Benzarts Shrunken Head . Help?

What to use for hair and sutures. I want Black thick hair in just a few clumps and it needs to be straight and about12" long Sutures for eyes and lips need to be 1/2 mm thick and about 6-8" long.
We gotta make him not so uguly.




Any ideas would be greatfully appreciated.Thanks

[ Edited by: Benzart on 2004-06-10 20:46 ]

Dangit! Benzart! I can't take anymore of this....showing your carvings is just too much torture for me! I want one so darn bad! Arrrrrg (homage to RevB) This has got to be my favorite one yet! And it's not even finished! Brilliant!

[ Edited by: DawnTiki on 2004-06-10 21:12 ]

Go to a horse stable, and ask if they are about to trim some manes. Or sneak in at midnight and do it yourself.

I may have to order one a dem shrunken heads as well.

http://www.NiceFishy.com

[ Edited by: Raffertiki on 2004-06-10 21:16 ]

Hmmm.... hair. Would it need to be indiviual strands or attached to some piece of fabric that could be glued? My sister used to work for a hair replacement company and still has some connections. Let me know.
:drink:

Please put me down for a shrunked head too.
Very cool.
I haven't forgot about getting you some wood. I'm stopping there tomorrow.

i was gonna volunteer some of my hair..
till i saw the word clump.. :o

Well Thanks Y'all. I was thinking Horse hair also or long straight human hair . Clump means about 30 strands in clumps on his head, Not a clump taken from your head.
I may have to carve another one and make a mold so Ya'll can have one cheap..This one is Sam Gambinos Design so I'l ask him if we can do more.
Love you guys.

Very cool Benzart! Might have start another list just for those. :)

Very cool Benzart! Might have start another list just for those. :)

Ben, that on is way cool! I am no so shure if I have any 411 on the hair thing, maybe a doll site or...? PM me your ph# so we can talk about resin stuff. I don't know much but I tell ya what I know.

Ben-
I can't wait to get that beautiful, ugly thing in my hands! It turned out better than I had imagined - of course, that's how it was with the last pieces you did! I knew that you'd be doing more of these!

http://www.samgambino.com

[ Edited by: sam gambino on 2004-06-11 00:29 ]

this topic "Benzart's Shrunken Head. Help" beats out Where can I get solar powered eyes?????? because the picture that appears is incredibly scarey!

my first thought was: omgosh, poor Ben, that must really hurt! :o took me a moment to realize, that was wood.

its beautiful, but its would give me nightmares if it were in my house...

Dogbytes, that was funny.
I think I like the sound of Horse hair. Thick and straight= perfect. Now to find Mr Ed.
Sam gives his permission to reproduce these by the way. Thanks Sam

[ Edited by: Benzart on 2004-06-11 05:13 ]

Sounds like another list I better get in on early before the mad rush, can you please add my name to that one also, mahalo Ben.

Sure thing TT
Dawn Tiki is#1, OnaTiki #2 Tiki Toa #3, SwampFire#4

[ Edited by: Benzart on 2004-06-11 17:55 ]

In stage makeup they use crape hair which may work for your application. I can send you some if you like as I've got some in my make-up kit.

Thanks Sporkboyofjustice. What IS crape hair? I'm not familiar with it. I'll PM you my address.

More scary is why Sporkboy has a make-up kit. Is there something we need to know here, or.....maybe something we do not want to know. :wink:

Benz~
This is the shrunken head that I had available at Oasis. It has crepe hair. As tikitanked pointed out to me, it's more realistic to blend several shades of hair rather than all black. I used some grey and some dark brown. You can either boil or iron it to staighten out the kinks. To get natural looking ends, pull chunks of hair from the large hank rather than cutting them, you won't get blunt ends that way. DO blunt the ends you'll be attaching to the head though. I glued it on in small "plugs" with a contact cement, being very careful not to leave too much residue along the browline. But this head is resin not wood.

Thanks PJ, that does look good. Did you sell a bunch?

Ben,

Horse hair sounds great though it might be a little stiff for your tastes. I guess it depends on the quality. Since you don't need a lot you should check out these website (Musician supplies and Indian supplies):

http://www.horsehair.ca/

http://www.furandhide.com/showcat.asp?id=21

For the mouth I would use linen thread. Send me a Private Message-since you won't need much I can send you several different sizes.

Nice Head!

Thanks Atomic Coctail, the links are great. Didn't know horse hair was so expensive. Another way to sock it to the Poor musicians.

Crepe hair is actually wool. It's used for making beards and mustaches. It can usually be found in theater supply stores or on the internet, about $3 for a yard or so. It's fun stuff to play with. I've got a couple colors so I'll send a little white to you as well so it looks a little more natural.

One of my hobbies is special effects make-up so I've got a big manly tool box that I use for make-up.

A quote from a website says

"Crepe hair is used to create beards, mustaches and side burns. Or whatever you may fancy! Crepe hair is availabe in 12 colors. Crepe hair normally comes tightly braided and on a string.

To prepare the hair for best results, first unravel the braid, dampen the hair and stretch it out a bit. The back of a chair legs make a good frame for stretching it out. Let the hair remain this way for several hours or even overnight. If your time is short, use a steam iron to press the hair. Make sure! That you cover it with a cloth to prevent scorching. (Important right there ive dont that before) "

[ Edited by: sporkboyofjustice on 2004-06-11 13:39 ]

Nice shrinkage benzart or should I say carving? Benzart, your work is fantastic, I love the attention to detail. How can I get one of those? Add me to the list of buyers.

SporkBoy, Oh boy I can't wait. Thanks for the instructions especially the personalized part.
SwampFire you are now on the list. It may take 3 to 4 weeks as I only do this a few hours a day and I have about 10 carvings to do. ________________

[ Edited by: Benzart on 2004-06-11 17:54 ]

OK the hair is in the mail. On the subject of appropriate suture material I am reminded of a thick black thread that I saw at a local upholstery shop. I think it had a slight waxy coating. Anyway it looks like it's called stitching twine from the looks of things on the internet.

Anyway it might be worth a trip to an upholstery supply store to see what they can offer. I would not however like to explain why I spend time in an uphostery supply store or why I have lots of make-up.

Won't ask so you don't have to tell.
Here's the latest on #31 shrunken Ugly Head.

[ Edited by: Benzart on 2004-06-12 15:38 ]

Hi guys, mind if I offer Benz a (cheap) suggestion? I've made great 3D Halloween ghosts from styrofoam wig heads, and always use those cheap fright wigs from the Halloween stores. I cut the hair and glue it to the head in tiny clumps, like you're talking about, for better realism. Those wigs usually have a big streak of gray so you can pull a few of those and mix in. Just a suggestion...it's cheap, the hair is fairly strong, and long & straight.
Aloha

Thanks TikiQueen. I was actually looking for Halloween masks today and the stores kind of looked at me funny like I was wierd or something.Port Saint Lucie is a Podunk little town.

[ Edited by: Benzart on 2004-06-14 05:06 ]

yer welcome...good luck with it. Love your work.

SICK BASTARD! that is too cool man!

I want to thank all you guys for the help. I have had more response to this plea than I imagined. There is hair andthread in the mail from many of you. I Really Appreciate the help.
Thanks

Now one or two of these I will make into molds and do Limited editions and since I will sell the master they will not be able to be reproduced after the first goround without severe degrading pretty badso it has to be a limited edition of maybe 75 0r 100, I don't have experience to know how that stuff works.
Who would buy these limited productions and at how much $$. Time will tell in the next 5 weeks.

Wwell Thechikitiki finally hooked up tonightand we had a good talk on the phone. He gave me all his molding secrets and I gave him all 2 secrets I had. Look for good things to come,,I Can't Wait..Nice talkin to ya' thechktke.
I posted some pix of Aliens disguised as Orchids in the Beyond Tiki forum. Check it out if the aliens havent stolen all the tikis yet. G'nite all

Ben and the chiki working together?!?!?!?!

I think I've died and gone to heaven. Can't wait to see!!!!

forgot to send the comps to Benzart on the shrunkin head. Me thinks it's one of my favs so far! Beautiful work, bro!

"Hey, at least I'm housebroken."

[ Edited by: Polynesiac on 2004-06-24 21:04 ]