Using one of your dressed and weather skeletons made earlier in these instructions (assure the skeleton has a white shirt with long sleeves), the main items you’ll need is a skeleton, trunk, plastic, zip ties and bottle.   When done you will have a fully drinking skeleton in a treasure chest.  Alternatively, your skeleton does not have to be in a treasure chest, they can be sitting in a barrel, planter, or nearly anything that can be lined with plastic and made waterproof.

1. Begin by preparing your chest.  Assure the chest is vacuumed, clean and free of all sharp edges that may puncture your plastic liner.
2. Measure the depth of your chest, the skeleton will be sitting in the center of the chest, only about 8 inches below the lip of the container.  To achieve this, the skeleton will need to sit on something strong.  I cut up foam scraps that were 12in x 12in and glued them into a stack, making a stool for the skeleton to sit on.  You can use just about anything such as home gym foam pads or an Ikea stool will work.  Even an internally reinforced cardboard box will work, however a material that will tolerate moisture without molding or breaking down is ideal as it will last many seasons.
3. Lay the rolled plastic inside the chest to use as a waterproof liner (although not as durable, cutting up a black contractor trashcan liner will work too), covering the sides, bottom of the chest, and the stool for the skeleton you have created.  Assure to leave plenty of slack.  Fill the trunk with about 1 inch of water allowing the plastic to take on the shape of your trunk and stool.  Using your fingers, gently push the plastic liner into all the edges to assure there is as little stress as possible on the plastic.  Clamps can be used in this step if available. Using the staple gun, use one staple on each side, near the lip of the container to tack the plastic in place, we are only tacking in place as it may be necessary to lengthen and make adjustments later.
4. Empty the Perrier bottle of sparkling water.  Using a utility knife cut the bottle just below the neck flange so you remove the threaded section and the flange. Drill a hole about an inch from the bottom large enough to insert the vinyl tubing.  Note that the bottle has a double liner that is not easily drilled through – this is okay and you do not need to drill through the second liner.  Using the needle nose pliers, do your best to slightly separate the second liner from the bottle at the spout.  To achieve slight separation also try using the drill bit and hole you made by slowly switching between a forward and backward direction to push and pull the second liner enough to allow a path for the water to make it out the spout of the bottle.   Insert the vinyl tubing into the bottle about two inches.
5. Now lets work on the skeleton using the picture on the left as an example.  Roll up the left sleeve of the skeleton.  The bones in the fingers need to be shaped.  The goal is to shape the fingers so they are slightly smaller than the bottle so the fingers firmly grip the bottle by coming over the top.  All five fingers including the thumb will curl up and over the top of the bottle as the thumb is not flexible enough to grip the bottle as you would with your own hand.   When shaping fingers I recommend an oven glove, heat gun and patience in this process.  To shape the fingers, place your hand and fingers behind the skeleton hand and fingers, palms up.  Slowly use the heat gun to heat each finger, focusing on the finger joints, until you can feel the fingers are now slightly bendable.  Slowly bend the fingers about an inch and let cool for 20 seconds before repeating.  Go slowly in small increments to avoid breaking fingers.  Once grip is appropriately closed, test fit the bottle so there is little room between the bottle and fingers from palm to fingertip.
6. Lets work on the skeleton.  On a worksurface, pose the skeleton in the sitting position with the left hand outstretched toward the left knee.  It is helpful to clamp or place something heavy on the left hand to keep the skeleton in place. Open the skeleton’s mouth as much as possible and use hot glue on the jaw to hold in place.  Next its key your skeleton’s pelvis remains in a seated position with the spine vertical, but then to manipulate the upper spine to have the skeleton leaning back ever so slightly from the mid back up.  Using the heat gun on the upper spine (starting at the bottom of the rib cage), neck and head, mold the skeleton so while in a seated position, the lower jaw is nearly horizontal (See photo on the left).  This gives them a slight lean backward.
7. With the skeleton sitting, lets position the left hand and bottle.  The tubing coming out of the bottle should be pointed slightly upward of horizontal, and run backward toward the fingers and palm of the hand then down the arm and then inside the rib cage.  The goal here is to hide the tubing visually from the front of the prop.  Using white zip ties, secure the tubing to the arm bones.  This will later be fully hidden with clothing.  Bottle and jaw positioning is key.  Attempt to get the bottle about 1 inch away from the jaw and about 6 inches above.  It may be necessary to use the heat gun on arms and shoulders and wrist to get the positioning correct.  Again, patience is key in this process.  When you have positioning correct, use a dab of hot glue on the joints to hold them in place temporarily.
8. Move the skeleton to the trunk for final positioning.  Sit the skeleton down and start with using the left hand and arm to keep the skeleton from leaning back too far.  Drill a hole near the lip of the trunk and use a zip tie to secure down the left hand.  This will keep the skeleton in place.  Bend the right knee and position the right boot so the heel of the boot is inside the trunk and the toe is out of the trunk.  Drill two holes in the sole of the boot, drill one hole in the side of the trunk near the lip and run a zip tie through it to secure the boot to the trunk.  Now outstretch the left leg and secure to the trunk.  Use this opportunity to try different leg positions to achieve proper upright skeleton positioning.  Drill a hole near the lip of the trunk and zip tie the boot or leg bone to the trunk.
9. There will be significant weight when the tubing and bottle are loaded with water, so lets reinforce the right arm from the spine to hand to carry the weight and prevent too much sagging.  Using the roll wire, feed the wire through the shirt and right shoulder through the rib cage and then make a 90 degree bend down the spine.  Use 8in white zip ties to tightly secure the wire to the spine every 4 inches or so, continue across the shoulder, upper arm, lower arm, and to the wrist and hand.  Later you’ll want to glue this wire between the hand and bottle, so shape the wire to contour the bottle if necessary and use another temporary zip tie to secure the wire between the hand and bottle. In this next step a partner is recommended as we will fine tune arm position.  Connect the pump to the tubing and note there is flow control on the pump.  Turn the flow control down to about 25% noting that 100% flow is when the flow control tab is parallel to the pipe.  0% is when the flow control tab is perpendicular to the pipe.  Plug in an extension cord and bring it near the trunk.
10. Fill the trunk with water so the pump intake is fully covered.  While supporting the elbow, plug in pump and be ready to disconnect the pump if necessary.  The goal is for the water to exit the bottle and pour into the lower jaw, so it goes through and into the rib cage draining back into the trunk.  This will take a few attempts to get right.  When you feel you are close, glue the right fingers and hand.  Cut existing zip ties and loosely zip tie the bottle to the hand allowing enough room for glue.  Add Gorilla Glue and spray with water.  Tighten the zip ties and let dry.  Once dry cut off the zip ties.
11. Use hot glue to seal any water leaks between the tubing and bottle.  Let dry and re-test with water.  You may need to adjust the arm, hand, and skeleton positioning to get water to pour through the lower jaw.  When you feel you are close, use the Gorilla Glue to lock some joints into place, and for best adhesion spray the Gorilla Glue with water after application and let dry.  I suggest gluing joints into place in this order and re-testing to assure the water is going where you want.
    1. Left ankle, knee, hip, shoulder, elbow, and wrist. 
    2. Right elbow, and wrist.
    3. Right Shoulder.
    4. Right knee and hip (if necessary, else these joints can remain free for fine tuning each season).
12. Trim all zip ties and unroll the right arm sleeve.  Use hot glue to tack the end of the right sleeve into place to hide any tubing.  Then continue to use hot glue to tack the clothing around the arm, bones and shoulder to hide the tubing and wire.
13. You now have a continuously drinking skeleton, congratulations!