Day 181 - 365/2014

Day One Hundred Eighty-One

Tonight I have been working on the from scratch goat-like guy.  I reinforced the cardboard and evened it up down to the underbelly.  Then I added the first layer(s) of plaster cloth...yay!  It feels like it has been forever since I worked with the wet plaster cloth!

And oh yeah...I had to cut a lot of plaster cloth strips in half...for this layer I don't need triangles, just half strips to cover the areas quickly.

The first piece of wet plaster cloth goes on.

Whew -- that is enough for tonight...plus now that layer needs to dry.  I wonder how much the wet cardboard will distort the basic shape...I was going to not cover the very top of the from scratch goat-like guy's back but I thought I'd better keep everything even -- wetness-wise.  We'll see if that was a good idea or not.

Day 176 - 365/2014

Day One Hundred Seventy-Six

I started the day by wrapping up my three pieces for the Members Biennial Exhibit at Paint Creek Center for the Arts.  Sue came over and we drove the stuff out to Rochester.  This show runs from July 11 - August 8.  I will post more about it in a few days.

Getting ready to pack up Creatura Lupus Ursus, Time for a Nap, and Djubi for the trip out to Rochester.

After Rochester, Sue and I came back to Northville for lunch at Tuscan Cafe.  In between Rochester and lunch and then directly after lunch we were running into all sorts of frustrating snags and problems...both of us had our share for today...and then things started running together and man -- it was time to medicate and chill out.  Most of the stuff worked itself out, thankfully -- but it has been a very frustrating and emotional and physically painful day.  

Tonight I have still been toying with the idea of sawing off the goat-like guy's head and attaching it to the from scratch guy's body.  Last night I dug through the blog archives and found a few early mentions of the piece that became the goat-like guy.  Here is the most relevant one.  Like many of my early plaster cloth guys, the goat-like guy has had several transformations.  That post is from September of 2011...but I found what seems to be the second reference in April of that year (when he was some sort of canine creature)...I can't seem to find out when he was really first started.

I figured I was armed with a pretty good idea of his inner construction, so I found my trusty "I-mean-business" saw and got to work liberating his head from the tomato cage structure.  And I must say that after all of today, it was very very therapeutic. 

My patient, the goat-like guy.

My tool of choice -- the "I-mean-business" saw.

Going slowly around and around the goat-like guy until I can...

...triumphantly break through!

Success!

Yep -- some sort of plastic hanging basket was/is inside of him.

The from scratch body and its new head.

Balancing the head in place with one hand while taking photos with the other hand and trying to get far enough away to get everything in the shot.

The head feels pretty good sitting on the former papier mache rock (thanks again, Ingrid!).

I took a chance and balanced everything while slightly leaning them against the pipe...take the picture quickly...and then snatch the head and sit it safely on the table and stash the body back up off of the floor.

So it looks to me like I did the bulk of the early work in 2011.  Maybe this will be the year it is finally revealed to me what the six round headed guys are for...I have been waiting patiently.

These are those six round headed guys that I was absolutely driven to make...they need a lot of reinforcement layers and work...I am sincerely hoping to learn what they are for...SOON!

Day 175 - 365/2014

Day One Hundred Seventy-Five

I was thinking about the from scratch guy this evening.  I went down to the basement with my camera and sketch book and did some thinking...and made a couple of adjustments.

The from scratch guy...safely stored up off of the floor.

I pulled him out and really took a long look at him from all directions. 

I decided I was not happy with the tail-end...I didn't like the pointy triangly thing going on and leading into the sticking out tail...which would be even longer later.

I decided to cut off the legs of the tomato cage...this meant getting out my trusty all purpose hand saw.

Ta-daaaaa...it took quite a bit of sawing and also quite a bit of bending but I finally got the legs off!

I want to still use the three wire legs as the base/armature of the tail...it is less likely to break with the metal inside.

I wrapped masking tape around the three metal legs, just allowing them to go how they wanted to go.  I think it will make a decent tail and I can shape it later if I want to...it is a pretty good length, too.

I covered up the open end with the same cardboard that was on the triangle end and I realized I could cut part of it out and then wrap tape and part of the end of the cardboard around the back legs to form the beginning of the back hind quarters.

I know this is still very rough, but I am starting to get more ideas.

It occurred to me maybe one of these heads could work with the from scratch guy's body...make the front be a chest instead of a head...but the dog guy head is just too large.  I need to look back in the blog and find out how the goat-like guy's head is attached to the tomato cage base.  I think it is a cylindrical oatmeal box or a cottage cheese container attached to an inverted plastic hanging basket set over the legs of the inverted tomato cage.  IF that is the case, I should be able to remove the head (and maybe neck parts) pretty easily and then work them onto the from scratch guy's body...but not tonight.

I tried sketching it out and then I printed the photos and tried cutting the parts out and gluing them together -- just to see.

It is still early in the ideas/construction phase of the from scratch guy...whatever he turns out to be, he will not be very reality based...definitely creature vs kind of real animal.  It also just occurred to me that the goat-like guy's head/horns are also pretty from scratch.

Day 154 - 365/2014

Day One Hundred Fifty-Four

I have a pretty big stash of corrugated cardboard boxes that need to be flattened to go out to the curb for recycling, but I have been letting it pile up lately...tsk, tsk.  Tonight I thought I would try to use some of it to give the new from scratch guy a basic shape/outline.  A very basic shape.

Part of the corrugated cardboard stash in the basement...less for me to break down and flatten!

I taped in the new head (formerly the papier mache rock given to me by Ingrid).  I will need to fill in a lot of areas, but this is a really good, lightweight basic shape to work from.  I will also add ears, longer nose, etc...but that is still quite a long way off yet.

Hey...so this is what all of the strategically placed poles in a basement are for...shaping cardboard to make it curvy.

Wow -- that works great -- all I did was lay it on top of the tomato cage and it was good to go!

I  cut tabs into the edges of the cardboard in order to have them bend down to meet the surface of the rock/head.

Hey...a secondary use for the pole...tape holder!

I am trying to secure the cardboard fairly well to the tomato cage grid intersections on the inside...for (hopefully) a little more stability.

Okay -- that took a LOT longer than I was expecting...but here he is in his very, very basic first shape.

I happened to have a thick (used) mailing tube down in my regular parts stash -- it is helping to hold the leg ends of the tomato cage together.  This will be part of the guy's tail and even though I would like to give the tail some curves and movement, this part HAS to be stiff because of the tomato cage legs.

Well, at least it is a little easier to see him now.

I am still thinking up what he might turn into -- no definite plans just yet...lots of ideas, though!

Day 153 - 365/2014

Day One Hundred Fifty-Three

Last day of art intake for West of Center at the Northville Art House.  About half of the artists came yesterday, the remaining artists came today.  The art is really looking super.  I am excited to see it hung and I can't wait for the juror's picks for the cash awards!

West of Center Producer Joanne arrives.

Terri Light dropping off her artwork "Piscean Nocturne One" -- her work is one of the featured pieces on the banner for this month.

Diane Irby finally arrived in one piece after her hour-long stranded-at-the-side-of-the-road episode...so glad everything is mostly okay!

Diane and Terri

Most of the artists in the show will be at the opening reception on Friday -- I'm really looking forward to this!

I had been thinking today about a papier mache rock that Ingrid Dijkers gave me -- she had it left over from a display she made.  I was thinking it might make a foundation for the head of the new from scratch plaster cloth guy I am working on.

This is the papier mache rock that Ingrid gave me...she is fine with me altering it.

I originally thought I would be making a cloud guy (of some sort) out of it...but now I think it will be best used with the new from scratch plaster cloth guy.

Yes -- it is just about the perfect size!

I like it for this project very much...I want to keep the body of this guy as light as possible so that I can transport him when I need to.

I think I will make the legs end of the tomato cage into a tail for this new guy...I am eager to get working on the basic shape and see where it leads me.

Day 151 - 365/2014

Day One Hundred Fifty-One

I went to the lumber yard today, ready to ask if they had a scrap pile like in the old days where you could pick through leftovers and purchase them.  When I got to the lumber yard I was saddened to see that they were closed...apparently they close at 2 pm on Saturdays.  Oh well.  I did the rest of my errands and went home...but when I arrived in my driveway I was delighted to find a carpenter with a chop saw working on wood trim.  I asked him if he would make ONE cut for me if I paid him.  He asked what it would be, etc. and said sure, bring the board out and he'd do it.  I parked the car, ran in the house, swept everything off the bottom shelf on the wall near my desk and confiscated the long piece of pine.  I grabbed a ten dollar bill and took the board out to the carpenter.  He had already taken the saw off of his table and was on his phone while he waited for me.  He initially politely refused the money, but I insisted saying he had to stop what he was doing, take the saw off the table, it was really hot and he was drippy wet with sweat...all that stuff...he finally acquiesced and then cut my board with one drop of the saw blade.  YAY!!!

A little later on I took the board down to the basement to pick up where I left off yesterday.

The board cut by the carpenter.

Figuring out how to position the posts for legs on the board for a base.  Today everything went as smoothly as I hoped it would yesterday -- the drill went right into the wood, the screws went right into place.  Easy peasy...it just took a bit of time.

Yay -- the legs are not exactly stiff and stable yet, but they are in place.

The board is not as wide as I had planned, but you make do with what you have on hand sometimes...the posts on the outside corners of the board will work just fine...I will have to reinforce them for strength at some point, but for now, they are in place.

I chose one of the larger tomato cages and I actually found 4 of the copper things I was hoping to find to secure the legs/tomato cage in this first stage of construction.  The metal cooperated and bent easily and the screws went in easily, too!

It's kind of hard to see in these photos right now, but this is how the skeleton of this guy looks.  I have no idea how he will turn out -- this is REALLY what I call starting from scratch.

Another view...the camera couldn't capture what I was seeing...the wires are so thin they get lost in the photo.

And another view from another angle...I don't know if the big end with be the head end or the tail end...probably the long legs of the tomato cage will turn into a tail -- that makes the most sense to me right now.

Pretty decent shot...it is a little wobbly, but it holds together!

What will come next is figuring out what the heck this guy is -- in a preliminary state...which end is which, etc.  I have that papier mache "rock" that Ingrid gave me...that might come into play at some point...we'll see.  I want to keep the body fairly lightweight and yet solid.  I will probably pack the tomato cage area with wads of plastic wrappers that have accumulated in Studio B.  Dunno yet...