I want to offer you to make/sculpt a mandrake. This creature is quite popular so why not to have one of them at home?

So, here you go:

1. First we need foil. Make a little carcass with feet (the dimensions and the shape can be of any kind). We will wrap this carcass with baking plastic.

2. I have a plastic called "Sculpey" (and I strongly recommend it). It happened that I took it for a test and it turned out to be very soft and pliable. I usually use CraftClay. No matter which one you choose, you can use any baking plastic.

So, we wrapped the carcass with legs. It is an almost finished (in shape and size) body of the mandrake. We can already choose the vegetation — little artificial leaves. I bought it at a pet store (what a surprise!). There was a large selection of plants for aquariums and terrariums. The leaves can be left as they are or painted with acrylic paints (I did so). I like darker shades.

3. Continue to work with the carcass. Make a mouth and eyes. Choose any shape and size.

4. I attach several small balls in a chaotic manner to the top, they will hide the holes for plants. It can also be done just for the beauty.

5. Make texture on the carcass. I just have lines (furrows) from the head to the feet.

6. Make a few holes with a pencil (stack) on the top. We will put plants there. Sculpt arms and horns.

7. The body is also covered with pimples (small parts are never amiss) and baked at the temperature stated in the instructions — in my case, 130 degrees. 8-10 minutes. Use a glue gun to glue the plants to the top.

8. After drying, paint with acrylic paints. I mainly used three colors — brown, black and dark green.

9. I tied a few threads (like the roots) to the legs and painted them a bit to make them harder. The plants are all painted in dark green. Acrylic is applied without problems in one layer.

10. Apply matte lacquer to the eyes and a few leaves at the base. Let it dry.

11. The final view in natural lighting.

12. That's all.

P.S. I packed the mandrake in a wooden box and put sisal on the bottom. It's practical and beautiful!