Lamps

I have two stories to tell in this entry. The first story is of my tinysaurs (lamps shaped like dinosaurs that are, well, tiny! hehe), and the second is of a shoot that left me with a gazillion cassette tapes that I didn't know what to do with until now. Both are a bit long, and not so related, but we'll see how they come together at the end. =)

In this first story, I'd like you to "meet" Tabitha:

She's the purple tinysaur that sits on my TV! =) Last Christmas, my friend gave me this tinysaur, though covered in tracing paper. We worked for almost two months on and off to make her a more permanent fixture, and this is how we did it:

First, we wrapped the wire frame with plastic net. We wired them together. This step took the longest in our process - and it really tested my skills with wires and pliers!

Then, using the very old fashioned way of papier-mache, we were able to give her a more permanent and whole shape. =)

Then we painted her purple! Yay! =)

With a 100 watt bulb to light her up! =)

My brother saw her and commissioned one for himself. We tried a new way to make her whole this time - with canvas!

And I have to say, it really works a lot better with canvas. The light shines through much more easily - like a real lamp! This new one is supposed to be a stegosaurus, but Marco hasn't made the spikes yet... =( Haha! I'll be sure to get to that soon, and post a picture of her when she's done. This is Peggy, by the way. Peggy the Steggy! =D

Okay, my second "story" is about a shoot I had almost a year ago. My friend Wiggy (also from Indioboy) wanted to make a video for our batchmates' band called The Geraldines, and my big set up of the shoot was a room of cassette tapes. There was no way I thought I could actually fill up an entire room with those tiny things, so I thought I'd compensate with a lot of spray painting cassette silhouettes on the walls instead. Here are some of the steps we had to go through for this shoot:

Picture from Sab

First, we had to craft paper the world! Or rather, the walls of the room...

Picture from Sab

Then with Sab's (and oh my, EVERYONE'S - Sab, Marco, Enzo, Edzon, Beba, Mara, Mellow, EVERYONE!) great help, we taped tapes to the wall!

Picture from Sab

All kinds of tapes -- I was able to buy blank tapes and at the same time, Wiggy had a TON of tapes from his childhood. This is Beba, taping more tapes!

Picture from Sab

Marco with the tapes, and spray painting the silhouettes. We'd then remove the tapes we sprayed paint on to another spot on the wall - so it would look like there were more tapes than actual!

Picture from Sab

I also tried to silkscreen some tape drawings on the wall but it was a failed attempt =( Maybe if I had the pattern and then sprayed it, it would have turned out okay. But silkscreening is probably really just for cloth and not paper!

Picture from Sab

Marco and the wall looking more like the final product - now with not only blank tapes, but also real cassette tapes from long before the time of CD's and now, mp3's!

Picture from Sab

My profile picture! hehe =)

The shoot went well, but I think I liked the wall more in person than on camera. Hehehe. =)

Anyway, this is not about how I got my profile picture. Hehe Wiggy decided to let me have the tapes, and I was left with a gazillion of them, mostly in white, red, yellow and blue, and unusable because of the spray paint. For months, Marco and I would think of ways to do something fun with them, or to turn them into a money making machine, but no real ideas ever came to life. Until I was on NOTCOT one day, and a website was linked with these pictures:

The brilliant website is www.oomydesign.com, and it's got a great description for these lamps - check it out! I couldn't resist - I had to make one on my own.

Without the bulb inside, it really doesn't look like it would be a very good light source. But it actually is! It's very translucent, and I'm quite proud that I was able to make it in one day (and without Marco's help in wiring and plier-ing and super glue-ing! Hahahaha!). I still have to fix some methods of making it and putting the lamp sides together, but otherwise, I think I have enough cassettes for about five or six more lamps. =)

And here they are! My three lamps that I'm very proud of. I even wired this series of bulbs myself!! Woohoo! I haven't done that in months and almost forgot how. Hahaha! =) These lamps are really what I wanted to show in this entry. They just so happened to have different stories attached, but in the end, they're all still lamps. =)