The Goose Is Loose

There was talk at Lem's about a geese -- almost a mini-theme. Here's my contribution:

Martini in Grey Goose glass with Grey Goose pick

I frosted the outside to make it look ice cold. From the top, you can look down inside and see the "olive."

Heads Will Roll!

I get the feeling that political tensions are coming to a head. We need a diversion.

Overheard at Lem's:

MamaM said...
Madame Tussaud's Chamber of Horrors, visited in London when I was eleven, left an indelible impression on me.
Seeing, hearing, knowing what humans were capable of doing to each other was truly horrifying and beyond my imagination at that time. Still is, come to think of it.
October 16, 2016 at 11:39 AM

I first learned about Tussauds as a boy on the back of comic book covers. Remember this from the fabulous 1960's?

The model was made and sold by Aurora Plastics Corp out of New York. The kit appeared on shelves in 1964, was wildly popular, but was subsequently banned.  A reissue of the kit appeared in the 1990s. Aurora had planned a series of model kits, including Hangin' Tree.
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Evi L. Bloggerlady reminds us that Marie Antoinette was guillotined exactly 223 years ago.

Faking Bad Update

Time to celebrate!

Dom Perignon, 1998

I was finally able to create the most difficult and challenging beverage of all, a glass of water:

It looks simple enough, but there are several problems:  (1) to avoid "shrinkage" of the plastic which causes it to pull away slightly from the walls of the glass leading to an unsightly and "fake" appearance; (2) to get the ice cubes to appear slightly melted and (3) to get them to "float" like real ones do. Here is a top view of the ice:

Next, I added a bit of frosting to the outside wall of the glass to give it the appearance of being cold:

I'm still working on simulating the "sweat" that appears on a glass of cold beverage on a hot day.

That is a real bottle of Dom which my father-in-law gave us long ago for an anniversary but it's long gone. It turns out that the ice is fake too:

Faking Bad Update

Rainbow Ice Cube, Melting

This is a project I started months ago but then put aside until today. The photo does it no justice but you can see from the refracted sunlight in the foreground that the cube is a perfect six-layer rainbow cast. The red pool is freshly poured and will require several hours to cure. I'll try to take some better photos then.

Embalming Fruit Slices 3

[Continuation from here]

That is the fruit of my labor -- a faux negroni, served shaken cocktail style. I'm quite pleased with the look. I'm going to keep an eye on it though. Even though the fruit slice is hermetically sealed and completely surrounded by plastic resin, there's a chance that anaerobic bacteria or mold could feed on it from the inside. Mold will eat anything cellulose with residual water -- both of which are present inside that embalmed orange slice.

Oh and, just to head off the negroni purists who insist that the drink be served in a highball glass with ice and an orange wedge -- I started making one of those too but ran out of plastic. I'll finish it in due time. I'm even thinking of sending one to spinelli as a peace offering.

Proof that it's fake:

Embalming Fruit Slices Update

[continuation from here]

Lemon and lime slices treated in glycerin for one week

A week's immersion in glycerin changes a fruit. I observed some crenation and some color fading -- unacceptable for Plastic Realities. I already knew that raw, untreated fruit is incompatible with my resin, so my next thought was to soak them in glycerin just long enough to dehydrate the surface. I wanted to press forward with some resin casting experiments and so I set up a series of comparative experiments: raw, untreated fruit; 1 hour-treated fruit, and the 1-week treated fruit. I should know the results by morning.

Embalming Fruit Slices

Fruit slice immersed in glycerin.

I'm experimenting with embalming fruit slices. I've been unhappy with using plastic fake fruit as garnishes in my plastic beverages. I've tried embedding raw untreated fruit in the resin, but the water content seems to screw things up. I read online about some tricks that florists use to preserve flowers and leaves -- contact with glycerin. If you dip the stems of flowers or leaves in glycerin, it displaces the water and preserves the look and feel of the flowers. My hypothesis is that the glycerin will displace most of the water in the fruit slice w/o compromising the look and appearance, and being closer chemically to the plastic, will be more compatible. I'm not so much worried about subsequent decomposition when one of these is embedded in plastic -- it's an anaerobic environment. Plus glycerol is a cheap and nontoxic substance to work with and to dispose of.

Wish me luck!

KLEM FM

link in case the video doesn't load

Another day working for a handful of dimes followed by tutoring chemistry to a young mind.

I want this song played at my funeral, LOUD, with subwoofers in the pews. That would be my Dick Dale response to all the low riders I hear day after day.

No, I want this song to be the theme song for my fantasy plastic realties website. 

Every Pitcher Tells A Story, Don't It?

"Milwaukee's Finest Beer" Plastic in Blatz Glass

I put a nice creamy head on that beer, just the way ricpic likes it.

The glass is a small tavern glass, just like they used to pour in Milwaukee taverns. Wisconsin people never used to say "bar" -- it was always "tavern."

Blatz was one of Milwaukee's first breweries, and was the first one to bottle and ship beer around the country. I have a large Blatz pitcher as well, which I picked up a yard sale in Wisconsin last time I was back:

You can't find that kind of stuff out here. The ubiquitous pitcher was the unit of beer you shared with friends. Do people still do that?

As Beers Go Bye...

So I've decided to focus on beers. Here is an example of an Oktoberfest prop I recently made:

Plastic in glass

Notice there isn't a full head on that beer.  That is something I'm able to do, but I think gives a false impression of what a beer really looks like as a prop. To further illustrate, here is a real beer with a full head and after it's been enjoyed a bit:

 Beer in glass, full

That by the way, that is a real beer in glass.

Beer in glass, enjoyed

I like the half-full look. My wife saw me working on this one in the morning and accused me of starting too early:

Plastic in glass

But, there's something about that which strikes people the wrong way. I think it's dashed idealism.  What say ye?

All of these are for sale.

The Bride of WIlderstein

Lord Byron: The crudest, savage exhibition of Nature at her worst without, and we three, we elegant three within. I should like to think that an irate Jehovah was pointing those arrows of lightning directly at my head, the unbowed head of George Gordon Lord Byron, England's greatest sinner. But I cannot flatter myself to that extent. Possibly those thunders are for dear Shelley - heaven's applause for England's greatest poet.
Shelley: What of my Mary?
Lord Byron: She is an angel.
Mary: You think so?
Lord Byron: Do you hear? Come, Mary. Come and watch the storm.
Mary: You know how lightning alarms me. Shelley darling, will you please light these candles for me?
Shelley: [laughing] Mary, darling.
Lord Byron: Astonishing creature.
Mary: I, Lord Byron?
Lord Byron: Frightened of thunder, fearful of the dark. And yet you have written a tale that sent my blood into icy creeps.
[Mary laughs]
Lord Byron: Look at her Shelley. Can you believe that bland and lovely brow conceived of Frankenstein, a Monster created from cadavers out of rifled graves? Isn't it astonishing?
Mary: I don't know why you should think so. What do you expect? Such an audience needs something stronger than a pretty little love story. So why shouldn't I write of monsters?
Lord Byron: No wonder Murray's refused to publish the book. He says his reading public would be too shocked.
Mary: It will be published, I think.
Shelley: Then, darling, you will have much to answer for.
Mary: The publishers did not see that my purpose was to write a moral lesson. The punishment that befell a mortal man who dared to emulate God.
Lord Byron: Well, whatever your purpose may have been, my dear, I take great relish in savoring each separate horror. I roll them over on my tongue.
Mary: Don't, Lord Byron. Don't remind me of it tonight.
Lord Byron: What a setting in that churchyard to begin with. The sobbing women, the first plod of earth on the coffin. That was a pretty chill. Frankenstein and the dwarf stealing the body out of its new-made grave, cutting the hanged man down from the gallows where he swung creaking in the wind. The cunning of Frankenstein in his mountain laboratory, picking dead men apart and building up a human Monster, so fearful - so horrible that only a half-crazed brain could have devised. And then the murder! The little child drowned. Henry Frankenstein himself thrown from the top of the burning mill by the very Monster he had created. And it was these fragile white fingers that penned the nightmare.
Shelley: I do think it a shame, Mary, to end your story quite so suddenly.
Mary: That wasn't the end at all. Would you like to hear what happened after that? I feel like telling it. It's a perfect night for mystery and horror. The air itself is filled with monsters.
Lord Byron: I'm all ears. While heaven blasts the night without, open up your pits of hell.
Mary: Well then, imagine yourselves standing by the wreckage of the mill. The fire is dying down. Soon, the bare skeleton of the building will be dissolved. The gaunt rafters against the sky.

Lord Byron: Perhaps a red carpet?

Mary: No milord. That would be Cthulhu's domain. That horror is beyond my ablities to describe.

(The Bride of Wilderstein, 1935)

KLEM FM

Link in case the video doesn't load

Dig that harpsichord.
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Here is the latest plastic reality:

It's just a plain glass of ice water. Deceptively simple you might think, but the challenge was to "float" the ice.  I can easily give the piece a light frosty coating, but I'm going to try to make this have "sweat" on the outside like a real glass of ice water would have.

KLEM FM

Classical Surf:

Link in case the video doesn't load

So, I'm having a private showing of some plastic reality beverages tomorrow and hopefully I will sell enough to buy some new plastics and to carry on experiments.

A website is coming soon.

KLEM FM

Another favorite from the "Aqua Velvets." Their music is a pastiche -- this one evokes the Middle East.
 

Link in case the video doesn't load

I've been hard at work on some new plastic drinks, with a focus on beer. San Diego County is a hot bed of hop heads and I need to tap that market.

Faking Bad Update

Summer of Rum...
...the Mai Tai

Here's a side view, showing how I rendered the layering in plastic: a cloudy orgeat layer below with a rum float on top:

This was done as if it were golden rum. If I did another, I'd transition to dark rum.

Faking Bad Update: The Vesper

Chip's improved photo (see comments)

The Vesper*

'A dry martini,' [Bond] said. 'One. In a deep champagne goblet.' 

'Oui, monsieur.' 

'Just a moment. Three measures of Gordon's, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it's ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel. Got it?' 

'Certainly, monsieur.' The barman seemed pleased with the idea. 

'Gosh, that's certainly a drink' said Leiter. 

Bond laughed. 'When I'm...er...concentrating,' he explained, 'I never have more than one drink before dinner. But I do like that one to be large and very strong and very cold and very well-made. I hate small portions of anything, particularly when they taste bad. This drink's my own invention. I'm going to patent it when I can think of a good name.' 

—Ian Fleming, Casino Royale (1953)

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*This one's destined for a retail display

Absinthe Makes The Heart Grow Fonder

Albert Maignan's "Green Muse" (1895): a poet succumbs to the Green Fairy

Absinthe has a long history which I've mostly ignored. I had an aunt who brought some back from Paris and let me try as a child. I thought it disgusting. The dominant flavors--anise and fennel--are two of my least favorite things. Fennel, called finocchio in Italian,* is particularly wretch-worthy in my book.

But, I bought some recently, in my quest to render and mimic adult beverages in plastic. Here is what raw absinthe looks like rendered in plastic:

Part 1 of a retail educational display

The silver utensil is called an absinthe spoon. It is used to hold a sugar cube over the spirit. Ice cold water is then slowly dripped onto the cube, dissolving the sugar. About midway through the process--the French call it making the louche--a distinct cloudiness ensues. The final result is milky green beverage that looks like this:

Part 2 of a retail educational tool

Clueless but curious, I looked into what is going on with this drink. Absinthe contains anethole, a molecule having the following structure:

The first thing to note is that the molecule is a trans alkene. It's also an ether, and an aromatic molecule. Anethole is very soluble in pure absinthe which is high in alcohol (around 110 proof); it is much less soluble in water--especially cold water--and adding water causes the anethole to precipitate. The precipitate is the louche. Ouzo uses the same molecule except that the anethole actually crystallizes and floats on the drink. Here is video showing the making of an absinthe louche:

Gotta wonder if Trooper York ever visited that Brooklyn joint featured in the video called Maison Premiere. Probably not. It sounds too French. Who wants to hang out at a place french-themed?

[added] In the comments, ricpic mentions a painting by Degas--"The Absinthe Drinker"

"The Absinthe Drinker" Degas (1876)

According to the Wiki:

The woman in the painting was derided as a whore and the entire image was seen as a blow to morality and the degradation of society due to absinthe. 

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*Absinthe is also known as "The Green Fairy."  I'll bet there's a story behind that.

Faking Bad Update

This is a summer foo foo drink. A co-worker made up the recipe. She uses frozen mango chunks instead of ice. I made a fake version (pictured). This one is destined for retail display.

Recipe

Fill tall glass with frozen mango chunks
3/4 oz Passion fruit Malibu Rum
3/4 oz Vodka
1/2 oz Grapefruit juice
Fill to top with sparkling water

Build and stir

I made the mango chunks using Sculpey. Here is what they looked like before baking and painting:

Happy St. Paddy's Day...

...to all you Hibernians and those in hibernation. This one's for you:

I made that one as a retail display for a local store. It will be retired after today.

Please link all your favorite Irish tunes throughout the day.

KLEM FM

Mermaids After Midnight:

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Here's my latest plastic reality:

Suggested use:

A co-worker wants one to hang from her rear view mirror.  Sort of like fuzzy dice.

I'm thinking of selling these for extra Christmas money. Say, $5 plus shipping.

Any interest?