For those that don’t know, there’s a swap meet down at the drive-in every Saturday and Sunday. Think flee market, or a whole bunch of garage sales rolled into one location. Saturday is really not too exciting, most folks go on Sunday. And, it’s become a tradition for me, the boys, and Talia to go down and peruse over what people have laid out. We usually meet up with my parents and wander around.
This past weekend was the first REAL opportunity we’ve had this year, due to weather.
Walked away with a case of Loctite Power Grab. This stuff is KEY to my being able to build halloween stuff. Years ago, we bought some at the old house to fix some paneling on the shower that was coming off. So, we found this stuff in a “tub and surround” format, and figured it would do the job.
Nope. Humidity kept it wet for a week, and we ended up using a competitive product instead. So here I was with a half a tube of the stuff when my uncle found the little bone that’s now atop my staff. I was wondering how to attach the thing, looking around at what I had available, and there was this half a tube of crap, may as well use it up, it worked great for adhering the bone to the wood.
A year later, I’m making the pelvis bone mask, and needed to build a top piece to make it fit my head and allow me to glue a wig on. Power grab worked so well on the staff, why not here? I discovered you could manipulate the stuff quite well if you got your fingers wet, mold it, push it around.
It was the following year we pushed it to the limits. A cow skull, some screen to fill in gaps, a couple tubes of power grab, and a bucket of water.
Blends right in with the bone…
Even sculpted large sections of the thing with the stuff.
All in all, it turned out much different than the original design idea, but quite well at the same time. Made as a response to too many wee ones being too scared by the first mask, this one was a bit too far the other way and no one was really scared.
We tried again to use it for it’s intended purpose when we remodeled the kids’ bedrooms. Figured maybe it just wasn’t cut out to be in a bathroom setting. Tried to put a simple piece of moulding up. No luck.
But, it takes paint really well. Last year’s mask was made of not but some clay covered in this power grab. Shown here in a rare work-in-progress stage with a lower jaw piece that never quite made it. We couldn’t get the latex to dry fast enough to have it attached to my face. It looked fine just the upper part, however.
So, walking away with an entire case of the stuff for less than half price was a major victory. I can’t blame someone for getting rid of the stuff either. My experience is it really is nothing but high quality white glue. It’s intended use as a construction material is highly suspect in my opinion. However, as a craft glue, it’s great. I’ve even got some sloshing around in the garage as I attempt to get a recipe for paper mache out of the stuff, and it’s looking QUITE promising.
The other major victory came in the form of some old bottles. Dirty, crusty, old, bottles. Normally these sell for $1 a piece at the swap meet as they are collectibles. I got a whole box, more than a dozen for $2. I’m not collecting them for any normal display, but rather for an idea that is a year or two away from fruition yet. “The lemonade stand from hell” as one person put the idea. But, more on that at a later time.
Also, a small personal triumph. After struggling for a couple days, I managed to fiddle with some HTML crap and get a working countdown clock up in the corner there, instead of having to link to someone else’s. I’ve always preferred the mysterious clock rather than stating the obvious “till halloween” after. I get questioned every year what the sign in the yard is for. Always makes me smile when someone has to ask.