Bertha (Skull & Roses)

This was inspired by one of my favorite album covers. The live double album called Grateful Dead. It is informally called Skull and Roses by some (or most). I had some old Halloween decorations, two plastic skulls, that I made a mold out of. To make the mold I covered the skull in foil, very tightly, and taped all the foil pieces together. Then I laminated paper over the entire skull with white glue. Many layers. Once dry I cut the paper and carefully removed the plastic skull. I taped the seams back up and added a few more layers of paper. The roses are store-bought cloth roses that were trimmed to size and dipped in glue to harden.

Yoda Costume

There are lots of Star Wars costumes out there for babies. But they are expensive. And it's more fun to make your own. The hardest part about making a baby costume is actually obtaining the baby. There are several great websites out there that show exactly how to make a baby. I'd suggest doing a Google search for "how babies are made." Be for warned that it takes a really long time to make a baby. So if you want to be ready for next Halloween you should start pretty soon.

My wife and I already have a baby that is 6 months old. So for this costume we decided just to use the one we already have. The next thing was to decide which Star Wars character to make the costume of. My two recommendations are a Jawa and Yoda. Since our particular baby can't walk yet Yoda seemed like the better choice.

To start, I blew up a balloon about the size of our baby's head. I then covered the balloon in clothe (an old bed sheet) that was dipped in Elmers glue. Several layers were needed and it took about a week for it all to dry and become hard. This skull cap serves as a good base for Yoda's ears. To make the ears I cut some cardboard and folded and bent it into a nice ear shape. I taped the ears to the skull cap and used lots of tape to create a nice Yoda-head shape to the whole thing. To get everything nice and smooth I covered the entire head with shop towels and white glue. This creates a skin over the head. The shop towels have a texture to them so in order to smooth them out I painted on several coats of white glue, allowing each coat to dry in between. After lightly sanding I primed and painted the head green. I used some Halloween spider-web decoration stuff to create some tufts of white hair behind the ears.

Yoda needs a cane. So I made one out of newspaper and did the same shop towel/glue process on it that I did with the head and ear piece.

Next came Yoda's robe. I got some cheap fabric and traced our baby on it to create an outline of her body. I cut out two pieces of fabric and placed them together. I have no idea how to sew (I'd love to learn) so I had to use glue to attach the two pieces together. I quick slit up the middle of the robe's front finished it off. I used some old brown faux fur that I had to make a little belt.

The costume went together really quickly and looked pretty cute. The baby seemed to enjoy wearing it and thought the cane tasted good.

Origins

About a month ago I had a child. I have found that this is pretty hard work. It is also very time consuming. I am constantly "at the ready;" at any given moment I must be prepared to drop everything and do one of three things 1) sooth a crying baby 2) wipe fecal matter and urine from a baby's butt 3) help my wife in any number of ways. Because of my constant on-call status I am unable to partake in my #1 favorite hobby: being up to my elbows in glue and newspaper. I will start back up again as soon as possible.

In the meantime, I was paging through some old photo albums and came across some pics of art projects from years ago. Some of these involved paper mache. These were all done before I began taking the art seriously and well before I stumbled upon my main inspirations Dan Reeder and Louie Rochon.

Firstly, we have some pinatas. These are classic paper mache projects that everyone has made at some point. Back in college I made these for my nephew's birthdays; one was an alien themed party and the other was a race car themed party.

As a teenager, we decided to prepare a Halloween display for my house. Of course, in typical teenager fashion, we decided this on October 30th. So while this is high concept it is low quality. This was back when X-Files was big and Fox had just released the Alien Autopsy special. The idea of our display was that the kids would approach the autopsy scene and take the candy from the dissected alien's abdomen. Despite the crudeness of the display it was a hit with the neighborhood kids.

In the past few years I have really taken paper mache seriously. But it is fun to look back on these old projects from before I knew what I was doing.

Harold and the not-so-Purple Crayon

My wife and I are expecting a baby any day now. As part of the "nesting" ritual that all of the books said we would go through we decided to decorate the room. We discussed several ideas and decided on a Harold and the Purple Crayon theme since we both like that book. My wife did not want purple though so I told her she could pick any color she wanted and we would just make it a Harold and the Whatever Crayon theme. I have found it best not to argue with pregnant people. She picked pink.

I started out by sketching the mural, a Japanese cherry tree, and a large crescent moon. The idea was that Harold would be sleeping on the moon after having been up all night drawing. The moon is essentially a shadow box in the shape of a moon with a frame and a piece of frosted plexi-glass covering the front. I through it would be really bitchin' to have the moon light up so I added a low voltage LED light and covered it with red tissue paper so that it would glow pink.

Harold started simply as a series of newspaper balls taped together and covered in strips and paste. His head was an amalgam of balloon shapes. For his PJ's I used a "newborn jumper" (that's what my wife said it was; It looked like footy pajamas to me) that was cut up and soaked in glue and applied to Harold's naked body.

After painting, I mounted the moon in place and prepared Harold for his eternal slumber (or at least until the baby can think for herself and decides she wants a Hannah Montana themed room ((at which time she will be sent to an orphanage))

I think it turned out OK and not too creepy. I hope the kid likes it. I'm sure she'll tell me if she doesn't

Killer Klown Gun UPDATE...

I sold the Killer Klown gun to some clown down in West Virginia. Note: None of the words in the last sentence contained any sarcasm or exaggeration. I literally sold the gun to a girl, who is a clown in West Virgina. She also happens to be a fantastically talented artist. Check out her stuff immediately:

CrimsonSacrifice (aka Boogle the Clown)

Boogle (this page is a little risque, kids)

Credit: this unbelievable art to the left is by B.V. Scott;

Link: http://crimsonsacrifice.deviantart.com/art/Boogle-the-Clown-96929747

Put your ray gun to my head...

Finally finished the Killer Klowns from Outer Space ray gun this week. It took forever because of some other personal projects that I had been working on.

The gun is inspired by the small ray gun pistol from the Killer Klowns movie that I love so much. In the movie, the gun captures its targets in a cotton candy cocoon.

This sculpture started out as a balloon. I took screen shots with my digital camera of scenes from the movie to get an idea of what the gun looked like. Luckily, the DVD had an 'extras'section that had concept-art of all of the weapons that appear in the movie:

I tried to capture my cat, Kal-El, in a cocoon but it didn't work.

Next on the agenda is a mural and paper sculpture for our baby's room.

Orthopedic Surgery

I noticed that the right arm of my Farrah Fossil sculpture has slowly drooped since she was finished back in early 2007. The arm was now less than 1cm from the base. I decided it was time for surgery. I broke the arm off at the joint and removed any of the excess glue. I mixed some epoxy and repositioned the arm in its proper place. Afte the expoxy set I reinforced the arm with some fine thread to prevent this from happening again. I also used a piece of clothes hanger to further spread her ribs out which will also help prevent any reoccurances. Almost good as new.

The Future of Paper Mache?

The Dr. said she has already glued the umbilical cord to her hand at least once. The hot glue gun is wreaking havoc on the uterine wall.
Estimated completion: May 2009.

Papier Mache Kitchen

I have no papier mache sculpture to share right now. I have not had any time to create lately because I am remodeling my kitchen. It is a lot of work. It was kind of fun at first but I am no longer amused. The kitchen currently looks like a bomb went off in it. But I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Once I finish I will get right back to paper mache and my wife can start yelling at me again for dripping glue on the floor and making a mess when I clean out my airbrush.
In the meantime, take a look at some awesome creations that other people have made: Clicky

Mr. Kite

I finished this garden gnome sculpture and it turned out OK. I loosely based his design on the costumes from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. I suppose, since it is green and orange, that this would be John. But I didn't really intend that to be.

I started with an armature of wooden dowels and newspaper balls. I used paper mache, newspaper, and tape to build the body features. I got some plastic eyes on eBay. This is the first time that I am using pre-made eyes...never used them before. The eyes give him more of a living quality and, quite frankly, make him look a tad creepy. To create the ears I bent some wire and covered it with paper towel.

His clothing is cloth, dipped in glue, and drapped over his body. I made the hat just like a real hat; by drop-stitching two triangles together. I took a walk to Black Rock Woods in Nazareth and got a nice dry stick to use as a walking stick. The gnome has a guitar case strapped to his back so I made one out of cardboard.

I used a lot of old buttons and faux leather from some old purses that my wife had tried to throw away. She tries to throw stuff away without me knowing.

R.I.P. Rick Wright