thelangley
New Member
So this was something I wanted to try for a few years now. I was in San Francisco and saw these ghostly, bodiless statues on top of a building on California Street. After some quick research, I found they were called the "Corporate Goddesses" made by an artist named Muriel Castanis, and there is some debate about how they came to be but I thought they were really cool looking. (You can read up on them here: Corporate Goddess Sculptures | Atlas Obscura )
So somewhere I read that she made them by simply soaking cloth in resin, and draping it over a mannequin that was was then removed in sections after the resin dried. Simple enough, it seems. And for the most part.. yeah. (The removing part isn't as simple though)
This was a one day build:
The mannequin I found on Craigslist for about $120. I was going to use this to make another Weeping Angel (see: http://www.therpf.com/f9/weeping-angel-pics-213274/ ) bc of her jointed arms, I thought it would make it a little easier to work with. I also thought I could do this project, remove the mannequin and still use it for the Weeping Angel.. well.. you'll see that didn't really happen. I picked up some "bathroom linens" (aka shower fabric shower curtains) from the local Goodwill. I bought two at $6.99 each and a large pillow case for a few more bucks. Wrapped her torso up first and pinned it the way I liked. Kind of a toga-type look.
Next was the fiberglass resin fun. (Not fun) MAKE SURE YOU WEAR A RESPIRATOR, this stuff is stinky, sticky and toxic. I got the big can of regular fiberglass resin from the hardware store for about $40. And I used just about the whole thing. I debated soaking or painting for awhile, and the fabric was just too big to try to soak, I decided. I also tried spraying it all down with starch to try to stiffen it up before trying to paint on the resin, but the starch didn't really do much, so I just painted it w the resin anyway. It worked out ok. For the head piece I used the pillow case and draped it over the head. I cut up the other shower linen into strips about a foot or foot and a half wide, and wrapped the arms, draping it down behind her. For the pillow case and strips, I did soak those because they were small enough to deal with.
On a warmish day, the whole thing took about two hours to dry. Now the part I was dreading.. how to get the mannequin out. I was able to pull the hands out as they were only screwed onto the arms, but after looking at this thing from several angles for a long time, it was clear I'd either have to cut the resin-fabric or cut up the mannequin. I wanted to do this build so I decided the mannequin would be sacrificed. Or at least part of it.
I took the sawzallto the neck and pulled the head out. Ok, this was starting to look like what I wanted. No hands, no head - the figure looked bodiless already. At this point I realized if I could just cut out the arms, you can't see the rest of the mannequin at all. It was going to be a real pain in the butt to get ALL of the mannequin out of there, and leaving the legs and torso would also add support to the sculpture, so that's the route I chose to go. I cleaned up the neck, and arms so you can't see any of it under the "robes" and did another touch-up coat of resin. After that, I just painted it lightly with some white, and it was done.
This was a really fun, pretty easy project to do. I definitely want to do some more of these things. I stuck it out in the yard at dusk and even I was creeped out a bit. If I stumbled on this thing in someone's yard and didn't know about it, I might crap my pants!
So somewhere I read that she made them by simply soaking cloth in resin, and draping it over a mannequin that was was then removed in sections after the resin dried. Simple enough, it seems. And for the most part.. yeah. (The removing part isn't as simple though)
This was a one day build:
The mannequin I found on Craigslist for about $120. I was going to use this to make another Weeping Angel (see: http://www.therpf.com/f9/weeping-angel-pics-213274/ ) bc of her jointed arms, I thought it would make it a little easier to work with. I also thought I could do this project, remove the mannequin and still use it for the Weeping Angel.. well.. you'll see that didn't really happen. I picked up some "bathroom linens" (aka shower fabric shower curtains) from the local Goodwill. I bought two at $6.99 each and a large pillow case for a few more bucks. Wrapped her torso up first and pinned it the way I liked. Kind of a toga-type look.
Next was the fiberglass resin fun. (Not fun) MAKE SURE YOU WEAR A RESPIRATOR, this stuff is stinky, sticky and toxic. I got the big can of regular fiberglass resin from the hardware store for about $40. And I used just about the whole thing. I debated soaking or painting for awhile, and the fabric was just too big to try to soak, I decided. I also tried spraying it all down with starch to try to stiffen it up before trying to paint on the resin, but the starch didn't really do much, so I just painted it w the resin anyway. It worked out ok. For the head piece I used the pillow case and draped it over the head. I cut up the other shower linen into strips about a foot or foot and a half wide, and wrapped the arms, draping it down behind her. For the pillow case and strips, I did soak those because they were small enough to deal with.
On a warmish day, the whole thing took about two hours to dry. Now the part I was dreading.. how to get the mannequin out. I was able to pull the hands out as they were only screwed onto the arms, but after looking at this thing from several angles for a long time, it was clear I'd either have to cut the resin-fabric or cut up the mannequin. I wanted to do this build so I decided the mannequin would be sacrificed. Or at least part of it.
I took the sawzallto the neck and pulled the head out. Ok, this was starting to look like what I wanted. No hands, no head - the figure looked bodiless already. At this point I realized if I could just cut out the arms, you can't see the rest of the mannequin at all. It was going to be a real pain in the butt to get ALL of the mannequin out of there, and leaving the legs and torso would also add support to the sculpture, so that's the route I chose to go. I cleaned up the neck, and arms so you can't see any of it under the "robes" and did another touch-up coat of resin. After that, I just painted it lightly with some white, and it was done.
This was a really fun, pretty easy project to do. I definitely want to do some more of these things. I stuck it out in the yard at dusk and even I was creeped out a bit. If I stumbled on this thing in someone's yard and didn't know about it, I might crap my pants!
