My brother, bless his heart, wanted to give his girlfriend an Elvis garden gnome as a gag gift on her birthday and discovered that no one makes them. This was actually a little surprising. So he turned to me.
To begin, I found an existing gnome in a position that would work for my needs. This one is called “The conductor.” Â I really wanted one playing a guitar but the only one in that pose was also plaster, which wouldn’t work. I needed a resin gnome.
 Gnome acquired, I first cut off his beard using a dremel tool with a rotary blade around his arm and belly and finishing with a hacksaw through the mouth. |
 This left a giant gaping hole in his body. While you do occasionally run across solid resin gnomes, I was not so lucky here.
After the beard removal, I smoothed off the worst of the mustache using a grinder. |
 Using rough paper-mache, I bridged the gap in his stomach with three layers composed of long strips of rejection letters, critiques, and wheat-based wall-paper paste.
This created a base to build on. |
 Next I began to reconstruct his face using loosely wadded pieces of paper-mache. Note that I’ve created the general area where the mouth should be but am not attempting to actually make any features. |
 I then smoothed the wads out by using strips of paper-mache and stuck the entire thing into a heat box to dry.
A heat box is essentially an inverted bin with a hair dryer stuck into it. I use it on a concrete floor and check it periodically to make sure nothing has caught on fire. |
 Using two-part plumber’s epoxy, I rebuilt the face and put a layer across the paper-mache stomach. This is very sturdy and fast-curing material. The fact that it cures so quickly means that I only worked with very small pieces at a time. With a larger project, or one that I needed to make multiples of, I wouldn’t use this material but it was perfect for a quick one-of-a-kind item. |
 Here’s the finished sculpture, before paint. |
 Here’s the first layer of paint. Normally, I would put a layer of gesso down first, but had run out so I used two coats of acrylic paint to get the coverage I was looking for. Even though the hands were original, I still painted them so that they would match the face. |
 And here’s the finished gnome. |
I’ve been keeping it off the internet, since it was a surprise, and referring to a “troll” I was building. My brother’s girlfriend called after receiving it today and thanked me in the spirit with which it had been given.
Awesome! I love the expression on the face.
Thanks! I had a lot of fun with it. Technically, Elvis tended to sneer on the other side but this one was easier to do with the existing gnome.
Great! When was this idea cooked up? I seem to remember it but can’t remember were we were – or when.
Your son asked me to make it for Christmas, but I didn’t have time.
Excellent! I love it when you make how-I-did-this-amazing-thing posts. 🙂
Ahaha, this is too awesome.
Of course, Elvis is alive. He is just disguised as something else…
Pure awesomeness, with excellent use of rejection letters and critiques.
Hah! Love it!
This is an Elvis Garden Gnome! It is made of God and Win!