Friday, December 05, 2008
Strolling through the wreckage
Well Summer is starting to roll around in the bottom of the South Pacific and people's thoughts are fixating on the 3 B's: Barbecues, Boxing day sales, and beer. It is back to work for me on the world's slowest renovation project: my bathroom. If you were to look at the pie chart of my progress it would be-
70% looking at bathroom under the pretense of "envisioning the completed project".
10% looking for the right tool under the pretense of "looking for the right tool".
10% sighing
10 % measuring under the pretense of "inventing my own system of measurement which has no basis in reality whatsoever".
10% cutting and inhaling potentially toxic dust.
I know that it is 110%. That is just how good I am.
And on the theme of inhaling toxic stuff I entered the BodyArt Rocks competition again this year. (see Oct 2007 "rule# 1 never user permanent marker on someone you love")
This year I figured that I should do something really cool, but that was curtailed by the theme of this years show which was "hot rods". I have never been a car guy. I mean I like some cars but mostly they are a system of transfer from point a to b (and a place to hold some of the tools that I'm looking for). After some thought I decided to do a spin on the coolest car when I was a kid. dun dun ta da the Pontiac Firebird. What I actually wound up with was a sticky, smelly, torturing device for my wife.
Jessica set me up a nice workspace in the spare room which I don't have to worry about messing up since we are going to renovate that room too (see above to get the joke). The idea that I was trying for was a native american phoenix (get it. pontiac firebird). After some research I began to play around with the idea that it was more dinosaur than bird so I was off and running...or crouched and painting as was actually the case.
I used J as my model again this year because she works cheap and I am way too shy to paint intimate places on a total stranger. Since she was at my disposal I wanted to make a plaster cast of her torso. I was designing a pair of wings that could unfold without being to heavy for her to carry. The plaster cast was so I could tell where the joints would work the best and make the costume more form fitting.
To anyone who is interested you can make a plaster cast by using many plaster bandages (if detail is not an issue) but you have to be sure to grease your subject up. Plaster bandages will grab a hold of every little hair that you have on your body and voila! kissably smooth the hard way.
Lug everything into the bathroom. Oil her up. Cut the plaster strips. Cover any exposed areas not being covered by plaster. The mold has to be made in two sections so that one can get it apart and fit it back together which you can then fill with plaster. The whole process would take about two and a half hours....standing still with her arms propped up on sticks.
but..
attempt #1: twenty minutes in her back starts to cramp so I take off the plaster so far and we call it a night.
attempt #2: to be on the safe side she takes a Nurofen with codeine. An hour and 10 minutes in she throws up. I take everything back off.
Now most people would take the hint but nooooooo.
attempt #3: two and a half hours back to front. She's been an absolute trooper. I carefully take the front half off and it falls apart. Not to be outdone the back half does it too.
okay so no plaster torso cast.
Nevertheless, I push on building the wings and the beating heart because every native american dinosaur raptor has to have a beating heart on the outside of the chest. (Don't even attempt to understand me)
Unfortunately, I spent way too long on the wings and ran out of time to prepaint most of the costume and work on the head prosthetic. So the last three days before the event I was burning the midnight oil and inhaling toxic fumes. It was practically a party. I did have a mild panic attack when I used two part foam on the head piece and watched it expand to the size of a basketball. After much pushing I did manage to get it back down to a reasonable size.
The show this year was in collaboration with a tattoo convention in an effort to bolster numbers. There were a lot more in the audience but participation was down. Most people jumped ship to participate in the Aukland show which is quite a bit larger. So this year it was just me and another guy in our category, but I did win...
This year had some great prizes. Another cool trophy, 250 cash, tickets to the Aukland 2009 awards, and a signed Weta statue of the Skull Island Natives. Again I think that the best part was getting to talk about stuff with people who understand it when I say, "the two part foam blew it up like a basketball!"
My work room is still a mess. I have a thin layer of latex covering the floor so that it feels like you're walking on skin. creeepy
I am mulling over doing the 2009 Aukland awards in May. I just have to wait long enough so that J begins to forget just how unpleasant a process it all is. (like childbirth. women are good at forgetting unpleasant processes) J is interested in entering World of Wearable arts in 2009 so it may be a busy arts year. Now in all fairness I would volunteer to be her model for the WOW show, but I am too old and too short. ouch.
I am overdue for my staring at the bathroom time. So over and out for now.
Happy New Year everyone.
(the one picture is what J looked like when I took the makeup off. It was just so creepy cool we had to take a picture.)
To anyone who is interested you can make a plaster cast by using many plaster bandages (if detail is not an issue) but you have to be sure to grease your subject up. Plaster bandages will grab a hold of every little hair that you have on your body and voila! kissably smooth the hard way.
Lug everything into the bathroom. Oil her up. Cut the plaster strips. Cover any exposed areas not being covered by plaster. The mold has to be made in two sections so that one can get it apart and fit it back together which you can then fill with plaster. The whole process would take about two and a half hours....standing still with her arms propped up on sticks.
but..
attempt #1: twenty minutes in her back starts to cramp so I take off the plaster so far and we call it a night.
attempt #2: to be on the safe side she takes a Nurofen with codeine. An hour and 10 minutes in she throws up. I take everything back off.
Now most people would take the hint but nooooooo.
attempt #3: two and a half hours back to front. She's been an absolute trooper. I carefully take the front half off and it falls apart. Not to be outdone the back half does it too.
okay so no plaster torso cast.
Nevertheless, I push on building the wings and the beating heart because every native american dinosaur raptor has to have a beating heart on the outside of the chest. (Don't even attempt to understand me)
Unfortunately, I spent way too long on the wings and ran out of time to prepaint most of the costume and work on the head prosthetic. So the last three days before the event I was burning the midnight oil and inhaling toxic fumes. It was practically a party. I did have a mild panic attack when I used two part foam on the head piece and watched it expand to the size of a basketball. After much pushing I did manage to get it back down to a reasonable size.
The show this year was in collaboration with a tattoo convention in an effort to bolster numbers. There were a lot more in the audience but participation was down. Most people jumped ship to participate in the Aukland show which is quite a bit larger. So this year it was just me and another guy in our category, but I did win...
This year had some great prizes. Another cool trophy, 250 cash, tickets to the Aukland 2009 awards, and a signed Weta statue of the Skull Island Natives. Again I think that the best part was getting to talk about stuff with people who understand it when I say, "the two part foam blew it up like a basketball!"
My work room is still a mess. I have a thin layer of latex covering the floor so that it feels like you're walking on skin. creeepy
I am mulling over doing the 2009 Aukland awards in May. I just have to wait long enough so that J begins to forget just how unpleasant a process it all is. (like childbirth. women are good at forgetting unpleasant processes) J is interested in entering World of Wearable arts in 2009 so it may be a busy arts year. Now in all fairness I would volunteer to be her model for the WOW show, but I am too old and too short. ouch.
I am overdue for my staring at the bathroom time. So over and out for now.
Happy New Year everyone.
(the one picture is what J looked like when I took the makeup off. It was just so creepy cool we had to take a picture.)
Posted by Darryl at 7:28 PM
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