I made this 8-foot-tall puppet out of papier-mache and cardboard for Pride! I've made papier-mache dolls before, but never puppets and definitely none at this scale! But I had a vision of a "Great Rainbow Fairy" inspired by BOTW's Great Fairies and wanted to make it happen.
I think if I'd know how hard this project would be I might not have even started! But since I did get started, I spent all my free time for weeks working on this puppet. The individual parts - head, torso - weren't too hard, but figuring out how to put them together in a way that let them move but didn't fall apart was! And then the paint started to crack and flake off!! I cried from frustration a few times especially towards the end.
But it was all worth it when I took her to my local, small-town pride festival. Of course a few people were creeped out by her but many many people took photos and complimented her. The kids especially loved and were fascinated by her.
I hope to take her to more festivals soon. Only thing I want to make sure I do in the future is to have lots and lots of cold sports drinks and take more and longer breaks from the costume. I got woozy from heat exhaustion by the end of the day. 😅