I have been avoiding getting back to work on the Atomic Fireball Happy Hour guy -- I needed to fill out his face in front of his ears and a bit by his jaw. He also needed eyes.
Since I don't have any taxidermy eyes for him I looked around in the studio for something I could maybe build an eye with. I grabbed some bottle caps of various shapes and sizes and then I remembered the little toy capsule that came in the chocolate eggs Sue and I got today. The tops of the capsules were great! But the cats had taken one of them and it took a while, but I found it!
I was trying to coax my Universal collaborators to join me but I wasn't feeling them so I at least started the prep work of cutting the plaster cloth triangles and getting the area ready and getting the hot water. I also played around with the idea of using this wonderful striped cone that Ingrid Dijkers gave me from a project she did that she didn't need anymore. I love it as a hat on this guy but it also makes the piece four and a half feet tall and -- for various reasons -- I don't think I can deal with the problems involved in transporting something that size right now. I even tried making a mock up of a smaller version...nah...it is the stripey cone that makes it. I will find the right project for it eventually.
I wanted to use more plastic bags, etc. I tried wadding the pieces up again and taping them in place but nothing was working. I couldn't get the sides anywhere close to even. Then they arrived! I/we took the wads off (my right) side of the head and I/we snatched up a wad, pulled off the tape and just balled the plastic up a little. Using one hand the plastic was held in place while my other hand picked up a larger plaster cloth triangle and got it reeeeeally wet and just laid it on top of the wad and held my hand there for a few seconds...no smoothing, just holding it and feeling how it felt...then the plaster cloth was smoothed out and I picked up another piece and did the same thing in a slightly different spot to anchor the plastic wad. With this handful I got more of a sense of the round feeling I was looking for. Hmmm...
Then we did the eyes differently than we've done them before. I/we just held the capsule top in place and started laying and smoothing the tiny plaster cloth triangles...anchoring and smoothing as the cap was covered. Normally I would sit and cover both caps and set them aside to dry a little, filling in the underside, too. But I decided not to fight the urge to do it the other way and just gave into tonight's way of doing things.
I wasn't able to take any photos of the making of this side -- I was too busy listening -- but here is how it turned out.
Wow. It still needs some work in spots -- but wow.
Here is the other side.
Again...there are still areas that need to be blended in. I am really very pleased with the way this turned out tonight. And it is fairly symmetrical again...yay!
This guy is truly a collaboration...I mean it.
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