Morezmore® #21: Behemoth (Part 1)

Morezmore® WIP #NEXT: 
Behemoth (Part 1)
Part 2 can be found here:
http://blogs.ebay.com/morezmore/entry/Morezmore-WIP-Behemoth-Part-2/_W0QQentrysyncidZ475948011QQidZ475948011

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Day 1 (April 15, 2008) 
Behemoth jumped the line and butted in. Nothing I could do.

...The third member of the company was a cat the size of a pig, black as soot and with luxuriant cavalry officers' whiskers. The threesome was walking towards Patriarch's Street, the cat trotting along on its hind legs...

... But worst of all was the third invader : a black cat of revolting proportions sprawled in a nonchalant attitude on the pouffe, a glass of vodka in one paw and a fork, on which he had just speared a pickled mushroom, in the other... Тhe cat drank its vodka and Stepa's hand dropped from the doorpost...

..."Get out", Woland said to the cat.
"I haven't had my coffee", replied Behemoth. "How can you expect me to go yet?"

"The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov

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Day 2 (April 16, 2008) 
Good morning! It is 8:28, I still have a bit of time before I start my working day, so I am going to do something about Behemoth.

First of all, I will tell you what is so urgent about Behemoth. I am re-reading the book and that is how it started. Behemoth is such an obnoxious lovable creature, I wanted to make him. When I saw the picture (see above)) I knew I MUST make him NOW.

Game Plan:
I will start with the base, make furniture first. Then I will make a cat and I don't know how yet. I have a few ideas, need to think a bit more about it.

According to the book and to the reference picture, Behemoth is sitting on a pouffe.

pouffe - a piece of furniture used as a footstool or low seat. It's essentially a large cushion that may have an internal wooden frame to give it more rigidity. Wooden feet may be added to the base to give it stability.

Need to make a pouffe.

brb...

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Instead of making the pouffe, I spent a very productive hour hunting for materials and accessories.
Quite a few things turned up:

- a large lacquered wood plaque for the main base;
- thin wooden plaques, red stretchable velvet Santa Claus hat, ornate architectural plaster pieces, golden cord and green felt for the pouffe and table:
- a few pieces of china and brass tableware, a miniature vial for vodka carafe, a silver ice bucket, acrylic ice and a champaigne bottle, a basket, flowers, fruits and salad greenery, a baggie of black microbeads - caviar!!; candles and filigree for fork and accessories.

I am sure I will need/find more stuff as needed, but this is a good start.

For the cat I need black fur and I just bought 2 jet black rabbit pelts on ebay.

All the stuff goes into one box, I have to start my working day. Until tomorrow and thank you for watching!

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Day 3 (April 17, 2008) 

This morning was pretty much spent on furniture frame for the pouffe and the little side table.

The frame for both was made with a 1/4" craft wooden plaque, 17 ga and 24 galvanized steel wire (armature wire) and magic sculpt.
Here are a couple of progress photos:


To complete them:
let them cure; paint in gold; "antique" with brown; make a round red velvet cushion for the pouffe; finish with cord, paint the table the same way, figire out a finish for the top - either green felt or possibly faux wood inlay. Something like that - look at the "parquet" floor for Casanova sculpt:

 

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Day 4 (April 18, 2008) 

I had just a bit of time, so I painted the furniture brilliant gold. The paint is the mixture of acrylic metalic gold and gold metalic powder.

Next step after the gold paint is dry - brown oil paint to tone it down, antique it and make all the details pop. Then put green felt on the table and make a red velvet pillow for the pouffe. And then I will have two beautiful furniture pieces a la oligarkh or nouveau russe.




I am out of time, until tomorrow! thank you for watching!

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Day 5 (April 19, 2008) 
Did not do anything here - was trying to catch up with listing in the store.

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Day 6 (April 20, 2008) 
Good morning! I still have a lot to list, so I decided to do something little and not involved - like make a couple of accessories. But once I got into it, I came back to reality only a few hours later. It is 9 am, I am going to stop for today and I do have something to show. No step by step pictures, so I will just describe.

Pillow is done - no sewing - Fabri-tac all the way. Two circles out of velvet, glue to each other (left side up), turned inside out through a small opening left for this purpose, stuffed with polyfil, glued closed, decorative gold cord all around (Fabri-tac again), a gold metal button in the middle. The pillow is secured with thin steel wire going through the hole in the middle of the frame, plus a thick layer of Fabri-tac all around.

The tray is almost done. The tray is made out of a metal (tin?) tea canister, decorated with pieces of metal foil dollie, painted silver, stiffened with crystal lacquer and it will be "antiqued" with black all paint to make it look like darkened silver.

The vodka carafe is done - out of a crystal top which used to belong until this morning to a real crystal carafe (big sacrifice! but I couldn't find anything else), decorated with pieces of gold foil dollie, with a crystal lampwork pendant on top.

The simple Russian-looking pot for pelmeni is done. It is made out of two of those little tin cans watchmakers use (one is cut) and pieces of 17 GA wire glued to the pot. It actually opens and is waiting for pelmeni - I think translucent white prosculpt will work to give the look of cooked pasta dough.

The fork is done - it was an ordeal to cut it out of tin can and shape it - flat nose pliers were very helpful, still a pain.

The caviar dish is done - easy - black microbeads swimming in a pool of crystal lacquer on a little "plate" decorated with gold foil dollie.

The white plate is waiting for marinaded mushrooms (translucent white prosculpt with some brown prosculpt - should be easy enough).

The silver bucket with ice and champaigne bottle was easy as well. A part of silver candlestick, filled with acrylic ice crystals and a candle in the shape of a champaigne bottle, all glued together.

 

The little cozy spot for the glutonous cat is almost complete. It was fun, talk to you tomorrow.

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Day 7 (April 21, 2008) 

Good morning!
The silver tray was "antiqued" with black oil paint. Pelmeni are done, little marinated mushrooms are done. Plenty of food - even by Behemoth's standards. Moving on to the cat.

 

Well, with the setting all complete, I have no excuses now and need to launch the intimidating task of making Behemoth himself.

brb

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I am back and I made the armature for Behemoth - it was easier than I expected, but, due to the sheer volume of the cat's body, it still took some doing.

Step by step:

Galvanized steel 17 GA + 24 GA wire for stick figure. I winged the proportions and anatomy. Behemoth is a cat, but sitting as he is, he resembles human, so I made human stick figure:

I wanted to make him heavy - both for the feel in the hand when somebody picks him up and so that he would sit tight and not topple from the pouffe. So I stuffed his bottom with a hefty portion of 6000 premium grade steel BBs.

Lots and lots of aluminum foil, tied together tight with 24 GA steel wire:



To make the surface a bit smoother and further tighten up the whole thing - a few layers of floral tape.



Now, with Behemoth mummified to my liking, I will need to cover him with Magic Sculpt epoxy putty and fire him for a few minutes at 275 (Prosculpt temperature). My thinking is - if there is some air that needs to get out (and I am sure there is plenty of air inside), let us deal with this issue now and get it out of the system. The air will probably crack magic sculpt shell, so I can seal it and avoid damage to final clay layer. This is all nothing but theorizing, we shall see how it goes. It is 8:45 am, I am out of time, thank you for watching, talk to you tomorrow.

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Day 8 (April 22, 2008) 

Catching up on shipping - no sculpting.

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Day 9 (April 23, 2008) 

Cutting tibetan lamb fur - no sculpting. :) :)

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Day 10 (April 24, 2008) 

Still cutting tibetan lamb fur - no sculpting. :) :)

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Day 11 (April 25, 2008) 

STILL cutting tibetan lamb fur! THIS IS GETTING OLD! :)

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Day 12 (April 26, 2008) 

Good morning! I have something to show.
Behemoth is covered with Magic Sculpt (grey).

Change of plans - instead of sculpting him out of Prosculpt, I just continued with Magic Sculpt in Flesh Color. Let's see how it goes. He looks very much like a pig, naked pink flesh adds to the effect. I sure hope he will look more like a cat with the hair on. So I am rather unsure at the this point - perhaps I will paint him black before applying the hair.

The eyes are human - I want to reflect the dualistic nature of Behemoth (he appears as a cat and as a man). Well, I need to stop for today and think a little more whether I like the way it is going.

The little carpet is a coaster, by the way.  
Also, this is what real pelmeni and marinated mushrooms look like:

Thank you for watching - till tomorrow!

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Day 13 (April 27, 2008) 

Behemoth's hands and feet are sculpted and he is painted black and is in the oven - heat setting black paint. Will take pictures a bit later.

I got a question about Magic Sculpt and here is some info:

Magic sculpt is a 2 part epoxy putty, it comes in 2 containers. Once two ingredients are mixed (equal amounts), it hardens to rock-hard state. It takes about 1.5 hours for Magic Sculpt to start hardening (from the time of mixing) and it completely cures after 12 hours. It needs to be mixed well. To check whether it is properly mixed, here is a test that I use.
Mix 2 parts, roll into a ball, flaten it into a pancake on flat surface. The two parts are of different color, but the mix should be one uniform color. If there is any kind of "marble effect", keep kneading. Here is the picture - the one on the left still needs mixing, the one on the right is good to go:

Here is very detailed mixing instructions from the manufacturer:
http://www.magicsculp.com/mixing.htm

And here is Frequently Asked Questions about Magic Sculpt:
http://www.magicsculp.com/faq's.htm

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Day 14 (April 28, 2008) 

I am stuck, I don't like what I am doing. He is painted black and looks like a creature from hell. I tried to apply hair - not good, not working. I have another idea, will test it tomorrow morning. I am setting it aside, not happy.

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Day 22 (May 6, 2008) 

I am back after a week-long break. My store needed attention, but main reason was my lack of confidence in my abilities to do the hair.

This morning I took a deep breath and picked him up again. Applied some fur - a combination of pelts of fur and flocking. Still not quite sure whether I like it or not, but at least I am feeling better that I am working on him again. Will continue and possibly make a second cat, I am not happy at the end.

Here is what I have.

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Day 23 (May 7, 2008) 

I feel a lot better today about the cat. I will continue in the same way.
The furing is a combination of pieces of jet-black dyed rabbit fur pelt glued directly onto the body and flocking.

The fur is very soft to the touch and shiny. For the larger areas, such as Behemoth body, it makes sense just to glue a whole piece of pelt, without removing it from the skin. It is easier and it protects this wonderful shine of the fur on the pelt. 

Smaller pieces of pelt went on the face too - I just glued them following the direction of the hair growth and trimmed the fur carefully, "sculpting" the face. It is definitely an acquired skill thing. The "seams" are hidden with a bit of flocking. The flocking was done out of the same fur - just shred a bit of fur (cut off the pelt) into tiny pieces, put a bit of glue, press.

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Day 24 (May 8, 2008)

Good morning! I did some furring this morning - what a hairy business - I still need to vacuum the entire room.

The legs and tummy are done, he is getting rounder and rounder.
He also got some real whiskers - Fluffy contributed to the noble cause of art, I wish I could say gratiously, but it was not. I snipped them with scissors (did not pull them, just an inch off the ends). I know cats need them to orient themselves in the dark, so I just took a little bit and he will grow more. A tiny bead of glue on the end and stuck them inside the fur.

Fluffy - the generous (not) contributor:



Here is what I have now (still need to do the front paws):

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Day 25 (May 9, 2008)

I have a little more - I put the fur on the arms, and still need to do the "hands". Behemoth also got more facial hair - eyebrows and "mustache" and even something like a goatee. He looks much more serious now. Not necessarily the final look - need to sleep on it.

He is also sporting a massive gold chain with an anti-evil-eye amulet. Morezmore's Behemoth enjoys wearing gaudy jewelry and - quite ironically for a black cat who is the companion of the worst enemy of the man - is very superstitious.

It is 11:35 - way past the time I need to start my working day, so until tomorrow and here is what I have now (it is very hard to take pictures of a black hair ball that he is).  Thank you for watching! TTYL

 

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The post length came to the limit, starting Part 2. It can be found here:
http://blogs.ebay.com/morezmore/entry/Morezmore-WIP-Behemoth-Part-2/_W0QQentrysyncidZ475948011QQidZ475948011

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