Faux Tesla Coil Halloween Project-Part 3-Tip of the Day

Photo 1-Substrate for scaffolding

It seems like just yesterday since I started posting about the new Halloween project.  Things are moving along slowly.  Some projects go quickly and others go slowly for a while and then suddenly everything starts coming together.  I think the Tesla coil project is going to be the latter type of project.  There are a lot of components that create the whole.  It will take a lot of detail work on each piece before the project shows a lot of progress.  The project is moving along.  I have put in several hours of work into it, but you can hardly tell at this point.

Photo 2- Paper mache, gesso, and paint

In my last blog post I had mentioned that the larger spheres on the pillars made the pillars look spindly and that I wanted to raise the height metal support in order to change the scale of the piece.  I have come up with a plan for that.  I have some of the 1 & ½ inch diameter dowel left over from making the legs for my folk art pig project.  I plan to slice off 3 inch segments and use them as pillars underneath the ball feet of the metal stand.  Three inches does not sound like a lot, but when you are talking about increasing the scale of the figures in the diorama by three inches, you have really increased its size and it will be a lot easier to work with them.  The increased size will allow for more detail on each figure, and for this piece, a lot of information will be transmitted through the details. 

Photo 3- Taped for painting stripes.

To keep the copper coils from appearing too spindly, I have decided that they should be surrounded by a scaffolding support structure.  The inspiration for the support is Tesla’s Wardenclyffe Tower.  If you go to:    http://images.google.com/ and input Tesla’s laboratory you will see a picture of the tower in the photos of the laboratory.  (When I was a kid scary movies had the quintessential mad scientist and his laboratory with electricity sparking everywhere.  I did not know that they were modeled so closely on reality.  This lab is really creepy.)   However, this is a Halloween piece so rather than paint the scaffolding to look like metal I am painting it orange and black to tie it in with the Halloween theme.  

Halloween themed colors.

The orange color I am using is not the yellow–orange color that is used in connection with Halloween now.  In keeping with the theme of an earlier time, I am using a deeper red-orange that was the popular Halloween color in the early 19^th century.  The red-orange and black combination is somewhat discordant.  That actually fits with the time period historically and with superstitions and beliefs about Halloween that were present in that era.  We had a lot of immigrants entering the United States and they brought with them old world superstitions about scary spirits being about on Halloween.   Hopefully, the color combination will add unspoken information about that subject.

So what I have been working on this week is the scaffolding.  At this point it is still in individual pieces and in the process of being painted.  To create the scaffolding I pieced together straight craft sticks with masking tape.  (Photo 1)  The sticks are not completely straight.  Some of the sticks are warped or have a curve one way or the other.  I think that this will give the impression of being a little ramshackle and make the piece look a little whimsical.  It also ties in with the theme of a somewhat down on its luck traveling show. 

Once the craft sticks were taped together, I covered them with two layers of paper maché.  Once dry, each stick was painted with gesso to seal them.  Then I gave them a base coat of the red-orange paint.  (Photo 2)  After that I marked off segments and taped them with blue painters tape.  The remaining open segments were painted black and then the blue tape was removed.   (Photo 3)  It does not seem like that much work was completed, but creating the strips and painting them has taken quite a few hours.  I have not yet started on the cross bracing.  Once the pieces are all painted the scaffolding will go up and the piece will appear to have more substance to it.

Tip of the Day:  Painting Stripes Using Painters Tape

When you use painters tape to create stripes, make sure that the edge of the tape is firmly sealed.  If the edges are not firmly stuck down paint can seep under the edge and the edge will not be sharp.  On a small project like the one above, use your fingers to press the tape down firmly.  On a larger project such as a wall, use a brayer.