The organizers were planning some prop pieces: a big Cthulhu head flanked by a pair of wings of an appropriate size. I was semi-crazy not totally crazy, so I stepped up to do the wings. After my last fiberglass project, I should have been afeared of fiberglass and resin. Nevertheless, I selected that as my poison.There is a proper way to work with fiberglass and the other way: this time I used the other way-- hence why this is more of a show and tell as opposed to a how-to. I plan on a big wing rematch and an ensuing how-to.
I started with a rough theory: use metal piping for the structure, cover it in mesh, cover that in fiberglass and then resin it up. To make sure I wasn't violating the laws of physics in making wings for a pre-Euclidean entity, I made a 1:12 replica with wire and tape. This was a good way to see if the shape would come out like I wanted. Had I done a more intense version of this with the Cthulhu Sculpture, it like would have ended up with smaller feet and a bigger head.
Next, I bought the supplies. I got some 1/2" electrical conduit. At $9 per 8' metal length, it was cheap. Likewise, the drywall mesh sheets (3'x8' pieces) at $11 each were super cheap.
I thought I would need a pipe bender to do the nice swoopy angles I wanted. I contacted a local rental place who assured me they had one that I could rent. I showed up and they were perplexed ("I don't know if we have one of those"). I went back to my workshop, mounted the conduit in a bench vice and then made a number of small bends. The bends were not rounded, but they create the illusion of a gradual rounded bend. With circles of pipe, I then made a couple key bends to divide the arch of the wing from one of the wing bones. Next, I donned some leather gloves and started to fold the mesh into place. I had to do some cuts to make it fit and the two wings were not symmetrical, but they were close enough.
I scavenged some garden hose and worked it into the general shape as additional wing struts. With some creative folding I made a scalloping effect.
Our house is small (that "workshop" mentioned above is almost the size of one of these wings), so I had to work outside at the mercy of the elements. This meant that I could leave these out in the rain while in wire / mesh state, but not afterward when I started to apply a layer of canvas then the fiberglass. At the mercy of Victoria's weird May/June weather, I had a lot of starts and stops in what should have been a week long process of bending, curing, sanding and painting.
I knew that the mesh threatened to show itself through the wings, so I was trying to occlude that with the canvas-- also to give it more of an organic feel. 
I used some rubber cement to goop the canvas into place. Since the scourge of Al Gore, everyone has gone Green. I could only find Green Contact Cement-- safe for the environment, but nearly useless. Next, I started into the fibreglass (this is where it kind of went to Hell). The fabric applied to a curved surface made it prone of bubbling and sucking (this is why there's a rematch coming). The very cheap wings ($50 all-in for the hardware store elements) became more expensive with the addition of the fiberglass (urg-- $250+). If you apply fibreglass and resin into a mold or a form, you are working with gravity and the resin takes the shape of the form when it gets away from you. When you do as I did-- painting it on in layers-- you are adding to your mistakes and have to sand off elements or compensate. It becomes an uphill battle.
Movie directors say that their movies are abandoned and never finished. I feel that way with my sculpture projects. With these wings, I was under the clock to finish-- to put an end to this project. So, I did all I could with unwaxed resin and a bondo-fibreglass combo product called Long-n-Strong. I sanded and sanded it. Then, I applied the waxed resin. This is an important step: unwaxed resin bonds to itself, so you can layer wet and dry resin and build up layers. 
Waxed resin is a sealer coat that doesn't bond to dry waxed resin. If you put it down, you are done. I slathered on a half liter of waxed resin per side per wing to put a big thick finale coat on it all. Then I did a cursory sanding to smooth out what I could.The HPL Birthday organizer came over with his creation-- a MASSIVE Cthulhu head made out of papier mache that lights up (very cool).
We put the two wings and the head beside each and then moved from one item to the next applying the same paint technique to both, building dark layers and light layers to get a spooky sickly reptilian color scheme befitting an Elder God. So, if you want to see the installation in place: Solstice Cafe on lower Pandora in Victoria -- August 20th at 8PM. C'mon down-- the Stars Are Right!
