“He’s no guac to me dead”
Here’s how I built this year’s Guac Bowl entry in a day and a half.
I built a 6’8” x 2’8” frame using 2”x8” redwood boards. I made an inside lip out of 2”x4”s, leaving just enough room (3/4”) so that my 6’5”x2’5” MDF board would be flush with the top when I dropped it into the frame, and then trimmed it all out with door casing. I used bondo to seal all my gaps and nail holes.
The only piece I bought ahead of time was the face, because I knew it was the most important part of the whole thing. I was lucky enough to find master special effects makeup artist Bill Forsche through the internet, who just happened to have an amazing sculpt of Han’s carbonite-frozen face.
February 1, 2009
The body was created using a plastic torso I found at a used mannequin/store display shop downtown. It only went down to the top of the thigh, so I had to build out the rest of his legs to the knees using molded chicken wire. The hands were tough... If I knew used male mannequin hands would be so tough to find on a whim, I would’ve used eBay. Given that I was running out of time, one hand was made using one of those articulated wooden artist’s hands you can buy at an art store, and covered it in papier mache. The other hand, not nearly as nice, was foil covered in papier mache, and had to do for now. The boots were old work boot toes I cut and epoxied to the board. For the clothes, I cut up and old t-shirt and pair of Dickies, and dipped them into a papier mache bath (flour, water, and Elmer’s glue) that Emily prepared. I had to break out my propane heater because it was a cold, damp night, and the clothes would have never been dry enough to paint by the morning.
The next day, the clothes were still a little damp, but the warmth of the sun was definitely helping. While I waited, I started painting the frame, and I ran to the hardware store to pick up 6 paper towel holders to spray paint silver and add a little detail to the side panels. By the time I came back, Han was dry, and I finished the paint job.
Emily made the guac with 50(!) avocados, garlic, cilantro, salt, pepper, a little onion, and lots of lime. We spread it on, hoped it would stick, and, well... behold: Han Solo in Guaconite.
GUAC SOLO IN THE MEDIA:
