2012/365 - Day 96

THIS is the new plaster cloth project

Back on December 17th -- Day 351 of last year's blog -- I started work on one of the first tomato cage bases for a plaster cloth guy.  I can't remember for sure, but I think it might have been the first time I tried to use chicken wire.  At some point I added a layer of plaster cloth to the outside of the chicken wire...and then moved on to other things.  I might have come back and tweaked the shape of the goat-creature's head a bit more (again, this seems like a really long time ago now).

The main thing is that I have come back to this as my current project.  I am shelving the twirly sprinkler (ex)bear-like creature for now.  I only have until May 1st to get this guy's construction totally done and dry.  Hopefully,  I will have gesso-coated him by then, too.  If I finish him in time for the first deadline it will be a small miracle...but I that is my goal.

Here is how he looks tonight.

This is a shot tonight of the inside of the bottom edge of the base/chicken wire...I was very careful back then when I attached the wire(s) to the tomato cage. 

This is a shot tonight of the inside of the goat-creature's base.

It is all very evenly spaced and looks kind of good from a distance, but there are problems in there.  Since the time I first put this together I have learned more about using chicken wire and plaster cloth.

It is hard to photograph what I am trying to show here, but one of the problems is that the chicken wire does not touch all of the thick wire circles that make up the tomato cage grid.

Back then I thought that I could add the plaster cloth to the outside and it would all fill in to the chicken wire -- or that I could go back later and fill it in with plaster cloth.  Working on the cat-creature I found that wasn't really do-able...at least not easily.

This is another angle of the interior and the gaps between the chicken wire and tomato cage grid.

I have a LOT of problem solving to do with this one!

Part two of the basic construction problem(s) with this guy -- the wonky outer walls.

Back in December I laid aluminum foil over the chicken wire on the outside of the base.  That allowed me to add the plaster cloth, but it is very thin.  I tend to tap on the plaster cloth at various times to test it and I can almost put my finger through this right now.

I am not sure how I will go about strengthening the outer surface and smoothing and shaping it.

I also don't know what I want to do with this guy...it will all come to me.  That, and I know my Universal collaborators will not be able to stay away from this one.

So for now, the goat-creature is laid out on the big studio table...waiting.















P.S. -- when I look at this post I can see two "invisible" stacked boxes over one of the photos.  Can YOU see them?  I don't know wtf they are all about -- they are not there when I go back to edit the post.  Have I mentioned how much I dislike this new "improved" way of posting?