365/2013 - Day 176

t-shirts and a mannequin torso

My sister Sue brought over a huge box and a good-sized bag of t-shirts that she can't sell (for whatever reason or another) and also the mannequin torso she used to display them on.  I am very excited to get these art supplies!  The t-shirts are the color-changing ones -- with the heat from your body they go from like orange to yellow...or blue to pink.  I will cut them up and sew the strips together (or use whole sections maybe) and they will become new soft sculpture guys.  

The usually inviso-Sue with the loot/art supplies she brought me!

That is a LOT of shirts!

The last soft sculpture guy I made -- Quillz -- had a body made from strips of an old plain shirt of mine and color changing shirts.  His ears were also made from the color changing material.

So tonight I decided I wanted to get started on covering the mannequin torso.  I knew it was going to be a big project.  The torso is covered with a fabric that is similar to a men's underwear tank tap.  This thing has been around for quite a while and has been to many selling venues and has been in Sue's basement for a while.  It is a dusty and slightly beat up thing.  At first I planned to just cover the whole thing with plaster cloth so that I wouldn't have to look at it anymore or deal with the dust.  Ha.  I was thinking that the plaster cloth would take to the white fabric and make a stronger new skin.  Ha.  

What. a. mess.  

The fabric is not fully glued to the torso.  It slips and moves...making it difficult to smooth the plaster cloth onto it without a whole section of fabric/plaster cloth moving, and therefore not adhering.  I thought the plaster cloth would become one with it -- yeah, right.  PLUS, underneath the fabric, the torso is just made of cardboard layers -- it feels pretty strong -- but the bottom edge is really icky and there are splits in the seams (I am finding out as I work on it).  I will need to put many, many layers of plaster cloth onto this torso to make it hold up.  BUT it will work!!!  It is just going to take some time and a lot of plaster cloth.  I have both.

I drag so odd things into the wet plaster cloth studio.

Inside of the torso before I got started -- when I still thought it would be best to cover the fabric with plaster cloth.

After I decided I better pull off as much of the fabric as I could.  Also not that great of an idea. 

The inside of the torso after on sitting's worth of plaster cloth and smoothing.

What. a. mess.  I will make this work (eventually).

2012/365 - Day 336

I know...it's not much but at least it's something...

Okay -- here is the thing.  On top of other day-to-day physical stuff, I injured my right knee in late October.  I ignored it for a long time...I thought it was getting better, but it isn't.  It has gotten progressively worse.  An x-ray on Thursday showed the arthritis we (my doctor and I) knew was in there but (thankfully) no loose calcium bits or broken bits.  Monday morning (or Wednesday afternoon) I go in for an MRI -- my doctor thinks I have torn my right medial miniscus.  That's all I want to say about stuff...it hurts pretty bad...it is limiting my movement and activities...oh well.  I can't do much else (at the moment) than what I have been directed to do.  Fingers crossed, we'll see what happens.

So -- here is what I did today.  My sister Sue gave me a handful of the color-changing t-shirts that have too many flaws to sell as t-shirts, but that are great for cutting up and working with.  They still change colors when they get warm and that is all that matters to me.

Doing some initial cutting...

I need to get a box of nice, smooth straight pins so that I can do a better job of seaming this time around.

These shirts are so cool -- they are pretty "old" (for color-changing properties, that is) and they still react quickly and with a lot of contrast.

The redder purple (bottom one) turns bright blue, the purple one turns white, the pinky one turns light blue, the orange sherbet one turns bright yellow and the gray one turns white.

2012/365 - Day 314

steady progress on my hand sewn creature

Today I figured out how I wanted to do the hands/fingers/arms for my creature for the Holly Dolly fundraiser auction.

I found the very last bits of orange and white striped gloves and made fingers out of the cut up pieces.

I cut up a tank top (that my sister kindly donated) by folding it twice and cutting all the pieces together (like Suzanne showed me).  Then I drew my pattern on the two parts and now I'm going to pin and seam them.  But I also need to figure out how to attach the fingers...inside or outside...and how long I want the arms to be.

The fingers and arms waiting for the next steps.

This fabric changes color with your body temperature (or sunlight, etc.) -- my sister had a small business selling printed t-shirts, sweatshirts, tank tops, etc. of various horse designs.  This is one of the leftover shirts.

I asked her if she could spare one that changed dramatically and yay -- she had an orange-to-yellow shirt!  It's the color(s) I was hoping for!

I think this will be a pretty cool added feature for my Holly Dolly creation.