Post #685465 by tigertail777 on Thu, Jul 11, 2013 3:00 AM

littlegiles: I used to use old glass dishes I found at goodwill. But it was such a pain to scrape off the paint, I got tired of it and tried a cookie sheet... tends to work pretty well; the teflon coating makes it quite a bit easier to get the paint off when the time comes to start over (usually when I have nowhere else to mix a color on the sheet without muddying it with another color). I actually should probably use a different cookie sheet for each type of paint; gouache crumbles off too easy, and acrylic and water based oils peel or stay stuck and need prying more.

Sophistatiki: Thanks! I usually have quite a number of art project "plates" spinning at the same time in case one lags. Drives me crazy to have to wait on something outside of my control for a project to continue. It's gratifying when a project does finally come together.

Wendy (and Dan): Thanks for the compliments Wendy, I don't think I can top the entertainment of the Wendy and Dan show though. :wink: I tried to make the studio a fun place I would look forwards to going to, and keep it "special" and focused for my work. It's a dream I have waited so long to come to fruition that I still have a hard time believing it is real even when I am in it.

MDM: Good tip to know! I will keep it in mind if there is a next time. I do want to try and get a better wood burner eventually the working one I have right now is not much better than a soldering iron.

Hang10: Yeah I try to keep busy with my art if I can. Sometimes with my regular joe job (janitorial) I am so exhausted that even on my days off I just can't get up the energy to accomplish much. When I do finally get the inner dynamo going though, there is no stopping me. Glad you like the bamboo, it's been a fun little experiment.

So I have started another art project "plate" spinning again... you might remember the tiki themed tabletop miniature golf I was wanting to create before... well I started on it again. For those that don't know I am a avid fan of miniature golf and my family actually had a portable mini golf course we rented out for parties and events at one time, but it was horribly heavy and difficult to transport since it was made of 2X4's and plywood. Since then I have been wanting to revisit the idea, but in a more manageable way. I came up with the idea of making "micro golf" holes that could fit on top of tables several years ago and figured I would make them of clay that could be cast into molds and then in those molds use a hard light weight spray foam. I had the first hole all sculpted and ready to cast when I discovered the incredible expense it would take to work my plan. So I put it on the back burner and turned over idea after idea of how to accomplish what I wanted: intricately crafted micro golf holes that would be light weight, but still have a little bit of weight/bulk to them so they were not "abused" by playing patrons. I also needed a sculpting material that while strong when dry, would not shrink much in the drying. I finally ran across some stuff online called "Skratch" http://skratchworks.com/ and it seemed just the ticket: hard and durable but light weight when dry, can be sculpted with fairly minute detail and have sufficient drying time to sculpt those details. It also had to be pretty cheap by the pound because I would need a lot of it. I ordered some and am about to see if it will work.

Meanwhile I stripped my original now neglected clay covered first course hole down to the styrofoam base I had made for it previously. Then I coated it in joint compound mix, because the "Skratch" clay instructions said it would be best so it would have something to cling to, and to prevent warping (skratch doesn't shrink much, just around 10% or less of it's bulk, but it does shrink). Probably won't make a lot of sense to you right now, but it will soon. :wink:

The micro course will have the story of a uncharted island home to a previously undiscovered cannibal tribe that have a culture somewhere between Polynesia and Aztec. Over the years many have accidentally landed on the various sides of the island, and there is ample remains of their owners, but every one has never been heard from again. You and your crew came to the island on a life raft after having been involved in a shipwreck, and now must escape the perils of the island.

The first course hole has evidence of previous remains: an old 1600's Galleon's rotting hulk is there on the beach where you land, it obviously encountered something pretty nasty in the ocean as there are gaping holes in it's sides.

It will look a lot more aged once I work on it some more. The hardest part of the holes is done; you see, you will have to putt your ball through the ship holes, and one is a long path to the golf hole, and the other through so channels in the boat will roll down to the backside of the boat and out the backside hole rolling right next to the golf hole. I've always loved "surprise mechanics" in mini golf courses. :)

I finally found the photos of the original sculpted micro golf, so maybe my crazy idea can be understood better:

img]https://tikicentral.com/uploads/2718/51de841c.jpg[/img]

[ Edited by: tigertail777 2013-07-11 03:09 ]