I dove right into making the fish, based on my full-scale drawings. I cut and bent a section of hardware cloth and tried to create the fish's shape on the fly. After a few hours of frustration, I decided I would never get the shape I was after.
I thought it would help to sculpt a small model out of foam and create a pattern from it's form. This made more sense. After creating a shape I was happy with, I made a small paper pattern, doubled it, and then blew it up on an opaque projector. I spray-mounted the full-sized pattern to the hardware cloth and proceeded to cut it out.
Cutting out the hardware cloth and stitching it back together proved to be very challenging - and painful. The sharp ends seemed to be constantly scratching and cutting my hands as I wrestled it into shape. Once that was done, I figured it would be simple to hot-glue on all the little bits of plastic paraphernalia. I underestimated the amount of stuff I needed to cover the surface and was constantly searching for more stuff to glue on. I thought it would take one day to glue all the pieces on and it ended up taking 2 and a half. I was so looking forward to painting it all one color and aging it down. Maybe I was impatient with the gluing, but it seemed to be an endless job.
Here are my in-progress pics, click them for a larger view........
The form of the anglerfish starts to take shape. I added a couple of pieces of wood to help hold the shape.

The top and bottom part of the mouth. You can also see the pink foam model I used to create the pattern.

The small paper pattern I got off the model.

Starting to cover the fish with plastic pieces, which I used to add texture.

Almost done. There's a hinge for the mouth, and the eyes will move, and the fin will flap.

All covered. I couldn't wait to cover all of this mess with one color. I figured out I used at least 500 buttons and I have no idea how many other pieces.

A close up of some of the pieces.

A small test piece I made so I could play with the color and aging.

The top piece painted. Here I'm adding the teeth which are made from a plastic milk bottle.

The bottom, with the teeth added.

The tongue, covered in a generic variety of Cheerios.

Front view of the anglerfish.

This is probably the view we'll see the anglerfish in the video.

Another view. I still have to finish the eyes and add a light out front - it is an anglerfish after all.

A close up of the pieces after painting and aging.

Now on to the tents and props for the Fortune Teller's scene.......