When I started scouring the Internet for my Mary Poppins costume, I figured I could just purchase a parrot-head umbrella, being that Mary Poppins is a rather famous movie. I soon realized that I did not want to spend that kind of money, particularly on an umbrella that would have no practical use aside from costume accessory. It couldn't be that hard to DIY, could it?
I began by buying a 3-foot (approximately) black umbrella off Amazon, with a wooden handle. Much like this one.
Then I started wrapping around the hook with teal duct tape, wadding it up to make a ball where the head would go.
Truth be told, I ran out of duct tape. So, I switched to masking tape...
After I got enough tape wrapped around securely and happy with the size, I began coating it in hot glue. The masking tape was really rough, and I wasn't sure how it would hold up to being painted, so I used the hot glue like a plastic coating rather than as an adhesive.
I put large globules of glue on either side to make the eye balls. For the base, I created large, flat dots. Then, once that dried, I put smaller dots atop those to make the pupils.
Next I began making feathers, which I accomplished by drawing scales on paper and then adding a little texture.
Next, I painted the whole thing a bright green using craft paint - many, many coats.
And finally, I began detailing the parrot!
I first made the whites of his eye balls, then filled in the black pupils. I painted the beak black (to skip rinsing about a paint brush again).
Next, I used bright blue to draw the circles around his eyeballs and give them a little more dimension. The strokes obviously aren't perfect and neat; this just adds a little extra character!
Finally, I detailed the feathers. I used a light green in the same shape as the feathers to bring out the work done with the hot glue. This really adds a lot of depth and dimension. I finished it off with a touch of the light green on the beak.
And TA-DA!! The cutest little parrot umbrella head that you ever did see.
