The course of this project goes something like this:
- come up with the demented idea
- source the materials (some recycled, some new)
- build up the hard armature (metal, wood, rigid plastic, firm wire mesh)
- build up a flexible workable armature (foam)
- apply a plaster layer (see below)
- apply a surface layer (fibreglass)
- paint
- unleash to cut a path of destruction 100 million years in the making.
- repeat (with another project-- like a Deep One sculpture)
I'm at the point where I can start laying down a layer of plaster-- something that can be sculpted that is going to influence the surface, but not make up the surface. I realized that would have to end up doing an endless number of sanding sessions on the foam if I didn't stop at some point, apply a type of fabric then apply plaster over top. I selected cheesecloth: it's general purpose, you can lay down several layers with making a lot of thickness and it's cheap. As a bonus, it catches onto surfaces easy-- so it almost anchors itself. I applied large pieces of cheesecloth to the legs and then pulled the cheesecloth taut. I used string to hold the cheesecloth in place.
For the plastering, I could use plaster of paris (flaky and sort of water soluable). I could use water putty (swell, but pricey give how much I need). The top layers is going to be fibreglass (common in auto body work), so I am using it foundation counterpart: bondo. Bondo has a bad rap: whenever friends bought cars, we would ask what percentage of the car was bondo. One friend of mine, had a '74 Mustang that we swore was 50% bondo (which is a trick since about 55% of car was inteior, engine, tired and drive train). Bondo is not a 4-letter word: bondo is good. Make bondo your friend. I bought a 3.3 kilogram tin of bondo (the clerk said, "Whoa. That's a lot of bondo!"). They reccomend a stupid proportion or filler to catalyst (1 golf ball to a 1 1/4" line-- what no horseheads or bushels?) added the catalyst, mixed it for all it was worth. I applied the bondo with a flat scraper and pushed as much of the bondo out to the sides as possible to get a good amount of coverage. My goal isn't to make this rock hard: I want something to smooth the surface-- something I could sand and shape before I lay down the fiberglass and resin.
