Faux Tesla Coil Project Part 12-Making a Cat Armature

My last post showed the wire armature for the cat.  I'm starting with with the wire armature here for the sake of clarity.  I also have an experimental technique that I want to try out on this cat, but I'm getting ahead of myself.  Let me start from the beginning.

I started out by making a wire armature for the cat.  I used a bit of scrap of copper wire to make the armature.  Actually, this is a case of don't do what I do, do what I say.  This copper strand wire was not really substantial enough for an armature.  As a general rule, I would use an 18 or 20 gauge steel wire.  It is a lot stiffer and holds its shape better.  However, waste not, want not, so I used the scrap that I had available. The armature starts with a short piece for the neck and is bent and folded to form a body, legs, and tail.  Once I had a basic shape, I added heavy duty masking tape to help the wire hold its shape.

I made a ball of aluminum foil for the head and stuck it onto the wire neck.  I used a bit of glue to keep the head in place.  I used some tape to help keep the head in place while the glue dried.  Next I fleshed out the body using aluminum foil and tape.  Now the armature has some basic catlike shape.  That is all that is needed at this point.  The detail will be added in the layers of paper mache' and paint.

The cat now has two layers of paper mache'.  The method is strip paper mache', but the pieces were torn into small squarish pieces rather than long strips.  It needs a third layer before painting.  The first layer was just a layer to get the aluminum foil covered.  Usually I add a little white glue over the armature to help the first layer stick better.  This time I tried something different.  I used an archival spray adhesive rather than painting on the glue with a brush.  It worked fairly well. (This cat is very small.  I don't have any input at this time on how it would work in a larger piece.)  I added the detail of the laid back ears in the second layer.  A third layer is necessary to ensure that the ears are well anchored to the piece.  It is in this third layer that I am planning to experiment with a technique that I have never tried before. 

I try to experiment with some technique in each piece.  Each experiment adds something to my skill set.  By experimenting with the new technique in only one section, if it does not work out, then I only have to recreate a small portion of the piece.  I have a book called Newly Revised Recipes for Art and Craft Materials by Helen Roney Sattler.  It is an older book that I bought used.  (You can pick up these older materials books for a song.  I paid more for the postage to deliver the book than I paid for the book.  They are fairly inexpensive because these days people would rather go buy the material ready made than make it themselves.)  It was in this book that I found my experimental mixture.

For the cat, I want to try a new clay recipe for the final layer.   The book has a recipe for making clay out of dryer lint.  Yes, dryer lint.  Since I have never made it before, I really have no idea how it will turn out, but I am imagining some sort of grainy texture.  I'm hoping that it will give the cat more of a furry appearance than strip paper mache'.  Well, I'll see what happens.  I was actually hoping to have the layer on by today, but it was very rainy yesterday and it took the paper mache' longer to dry.  It was still too damp to add another layer.  So, next post will show the cat with a layer of dryer lint clay.

Faux Tesla Coil Halloween Project-Part 11

It's alive!  Well, not really, more specifically the anthropomorphic pumpkin man, (made in the style popular in the 1920's and 1930s) has been painted and assembled.  However, that component of the diorama is not quite complete, which is why the photo shows him standing propped up against a lamp rather than glued into place.  I want to have the pumpkin man wearing a white lab coat in order to tie into the mad scientist theme.  As this diorama is also about a traveling show, the performer would also be wearing a costume of some sort, so the white lab coat fits in that way as well.  I'll probably work on the coat today.  I've been stalling on that because I have reached a point where I might make things worse rather than better if I don't get it to come out right.  It is a matter of working through that stressful point in order to get on with things.

 While I'm working through the "don't mess it up dilemma", I have been working on a few other parts of the diorama.  I have started working on the cat which will be part of the story.  I made a wire armature and have covered the armature with tape.  At this point, it is a bit confusing when you look at it because the head has not been put on yet.  (When I first viewed the photos, my mind was processing the pictures of the armatures as pictures of a giraffe.  So I understand how you could be confused.)  The armature starts at the neck, then there are the body, legs, and tail.  The head will be built from aluminum foil and placed over the wire of the neck.  Then the rest of the body will also be covered in aluminum foil to flesh out the figure.  After that, you guessed it, covered in paper mache'.  However, it will be paper mache' with a twist.  So check back for my next post to see what I am doing differently with the cat.

Note on the wire armature: This armature is made of multi-strand copper wire used for hanging pictures among other things.  It was not an ideal wire for this application as it bends a little too easily.  If you are going to make a wire armature, I would recommend using a sturdier wire.  This wire is very bendy and will be hard to work with.  Once it is encased in paper mache' it won't really matter though.  

 I have also been working on the parts of the steam engine and dynamo.  I have shaped the parts and covered them with tape to ready them for their coats of paper mache'.  Individually they don't look like much, but once painted and placed on the steam engine they will add a lot of detail that will bring the machinery to life.

 It feels great to be back to working on my project again.  My work schedule has been disrupted by vacation, shopping for Christmas, and the Thanksgiving holiday.  I enjoyed all of that, but now I am ready to get back to work on my project.  I hope that between now and the next holiday I will have a fair amount of time to work on my Faux Tesla Coil Halloween Project.

Next time:  Special treatment to create the cat.

More Folk Art from the Cabin

I wanted to post a few more photos of the folk art from the cabin.  I wish I were a better photographer.  A lot of the pictures looked okay when I viewed them on the screen of the camera after taking them, but when I looked at them on the computer they did not look as nice.  So, when I go up in the spring, I will be retaking a lot of photos.  There is still more folk art that I wanted to take pictures of anyway.

The first photo is a picture of a painted rock.  I believe that this is a Ray Maybe piece also.  It is painted in his style.  It is a little picture of a person hiking in the mountains.  The front of the rock is very smooth.  It breaks off from a larger piece of rock in a fairly straight line.

Second photo:  This is a photo of the wood box at the cabin and a set of bellows.  My husband made these bellows about twenty-five years ago.  They are based on instructions that were printed in Mother Earth News.  They have held up well over the years.

Third photo:  I'll need to take a better picture of this painting.  It is a self-portrait painted by my mother.  She spent a lot of time at the cabin and loved it dearly.  I can't begin to tell you how much work she put into this cabin.  She helped install the flooring.  She painted inside and out.  And she hauled a lot of rock out of the stream to help maintain the dirt road.  I feel that her portrait watches over the place.

The last photo is a painted sign that hangs over the door.  I don't know if this was a commercial piece or if someone made it specifically for my father.  My father loved this sign.  A long time ago, there was a popular song called Those Were the Days My Friend  sung by Judy Collins.  The song was about two older people reminiscing about good times from their past.  My father was rather fond of the song, and this sign at the cabin is a reminder to take time to make memories.

Next time:  Now that I am back home, I've finished up the painting on the anthropomorphic pumpkin man.  I expect to have him glued together by the time I post on Sunday.  There will be new photos.

  

Folk Art Photos from the Cabin

I can see that my regular readers have been checking in to look for my latest post.  I have been away to our cabin in the mountains.  I have not done any work on my Faux Tesla Halloween Project since I left.  I thought I'd post some pictures of the folk art and the interior of the cabin today.  I hope it will be a treat to friends and family who have spent time there and have wonderful memories of it.  Hopefully, the rest of my readers will enjoy the pictures as well.  Once again, I will apologize to my readers for the crazy format.  If I want to get all of my pictures on here I have to put the paragraphs in an unusual formation.

This is the wood cook stove at our cabin.  Anyone who has been there knows that many great meals have been prepared on it.  Although we have some space heaters to help keep the place warm, my husband and I prefer to keep the stove going when it is cold.  If you look closely, you can see the steam coming from the spout of the kettle.  During the summer we prefer to cook on the porch on a camp stove, or use the microwave or toaster oven, because once this stove heats the place up it can take hours to cool the place down.

The stove burns wood quickly.  At this time of year we will fill the wood box completely full three to four times a day.  Some years would wood has been purchased.  However, the last couple of years we have had to remove trees that were threatening the house so my husband, son, daughter-in-law, and I have split and stacked our own wood.  It is a lot of work.

The Rocky Mountain Cabin sign on the top of the rack is carved into an old piece of a chair seat.  If anyone in the family knows who made the piece, please let me know.  I did not take it down to check the back for the signature, but there is not one on the front.  The lower sign is one that is commercially available.  In front of that sign are some old rusty spikes from a railroad spur that ran up the mountain generations ago.  It was built to bring logs down off the mountain when the area was being used for logging.  Once in a while someone finds a spike or piece of a switch.  That is all that is left of the railroad line.

One of my favorite pieces of folk art at the cabin is the cutting board, knife and pot rack created by Ray Mabe.  The folk art decorations run around the entire perimeter of the board.  It has resided at the cabin for many years.  Ray enjoyed painting in a primitive style.  Not everyone cares for this style, but I love this piece.  The bottom picture is a close up of the picture on the front of the cutting board.  You can see the RM signature of Ray Mabe painted on the rock to the right of the center fence post in the picture.

As Thanksgiving is this week, I will be pretty busy.  I will be posting some more pictures of the folk art on Wednesday.  By next Sunday I should have the latest pictures of the Faux Tesla Halloween Project.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Pumpkin on a Hay Bale Art Doll

Just when you thought Halloween was over, here comes another of my creations.  This pumpkin man has a body made of wire, batting, string, and muslin.  His head is made from bake in the oven clay.  He is painted with craft paints.  Raffia was glued to the ends of the arms and legs to make him a scarecrow. (Once again the blog platform is giving me fits.  It won't allow me to have the next paragraph in its proper place. I had to add this filler or else there was a big blank space you might miss seeing all the photos.)

The little ghosts, bat, pumpkin, moons, and stars that are glued onto the flag and the piece of twine came from a craft store.  They were glued on with hot glue.  The flag has a piece of floral wire between the two layers of cloth to make it rigin enough to appear to be waving.

The hay bale is a piece of Styrofoam covered with bits of raffia.  I thought that I would cover the block of Styrofoam with white glue, sprinkle on some bits of raffia and be done with it.  Was I ever wrong on that idea.  The raffia did not stick well with the white glue.  Sprinkling raffia did not give the impression of a real bale of hay.  I had to go with a rather labor intensive Plan B.  I had to swipe a small area with tack glue, then lay the pieces of raffia down individually in organized rows.  I added the twine because that is how I remember bales of hay, rectangles tied with twine.  Now most hay comes in giant rolls.

The hay bale is a piece of Styrofoam covered with bits of raffia.  I thought that I would cover the block of Styrofoam with white glue, sprinkle on some bits of raffia and be done with it.  Was I ever wrong on that idea.  The raffia did not stick well with the white glue.  Sprinkling raffia did not give the impression of a real bale of hay.  I had to go with a rather labor intensive Plan B.  I had to swipe a small area with tack glue, then lay the pieces of raffia down individually in organized rows.  I added the twine because that is how I remember bales of hay, rectangles tied with twine.  Now most hay comes in giant rolls.

The shirt is made from unbleached muslin.  The overalls are made from a scrap of blue cotton duck material.  They looked rather plain so I added a few patches in orange.  That changed the outfit from something plain to something eye catching. 

Although this is appears to be a simple project, it took many hours to complete.  This figure in only seven and a half inches tall.  Working in such small detail in very time consuming.  It takes more dexterity to work with small details.      

Faux Tesla Coil Halloween Project-Part 10

My apologies to regular readers for not getting my blog post up yesterday.  I was called in to work before I had time to get on the computer.  I usually try to get to the blog first thing on Wednesdays. 

I have made some progress on painting the anthropomorphic pumpkin figure.  I painted the body, head, arms, and legs, then gave all the parts a glaze of burnt umber to highlight the pits and bumps.  Once the glaze was painted on, I lifted off most of it with paper towels.  The remaining glaze gives the vegetables the appearance of texture and age.  The varying colors invite the viewer to examine it more closely.  I still need to paint the face on the pumpkin head.

I have also painted the base and boiler of the steam engine.  I still have a lot of work to do on this part of the diorama.  There will be more bells and whistles on it when it is finished.  Also, I need to add the fly wheel and push rods that will connect it to the dynamo.  I have not begun to work on those parts yet.    

Faux Tesla Coil Halloween Project-Part 9 & Tip of the Day

This week has really flown by.  I have managed to get some more work done on my project.  The paper clay finally dried.  I like paper clay, but it is a double edged sword.  Paper clay dries to a fairly smooth hard surface that needs little sanding.  Sometimes it shrinks and cracks and you have to repair it, ideally with more paper clay.  Paper clay is expensive compared to using paper strip methods of paper mache.  At this point I have used $21.00 worth of paper clay on this project. 

I had a number of cracks in the paper clay of this time.  I was out of paper clay and would have to buy another seven dollars worth of paper clay if I wanted to repair the cracks with that product.  Rather than spend the money, I decided to fall back on products I already had around the house.  I had some joint compound hanging around, so I filled the cracks with that and then gave the entire pumpkin man and the steam engine a coat of joint compound.  The joint compound is made of plaster of paris, which also sands easily.  (Make sure you wear a dust mask and eye protection when you sand.)

Once the coat of joint compound was dry, I sanded the project.  Then the project received a coat of gesso. The project is now ready to be painted.  Once it is completely painted, I will drill holes into the body and glue on the head and arms.    

I also painted some of the signs that will be a part of the diorama.  This diorama is about a traveling show, and canvas signs would have been a part of the advertising for a show in this era.  I think signs will help tell the story of the show.  I don't have any pictures of them yet. 

Tip of the Day:  The right gesso for the job.

I frequently mention that I use gesso on my projects.  Gesso is a mixture of paint and glue that serves as a primer coat.  You can make your own gesso, or purchase gesso at your arts and crafts store.  Gesso comes in a number of thicknesses.  You want to make sure that you have the right thickness of gesso for your project.

For readying panels or canvas for painting, or giving a project a primer coat, you would want to use thin gesso, that flows easily.  If you wanted to add body to a project you may choose a medium gesso.  If you wanted to make your painting look like thick oil paint that looks has been put on with a painting knife you would choose a heavy gesso.

When you purchase gesso, the label should have a chart, or state the thickness of the gesso (light, medium, or heavy).  Make sure that the gesso is going to be compatible with your project.  If you choose a heavy gesso, I recommend that you buy it in a jar rather than a bottle.  The heavy gesso is so thick that it is difficult to squeeze it out of the bottle shape.