Sunday, September 17, 2006

Day 15 - the penultimate day (and the secret to working with epoxy putty)

Did you know penultimate means "second to last"? It's true... technically the word ultimate doesn't mean "best" as everyone assumes, it means last. So tomorrow is the ultimate day of the UbaDarkLand production marathon. Making today the penultimate day. Heh... I doubt Jeffrey is ready to quit though, and I know I'm not... I'll bet I can talk him into extending this thing till the end of the month or so. And maybe Shelley will stick it out along with us. Shells? Well ok, I guess if you got some other stuff to attend to when Himself gets home... that's allowed.

Anywho, here's what I did tonight:
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All 6 of the chestblockers now have sleek, sexy forearms. Since I decided to build up the arms with latex instead of molding them in silicone, I needed to shape them pretty much how I want them to look later, only a little slimmer. I can only imagine how nasty it would have looked if I just dipped those gnarly twisted arms right into some latex.... ugh!
So... the secret to getting epoxy putty nice and smooth you ask? It's simple... H2O. Just keep a cup of water close at hand, and after you've kneaded your putty and stuck it to the work surface, dip your fingers in it. Then when you work, the putty won't stick to your skin. And you can even slide a wet finger around and get a glass-smooth finish if you want. On this arm I got a little carried away... i should definitely leave a bigger gap than that between solid areas... you don't want the wire to have to bend back and forth too many times at exactly the same spot or you create a weak point that will surely break.
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Ok, I've cut a little off the end of that forearm... Tom is a lot happier. For jobs like this I like to use Kneadatite A+B putty, which has a working time of somewhere around an hour, allowing me to make decisions like this and make changes if necessary.

7 comments:

Shelley Noble said...

Good score on the water and build-up techniques, Mike.

I'm so glad you're ready to keep rolling with the Production Rally we've got going! I'm not ready to end either. I'm planning blog about it tomorrow but suffice it to say, how we've all been rolling is how I always wished it could be! So, yes, we're on.

UbaTuber said...

Of course I'm in...I'm already two days behind schedule with the filming, 'cause I'm a slacker.....but last night I finished the book, tonight I figure out the lighting situation, and tomorrow, I shoot...WOO-HOO!!

Let's roll on!

Anonymous said...

Whoa... Mike, you're worrying me with that wrist. Very little space between the epoxy bits...

Anonymous said...

Hey UbaDarkLand marathoners:

By all means, push on! But don't forget to have a little celebration for finishing the push that you committed to. Two weeks of hard work? Excellent!! Everything after this is bonus.

[Crap. This next bit here is pedantic and muddled, but there's a point that I'm trying to articulate, so forgive me and just try to see through the jibberish to the core idea. Eventually I'll find a way to say this more eloquently...]

Don't forget: You didn't sign up to finish your projects, only to do the work and make daily posts. When you're in the groove of working, you don't want to stop -- but if you fail to acknowledge that you've done what you actually set out to do, then it becomes harder to do future time-limited marathons.

Some part of your mind will say "yeah, I'm saying that I'm going to put in another two weeks of work now -- but really what this is about is me becoming the artist-who-never-stops that my guilt complex has always told me I ought to be." You're never going to be a goes-all-the-time artist; so don't be fooled by the fact that you're making progress now, into thinking that you're finally being the titan that you've dreamed of. It is a far better skill to be able to take a break in the work and then start again, than to do a marathon and then simply break down.

If you've got a secret voice telling you that now that things are going well, you're finally not the lazy person you once were... You may be sabotaged when you finally do need to stop. Progress must always be a process of small leaps.

If you allow the vision of being non-stop to grow in your mind -- even when you're doing well -- when your streak innevitably gets interrupted, the prospect of starting again may seem overwhelming. It's like the act of getting started is you entering forever, rather than just taking a tiny baby-step. And since you're not at work right at that moment of starting, you may be right back at that place of feeling that you've failed before you've even started.

[Ugh. Hopefully some of that made sense.]

Shelley Noble said...

Points well taken, Sven, There's something else at work in addition for me. I'm aware of a breakthrough, not in terms of external progress made, but in terms of an understanding through my first experience with CHOOSING my actions, and having greater awareness of their consequences.

I'll be blogging on this later, at my Intensive Closing Ceremony. hee.

Darkmatters said...

Good advice Sven.... one celebration coming up!

Darkmatters said...

Oh, and I did fix the wrist... he's got a lot more breathing room now.