water, and a little glue can turn something so fragile as paper into a weight-bearing, free-standing, endlessly shapeable rock.
We keep stacks of brown paper on hand from all the stuffing inside our packages to use as kindling, drop-paper, or for crafts like this. Flour, water, glue, and the paint were already in house as well. The plan was to use chicken wire from the shed and a rotating sunglasses display from my days as a faire vendor to shape the body, and then attach paper-mache hands, head, horns, and hoof to the armature. Then the chicken wire bits would be covered up by his giant robe and other lengths of fabric.
We spent a couple of nights on the paper mache. A foam wig head wrapped in cling-wrap was an easy starting point for the head, which is really more of a mask in that I didn’t sculpt the back. The horns started as paper-towel rolls cut, formed, and wrapped in paper mache. The hands too are wads of brown paper built up with layer after layer of coarse brown paper mache. I know most people use newsprint, which no doubt would produce a smoother finish, but the brown paper was perfect for the monstrous texture and quick volume I was looking for.
I spent most of my time on the head and the hoof, while Jake held the horns and sculpted the second hand based on my first example. I made the tongue and nose out of shredded paper that became a clay-like-pulp once submerged in the water and flour and wrung out. Great stuff! Easy to shape protruding details that way but keep them light-weight.
Jake constructed the body armature, attached the limbs, and pinned on the robe while I was cooking for Thanksgiving. We positioned our creation in the dining room window with a colored LED shining up on him to hopefully scare the neighbors.
When it came time for the party, we started hiding Krampus back by the woodpile next to the shed so that he wasn’t immediately in the face of small children. Apparently all the drivers could see him while parking which was an excellent unplanned preview. Once the children caught a glimpse from a safe distance and no one had a meltdown, we moved him in closer to the action so he could more easily snatch up any naughty children.
This photo is my absolute favorite.
