365/2013 - Day 118

a flurry of ideas

Today was a rainy day -- the kind of day that makes me want to DO art stuff.  What I wanted to do the most was to go out to the garage and disassemble the old wooden gate that came from my side yard but I am really scared of electricity and I didn't think it was a good idea for me to use a regular extension cord on my electric drill...I will wait for a dryer day.

At one point there were so many ideas flooding me that I had to make myself sit still and write as many down as I could.  I needed to focus on a few and only work on those.  I will admit that when I look at my notes tonight some of them don't make a whole lot of sense, but others do.  

I chose three projects from my list to work on this afternoon.  

ONE

I tidied up this drawing in my sketchbook.  It was one of those automatic drawings that I did a while back.

I'm not sure what he is exactly -- there are cloven hooves and horns that are somewhat goat-like, but his face is a little bear-y.  He seems to be wearing some sort of wizard outfit that has a fancy collar and sides...or maybe those are sleeves...I dunno.

TWO

While I was watching television today I saw some masks on the wall in the background of a room that was being talked about.  I took a photo of the screen and then I tried to put together the beginning of a couple of masks of my own.  I have been saving up plastic trays and lids and egg cartons -- this is the perfect project for them.

I especially liked the larger mask in this picture.

And the dark mask in this picture is my very favorite.

part of my stash

This guy will have very tall ears.

I wanted the second mask to have very long horns...I cut a paper towel tube in half, deliberately making them uneven.

I put holes in the plastic tray and inserted the rolled up tube horns, then anchored them with some masking tape.

They are coming together more in my head...I may go back in tonight before I go to bed and put on a layer or two of plaster cloth.

intermission -- not really a project 

 
I was about to get up and leave the room to take a break when I decided to pop the croco-creature's taxidermy eyes off.  I have been wanting to do it for a long time and today I felt like I could do it and not break them.  And hey...after I wet the area around them -- these things snapped right off!

These were the very first glass taxidermy eyes I bought.  They are supposed to be for an alligator and when I was first working on this guy he was going to be a sort of a trophy head.  I was never happy with the position of the eyes but I really only meant to stick them on there temporarily -- I just never got around to trying to take them off again until today.

Plus, I wasn't sure how I had attached them -- if I had used epoxy or just barely plaster cloth'd them in place -- I had never tried to do that before.  Luckily it seems that I only did the latter because they came off easily, even though whenever I would try to wiggle them loose they felt very firmly set in place.  Look -- you can see that there was actual paper and flour/water underneath.

He is a little creepy looking with no eyes.

Ha -- I covered up the empty sockets with two of the cardboard punch outs that Leann gave us.

I will just set these aside -- they are not my favorite taxidermy eyes.

THREE  

I thought I had some balloons somewhere around here...I went "shopping" in the deep closet in my studio and I found them!  I have been wanting to try putting strips of plaster cloth over a balloon in a sort of lattice style.  I have put a big ol' rolled out slab o' clay over a heavy duty punching balloon in a ceramics class...I have put solid plaster cloth over play balls...but I have never tried open spaced strips of plaster cloth on a balloon.  My expectations are very low...I am not sure I will even complete the creature...but I am going to give it a try.

Ready to start -- I noticed that the bag says "the choice of professionals worldwide" -- what the what?  I suppose that is a good thing.

What I had in mind.

ta-daaaaaa -- what a mess!

Hanging to dry.

About an hour and a half later I couldn't stand it anymore...an area of the plaster cloth had pulled away just a teensy bit so I thought it would be safe to pop the balloon.

must. leave. it. alone.

I had every intention of not going back into the wet plaster cloth studio again tonight -- but I had to check on it.  Oh my gosh -- the inner surface was as smooth as marble...incredible!  I fought myself to leave it hanging to dry some more.

The more I thought about it -- and the more I thought about those taxidermy eyes -- I figured what the heck...

I wish you could FEEL how smooth and silky this surface is -- I cannot believe it is plaster cloth.

"Normal" plaster cloth surface.

Trying out a position for the eyes...that opening is NOT his mouth.

Securing the eyes.

Building up around the eyes a bit.

Another view.

Enough for tonight...LOL