Alice in Wonderland: caterpillar on mushroom paper mâché

Part of any Alice in Wonderland set design needs a mushroom with a smoking caterpillar! So to make the basis of my caterpillar, I stuffed newspaper balls into a stocking.

Now for the mushroom:

I am using another florist bucket , but wanted more height as I want this to be bigger then the other mushrooms... So I added 2/3 of an ice tea bottle- cut it and taped it on. 

I then used a bent but damaged piece  mdf that I had been keeping outside for a few years (always knew I would find something to do with it!) and cut a round shape from it. Taped it all together with duct tape. 

I then inserted a bamboo rod through the mdf into the bottle, this is to give support to my caterpillar.

And here is the caterpillar now sitting proudly on top:

Now it's ready for the paper mâché!