(With all due respect to scene painters everywhere,) I really hate seeing certain things painted on a flat surface when for the same amount of effort you can have such a better product by bringing it into the third dimension.

Books & Stone

Here is a quick method for bringing stone masonry to life, one that is also cost-effective.

First cut a sheet of Styrofoam to the desired size+shape, then layout your brickwork design with a marker. Your choice of foam thickness will depend on the application, for this sample given to a client I used only 3/4″. I can imagine situations where 2+ inches would be desirable.

The next step is the most unconventional. Let’s abuse a power tool:

I use a standard plunging palm router for quickly carving precise grooves into foam. This is definitely tool abuse, as the router’s air intake will most assuredly suck in tiny EPS bits. That is why I have a cheap router that I use only for this purpose.

In the photo above, you can see a large paint stirring stick. I used this as a straight edge to guide the router.  If this were a larger piece, a drywall square would have been more appropriate.

Foam is messy, when possible use a clean suit. Or, have your air compressor charged & ready to dust you off.

Next, use a plaster of your choice. I wanted this to be feather-light so I used pre-mixed Joint Compound (drywall mud) which, if purchased in large enough quantities, can be very inexpensive. For example, the contractor’s tub below (61.7 lbs) costs as much as 12 lbs of consumer-packaged DAP brand mud.

Simply brush the joint compound on with a brush. This is thick stuff, so you may find it easier going if you use scissors to trim the brush down to 1″ hairs or less. Click the image below to see additional detail in the almost-finished faux stonework:

Click for full-size.

Paint in whatever what suits you best, but I personally like lightly dusting with spray paints. Use an airbrush for larger pieces. Due to it’s plasticity the joint compound adds some strength to the foam, but is by no means safe from injury.

Cheers, FIG

I’ve picked up some tiny white pumpkins with which I will have my way.

pumpkins on one of my favorite bookshelves

I want to do something nice, I’ll probably try Martha Stewart’s Lacework Pumpkin (previous mention). I am interested in making something that can last. So I’m counting on the fact that they are small to help it (whatever the final result) to hold it’s structure. The only time I’ve seen some scientific method applied to preserving Jack-O-Lanterns, the results were not heartening (see myscienceproject.org). Of course, if I feel like a long-term commitment, I could freeze-dry my art.

I’m also working on part 2 of my pirate cannon instructable and the soon-to-come ship’s helm project. I hope by the new week, to turn this indiscriminate heap of foam into 2 amazing Halloween props:

Halloween pirate foam molding