Cauldron and witch

Here sits a witch stirring her Cauldron and you can hear her making her incantation. The arms slowly stir the pot, and a loop tape repeats the incantation.

Preparing the Cauldron:

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Obtain a kettle or a planter pot as I used. The planter was a dark green, and I sprayed it black. I found an old barbecue motor and attached a small length of flat aluminum to the shaft. Along the flat aluminum I drilled a series of holes to accept a screw. I then screwed a length of 3/4 wood dowel to the flat aluminum. I found that you don't have to have the dowel very far from the motor shaft as the distance of the rotation doubles the movement. The location of the dowel in the picture is not where it ended up, it actually was mounted closer to the motor shaft.

I drilled a hole in the side bottom of the pot to exit the electric cord from the motor. I clamped the old barbecue motor to a piece of 2x4 and secured the 2x4 with screws from the bottom of the pot into the 2x4 making sure that the shaft of the motor was in the center of the pot.

I was able to obtain a dressmakers mannequin at a garage sale for $6 to use as the body. You can make up your body using many different methods. I found a picture of a witch, and the face was rubber like a mask but flat. So I just pulled it around a

Styrofoam wig head and hot glued and stapled it in place. The arms presented a problem, anything I used just did not look right when she was stirring the pot. I had just purchased a pair of woolen leg warmers at another garage sale, they were brand new and only cost a buck. I attached one end of the leg warmer to the shoulder area of the witch with a small piece of wood screwed through the warmer and into the shoulder area. I had a couple of noodles (those things that the kids use to hit each other around the pool) which were the 2 inch size. By cutting them into 4-6 inch sections and pushing them into the open end of the leg warmer I got the results I wanted. To attach the arms to the stirrer, I got a piece of PVC pipe and capped one end. The PVC fit over the 3/4 inch wooden dowel and was able to remain in one position while the stirrer was rotated. I attached a couple of rubber hands to the arms and put a screw through each thumb and into the PVC cap. A wig,

hat and cape finished it off.

I picked up a small radio with a tape deck for $5 at a garage sale. I then got a 3 minute loop tape and had a friend of mine record the incantation. The incantation I used is posted below. I concealed the radio under the witch's cape. This is just one way to do it.

The incantation

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ALL: Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.

First Witch: Round about the cauldron go;
In the poison'd entrails throw.
Toad, that under cold stone
Days and nights has thirty-one
Swelter'd venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i' the charmed pot.

ALL: Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.

Second Witch: Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg and owlet's wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

ALL: Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Third Witch: Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,
Witches' mummy, maw and gulf
Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark,
Root of hemlock digg'd i' the dark,
Liver of blaspheming Jew,
Gall of goat, and slips of yew
Silver'd in the moon's eclipse,
Nose of Turk and Tartar's lips,
Finger of birth-strangled babe
Ditch-deliver'd by a drab,
Make the gruel thick and slab:
Add thereto a tiger's chaudron,
For the ingredients of our cauldron.

ALL: Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Second Witch: Cool it with a baboon's blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.

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The incantation

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