Happy New Year! To bring in the new year, we took a nice 6 mile hike. I then got the rest of the materials together for the year’s first exhibit. Opening next week at the Hamilton Gallery, Plasticland will be on display in Found and Chosen. These fellas are part of the show.
Plus we had black-eyed peas for good luck!
I’ve been working in the lab again, doing character development. I am looking forward to working with these fine folks.
Here are some newish characters. Two of a kind, to be sure.
Some years ago, I wrote about how to “Make your own Action Figures.” When I was a boy, I used to melt various plastic figures into new, fantastic creatures. In a celebration of the last Sunday of August, Leezle and I created prototypes of new monsters using dinosaurs from the dollar isle at Target.
First, we dissected the figures using X-acto blades. Then, we attempted to melt/fuse the parts together with a magnifying glass and the sun. It was late afternoon, and we didn’t have much success (although we did let the smoke out of a couple of leaves and twigs).
We ended up using a mini-butane torch, which worked really well.
I must say the following: ANY KIDS READING THIS – DO NOT DO THIS WITHOUT ADULT SUPERVISION. MAKE ALL FIGURES IN A WELL VENTILATED AREA. The plastic is really smelly and bad for you. And the butane flame is not good for general health, either.
Luckily, I had Leezle to supervise me.
More to follow.
When I was a kid, I spent a lot of time wishing I had a long skinny monkey tail like the Pink Panther. I imagined how I’d use it to help perform everyday tasks. I still think it would be useful, although I’d opt in for a pointy devil tail these days, which is good for spearing circus peanuts.
When I was a kid, I got in really bad trouble for playing with matches. I had a lot of army men, which I thought were kind of boring. I decided they needed to undergo genetic anthropomorphic mutation to become more interesting/useful. So, in my basement laboratory, with my assistant little-boy-from-next-door, I set out to create better toys. The trouble was, little-boy-from-next-door burned himself with a match, which brought a world of parent trouble down on me and my genetic anthropomorphic mutation toy laboratory. If I’d had a tail, I wouldn’t have needed an assistant in the first place and wouldn’t have lost my laboratory.
Some of my creations were awesome – a three armed ax wielding warrior with no head, a two headed cowboy, a barrel chested headless monster…etc.
Being an adult is awesome because I don’t have to worry about parents shutting down my lab. I only have to worry about the fumes from melting plastic. NOTE: KIDS – DO NOT DO THIS WITHOUT PARENTAL SUPERVISION.
I’ll be back – there’s some pretty interesting action happening in the backyard right now.
