Witch 1.0 Halloween 2007 In 2007 we built the first version of our stirring cauldron witch for the front porch of our old townhouse. She appears to be stirring some sort of witch's brew, and her head will slowly turn back and forth. The witch utilizes two motors. The stirring action is done using a windshield wiper motor that is hidden in the bottom of the cauldron. The stirring stick is attached directly to a crank arm that is attached to the motor. The side-to-side head motion of the witch was created by a small crank motor that I salvaged from a lighted wire-frame deer Christmas decoration that I got on clearance. It has a slow speed and a decent amount of torque. This motor was actually at the bottom of the torso of the witch, and it turns a shaft that connects all the way up to the head.

View of the wiper motor.	Perspective View of the frame.	Side view of the frame.
Closeup of the head-turning mechanics. This is a crank motor salvaged from a lighted wireframe deer decoration from Christmas.	5 sections of extruded styrofoam glued together with spray adhesive to create a block of styrofoam. A head form will be carved out of this block.	Rough shape of the head carved out of the block of styrofoam. I used a metal brush bit on my drill to speed the carving. What a mess!
The witch mask test-fitted over the head form.	Closeup showing the fogger connected to some ducting. This is the first time I've ever used duct tape for actual duct work!	Fog coming out of the cauldron from the ducted pvc pipe.
PVC skeleton hand I made using the tutorial referenced/linked on ScareFX's website. The thick copper wire that runs through each finger is very strong. Almost too strong. This allows the fingers to keep whatever pose I want.	Latex monster gloves fitted over the PVC skeleton structure.	This picture shows the chicken wire attached to the frame to hold the shape of the body.
Another picture of the chicken wire, but with the arms attached.	Closeup view of the cauldron frame with the cauldron removed. The PVC piping is for pumping fog into the cauldron. I'm using a windshield wiper motor (supposively from a 2000 model Saturn) to turn the stirring stick. I cut a section of aluminum bar and drilled 5/16" wholes in both ends. I drilled aother 5/16" hole into a 1/2" PVC end cap and bolted it to one end of the bar. Then I used a short section of 1/2" PVC piping that connects to the end cap. The stirring stick is 1" PVC piping that fits loosely over the short section of 1/2" PVC. This allows the stirring stick to pivot around the smaller section of PVC.	Closeup view of inside the cauldron. I used a 100 bulb strand of lights to light the inside of the cauldron. This gives the fog a nice glowing green color.
Here are some rings that I am making for the side of the cauldron. I took 2 cheap styrofoam rings and coated them in Elmer's Wood Glue. The ring on the top of the photo has been sanded, the ring on the bottom has not. The ring holders were carved out of extruded styrofoam. They will be hot-glued to the sides of the cauldron.	Sickie Ickie over on HauntForum requested a how-to on my shoulder joints. Here's the parts that I use for one shoulder joint.	Here is a partial assembly. The 1/2" PVC section will rotate freely inside the short 1" section of PVC pipe. These sections are a littler shorter in my actual witch, but this demonstrates the concept.
The 1/2" end cap is snapped on. This keeps the 1/2" PVC piping from coming out of the "socket". The 1" PVC piping can now be attached to a 1" coupler. I used a 1" T-joint.
Here is a video of an early fog & cauldron lighting test
Here is a video closeup of the head crank
Clothing test. I bought 3 yards of black cloth for the dress, 2 yards of a distressed cloth for the cape, and 1 yard of the moon & star pattern for the shoulders. ScareFX used this same pattern for the shoulders on his witch. I liked it and decided to use it for mine as well.
The mask, hands, and styrofoam head are now all painted to match. The stirring stick is painted, the eyeballs are finished, the witch hat is now installed, and the "blinky" lights are now installed below the cauldron. There's still more to do, but we're getting pretty close!