I got a smartphone a few months ago and since then I've been neglecting the blog in favor of Instagram. It's too easy to use, so hopefully anyone who has been looking for updates found the new tab. I suspect I'll be posting to Instagram more (WIPs and such), and only posting completed projects here.
Anyhow, Happy Halloween. This years version of whatever the heck this is included a better range of motion and a head I could almost see out of (an improvement from no vision at all last year). I also added lights to the chest piece, mouth, and brain, although the batteries for the brain died at some point during the night which is why it's not glowing in the above picture.
The mouth can open and close and it's lit from behind, which really emphasizes the teeth in the dark. A bit shines through the nasal cavity as well.
I used two different EL wire strands to light up the chest. One was brighter and sat under the dimmer one to improve overall luminescence. The one closer to the surface of the "skin" was a chaser LED, to create what I hope was the illusion of pumping glowing blood.
I wish I had had time to articulate the back. It looked cool but it did not move with me at all.
I still wanted it to look good in the light as well, so the skin is fully textured and painted.
Construction details and more pictures under the break!
So despite owning at least four different sculpting materials, this is mostly made of good old fashioned paper mache. There's a bit of foam involved as well, and the teeth are polymer clay. The hair is my favorite black ridged tubing as well as some crinoline tubing for volume.
The texture transitioning the skull part to the dome is my new favorite: craft glue and toilet paper. It's so easy to build up a fun wrinkled texture that lends itself to so many materials - skin, bark, leather, corroded metal, membranes even. I was going for a tendrils creeping underneath skin look, but I think I ended up more in the realm of vines and bark.
The intestines are crinoline tubes of two different thicknesses sewn down to a black piece of fabric. Much more flexible than the corset I wore last year. I glued a bit of the fishnet I was using for an underskirt over the top of the tubing to smooth it out a bit, which had the added bonus of looking like it was holding all the guts in. I love the "mechanical systems mimicking human anatomy" look.
For the chest, I wrapped my front half in duct tape over a scrap shirt and cut off all the remaining fabric. I sewed down the first EL wire layer and glued the ribs over it. To diffuse the light a bit I crumpled up some plastic wrap before adding the second EL wire layer. The top texture is glue and toilet paper, which is translucent enough to see the light from the EL wire.
The glowing brain was something I've been wanting to do for a while, and figured it out sort of last minute. I bought a brain shaped jello mold last year after Halloween, made of a cheap semi-transparent plastic. At some point I started to wonder how it would look lit up and I was not disappointed. I ended up getting another mold and sandwiched the two brain layers together to protect the LED wiring. They were the flicker LEDs I've been using for a while which create a wonderful sense of motion.
Add a raggedy coat, a fishnet skirt, platform boots, and that arm from a few years ago (which is getting some serious mileage) and it's a look!
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