S T Y R O G O Y L E S
SPRING 2005
Styrogoyles were invented for one of the early First Night parades in Boston. The year before we had suffered in the cold hoisting top-heavy Bread & Puppet ?gures. I was determined to create something lighter, so I requested a small budget and set to scrounging. I had orginally intended to use beadfoam packing forms simply as a light-weight base on which make several cloth-covered paper-mache heads. As I assembled “skulls” from my collection of odd foam shapes, I became inspired by these artifacts themselves and STYROGOYLES were born.
So to begin:
First look at the scratch illustration at the bottom of the page
1) Collect a number of beadfoam packing forms, including those from the boxes of past warantee appliances and electronic equipment creating a ?re hazard in your attic.
2) Get a package of 10" bamboo cooking skewers and a low temp hot-glue gun and clear some table space.
3) Start with a large rectangular shape, or join two similar pieces to form something of the sort for a base. Fasten beadfoam units together by carefully pushing skewers through both pieces. Use hot-glue sparingly to reinforce the joints. Decide which is the bottom of the face.
4) Faces are bilaterally symmetrical. Find two smaller shapes about the same size, either identical, mirror image, or just interesting together with holes in them. Position these above the midline of the base for eyes, leaving room for a nose. Then ?nd an interesting single solid piece for a nose and put it in place.
5) Finally ?nd a medium sized open piece for a mouth, perhaps something with tooth-like notches and put it below the nose. The mouth doesn't have to be straight or centered as long as it looks like one. The idea is to create a head with a profile as well as a head-on look.
6) Anchor the features to the base using skewers but don't glue them yet. Let the ends of the skewers stick out. Pick your STYROGOYLE up off the table and look at it from the side, from below, etc. Make approriate adjustments.
7) Now lay it back down and glue the smaller pieces to the base, add extra skewers, or even tie pieces in place. Cut off any protruding skewers with electricians pliers or heavy shears.
8a) A STYROGOYLE can be used as a two-handed mask, but if you want to put it on a pole, get a heavy cardboard tube. Ones from bolts of cloth are ideal. Glue and tie this to the back of the base. Use strips of white cloth to tie it on. Mount two similar pieces of beadfoam on either side of the tube at the top of the head to brace it and to make a better pro?le behind.
8b) If you can find tubes that fit in each other, put a short piece of the larger size on the back of the mask. Glue a smaller tube in the end of a full length larger tube. You should be able to display the head than six feet to eight feet overhead. Make a simple cloth sling that goes around the back of your neck and forms a pocket at your beltbuckle. Tuck the bottom of the tube in there take take up the weight and head for a parade. Tubes look better painted with black or white house paint.
9) Add decorations, such as hair made from strips of plastic bag or thin ?exible packing foam, or plastic plate earrings. You can cut disks of broiler foil and hang them in the eye holes. Don't be afraid to incorporate open spaces into your design. Holes help.
10) I leave my creations basically white; they show up better at night, but if you want to paint them, use cheap white ceiling paint as a primer, then craft grade acrylics for the art work. Try spattering or airbrushing for texture.
11) Holes in the design will let the wind through. You can add a thin shoulder board made from doubled cardboard or wall paneling scrap and hand strips of plastic or cloth down for a sort of costume. These move in the wind well.
12) It's probably best to dispose of STYROGOYLES properly rather that try to store them since the materials aren't partucularly fire resistant.
Email:Will Stackman
posted by will 5:14 PM