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Monday, November 15, 2010

Tiger chicken

I love chickens, they are just about the coolest thing to watch so having one in my living room would be better than watching them in the back garden arguing over slices of bread. After reinforcing some of the chicken play zone with chicken wire I wanted to see what else I could do with this fantastic material. Its so malleable and fun to mess with, gives great shape and easily kept the kids entertained for a day making shapes


To start with I made an approximation of a chickens shape. Getting it to balance out was tricky but I weighted the feet with more wire and hoped for the best.

A pair of wire cutters or kitchen scissors that you no longer love will cut through the chicken wire easily, be prepared for scrapes and nicks off it.

I made my paper maiche with just flour and water, I added some salt to prevent it from becoming a home for bugs and use a good breadsheet newspaper for paper, Ive found that the aper tends to be a little heavier in big newspapers so that it survives being dipped more. (Use the tabloids to cover the working area!)


Start layering from the top down, being careful to cover all the wire. Allow to dry somewhere airy for at least 3 days, it can take longer depending on how thick it is in places. When that's done back you go to your pot of boiling water and flour and repeat the process.

As you can see the chicken wasn't really bang on, it was somewhere between a Pekin shape and a Brahma, but it worked!

I spray painted the hen yellow as I had a can of yellow paint lying around, I also speckled bits of orange across the body, the tiger stripes were a late decision and for the life of me I cant imagine a more suitable finishing touch











Make and Re-do

Re-urposing items as gifts is the only way that I can afford to keep up with the ever increasing lists of people who I feel the need to reach out a hug, here are a few thingys I kooked up from assorted 'shite' Ive gotten in second hand shops or had scrap around the place.


First up a Zombie survival emergency box.


Raw materials were a tea tray and a Spanish french dictionary from a thrift store. The gun was an airsoft pistol that my son begged and pleaded for only to promptly break within days. I could tell you to go get a cheap kids gun, but in this case you want something that looks as realistic as possible


Next up I took the 'handles' off the tray and resprayed the inside so it was bright white again. I printed a cover for the zombie survival guide from its amazon gif, and used that to cover my dictionary.

The bullet box was constructed from a tampax box with the design done on stupid MS Publisher because I didn't have Adobe handy...it took ages but finally managed to make an approximation of a browning 22's box






I arranged the items in the tray and glued them down with a hot glue gun, the gun needs to be well covered in glue to stay put as the replicas are heavy. Its up to yourself which way you arrange the objects I found this one worked for me.








Final piece of the puzzle is a piece of perspex to cover the tray, measure twice, fit once, the stickers were done up for very little by a local signwriter and give an air of authenticity to the project. Glue the perspex in place, affix mirror plates to the back to hang it.