New Stilting Costume for 2015

It all started when Krista suggested I wear my black puffy shirt (now known as my pirate blouse) for my next stilting gig at a Skeleton Park Arts Festival-related event. Okay, but what's the costume? Within seconds were were mentally compiling a list of items we already had that could make up a pirate costume: lace-up shirt, striped tank top, head scarf, earring, waist sash, replica musket, red stilting pants that could be cinched up to reveal the bottom two-thirds of one stilt as a "peg leg."

But what I really needed was a sword.

I didn't even once consider buying a toy; I knew this would be a scratch-build assignment for Small Pond's Special Project Division.

My first step was to draw out the blade to make sure the sizing was good. That drawing on paper then became my template for one half of the blade.

Using a push-pin, I poked holes, tracing the drawing. There are other ways to transfer the drawing onto cardboard, but I felt this was the best way, if not the fastest.

The pin method worked perfectly and my blade was able to go from dot to dot easily.

I used the first cut-out to trace the other side of the blade (the "grain" (or ribbing) of one half going the opposite direction from the other...for strength). 

I did a mock-up of the hand guard with paper to get the sizing and placement of the slots right.

After refining the drawing I simply placed the paper onto the cardboard, traced the slots, then used the push-pin method to give me a dotted line to cut along.

The grain of the cardboard didn't match up to the direction I wanted it to bend, so I used a metal ruler to make hard, evenly-spaced creases. 

Test assembly.

I hot glued the two halves of the blade together after making sure everything fit together nicely and looked good. So far, everything is going as planned.

The next day I mixed up some flour and water in a pot over heat to make my paste and got to work with the papier-maché phase.

(image severely photoshopped for clarity)

It took about a day to fully dry, but I had time and din't want or need to rush anything.

The first coat of paint I applied was a gloss black. I thought this would help with the sheen of the metallic paints I would add later, but I'm not sure it had any real effect. Next time I'll use a dark primer instead of gloss.

I painted the blade first then, when it was dry, I masked it off and painted the hand guard and hilt. I was going to paint the hilt brown, but time was running out and the gold was fine –especially since I'd be holding it, covering it up.

When it was done, Krista and I took some photos of the costume while we worked out any problems that needed adjustment or correction.

Cheeky.

You can clearly see the streaks the silver paint made while drying, but it's not too horrific. I may repaint the blade and paint the hilt brown for my next gig later this summer.

Peg leg.

Ignoring the mirroring of many features (and the lack of a lidded stein), the final costume is quite close to my initial doodle:

It's like an outtake from a horribly over-saturated print of a 1970s Sinbad movie.

Making Art With Seniors

Over the course of a year and a half, I did monthly art workshops at a local seniors' home. Having no previous experience working with seniors, it was a pretty big learning curve. I had to design activities that could be completed in 1-1.5 hours, with little money for materials; sometimes there were three participants, other times there were up to 15. The levels of ability were extremely mixed, from fairly keen and competent to those who physically struggled to hold a paintbrush, or were unable to focus on any given task. I'd never worked with people with Alzheimers or dementia, and at first it was a bit intimidating. But over the course of these workshops I really got to know some of these seniors, and I enjoyed hanging out with them and trying to offer them interesting experiences. 

The first time I went to the home, my husband Milé came with me. I was in the throes of organizing the first Firelight Lantern Festival, so of course we made a lantern! I made the structure in advance, and the group helped cover it with tissue paper. I think it turned out pretty great!

Sticking with the theme of "do what you know," the next project we did was a scarecrow. I've helped make a lot of these at Small Pond's annual Scarecrow Festival. I brought a bunch of clothes that the seniors could choose from, and they helped stuff the guy full of straw. They named him Marcel, and I delighted them with spinning him around like a dance partner. Fun!

One of our other annual festivals is Stickfest, and I always have a collection of big beautiful beach sticks on hand. The seniors each painted one or two sticks; I whisked the sticks away and strung them into this mobile before returning it to the home.

We did two large-ish paint chip collages, inspired by a substantial donation of paint chips!

These collages were some of my favourite projects, as they easily accommodated a large group of people and a wide range of abilities. I used corrugated plastic for the base.

For Halloween we made these lanterns from mason jars. This was a bit tricky for those with motor skill issues and required quite a bit of assistance from me and the staff. Tutorial here.

We did a few different drawing projects. I love the brightness of chalk pastels.

For Easter I made these salt-dough egg ornaments; I made my own cookie cutter from a tin can. When they came out of the oven they looked an awful lot like cookies, so I gave them a bright base coat before giving them out to the seniors for them to decorate.

Someone still tried to eat one. Whoops...

Our last project was a papier-mâché sculpture called The Wishing Tree, inspired by the story of a very special tree in Prince Edward County. I brought in the foundation of the sculpture, made from cardboard and masking tape, and over the course of three sessions we applied the papier-mâché, painted it, affixed the leaves and made a collage base from those very useful paint chips.

What I will remember most from these workshops were the conversations we had; about life and about art. There was one woman who was a somewhat reluctant participant in some of these workshops; reluctant because she had been a professional artist in her day, and she thought these projects were perhaps beneath her. She showed me some of her work, and when she did participate she made great contributions. I will never forget how one day she looked at me and said, "You remind me so much of myself." Maybe one day I'll be in her place, and an artist will come to visit...