Goblet of Fire
Real Fire is a big no no for halloween with 100s of kids walking around wanting to touch everything. Our Goblet of Fire was a bit easier to deal with.
Building Blocks
No plants were harmed in the making of this prop, but some were displaced for a while. The faux concrete planter served well as the housing for our fire. The planter was deep enough that the LED flame base was completely hidden from view. An overturned plastic flower pot was painted with concrete paint to match the planter and added both height and a nice transition to what would become the rock base. Both the planter and the flower pot already had holes in the bottom of them so the power cord could be run through, the flower pot did need a small notch to be cut in the top so that the cord could be run out the back.
An empty oil barrel that we got free at a car dealer was tall and sturdy enough to hold the "goblet" portion of the prop. Chunks of foam left from other projects were glued randomly around the barrel with smaller pieces being positioned at the top and larger ones near the bottom to create a boulder-ish shape (sorry no picture). The ring around the base of the barrel in the second picture was used as a reference for how far from the barrel the base of the rock should be. It was removed once the foam was in place. Brown paper packaging material was glued to the chunks with foam glue to cover the base. The packaging material overlapped at the back by a couple of inches so that we could hide the power cord for the flame.
Preparing the Flame
The flame unit we have is a Chauvet DJ BOB LED flame, we have had it for years and it works much better than the cheap halloween store cauldrons so i've never felt the need to come up with a better one. The picture of the orange flame is the way it comes out of the box. We needed a blue flame for the Goblet of Fire so green stage lighting film was added over the LEDs with a bit of clear packing tape. The film was cut to be as small as possible to give the desired coloring but not interrupt the air flow to the fabric used for the flame. It came out well and looked really cool.
Place and Enjoy
Very carefully, so we didn't crush the paper on the base, the base was positioned then the goblet was added and the power cord run down the back and hidden in the extra paper. Plug in and go!