Tompta Gudh, or how I learned to be polite to my sculptures even when they're being right bitches
So, my two week summer holiday started this Friday. I have made another sculpture, am quite happy with it, but won't post just now since my photos are a bit low-quality and there's a professional photographer scheduled to snap all the free sculptures tomorrow, so I'm hoping s/he will do a better job of it. In general, I am impressed with the output of my class. Awesome people, and awesomely talented, most of them. I may be tired as fuck and really need to get some rest during these two weeks, despite having a bunch of stuff to take care of and stuff happening (orientation week for the new brood of students starting next week, for one), but. I am very happy to have taken the course after all. We've been on the local news of two different (<-- at 06.50) channels recently, too. (I, of course, am the perpetual split-second-in-the-background-if-you-know-where-to-look-person, but it's fun to see friends and teacher feature prominently.)
If your memory serves you well, you may remember the master sculpt for a tomte fetus I posted several months ago (although I certainly would not blame anyone for forgetting about it, seeing how it has been ages and aeons). Anyway, that one did turn into a creepy little latex fetus in the end, in spite of various fuck-uppery along the way, and should feature in the teaser that we shot back in March. (I think the editing for it isn't quite done yet, so I haven't seen it, but last I heard from the director he seemed to think it was turning out pretty well. Will be interesting to see it eventually.)
This is the mold I made first. He turned out okay at first, but I hit a snag when trying to figure out how to fill him and still keep his shape, while being able to keep him submerged under water and not using anything with a colour that would show through the latex, etc etc etc. I'm afraid I cursed him out a bit too much while sculpting him, due to being a bit creeped out, having massively clay-cracked hands and being a bit stressed in general, and ended up giving him a bit of a mean streak. (Of course, being half Tomte, it is only natural for him to have a bit of a cantankerous personality anyway.) Anyway, I hit a bunch of snags around there, and then someone tipped me off to try using candle gel to fill him out, and, well... it Did Not End Well, simply put. This version of Thorvald, alas, had to be scrapped, only the umbilical cord being salvageable for the next attempt.
[tangent]I know I am not the only one with this particular superstition -- call it psychological, delusional, supernatural, whatever; but I firmly believe that when you create something you imbue them with a personality (to some degree; I swear that they, at least the ones that turn out nifty, interesting and/or maddening in the end, also tend to acquire some personality on their own without your input. But I guess that goes for most types of spawn, biological or otherwise...)[/tangent]
Since I had a bunch of other stuff to take care of, I was not quite in a position to start all over again, so a classmate, Bea, used my cast to make this guy, Thorvald v.2,0. Turned out pretty neat, methinks, and close to what I imagined him (I'd probably have given him longer, thinner wisps of beard to float around in the 'formalin', but this works too). The above picture is from the film set our scenographers built.
Some bottles-of-stuff I put together for the set, labeled as foetii in various stages of development, organs, parasites and skin samples from autopsies, and the like. Materials used include recycled latex scraps, hot glue, air-x, sculpey, water tinted with instant coffee, and, of course, a variety of recycled or thrifted glass bottles.
There were several more bottles-of-random-weird on the set as well that I employed the aid of my awesome classmates to fill out however they saw fit. Some of them cut rough foetii out of potatoes, and a couple of those jars haven't been emptied out yet, but are left sitting on a shelf in the school's prop storage. I'm telling you, if they're still there come autumn, they'll be crawling out of their jars under their own power. I really should document them before someone wises up and throws them out. For Science, of course. >_>
On Thorvald's right is his slightly deformed little sister, Alfhild. She may not be a beauty queen among foetii, but I like her a lot better than Thorvald, since she didn't give me any trouble whatsoever and was very quick to make.
Thorvald and Alfhild, right after I'd removed them from their bottles so they wouldn't just turn rancid and grow moldy. I still have Alfhild, sitting in her now dry bottle and looking a bit better once she and the placenta dried out and re-gained some of their original colour. :P
I also made a Thorvald v.3.0 together with Viktoria, one that ended up inside of an amazingly baroque incubator thingy built by another classmate, Jacob, but there is no pictures of that what I know of. Anyway, v.2.0 above is the one that was made to be able to withstand relatively close inspection, so, there he is.
Seems my new flat-mate will be moving in on Thursday. Here's hoping this one'll be a bit more sociable and have a bit more in common than the last... not that she'd have to work very hard, mind you. :P Ah, well... it'll probably be okay, one way or another.
Apropos of absolutely nothing except for the fact that I am listening to the soundtrack for approximately the 21 067th time, I sincerely hope that all of you reading this has seen Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Considering that it's less than 45 minutes long, there's really no excuse to not have seen it. It is Le Awesome. Watch iiiiiiit.
Finally, I and a bunch of other people was fed home-made sushi today, and may be yet again tomorrow, since there were plenty of ingredients left over. We win. ^___^
If your memory serves you well, you may remember the master sculpt for a tomte fetus I posted several months ago (although I certainly would not blame anyone for forgetting about it, seeing how it has been ages and aeons). Anyway, that one did turn into a creepy little latex fetus in the end, in spite of various fuck-uppery along the way, and should feature in the teaser that we shot back in March. (I think the editing for it isn't quite done yet, so I haven't seen it, but last I heard from the director he seemed to think it was turning out pretty well. Will be interesting to see it eventually.)
This is the mold I made first. He turned out okay at first, but I hit a snag when trying to figure out how to fill him and still keep his shape, while being able to keep him submerged under water and not using anything with a colour that would show through the latex, etc etc etc. I'm afraid I cursed him out a bit too much while sculpting him, due to being a bit creeped out, having massively clay-cracked hands and being a bit stressed in general, and ended up giving him a bit of a mean streak. (Of course, being half Tomte, it is only natural for him to have a bit of a cantankerous personality anyway.) Anyway, I hit a bunch of snags around there, and then someone tipped me off to try using candle gel to fill him out, and, well... it Did Not End Well, simply put. This version of Thorvald, alas, had to be scrapped, only the umbilical cord being salvageable for the next attempt.
[tangent]I know I am not the only one with this particular superstition -- call it psychological, delusional, supernatural, whatever; but I firmly believe that when you create something you imbue them with a personality (to some degree; I swear that they, at least the ones that turn out nifty, interesting and/or maddening in the end, also tend to acquire some personality on their own without your input. But I guess that goes for most types of spawn, biological or otherwise...)[/tangent]
Since I had a bunch of other stuff to take care of, I was not quite in a position to start all over again, so a classmate, Bea, used my cast to make this guy, Thorvald v.2,0. Turned out pretty neat, methinks, and close to what I imagined him (I'd probably have given him longer, thinner wisps of beard to float around in the 'formalin', but this works too). The above picture is from the film set our scenographers built.
Some bottles-of-stuff I put together for the set, labeled as foetii in various stages of development, organs, parasites and skin samples from autopsies, and the like. Materials used include recycled latex scraps, hot glue, air-x, sculpey, water tinted with instant coffee, and, of course, a variety of recycled or thrifted glass bottles.
There were several more bottles-of-random-weird on the set as well that I employed the aid of my awesome classmates to fill out however they saw fit. Some of them cut rough foetii out of potatoes, and a couple of those jars haven't been emptied out yet, but are left sitting on a shelf in the school's prop storage. I'm telling you, if they're still there come autumn, they'll be crawling out of their jars under their own power. I really should document them before someone wises up and throws them out. For Science, of course. >_>
On Thorvald's right is his slightly deformed little sister, Alfhild. She may not be a beauty queen among foetii, but I like her a lot better than Thorvald, since she didn't give me any trouble whatsoever and was very quick to make.
Thorvald and Alfhild, right after I'd removed them from their bottles so they wouldn't just turn rancid and grow moldy. I still have Alfhild, sitting in her now dry bottle and looking a bit better once she and the placenta dried out and re-gained some of their original colour. :P
I also made a Thorvald v.3.0 together with Viktoria, one that ended up inside of an amazingly baroque incubator thingy built by another classmate, Jacob, but there is no pictures of that what I know of. Anyway, v.2.0 above is the one that was made to be able to withstand relatively close inspection, so, there he is.
Seems my new flat-mate will be moving in on Thursday. Here's hoping this one'll be a bit more sociable and have a bit more in common than the last... not that she'd have to work very hard, mind you. :P Ah, well... it'll probably be okay, one way or another.
Apropos of absolutely nothing except for the fact that I am listening to the soundtrack for approximately the 21 067th time, I sincerely hope that all of you reading this has seen Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Considering that it's less than 45 minutes long, there's really no excuse to not have seen it. It is Le Awesome. Watch iiiiiiit.
Finally, I and a bunch of other people was fed home-made sushi today, and may be yet again tomorrow, since there were plenty of ingredients left over. We win. ^___^