The Giraffe Neck Construction Overview

The making of the giraffe has been like three separate sections coming together,  The head was fabricated by a chicken wire armature, covered by papier mache and then finally dyed fabric and then embellished.  It seems to have a lot of character, because of the shaped wire ears and antennae. 

The neck structure was made of a wires joined together over calico fabric, using the glue gun, initally by wire circles in gradually smaller sizes.  At the top of the neck thinner wire circles were used to form a telescopic effect so that the neck would extend.  This worked initially, but it became clear that the structure needed strengthening.  To do this plastic "belts" were attached using pop rivets around the wire circles.  Further strengthening was made by gardening canes.  It had to very strong because it was supposed to be used on stage.  It would be disastrous in a stage situation if it collapsed.

The third section was the neck sleeve covering.  This was made by dyeing calico yellow and cutting it to size around the neck structure.  It was sewn together and then the patches were drawn on.  It would have been easier to draw the patches on when the fabric was flat.  However, they would not have matched when it was sewn together.  The patches were then painted brown and sewn round in a rough manner to suggest that they were "drawn" with a quite free sewing stitch in black.  

Finally the head was attached with a glue gun and a hole made for the wearer's face.

Final Workings of Giraffe Inside