This post is more suitable for Halloween.. welcome to my house of horrors! Mwoohoowowowowaaa! Back when I had a day job (corporate f/t), 2006, I had invested in trying out this OTHER shrinky process of shrinking rubber (http://www.pinkhouse.com/ ). I was pretty jazzed about the possibilities! It was an expensive (pardon the pun coming up!) flop… ;)
I had the mold sent to Pink House’s master mold maker/life caster Mark there. He did a trial with it and just couldn’t get the rubber to work in a mold designed for rotocasting. It really needed to be slathered in. I decided to try it anyhow because the main concern was even shrinkage. And as you might be able to see – the variance in shrinkage % between the abdomen verses the extremities is quite noticeable. Enough that trying to make a new mold more friendly with this media was pointless. AND of course most know the end of the story anyhow in that the cost of laser scanning decreased a few hundred dollars so I jumped on that instead for dinky duke.
The challenge here is that I’ve had Ductile Duke flopping around my studio for years now. I’ve been trying to think of a fun thing to do with him for my vending area at Breyerfest. Sort of giving him a bit of mascot role.
To make matters worse he is STICKY! And sorta heavy (so, for example making him into a hat accessory… not so appealing). Things stick badly to him, for example the white residue there is plaster (and he was greased up!) for when I tried to make a cheap/simple mold of him… he’s been subjected to a few experiments and really needs to be spruced up! He’s too fun to toss! :D
Help? Anyone??? :D
It dawned on me today to listen to ideas & make a contest out of it – I’ll give a medallion (any of mine, past or present I can spare one!), to the person who gives me a feasible thing to do with this .. rather gross looking fellow! :D
Now THIS is a flexible dressage horse eh?! ;)
Well,I'm all ears. :D artbymorgen@yahoo.com; morgen@one-horse.net You can submit to comments below too. Note that I moderate them however (so they won't appear right away - sorry!).
45 comments:
Morgan,
Happy Memorial Day Weekend!
I would use your rubbery duke in a shadowbox display. You can decorate the background with 3D work of real tree pieces, glass, or even broken tiles, then I would mount the rubbery duke and decorate him with Swarovski type crystals. I am sure what ever you choose to do it will be spatacular! God Bless
Sharron Dunning
Zombie Duke: It doesn't matter What it is, if you put zombie on it, people will love it, zombies are all the rage.
Ooh! Idea to take advantage of the stickiness: dust him all over with Gold Pearl-Ex powder.
Decorator Zombie Duke. Zing! :D He also needs a pretty base (support rod, probably?) and a sign explaining that Decorator Zombie Duke is, regrettably, not available for sale due to his unfortunate fondness for braaaaaains.
What about turning him into a flocky? It would cover the stickiness but still keep him flexible.
These are SO fun guys! I'm soooooo SO glad I asked!! :D
Frankly I figured folks would look & go "eww, oh uh, good luck there!"... lol!
So I'm going to edit/add it to the post but I have comments moderated. So duplicates (and spammers) aren't published (I get a lot of spammers actually w/links to ink cartridges & such phishing scams).
AND I need to add too that I guess if I combined ideas, like a shadowbox zombie duke flockie (ha!) well then I guess I gotta give out a couple of medallions for that one.
This is really fun, I'll let you guys keep brainstorming. It may take me a while to chose iwth all the fun ideas here & submitted so far via email. Tx so much guys! <3
I know I'd be trying to squeeze him into a jar and calling it "Pickled Horse". Actually his color does remind me of cling peaches. :-)
This guy needs a starring role in a ModelHorsePHD YouTube video!
I'm thinking FEATHERS! I mean he is DUCKtile Duke! So he's already tarred, just add feathers.
If it quacks like a duck...
:-)
Myla
Kate, if you need pictures just lmk. I totally trust to your creative wit there! :D
Too funny Myla - he wouldn't even need tarring perhaps! :D
Making him a seahorse/hippocampus would be perfect! After all, he'll need that flexibility to swish his tail, no? ;)
Diane and Britt's ideas could almost be combined! I could float him inside big giant pickle jar - lol! I love a good brain storm. Tx guys!
(plus I love pickles so that's a win-win there). ;)
Oh, wow, GROSS but LOL. Anyone that's even taken a science class, I'm assuming, has stared in horror at the Things in Jars. Sometimes the Thing in the Jar was horrible to begin with, and sometimes it just wasn't properly cared for in its jarred state and so starts to fall apart..
EW. LOL. Noone that saw it would ever forget it, I can promise you that. It would need a scientific label: Duke ductilus hippocampi
With his flexibility and tackiness, I would get an aquarium (10 gallon) and put him in there weighted down so he could be a "Mer-Duke." You could even apoxie on some scales and paint him up a bit. Even adding an air stone underneath some foliage in the tank would give him a really cool effect.
Make him into a rubber chicken! :D
I think you should collect all the rubber horses you can find and display Duke proudly front and center as a collector's item. After all, he's one-of-a-kind, so that has to make him priceless!
katlynn just gave me an offshoot idea! I could've sworn someone had said this year there will also be a convention of security guards or something there.. so I could walk around the hallways thumping my highly intimidating duke in my palm like a billy club? No?
probably not going to work so well due to him being all gummy.
Danielle,well that too! I'm totally embarrassed to say how much it cost to go shipping rubber molds around & having this experimental "pour" done. Suffice to say however he IS priceless to me. At least as a novelty! (Sure aint gonna happen again - no more Duke molds out there either anyhow). :)
Jackie, are you volunteering to help me set up and (much harder I'd think) break down afterwards? That does sound fun btw!
In other news I was half thinking he should really strive to try some performance... (maybe not the right Jackie?) as Beowulf's zombie cousin (for those unfamiliar -> http://www.drsteggy.com/Beowulf/Beowulf.html )
The rubber Duke is very Awesome. I know other Duke hoarders umm ahhhh I mean collecters would love to take him off your hands for you. LOL
I'm thinking rubber ducky. Body, head, legs of the rubber Duke but feet, tail, and beak of a duck. Then painted like a yellow rubber ducky.
Now I have Bert and Ernie's Rubber Ducky your so fine, you make bathtime lots of fun in my head. LOL I am a very very demented person.
I think Rubber Dukey should travel the globe and be pictured in random famous places. He could be shipped off to hobby friends all over the United states and immortilized in photos. (There was a Breyer Lianarth Briton that became quite famous back in the day!) Because he's so rubbery, he would be easy to "drape" around things or since he is so "sticky" he could have various objects "stuck" on him in his photos-each relevant to where he is visiting. He might even become as well-known as the infamous "Bloaty" lol
I think he'd make a great Halloween prop, like the Blob Horse or somethin'.
Put him on the end of a giant pencil which in turn (the leaded end) is sketching out a horse ... call it an "E_race horse"
Or
Put several rubber bands on him in a flexible pose (balled up) and call it a "Band of Horses"
Neighs and Brays ... Julie
I think he would be neat mounted on a plaque with some mechanics & music box added to make him wiggle and dance a la "Big Mouth Billy Bass" http://www.amazon.com/MOUTH-BILLY-BASS-SINGING-SENSATION/dp/B000F792BG/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1306639568&sr=8-3
Dancing Machine would be a good tune.
:0)
These are all so seriously funny! I'm getting great ideas via email too - Duke is made of cheese, Duke the inprocess of exploding pinata! They're all really cracking us up over here - love it guys!! <3
Julie even sent me an illustration of eraser Duke. I gotta figure out how to share it, she's pretty handy with the photoshop. lol!
Truly this is going to be a bit harder than I thought still, but now not for lack of ideas, YAY! :D
Melissa, the singing bass always makes me jump.. can you imagine what people would do if a Duke on a plaque started doing that? hehehe!
(Not Jackie A, but a Jackie H.)
If you wanted to set up an aquarium, I would be honored to help you to do so (if you had the equipment, a mini air pump/air stone, tank, gravel and a couple plants). I could revisit my pet store days, lol!
I had two other thoughts for him.
First was you could have one of those plant hangars (tall hook ones that are usually planted in the ground) and have him dangling from it like a windcatcher.
Second, build a mini cupola and stick him on the top as the weather vane, like this.
http://tinyurl.com/3vw8bp8
Zombie horse, yes! But he lusts for GRAAAAAAAIIIIIIIINNNNNNSSSSSS! =cP
He looks to me like he could do a pretty good terminator duke... you know, give him a couple of red eyes, paint up his bone structure in silver to simulate metal... then stick him in a pit of fire ala the end of Terminator 2 and melt him..
Lisa Winkworth
My opinion--a dressage horse that flexible really deserves his own tack!
elastic [band] reins of course but leather all around? :D
Jackie H, OK! The aquarium idea is still being considered strongly (although the water - this rubber is so funky in reality one thing is that I'm not sure he should be submerged.. he could like fall apart..? OR expand - HA!)
Tracie, that's funny!
Lisa, that mercury metal? :D
Tracy hon, sorry to misspell your name when it's right there in front of me! (:-|
How about an "emergence of the horse" sort of thing? you could put him in a sand display, cover him in sand partially, and have him being formed from it...he looks like he is coming together and being formed himself, so being made from sand (I picked sand since he is a sandy color...you could probably use anything....fake snow?)
You could call him Dust Devil or Dervish? :)
Maybe you could stick pins in him to support him if possible...like he is trying to stand for the first time...I have no idea of the ":sticky rubber"...so I dont know if that would be possible?
I would say shove a thick stick/clear rod up his belly, slice some little holes all over his body and stick a sucker in each hole for the kiddies/passersby.
Why not use him as a prototype for a rubber horse? At one time as a kid, it was a really big deal for me to collect all kinds of rubber animals - horses, snakes, bugs, etc... I had quite a collection. Oh, gosh, a Rubber Dinky Duke - first of it's kind and first in a new series of fun collectibles that bring back memories for this old fart!
Giggles and runs around in circles - so many ideas - aiiighhh (kermit de frog style as always). ;)
Every flower bed needs a mascot. Looks don't matter to the flower, since it's the flower you're looking at, but having a garden mascot always helps the garden look more peaceful, keeps predators at bay, and is good when you have an empty spot that no plant seems right for.
I think he'd be perfect in a garden, to look over those prettier then he is, and help them grow.
Every garden needs a mascot.
Hey Morgen! Why not make a little plaster "egg" and put some scales on him and call him "dino horse"? He could be hatching! you know, foals and chicks and baby snakes and things are always all rubbery when they first are born, so i think it would work well! make a little straw "nest" and put it in a little rubbermaid or shoebox, put a (not plugged in) heating pad underneath? Whaddaya think??
Cram him into a bottle like one of those little ships!
He needs to be a pirate, you know one of those undead ones, cover in some barnacles, add a bread and an eye patch and ahoy matey. LOL
You could add 'toy hair' (I don't know what the fur is that put on stuffed toys) to him, make it all patchy and old looking, give him tiny button eyes, ok so give him ONE attached tiny button eye and have the other hanging off, a ratty old tail or just some threads where it should be, stick him on a childs arm and name him "horsey" and voila! Favorite toy!
Doesn't matter that he's missing bits, all favorite toys are.
Lisa Winkworth
Oh - and yes to the mercury metal. You'd have to call him the D-1000 instead of the T-1000
To Lisa, I think someone beat you to the idea of flockies but button eyes is a hoot!
Rocket, that would sure let me stick to the undead theme though too...hmmm...! :D
Sara, I'm just laughing - I dont think I could although that sounds like fun to try!
Jamie, lol! Omg!
You should put him on a string/elastic and use him like a grabby hand to snatch small objects:
http://www.funcarnival.com/store/t7314.html
You should make him part of a performance set. 4H pin the parts on the horse or throw some jump standards on his side and lots of scary stuff around him and have him be a spooky jump!
Hi Morgan, No no button eyes! He needs 'googly' eyes and pair him with Pokey, Gumby's orange rubber horse!!!
Well, since I'm "into" vampires, how about Fangs and batwings?? Maybe a few blood drops here and there.......and maybe a tiny cape that wouldn't hide his bubbles too much :)
Karen Holland
I'm laughing Karen because believe me, a cape wouldn't hide those bubbles! :D
I am sort of negligent in posting here -> I picked one for display at Breyerfest - I stuffed him into a jar (really smooshed him in too!!!!)... and called him an experimental specimen (well he IS!). :D
I gave him the silly label: "Sentus Ductile Dux Ducis"
Common name: Dilapidated Ductile Duke
Specimen from Shrinking Experiment Generation 1
buuuuuuuuut many people were too grossed out to look that close! ;)
I need to give thank you medallions to Diane from post #5 and Raime from post #12! Thank you ALLLLL SO VERY MUCH though!!! :D
Post a Comment